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Who gives a fuck what the courts rule? Who gives a fuck about these slap on the wrist penalties?
Dozens of people were arrested, the penalties were basically non-existent, and it just emboldened them.
I know dozens who were arrested and radicalized.
There have been dozens of convoy protests since! There was no chilling effect because the regime's impotence has been demonstrated.
You’re wasting your time, people on the motte are very blackpilled and demoralized to the point they can’t see a win as a win.
They are a helpless bunch, looking for any excuse to do nothing. When you tell them they may have to sacrifice something to express themselves against the government, out come the stalin analogies. They want the government to read their minds and execute perfectly at zero cost to themselves. They’re the traumatized girl who just couldn’t find the courage to say no.
The original policy papers on pandemics said ‘The people will never accept lockdowns’. Those who opposed them but didn’t protest in some way have massively empowered the government they seemingly despise. Then they complain that they get ignored. The government is right to ignore opinions that aren’t backed by anything. You get the government you deserve.
Those who protested got shut down, harshly and often violently; they were then hounded later even after being beaten in the moment. Complaining that people didn't protest and that's why the government can ignore them is blatantly ignoring what actually happened.
So those fines are the extent of the stalinist repression you can’t take? All the fines over all the protestors, that must be like 2 dollars. You can’t spare 2 dollars to express your anti-lockdown views?
The fines aren't the only thing they did. They also took his business and threw him in jail. The hounding later just shows that they hold a grudge, and once you start with the government, the government will never be done with you. And of course he's not the only one NJ punished for protesting; the state regularly broke up protests and arrested protestors. Pretending the state was "empowered" by lack of protest is just rubbing salt in the wound; the state has real power, the kind that flows from the barrel of a gun.
Dissidents have historically faced far worse outcomes than this. Even this way of putting it considerably understates the discrepancy. This is lower than suffragette level of protest repression.
You’re encouraging political disengagement by pretending the state is an undefeatable force. That’s a message dictators put out because they are empowered by that belief, and our government is too. Of course, the dictators are lying and never as secure as they claim.
As long as the government thought the people would protest lockdowns, they wouldn’t implement them. Only when most people turned pro-lockdown, and the opposition to it was muted, did they do so. So this force, as powerful as it might be, is to a large degree controlled by the people, their opinions and actions.
You're encouraging tilting and windmills by pretending it works, and sneering at anyone who points out that tilting at a windmill won't do anything but hurt the jouster.
They implemented them, then they arrested, fined, and in some cases (even in the West) shot the protestors.
So you can’t win the smallest battles, you’re always losing, and you’re never going to do anything. Is that your plan?
I don’t think the limited protests we saw were nearly enough to constitute a clear message of ‘the people don’t accept lockdowns’ in line with the expectations of pandemic policy writers (or my own) . Some level of repression is par for the course. Just accept that you might take a punch or two, unless you want to keep letting rednecks fight your battles for you.
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