Protests and societal disruptions aren't mutually exclusive. And the "foreign funded campaign" argument is such a trope to discredit any protest, and reminds me more of something the Kremlin would say to justify destroying dissent. It was really scary to see canadians suddenly pretend that donations from america are proof that the protestors were foreign agents. Canadians have had no problem sending donations south for hundreds of years, and vice versa.
But hey, that rhetoric came directly from the the only government in the western hemisphere to have suspended constitutional rights (and because of a protest) since probably World War 2... So it's not exactly surprising.
(There was also this obsession to call them terrorists, again textbook dehumanizing/discrediting tactics. And for the record, I'm not a pro truckers and voted for trudeau twice. Yet the way the government dealt with the situation was literally disgusting.)
Yes and it's honestly why I'm so vocal about the whole situation, even in real life. It just made me so uncomfortable how the events unfolded and how quickly the narrative switched to justifying (and even cheering!) for people to be stripped of their rights. I don't really care about antivaxxers but as a muslim and an immigrant, it just made me realize just how fast events like these can unfold and how easy it was to normalize batshit insane rhetoric against a minority (in the numerical sense, I'm not saying antivaxxers are a protected class)
We went from calling them conservative grandma killers (at least that was somewhat related to their claims), to nazis, to terrorists and finally foreign backed insurrectionists. In 2 weeks. Let's hope the public opinion doesn't ever turn against Muslims as much too then, because now I have a glimpse of just how irrelevant any of my rights would suddenly be.
> Protests and societal disruptions aren't mutually exclusive.
Agreed. Though the difference with the Canadian Truckers vs all other protests was that it was ongoing 24/7 and they were advertising for donations with the promise of continuing the protest.
Sure the government could have done nothing and let them do their thing but the voter backlash against them would have grown to include not only the people protesting but the people affected by the protests. So the government used all the tools in the toolbox to stop it including propaganda. It's kind of wild though to think that the rest of the country or world can essentially extend their political influence to an issue in a geographical area where they have no "skin in the game".
Personally I think it was stupid of the truckers to block key trade routes. Did they not realise that politicians receive donations both officially and non officially (revolving door) from wealthy people who own businesses? Why not just announce an ongoing strike? My guess would be they didn't have the numbers or they weren't willing to make a financial sacrifice for their cause.
But hey, that rhetoric came directly from the the only government in the western hemisphere to have suspended constitutional rights (and because of a protest) since probably World War 2... So it's not exactly surprising.
(There was also this obsession to call them terrorists, again textbook dehumanizing/discrediting tactics. And for the record, I'm not a pro truckers and voted for trudeau twice. Yet the way the government dealt with the situation was literally disgusting.)