Yesterday, I (O’Leary for News) wrote about the way, when elites go progressive, anarchy starts to come from the top more than the bottom.
True, rioters are not usually elite unless they are college students or teachers. But it takes an elite to tell the police to just stand down. The elite can much more easily protect themselves from the risks of violence than the middle class or working class can. So Wokism is good strategy for arbitrary rule. So are useless anti-COVID measures that break down the society that is forced to obey them.
Such elites view with horror what has suddenly started happening across Canada: Thousands of peaceful working class people (mostly not truckers, actually), waving flags and honking their horns (or just standing on the sidewalk waving flags), are demanding an end to the crackpot science and authoritarianism behind the COVID mandates and lockdowns. It is abundantly evident to everyone that they do nothing but rip the fabric of society. Elites, of course, often ignore the restrictions themselves while inflicting them on those below. Or else they make a nauseating religion out of visibly following them…
Either way, they are advertising their uselessness to the world and, specifically, to Canada.
The almost entirely violence-free protest continues in Ottawa and it has spread to a number of major cities like Toronto and Vancouver.
And to smaller centres like the Okanagan Valley (south central B.C.):
Counterprotests are comparatively few. Elon Musk pointed out, tellingly, that if the government’s policies were popular, there would be large counterprotests. There aren’t. Most are small, mean, and spiteful by comparison, as is the FluTruckstan Twitter thread, accusing the truckers of racism, etc.
Now about Victoria this afternoon. Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is much smaller than Vancouver and situated on Vancouver Island, off the west coast of North America.
On a hunch I decided to go downtown to the Legislature to see if there was any action there.
Well, I never got anywhere near the Legislature.
As soon as I got off the bus about a kilometre away from the legislature, I heard the honking. Hundred and hundreds of cars and trucks, draped in Canadian flags and sometimes the British Columbia flag, were rolling down Douglas Street. There were signs in plenty, demanding an end to the mandates and lockdowns.
I walked a long way, surveying the seemingly endless parade of vehicles and realized that I was already seeing what I came for. Yes, the protest had indeed hit Victoria.
There was very little counter protest.
It was all friendly; people were having a good time. There was no violence; I heard no racial epithets and saw no racial insignia.
So if media tell you that it is really about white nationalism, etc., remember that the legacy Canadian media are in fact supported to stay in business by the federal government. Because few depend on them for news any more.
You will get from them the story governments want to hear. Governments are frightened and want to hear about violence and racism to justify suppression of the popular “quiet revolution.”
Independent media are essential for getting a handle on this story. Able commenter Fasteddious put it rather well here:
Watching this unfold, I have been aghast at the mainstream media twisted coverage of this convoy. They misrepresent reality, blow up minor events, ignore the truckers themselves, and parrot each others’ talking points, totally missing the larger story about widespread discontent across the nation. Their hypocrisy is so obvious when comparing their handling of this convoy, to their responses to BLM, Antifa, or Native blockades, protests and mobs, that I have to wonder how they can look at themselves in the mirror without shame.
The Prime Minister’s responses have been even worse: repeating media lies, insulting a broad swath of citizens (not the first time), ignoring evidence of the changing COVID situation, refusing even to talk with anyone from the convoy, and spouting his over-worn arrogance and ignorance. He needs a good dose of humility and repentance! I know people who voted for him and his party; they have drunk the Kool-Aid of the progressive woke narrative, and are quite happy in their own insulated silos.
Fasteddious, these people are so insulated from reality and common sense that even the fact that Mr. Max Vaxxed himself, PM Justin Trudeau, is currently battling COVID-19 does not prompt any questions from them. If the vaccines are that hit and miss, a policy demanding that everyone get them is untenable, especially as severe side-effects are not as rare as some would have us believe.
But many lesser mortals seem to be reassessing their loyalties:
There was a touching moment when two older women, waving a support sign on the sidewalk, saw the little Canadian flag tucked into my jacket clasp and asked, “Are you afraid of hugs?” I said no. So we hugged and I said “It’s over. It is really just so over. Only the government does not seem to realize that.”
The lies are not working. At least four provinces are announcing that they are going to start lifting the more useless restrictions.
