I suspect that generally the rest of America (not persons of the inner cities), felt that children are to be seen and not heard. College students are generally looked upon as children, not yet wise to the ways of the world. I remember thinking that they behaved as disfigured children. They threatened to undue all that made sense and had been declared “Excellent.”

“A public opinion poll conducted in January 1965 reported that 74 percent of Californians disapproved of the Berkeley student protests. Many who were interviewed expressed the opinion that students had other options than civil disobedience. They said that in a democratic society civil disobedience should only be used as a last resort.”

So if the margin of Californians disapproved of the protests, imagine what the rest of the nation thought.

At the same time, the FSM sparked many similar protests in universities across the nation. These sentiments helped fuel the anti-Vietnam war movement. The war had been increasingly losing American public support which climaxed in the 1970s and helped lead to the withdrawal of troops. The FSM is also considered a pivotal part of the civil liberties movement of the 1960s, which many Americans really supported. So it might be said, public opinion was against the method but not necessarily the sentiment.

On a more personal level, even at UC Berkeley many people disapproved of or did not participate in the protests. Some estimate that perhaps 1 in 10 students took part in the protests, so the vast margin did not. Many students were annoyed with the disruptions to classes, disagreed with the methods, didn’t really care, etc.