Sometimes I prefer to just be left alone

I can't find a suitable analogy to get this across. I see people protesting and I just don't believe in it. I do like the slogans and the occasionally catchy chants. Especially the ones where there are too many or too few syllables and the chant just races through it obliviously.

I suppose some people have reached the same conclusion and instead of going home and quietly masturbating or something, they decide to take it a step further. This is where hunger strikers come from. A realization that slogans and chants alone will not change the world and the belief, the false belief, that anyone gives a fuck if they live or die.

Protesters as a group are a boring lot. Probably not when they're at home and with friends but definitely when they're protesting. They're so on message, all the time. Just talk, talk, talk about the cause. The fact that they are protesting at all should inform them that up to this nobody cared.

The hunger strikers want to make them care. They want people to care about the boring cause because they, a white person who may well live nearby and almost certainly supports the same football team as some people are skipping a few meals. Fuck hunger strikers. It's petulant.

Like a child, they'll stop this very slow exercise in self harm if only you give in to their demands. A very adult tantrum. Before this goes any further I'll point out I don't care for nationalists at all, but that's not the point.

Assuming 100% commitment, which I never do, this should be seen as on a par with setting yourself on fire. It's not. Those guys get taken in for mental examination and kept in a secure facility. Just 'cos they've got more balls and commitment than a pussy hunger striker. It all goes to show that the authorities don't really believe in them either. We think they're full of shit. Figuratively, not literally because they haven't eaten in a while.

What are the rules for hunger striking? You're allowed water. Any essential salts? What about a coke? It's not eating... fuck that, there's no pissing about when you set yourself on fire, or stand in front of a tank. I've had stomach bugs that lasted longer than some hunger strikes.