futile

And efforts to go down that futile path only lead to ever more draconian censorship, such as telling queer teachers to hide their spouses, while allowing straight teachers freedom to talk about theirs.

But whatever autonomy the young man can re-assert seems futile in the face of the Israeli occupation that hinders any sense of normalcy.

The choice of Trump over the safety of their own students sparked public outrage, but it felt futile, as though such cowardice would be the standard for all elite schools in a second Trump term.

It is not merely that people surrender to authoritarianism, but that they are fashioned by it, habituated to its violence, until resistance feels futile and complicity feels natural.

Even in a world after 1916’s Easter Rising — when Irish nationalists revolted against British rule— governmental efforts to revive Irish proved futile.