Last Sunday's demonstration at Democracy Monument has shown that the youth movement has become a force to be reckoned with.
The little sparks set by flash-mob protests earlier in the year before Covid-19 put a temporary halt to it have now coalesced into a major firestorm.
The outpouring of support for the protests has probably surprised both sides in the conflict.
Anti-government protesters have been buoyed by the public's response, which is not limited to high school and university students any more.
As some observers have said, behind many of the protesting students stand their parents and other members of their families.
Not all parents agree to let their children participate in what they consider a risky affair, unsuited for someone still attending school.
But with the tide of change so strong, many of them will find it impossible to prevent that from happening.
Defiance of the authorities has spread not only to various universities in the provinces, but it has also intruded the more strictly controlled environment of high schools.
There has been a markedly increased level of political awareness among the high schoolers, a new phenomenon in the history of the popular protest movement in Thailand.
It has caused great distress and consternation among many of the older generations.
For the first time, they have witnessed open rebellion by a population they felt certain they have control over, and who they consider "the country's future".
But the young people apparently are looking at a future different from that foreseen by their older folks and are now ready to express, and demand it.
Reactions from the more conservative quarters are sharp and furious. Right-wing elements are in a frenzy to reclaim the ground they have lost.
Instead of using reason and persuasion, however, they hurl insults and ridicule against the young protesters.
These young rebels are naïve and ignorant, they say. Why, they can't even survive without begging for money from their parents, but they dare to demand freedom.
The young rebels are being misled and manipulated by ill-intentioned people, and opportunistic politicians, intent on destroying the nation and the monarchy, the right-wingers say, resorting to their tired, old rhetoric against opponents.
But these mostly older people are obviously behind the times. They cannot understand why high school students want to engage in political activities.
"Go back to school. That's where you belong. You know nothing of the adult world," they say.
They still don't understand. Whereas in the 1970s, the main sources of information came from newspapers, televisions and radios, which were easily controlled by the government, students nowadays have almost limitless access to information through the internet.
Many of them came of age during the six years of military dictatorship, which surprisingly could not contain their curiosity about their own country.
One of the things they were curious about is Thailand's dark history, which they were never taught in school.
But unlike people of older generations, they have the technological means to find out what they want to know.
What they found have caused them to question what they learnt in school, and by extension, what the government by the establishment has been telling them.
After the demonstration at Thammasat University, where the unmentionable topic of the monarchy was mentioned, the right-wing frenzy has escalated dangerously almost on the verge of being crazed.
Veiled threats of violence have been posted on social media, and calls for the formation of groups "to protect nation, religion and monarchy", all of which invoke the spectre of the Oct 6, 1976, lynching of protesting students in the old campus of Thammasat University.
Government leaders, politicians and right-wing supporters have warned protest leaders against any speech on the subject of monarchy reform.
But their suppression attempt may be a moot point.
The 10-point proposal to reform the monarchy had been announced at the Thammasat gathering. The genie is out of the bottle.
Open discussion may be suppressed, but the curiosity of the youngsters will continue to fester. However, the effect of this development is that future gatherings will be viewed with even more contempt and disgust by the conservative forces.
Considering the country's political past, violence against a future gathering cannot be ruled out, although it would be a mistake to assume that the outcome of such suppression would be the same.
It's not just that the protesters wouldn't allow it, but also that their parents and acquaintances, many of whom have lived through anti-dictatorship upheavals in the past, wouldn't either.