I 100% agree with with the sentiment behind this rally, but I often feel that rallies like this in San Francisco are preaching to the choir. They make the participants and observers feel better, but do little to effect real change.
The effects of protests might not be immediately obvious, and perhaps might never be publicly acknowledged. However, they can have a serious impact.
Here's one important example:
"Many people don't know it, but Nixon was considering using nuclear weapons in Vietnam. At that time, Nixon was also repeatedly saying that he didn't care what the American people thought about Vietnam, and that he was going to escalate the war anyway. However, according to a biography by a well-known historian, when Nixon saw hundreds of thousands of protesters on TV, he dropped his secret plan of nuking Vietnam."[1]
[1] - http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Why-Nixon-Didn-t-Nuke-Viet-by-...
Comments like this just boil my blood. Get off your tail, stop being apathetic, be a part of the solution.
Edit: actually here, I did it for you:
False dichotomy.
Rallies in San Francisco are just excuses for like minded people to have a merry old time. It's a politically irrelevant city, because it has no votes in play. Want to have some actual impact, some actual chance to change hearts and minds, go protest in Utah, where you can connect the cause to the site, or DC, or heck Iowa, where you can take advantage of their natural libertarian streak and there are votes to be swayed.
[1] http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/313853-n... [2] http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/us/politics/momentum-bu...
Seriously, the world outside of SF (including politicians/DC) view SF as a place of crazies, willing to protest any stupid old thing.
Sad, but true.
We need to take all bullets we can get and fire them in parallel (online and in meatspace).
> They make the participants and observers feel better
To some extent, this is good b/c it helps everybody to understand they're not "the only one around here who...".