Oct. 18, 2025, marked the second official “No Kings” protest in the United States. The nationwide demonstration drew crowds of millions of people in cities from Los Angeles, to Texas, to Boston, all petitioning against one common theme: the authoritarian governance practices of Donald Trump. During this especially tumultuous time in American politics, where I have often found attitudes and opinions to be deeply fractured, I was extremely pleased and partly amazed that so many people from such distant places could unite and mobilize under one effort.
Though I often consider myself an optimist, I make the former statement as someone who holds a leadership position in my college’s chapter of a human rights advocacy group; as someone who is familiar with how difficult it is to organize a community around any one specific issue. The challenge is not only, or even partially, that the community in question is not interested in the problem at hand — Boston is a notoriously progressive city, and in my experience, a vast majority of students at my college take on these progressive views that tend to correlate to my chapter of Amnesty International’s mission to protect human rights.
Instead, the challenge seems to lie in scheduling conflicts and costs. It’s not enough to have been invited to an activism-centered event that spreads awareness on, or even actively fights against, a social, cultural, or political force. It’s not enough that a majority of people agree this force is harmful, and are passionate about taking action against it. There are many different physical and logistical barriers that have to be overcome for individuals to participate, such as dates, times, locations, availability of transportation, accessibility, and safety. For example, when my chapter plans events, we often need to consider which campus buildings are most accessible for students, as well as what times of day and weeks of the semester are going to be the least busy for them.
On top of this, and aside from financial cost, there is also an energy-and time-related cost to participating in activism, which means incentives are a huge must-have that can make or break whether or not an effort will succeed. Most people, and in my case, students, tend to have to budget their time and energy due to working jobs, fulfilling family obligations, and taking care of other important activities like personal development and social cultivation. To overcome this, there needs to be strong incentives that either compensate for or replenish the lost time and energy spent on an effort. For my chapter, this often means providing food, drinks, fun games, and prizes that students will feel restored by, instead of making defending human rights feel like another responsibility to tack onto their list.
These many hindrances are to say that I understand why efforts in grassroots activism can suffer from low rates of turnout and fall on the less impactful side. Sometimes, such as in the case of the “No Kings” demonstrations, individuals can feel that the issue at hand is so pressing that they have no other choice but to participate. They may also feel that the impact of the action they take as a part of a visibly large movement such as “No Kings” will have a greater effect, thus being incentivized by the perceived outcome of their contribution. Therefore, while some physical barriers and financial costs may remain, the time and energy cost feels lessened.
The resounding success of the “No Kings” demonstrations, despite the multitude of challenges people have faced to actually participate, is an important reminder of the awesome power that grassroots activism has. It is essential that we hold onto this sense of unification, as well as keep up the momentum it has generated, in the work as activists against authoritarianism.