The Performative Activism Rotation Schedule: Why Modern Protesters Swap Causes Like Seasonal Fashion.
Documenting the nine-month flag rotation that reveals more about psychological voids than political conviction.
Ukrainian flags in April 2025. Palestinian flags in May 2025. Mexican flags in June 2025. Iranian flags in July 2025. Venezuelan flags in January 2026.
Same street corners. Same faces. Different moral emergency every eight weeks.
Matt Van Swol documented the dates and posted them on X. These aren’t satirical observations—these are verifiable facts showing protesters cycling through causes like they’re following a release calendar. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Spring/Summer 2025 featured Ukraine and Palestine. Autumn 2025 showcased Mexico and Iran. Winter 2026 debuts Venezuela. What’s next? Given Trump’s recent noise about Greenland, I’d wager Greenland flags appear by March. Same protesters, same coaches, different flag. The cause rotates. The performance continues.
People are bussing themselves from site to site. Catching coaches to wherever this month’s cause is performing. Manhattan today, different city next month, following the schedule like Glastonbury with flags instead of headliners. Wave the approved symbol. Generate your content. Move on in eight weeks.
WHEN THE PERFORMANCE BREAKS DOWN.
The Nate Friedman Show caught it on camera in January 2026. Journalist approaches a bloke protesting “American imperialism” in Venezuela. Asks him something straightforward: why are actual Venezuelans celebrating in the streets whilst you’re here protesting on their behalf?
Total cognitive collapse. Not wouldn’t answer. Couldn’t. The machinery just stopped. Because he’d never engaged with Venezuelan reality—he’d adopted whatever position had been approved and shown up to perform it. When confronted with the gap between his performance and actual Venezuelan response, there was nothing underneath.
Gunther Eagleman posted video from Manhattan federal courthouse on January 5, 2026. Actual Venezuelan exiles clashing with pro-Maduro protesters demanding the release of someone these Venezuelans had fled from. His observation: “The paid commie protesters have no idea what they are protesting.” The post hit 938,000 views in 24 hours. That’s documented evidence of people performing activism about situations they demonstrably don’t understand.
The aesthetic uniformity isn’t accidental. Same clothing markers. Same vocabulary. Same presentation. Tribal signalling through visible badges. You can spot participants immediately, and that’s entirely the point.
HOW WE GOT HERE.
The infrastructure emerged through social media. When technology for instant coordination met psychological appetite for instant moral identity, the pattern locked in.
Previous activism looked different. Regular meetings over months. Sustained relationships. Strategic planning around measurable objectives. Accountability for results. Work requiring commitment regardless of whether it generated social media engagement.
The new model eliminated that friction. Adopt the approved position. Show up visibly. Generate content. Move on in eight weeks. All the emotional satisfaction of “doing something” with none of the sustained commitment actual organising demands.
Performative activism provides psychological payoff without accountability. Easier, faster, more satisfying, and requiring zero measurement of whether anything actually changes.
THE VOID IT FILLS.
What does this actually satisfy?
Identity without building it. If you haven’t constructed yourself through sustained experience or independent thought, moral performance provides instant identity. The flag becomes your costume, the phrases your script, the outrage your character. No development necessary—just show up wearing the right markers.
Belonging without earning it. Actual community requires sustained relationships through difficult periods. This requires none of that. Synchronise with the current cycle and you’re in. When the cause rotates, you move along. No sustained investment, no vulnerability, no risk. Just catch the coach to the next performance.
Purpose without achieving anything. Everyone needs to feel they’re contributing. This provides that sensation without difficult work. You get to feel like you’re “doing something” without examining whether your flag-waving achieves anything for anyone. Emotional satisfaction without accountability for outcomes. Purpose as consumer product.
This isn’t individual deficiency. It’s optimised collective behaviour. Depth becomes a liability because independent analysis might contradict the approved consensus. Shallow and malleable is the feature, not the bug.
HOW IT MAINTAINS ITSELF.
If you actually studied what’s happening in these places—examined complexity, engaged with people living there, followed evidence to uncomfortable conclusions—you might arrive at positions contradicting the consensus. That threatens cohesion.
Better to remain ready to adopt whatever gets approved next. Moral certainty without uncomfortable analysis. Belonging without standing alone. Purpose without measuring whether anything matters.
Someone maintaining inner sovereignty—observing from outside, following evidence wherever it leads—represents everything this can’t tolerate. Because independent thought doesn’t move with the rhythm. It doesn’t swap flags on schedule. It doesn’t perform approved outrage at designated moments.
The punishment isn’t confrontation. It’s exclusion. Step outside, question the current cause, or examine outcomes, and you’re no longer part of it. The belonging evaporates. The identity disappears. You’re left with yourself and whatever conclusions you reached independently—precisely what most desperately avoid.
THE PATTERN CONTINUES.
That street market stall I wrote about—where protesters could swap their Palestinian flags for Argentinian ones when trends shifted—wasn’t satire. It was documentation with a punchline. This isn’t about Venezuela, Palestine, Ukraine, Mexico, or Iran. It’s about the rotation itself—the predictable cycle providing identity, belonging, and purpose without requiring the difficult work those things traditionally demanded.
The protesters at Manhattan courthouse weren’t defending Maduro because they’d examined Venezuelan governance. They were there because the consensus had approved that position and they’d shown up to perform membership. When actual Venezuelans confronted them with lived reality, the performance collapsed because nothing existed underneath.
Which raises an interesting question: isn’t this just the modern equivalent of street theatre? People performing roles, wearing costumes, following scripts, moving from venue to venue with the troupe. The performance is the point. The audience—social media—records the spectacle. The substance is irrelevant because that was never what this was about.
The question isn’t whether this continues. Of course it continues. The pattern is too satisfying to abandon. Given Trump’s Greenland statements, I’d predict Greenland flags appearing within eight weeks. Same corners, same faces, different cause.
The rotation schedule cycles like seasonal fashion collections. And precisely no one involved will pause to ask why they’re there or what they’re achieving beyond the emotional satisfaction of being seen holding the correct flag at the approved moment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Langley writes as The Almighty Gob, an independent blogger and satirical commentator specialising in Bristol City Council accountability and UK institutional dysfunction analysis. Operating from an “anarch” philosophical position, he maintains analytical detachment whilst documenting gaps between political rhetoric and measurable outcomes through Freedom of Information requests and policy analysis. His work appears here, at thealmightygob.com, where he has published 88 Bristol-focused articles in 2025, establishing himself as Bristol’s most prolific accountability voice. A neurodivergent pattern recognition specialist who left school at 15, his lived experience including periods of homelessness provides unique perspective for his commentary on performative activism, institutional capture, and the gaps between campaign promises and governing reality.
CITATIONS.
Matt Van Swol, X post documenting protest flag rotation timeline, January 2026: https://x.com/mattvanswol
Gunther Eagleman, X post on Manhattan federal courthouse Venezuelan protests, January 5, 2026: https://x.com/GuntherEagleman
The Nate Friedman Show interview footage with protester (via Lee Harris X repost), January 2026: https://x.com/LeeHarris
TAGS: performative activism, protest culture, hive mentality, moral performance, social media activism, political theatre, collective behaviour, identity politics, virtue signalling, activism trends
NOTE: Someone documented the dates: Ukrainian flags in April, Palestinian in May, Mexican in June, Iranian in July, Venezuelan in January. Same protesters, eight-week rotations, coaches between cities. When confronted by actual Venezuelans, the performance collapsed. This isn’t activism—it’s street theatre with moral costumes.