What really irritates me about how a lot of people discuss the topic of destructive protest (eg. riots) is that they always try to argue with its proponents, but rarely ever try to argue with the people (including bystanders/centrists/etc.) responsible for making it the only remaining option.

You want to discuss when destructive protest is and isn't appropriate, fine, that's an important discussion to have. But if you're only ever criticizing those doing or promoting it, and not putting in the work to solve the problem otherwise, then what you're *really* doing is being a shield for the status quo.