• AngrilyEatingMuffins@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    The UK slipped into fascism pretty quickly, and without a long term charismatic leader, even. It was clearly just the will of the tories as opposed to something they happened upon.

    • Syldon@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      The famous page 48 of the Tory manifesto said they wanted to do this. People were jumping up and down at the 2019 election about this. No one believed they would go this far. Even when Johnson was passing laws similar to that Hitler grabbed before he went for his absolute power grab, people would deny it was happening. Laws that supressed freedoms that are a defence against fascism have been eroded for years now. Frogs on a slow boil, people think that no one would want to remove our freedoms, and yet here we are.

      • Big P@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        “What no one seemed to notice,” said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

        “This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter”

        They Thought They Were Free - Milton Mayer

        • Syldon@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          Frogs in a boiling pot. So long as a government moves slowly they can do almost anything. The problem the Tories had in the UK was they got greedy. Their greed was blatantly obvious and more so was felt by the many. It scares me that they could come back having learned the lesson from this.

        • Syldon@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          People argue against having a constitution to avoid the problems the US has. 2nd amendment right are a blight in the US as can be seen by the figures on gun violence. 1st amendment rights for freedom of speech allows divisive racial abuse and sundown towns. All of these would be considered abhorrent in the UK. And yet the US seems locked into them.

          My opinion is that the UK should have a constitution. But it should be reviewed regularly and all MPs should be compelled to vote. The problem with the US is amending the constitution is impossible when you have capitalism making a profit from it being there. The NRA has bought the US constitution for many years now. I would dearly love to see all donations to political parties banned in the UK. No one should be allowed to buy legislation.

          • AngrilyEatingMuffins@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Jesus y’all have been so propagandized that you think the right to defend yourself from government overreach is a bad thing. You should do some more research.

              • AngrilyEatingMuffins@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                You’re defending the fact that every right can be stripped away from you because I have rights that are difficult to strip. The second amendment is exactly why, while having more and deeper committed fascists, AND starting earlier, we are not as far along as y’all.

                • Syldon@feddit.uk
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                  1 year ago

                  I have obviously hit a nerve, but I still non the wiser as to why. It seems you want to defend the gun laws, I think. Well have at it. I don’t have a say on US laws, and wouldn’t dream of trying to have one. That doesn’t mean I cannot learn from them to form an opinion on our own laws.

  • nathris@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Protest laws generally revolve around the right to peacefully assemble. If the stated intention of your ‘protest’ is to block traffic and cause gridlock then that falls to meet the definition of ‘peaceful’, as it puts public safety at risk.

    One of the linked articles quotes the Essex police who mention that one of the people impacted was a pregnant woman in medical distress, unable to receive medical care due to the actions of these ‘protestors’. I would imagine there were dozens of similar incidents over the 37 hours they held the city hostage.