Maus revised for present times

[jimbogumbo]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/comics/strips/?name=tom-the-dancing-bug&itid=sf_entertainment-comics

[Puget]

Tragically accurate

[marshwiggle]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/comics/strips/?name=tom-the-dancing-bug&itid=sf_entertainment-comics

It illustrates Whoopi's point nicely.

[mahagonny]

I haven't had COVID yet. I've had three vaccinations. And everyone on my vicinity is always wearing a mask. Still I've been sick with upper respiratory infection three times since September. But I'll continue doing what is asked/required. The cost is minimal.

Oh yeah, the cartoon. Funny! Next time someone complains that they're tired of wearing the mask, I'll remind them that they've never been sent to a gas chamber. Great conversation.

[smallcleanrat]

I haven't had COVID yet. I've had three vaccinations. And everyone on my vicinity is always wearing a mask. Still I've been sick with upper respiratory infection three times since September. But I'll continue doing what is asked/required. The cost is minimal.

Oh yeah, the cartoon. Funny! Next time someone complains that they're tired of wearing the mask, I'll remind them that they've never been sent to a gas chamber. Great conversation.

It's obviously not poking at people simply saying they are tired of masks.

Have you not heard people comparing mask mandates to people in Nazi Germany being forced to wear gold stars that identified them as Jews?

[mahagonny]

I haven't had COVID yet. I've had three vaccinations. And everyone on my vicinity is always wearing a mask. Still I've been sick with upper respiratory infection three times since September. But I'll continue doing what is asked/required. The cost is minimal.

Oh yeah, the cartoon. Funny! Next time someone complains that they're tired of wearing the mask, I'll remind them that they've never been sent to a gas chamber. Great conversation.

It's obviously not poking at people simply saying they are tired of masks.

Have you not heard people comparing mask mandates to people in Nazi Germany being forced to wear gold stars that identified them as Jews?

Very seldom. What I hear much more than that is someone wanting to discuss the pros and cons of rules that designed in hopes of eradicating COVID. This drives certain others crazy, because they think that there is one acceptable way to discuss the situation and any other way is announcing that you are never going to be one of the enlightened, beautiful people, and probably hope black people will soon be going away.
I will admit that anytime I see a link to the Washington Post I expect to read something I hate. That may be an extreme reaction.
I'm reading this now; thought you might like to know about it      https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/denmark-covid-restrictions/621482/

[Parasaurolophus]

I'll tell you what: I've been to a fair few protests in my day, including several of the largest in Canada's history. I would venture that the issues we were protesting were pretty important, actually. But not once did MPs pose for photos with us, as the Tories are with the "truckers" on Parliament Hill. And while a few windows were occasionally broken--it's hard to control crowds of hundreds of thousands--there was not a single instance threatening soup kitchen staff and taking their food.

We were, however, beaten and gassed and kettled and arrested (but never charged). The tolerance and restraint being shown towards these dickheaded bozos is both entirely appropriate and, in light of my previous experiences and what I've witnessed, telling. Fuck 'em. (But don't send in the army, obviously. That would be wrong.)

[marshwiggle]

I'll tell you what: I've been to a fair few protests in my day, including several of the largest in Canada's history. I would venture that the issues we were protesting were pretty important, actually. But not once did MPs pose for photos with us, as the Tories are with the "truckers" on Parliament Hill. And while a few windows were occasionally broken--it's hard to control crowds of hundreds of thousands--there was not a single instance threatening soup kitchen staff and taking their food.

We were, however, beaten and gassed and kettled and arrested (but never charged). The tolerance and restraint being shown towards these dickheaded bozos is both entirely appropriate and, in light of my previous experiences and what I've witnessed, telling. Fuck 'em. (But don't send in the army, obviously. That would be wrong.)

I feel the same way about them as about people blockading railway lines and roads. Arrest them all and charge them.  Trying to hold people, businesses, or governments hostage (i.e. "We're going to continue until we get what we want") is antithetical to the democratic process.

[Parasaurolophus]

I feel the same way about them as about people blockading railway lines and roads. Arrest them all and charge them.  Trying to hold people, businesses, or governments hostage (i.e. "We're going to continue until we get what we want") is antithetical to the democratic process.

I guess I'm just more tolerant of free speech than you are. Protests are not convenient, and that's the point. If they were, there'd be no point to them. You'd be left with people in a field far away holding "down with this sort of thing" signs. Protests are disruptive. I'm OK with that, including when they're for causes that I know to be utterly moronic. Criminalizing dissent is very, very bad for the democratic process, as is responding to it with state-sanctioned violence.

None of that stops these bozos from being utterly stupid, however. Not least because they're conflating federal and provincial jurisdictions. And the fact that they're treated with kid gloves when the rest of us aren't is worrying to me.

[marshwiggle]

I feel the same way about them as about people blockading railway lines and roads. Arrest them all and charge them.  Trying to hold people, businesses, or governments hostage (i.e. "We're going to continue until we get what we want") is antithetical to the democratic process.

