And if you're only just now figuring that out, now in 2017? Then you haven't been paying attention.
Come on, protesting hasn't been real since the requirement of having "permits", and the creation of "free speech zones". We live in a tyrannical police state masquerading as a peaceful democracy, where trouble makers are gunned down by death squads who are later pardoned by the courts.
Just posting a comment like this on the internet will lead to downvoting and social penalties. Did you know that this site participates in the practice of "hell-banning"? That is where they silently blacklist people for expressing their unpopular opinions about any particular subject. Those people can no longer contribute, but they believe that they can because the system lets them post. But nobody ever sees their comments. It's the exact same thing as what the government does.
Many of "the people" belong to the tyrants' pyramid of control and those who don't are brainwashed by it.
"Is there any point to protesting?", hah I say. Wake up.