For pretty much all charity events I have attended in my life, I sincerely doubt the majority of people attending are there for anything else than the fun party. Point being, I am convinced the same applies for Sturgis. If really people want to protest the government, they would be doing that instead of partying like usual. Because let's be honest, events like that are fun to be, unlike riots/protests (for most sensible people anyways, I know there are always those that enjoy the chaos). So I really disagree that the protests are comparable to an annual rally/festival.
Disobeying orders is a form of protest.
I'm really uncomfortable with this. I don't disagree that that is the mindset today (at least here in America) but I disagree with that approach. Just because you don't like something, just because you don't agree with the regulatory scheme, doesn't mean you can ignore it. And I'm not limiting this to just masks; extrapolate this out to other things. Disagree with that groundwater regulatory scheme? I protest by dumping chemicals into the water!
I think that is just a way of giving license to just doing WTF you want; weed is great example of this in recent years.
While I fully agree with what you're saying, isn't weed actually a bad example of this, though? Decades of use have shown that it's NOT the harmful substance that the government has propagated it to be, and even when it's become legal/decriminalized in many states, it is still considered as dangerous as heroin at the federal level. It's a bad example because the government simply has dragged ass (or kept its ass bolted to the ground, rather) and the Obama administration itself said they'd leave it up to the individual states to decide what to do with it. So you don't even have an agreement between the federal and state and local governments on how to handle it - what do you expect people to do when shops are opening up selling a legal(?) product?
Weed is the best example of this, for the very reasons you noted. Laws aren't for convenience. They are there for a reason, good or bad, out of date or relevant. If we don't like them, change them. But they are still the law. I chose weed, because we can all sort of get our arms around that idea of "Yeah, that makes sense; it's harmless, let's do it and, um, PROTEST!". It's less of a polarizing issue; not wearing masks is a shitty form of protest, because it's too easily dismissed as "fucking stupid". I think - and I may be the minority on this - that the protests in the streets on BLM are the same; they are too easily dismissed as "mindless violence".
"Protests" are only good if the entity that can do something about it is listening and reacts appropriately. Part of that is protesting in a way that also gives the acting party something to consider and a means to change the status quo. America is fucked post-social media, because we've been ingrained with this notion that if shame and embarass people enough, they will do our bidding. That completely ignores that the underlying reasons are the wrong ones, and the effected changes are likely lip service and won't result in lasting, meaningful changes in behavior (does any of this ring a bell?)
I believe there have been many efforts to try to get lawmakers to at least change weed's status from a level 1 substance to something... lesser. But politicians won't do anything about it, saying they 'need more studies.' But they can't get studies done because it's a level 1 substance, considered on the same level as something like heroin and meth. So you think people should just give up and deal with that, and wait to elect people in for a formality, even though states are legally selling it now? I don't get it, especially when you bring up social media which came long after the demonization and fear mongering the politicians did with weed. It was literally only made illegal to further incarcerate black people and hippies by the Nixon administration.
So what do you do when laws get wrongly put into place, and politicians spend decades not doing anything about it despite hearing an uproar from people that's only gotten louder and louder each year, to the point where now a bunch of our states are selling it legally and using that tax revenue for good, and yet it's still federally on the same level as meth? Just sit on our hands and wait for lawmakers to pull their heads out of their asses because 'that's the way it should be'? Nah, dude. Not everything is equal or just here. Look at people who are
still serving life sentences for selling a little weed even if their state has made it legal. It's crazy.
I'm not saying this applies to, like, wielding a firearm, but in this case, fuck the federal law, protest/push back on it, if lawmakers won't do it, the people will eventually take it upon themselves. Good luck trying to incarcerate everybody who smokes weed now, it's like drinking, innumerable people partake every day.