I guess I'm just more tolerant of free speech than you are. Protests are not convenient, and that's the point. If they were, there'd be no point to them. You'd be left with people in a field far away holding "down with this sort of thing" signs. Protests are disruptive. I'm OK with that, including when they're for causes that I know to be utterly moronic. Criminalizing dissent is very, very bad for the democratic process, as is responding to it with state-sanctioned violence.

None of that stops these bozos from being utterly stupid, however. Not least because they're conflating federal and provincial jurisdictions. And the fact that they're treated with kid gloves when the rest of us aren't is worrying to me.

Blockades and things of that nature have been tolerated for quite a while before law enforcement was actually allowed to remove and arrest people. The difference between you and me is that I don't care where on the political spectrum they come from. The tactics they use, whatever their cause, are what matter to me.

[Parasaurolophus]

Blockades and things of that nature have been tolerated for quite a while before law enforcement was actually allowed to remove and arrest people.

Sometimes, and sometimes (more often) not. I think the differences are pretty stark, frankly.

The difference between you and me is that I don't care where on the political spectrum they come from. The tactics they use, whatever their cause, are what matter to me.

That's not an accurate summary, since I explicitly said that even though these fuckers are utter idiots (in other words, from the wrong end of our political spectrum), the restraint that's been shown towards them is entirely appropriate, and should have been shown to other protesters as well. In fact, I'm prepared to agree with you that we should be concerned about the tactics, whatever the cause--where we diverge is that I'm happy with pretty much anything short of organized violence, and you generally seem happy with absolutely nothing that inconveniences anyone (although I'm happy to revise that analysis with however you'd prefer to characterize it). I accept that non-violent protest is--and has to be--disruptive. If it isn't, it won't work. Part and parcel of accepting that is also accepting that sometimes doofuses will be disruptive to try to get the utterly inane things they want, sometimes at the expense of the rest of society. I hope we don't cave in to their idiocy, but they have every right to organize themselves to demand that we do.

As far as I'm concerned, that's fine. That's free speech and the right to protest. I support both, and that means accepting the inconvenience even when it's utterly misguided.

[mamselle]

Either here or on the old forum (probably the latter) I described one of several French train station demonstrations...I think I was in Gare de Lyons...

You know how high and resonant those ceilings are?

Try being an information station worker stuck in a train station for six hours with demonstrators pounding a very loud kettle drum over and over and over.

When they stop pounding, they start shouting....then they pound, then they shout.....all day.

All because (in that case), I think there was a bill up for a vote to make the mandatory retirement age six months' later than its previous terms...

Which was considered heinous enough to submit the entire public (most of whom do use the trains) to such torture.

M.

[Hegemony]

In regard to the lifting of restrictions in Denmark, I have a family member in Denmark right now. He says one reason they can lift the restrictions are that so many people are voluntarily cautious. Everyone is wearing masks in public. 81% of the population has at least two doses of the vaccine.

He recently left our rural midwestern town (vaccination rate 51%), where we are the only people for miles who wear masks in any situation. Even at the hospital they were wearing them under their noses. (The National Guard was brought in to help run the hospital because it is so overwhelmed, so it's not as if the hospital hasn't seen the price of taking few precautions.) Around here there are crowded supermarkets full of unmasked people, restaurants bursting at the seams, etc. Family members says that Denmark with no rules is still a lot safer than the American Midwest with no rules.

Incidentally, my Midwestern state is about the same population as Denmark. The total COVID death rate to date here is ~25,000. In Denmark it is 3828.

[kaysixteen]

Since Canada is not exactly as fond of 'freedom of speech' as the US is, what exactly is historic Canadian legal practice wrt protests like this one?   I do not ever recall hearing, here South of the border, of another such protest up there?

[jimbogumbo]

I haven't had COVID yet. I've had three vaccinations. And everyone on my vicinity is always wearing a mask. Still I've been sick with upper respiratory infection three times since September. But I'll continue doing what is asked/required. The cost is minimal.

Oh yeah, the cartoon. Funny! Next time someone complains that they're tired of wearing the mask, I'll remind them that they've never been sent to a gas chamber. Great conversation.

It's obviously not poking at people simply saying they are tired of masks.

Have you not heard people comparing mask mandates to people in Nazi Germany being forced to wear gold stars that identified them as Jews?

Very seldom. What I hear much more than that is someone wanting to discuss the pros and cons of rules that designed in hopes of eradicating COVID. This drives certain others crazy, because they think that there is one acceptable way to discuss the situation and any other way is announcing that you are never going to be one of the enlightened, beautiful people, and probably hope black people will soon be going away.
I will admit that anytime I see a link to the Washington Post I expect to read something I hate. That may be an extreme reaction.
I'm reading this now; thought you might like to know about it      https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/denmark-covid-restrictions/621482/

The Nazi reference that ant-vaxxers and anti-maskers make is extremely common. How you can claim not to have heard it is only if you take the word "heard" completely literally.