By the way, San Francisco-based GoFundMe, which seized $10 million raised for the support of the Convoys on a flimsy pretext, is not going to be allowed to give it to charities it approves of, as it was going to do:
The GoFundMe fundraising platform said Feb. 5 it will automatically refund donations made to a trucker convoy in Canada protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates after backlash.
GoFundMe said Friday it was preventing the funds from going to organizers of the Freedom Convoy and would instead send the money to “established charities verified by GoFundMe.”
The justification for the unusual move? “We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity,” GoFundMe said.
The website didn’t provide any evidence of the alleged violence or unlawful activity.
Jon Carpay, president of Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom, a legal group representing the convoy organizers, told The Epoch Times that the fundraising company “has no credibility” without making the evidence public.
Zachary Stieber, “GoFundMe Says All Donations to Trucker Convoy Will Be Automatically Refunded; Florida to Investigate” at Epoch Times (February 5, 2022)
The Convoy is now raising funds at GiveSendGo. So far, the truckers have raised $2.5 million there in only a couple days, much faster than at GoFundMe (probably because many people were dismayed by GoFundMe’s actions).
Update: The GoFundMe attempted cash grab has only strengthened the truckers: They didn’t need that much money in one place and some government or private litigant was bound to try to grab it. Now that it must properly be returned to the donors, they are sending it to safer distribution methods. In any event, as Cory Morgan writes,
People are dedicated to supporting the convoy and for each fundraising initiative that gets shut down, more will surface. Authorities will be wasting their time playing whack-a-mole chasing down the new fundraising sources. People will bring cash directly to the protests if they have to.
Convoy protests are happening across the country. Many people getting refunds from GoFundMe will be dedicating that to local actions now. The central protests never really needed such a massive fund in the first place. Spreading support across the country will actually make them more effective, and much more difficult to block. Epoch Times
Canada to Government: Come in, Government. You work for us, not the other way around.
Somebody may have also pointed out to the GoFundMe honchoes that it would be, as commenter Polistra noted, grand larceny.
Let’s say Jane gives John a warm winter coat to give to Aunt Marge but John decides to give it to the Women’s Shelter instead. The fact that John did not benefit directly from his decision does not make it any less wrong. It was not his coat to dispose of. If he feels that the Women’s Shelter should have winter coats, let him buy them with his own money.
On the way back up Douglas Street, I was handed a pamphlet by a group of Communists, advising me that the convoy is “useful for the ruling class.”
Well, if it is, the ruling class doesn’t seem to know that. Trudeau is reportedly freaked out by what is happening, as well he should be. But Lord knows, he and his brought it on themselves.
The worry now is that they will invent some pretext for sending in the troops — and the troops are reportedly not happy about that idea.
While nearing the bus stop on my way home, I encountered two other older ladies, heavily masked out on the street, peeking out at the Convoy as if it had never occurred to them in years that there is a world outside government-ordered lockdowns. Yes there is, old girls. Keep watching this space.
How does all this relate to ID? One thing that is going to take a beating in years to come is “Trust the science.” Science has been misused and abused very badly in handling COVID and trust, once lost, takes time to regain. It will be much less useful a weapon to brandish, as in “I represent science!”
Update: The driver who mowed down demonstrators in a jeep in Winnipeg and fled has been arrested by the Mounties.
Video of the horrific incident has since circulated on social media, showing a group of protesters as several are struck by the Jeep, with many chasing the vehicle as it sped from the scene.
A 42-year-old male from Headingly, Manitoba, faces charges of four counts of assault with weapon, two counts of dangerous operation of a conveyance causing bodily harm, one count of dangerous operation of a conveyance, two counts of failure to stop after accident, and two counts of failure to stop at the scene of an accident. – Daily Mail
The police say that his motive was not pro-lockdown but we’ll let the courts decide that.
Stay tuned. Better yet, go home and do — peacefully — what the Canadians are doing. Most of us are not truckers and large numbers of demonstrators are vaxxed. But we are all sick, as noted earlier, of crackpot authoritarianism parading as science.
And when Canadians start to rebel (politely), you know that the contemptuous elite have sure tripped one big switch.
You may also wish to read: A characteristic of our times: Anarchy from above: Canadian truckers edition