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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   38488 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 5, 2023

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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 political disengagement by pretending the state is an undefeatable force.

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.

As long as the government thought the people would protest lockdowns, they wouldn’t implement them.

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.

So you can’t win the smallest battles, you’re always losing, and you’re never going to do anything.

I'm not going to run into a buzzsaw because you're calling me "chicken", that's for sure.

Hyperbole. But honestly, what do you believe should be done? I don't think you think the vote works, you don't think anything works. Institutions, taken over, all-powerful. Speech, controlled. Masses, brainwashed, irrelevant. Elites, locked in. Am I misrepresenting your opinions?

Nothing should be done because nothing can be done. You trying to mock him is in reality the accurate summary of the situation.

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 know about his plan, but mine the last couple years has been to drink myself to death.

I’m not really mocking him, I find his doomposting sometimes accurate, often amusing. But come on, this isn’t healthy or productive. How about all you AI doomers, climate doomers, woke doomers just be merry and wait for some real shit to hit the fan before you throw in the towel?

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