As someone who lived through it in Canada, I can confirm that while there were pockets of resistance (in addition to the Freedom Convoy), your above statements likely represent enough of the population that it would almost certainly happen again.
My aunt was the person in one of the provincial governments who personally signed off on the COVID measures. I am going to punch her in the face the next time I see her and I don't fucking care what happens next.
What are they going to do? Shoot me? It's Canada. Sometimes you just have to punch a Nazi.
Another great thoughtful post . I couldn't agree more. I was just speaking with a friend about this. As he he said that something like what is going down in the UK wouldn't/couldn't happen here. He proclaimed we have the Constitution!
I had to point out that it could and it is currently happening here. You are seeing it happen in various ways form internally censoring and externally censoring ourselves. To punishable offenses if your speech doesn't agree with what is allowed. For example I informed him about the various executive orders in different states like Texas and Florida which can make your speech (if deemed antisemitic) punishable. Which he was unaware.
As you rightly point out the lockdown of our speech also starts eroding do to a weak culture which starts to make concessions and qualifications taking for granted that First Amendment right.
I have been involved locally in promoting this idea of building the culture - foundational in the 2nd Amendment (which is the common element to those I speak to) in the hopes of reigniting a spirit of patriotism of my youth. Love of community, the neighborhood, the town, even to the level of local school spirit. This is all to educate my neighbors in the truth of the founding of this nation and what set it apart from the rest of the world and to provoke an active response to return to a civically minded people.
As a retired police officer who worked in both local and state agencies I can assure you that the police do not shoot "knife carrying people," as you put it. The same goes for gun carrying people. The police shoot people who are attempting to injure or kill people with the knife or gun they are in possession of. BIG DIFFERENCE...
> And that’s absolutely true, the Second Amendment helps set the bar higher here in the US. It makes sure we’re the free ones.
With absolutely no source other than "pulled it out of my rear", I believe very strongly that the only reason Texas responded to Covid the way it did, instead of the way California or Canada did, is because the governor didn't want to deal with the optics of 20,000 dead cops.
It's unfortunate that that threat is what it takes to not have teh government systematically destroy our lives, but, well, it is what it is
Lots of narrative violations in early COVID. Early on, Texas's policies were indistinguishable from the ones that later became CA/NY-branded. Lockdowns, travel restrictions, and 14-day mandatory quarantine for any interstate travelers coming from COVID hotspots (complete with police checkpoints greeting air travelers coming from NY).
Texas and a bunch of other states reopened in May, and from then on the policies diverged a lot between states. But there are a lot of governors whose personal branding now relies on people forgetting what they did in March-May 2020.
I can't help remembering the video of police running up on and tackling a man who was doing nothing but existing alone on a beach, because that wasn't allowed at the time. For safety.
I have no memory of the travel restrictions or 14-day quarantine.
I was too panicked and locking myself down to have a good read on what was happening outside in march-may 2020 but my impression was that enforcement was nonexistent and lots and lots of people just ignored their rules.
Further, while I still believe that the lockdowns we had were already unacceptable, but in my mind, the fact that Texas did a 2 month lockdown while everywhere else did a 2 year lockdown basically proves my point.
> The standard response is, “That was early in COVID and nobody knew what was happening. People wouldn’t let that slide now.”
Maybe in Texas but absolutely not, generally.
Most of the people I'm still in touch with from Canada have one of two opinions on covid oppressio:
1) "it's unfortunate, but we did what we had to do, and it saved us from dying of covid"
2) "If we had locked down _harder_, we would have saved more lives"
Both of those positions lead straightforwardly to "and I'll do it again"
As someone who lived through it in Canada, I can confirm that while there were pockets of resistance (in addition to the Freedom Convoy), your above statements likely represent enough of the population that it would almost certainly happen again.
My aunt was the person in one of the provincial governments who personally signed off on the COVID measures. I am going to punch her in the face the next time I see her and I don't fucking care what happens next.
What are they going to do? Shoot me? It's Canada. Sometimes you just have to punch a Nazi.
Another great thoughtful post . I couldn't agree more. I was just speaking with a friend about this. As he he said that something like what is going down in the UK wouldn't/couldn't happen here. He proclaimed we have the Constitution!
I had to point out that it could and it is currently happening here. You are seeing it happen in various ways form internally censoring and externally censoring ourselves. To punishable offenses if your speech doesn't agree with what is allowed. For example I informed him about the various executive orders in different states like Texas and Florida which can make your speech (if deemed antisemitic) punishable. Which he was unaware.
As you rightly point out the lockdown of our speech also starts eroding do to a weak culture which starts to make concessions and qualifications taking for granted that First Amendment right.
Very thoughtful. Also thank you for the mention.
Welcome to Substack!
I have been involved locally in promoting this idea of building the culture - foundational in the 2nd Amendment (which is the common element to those I speak to) in the hopes of reigniting a spirit of patriotism of my youth. Love of community, the neighborhood, the town, even to the level of local school spirit. This is all to educate my neighbors in the truth of the founding of this nation and what set it apart from the rest of the world and to provoke an active response to return to a civically minded people.
As a retired police officer who worked in both local and state agencies I can assure you that the police do not shoot "knife carrying people," as you put it. The same goes for gun carrying people. The police shoot people who are attempting to injure or kill people with the knife or gun they are in possession of. BIG DIFFERENCE...
> And that’s absolutely true, the Second Amendment helps set the bar higher here in the US. It makes sure we’re the free ones.
With absolutely no source other than "pulled it out of my rear", I believe very strongly that the only reason Texas responded to Covid the way it did, instead of the way California or Canada did, is because the governor didn't want to deal with the optics of 20,000 dead cops.
It's unfortunate that that threat is what it takes to not have teh government systematically destroy our lives, but, well, it is what it is
Lots of narrative violations in early COVID. Early on, Texas's policies were indistinguishable from the ones that later became CA/NY-branded. Lockdowns, travel restrictions, and 14-day mandatory quarantine for any interstate travelers coming from COVID hotspots (complete with police checkpoints greeting air travelers coming from NY).
Texas and a bunch of other states reopened in May, and from then on the policies diverged a lot between states. But there are a lot of governors whose personal branding now relies on people forgetting what they did in March-May 2020.
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-texas-dps-travel-restrictions/269-626dc658-64fe-4daf-b420-19b78ebeacf5
I can't help remembering the video of police running up on and tackling a man who was doing nothing but existing alone on a beach, because that wasn't allowed at the time. For safety.
I have no memory of the travel restrictions or 14-day quarantine.
I was too panicked and locking myself down to have a good read on what was happening outside in march-may 2020 but my impression was that enforcement was nonexistent and lots and lots of people just ignored their rules.
Further, while I still believe that the lockdowns we had were already unacceptable, but in my mind, the fact that Texas did a 2 month lockdown while everywhere else did a 2 year lockdown basically proves my point.
Fair