Coronavirus

[pauld]

FFS.

https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/mass-gatherings-in-protest-of-unlawful-lockdown-arranged-for-swindon/

A few things occur to me:
1) That Wiltshire 999 site is dreadful clickbait and always has been. How many people on here would have even heard of this supposed "mass gathering" protest were it not for them publicising it to stoke outrage?
2) This will be the yellow vest morons again. Their "mass protests" around Brexit etc gathered crowds that could be counted on the fingers of both hands (albeit, occasionally you had to bring your thumbs into play when they got a surge from out of area). These will get even less. It will be the bloke who put out the graphic and his mate. It can be dealt with by one copper ambling up and saying "move along, now, there's a good chap". That's assuming it's not a wind up in the first place. Really isn't worth getting worked up about (but see point 1 about clickbait)
3) None of that will stop the Adver sending a photographer to Coate and Wiltshire 999 sending the bloke who runs it with his phone to take photos of a few people out for exercise to try to claim it was a mass gathering to stoke further faux outrage and clickbaitiness.

[Peter Venkman]

That is true Paul but the problem is still there, these things ARE being arranged even if not attended heavily, its not just a Swindon thing its a national gathering apparently.

But yes if people had not shared this particular article then I doubt most people would have heard about it, and almost every single person that I know who has shared this are vehemently against it.

It is totally contrary to the actual sharers ethics. It is almost self-defeating prophecy.

[4D]

More an anarchist thing

[Peter Venkman]

Its like 1976/77 all over again.

[pauld]

More an anarchist thing

Nope, far right, same lot as bandwagoned on the yellow vests

[pauld]

That is true Paul but the problem is still there, these things ARE being arranged even if not attended heavily, its not just a Swindon thing its a national gathering apparently.

Yes I get that and it will undoubtedly cause problems in some places. But even the one in London a week or so ago had very few people there. There'll be two yellow vesters and a reluctant dog at Coate. If that.

But yes if people had not shared this particular article then I doubt most people would have heard about it, and almost every single person that I know who has shared this are vehemently against it.

It is totally contrary to the actual sharers ethics. It is almost self-defeating prophecy.

Yep, that's how clickbait propaganda works. It's a large part of how Katie Hopkins promoted herself to the prominence she now has, for example.

[theakston2k]

They’ve just seen the Germans doing it and they are the model we should all be following according to some.

In all seriousness there was thousands out protesting in Germany, here it will just be the usual suspects that protest about everything with a few anarchist idiots joining in to cause trouble.

[Richie Wellen-Dowd]

No point even acknowledging the twats, unless it actually goes ahead on a significant scale, which I doubt very much.

This on the other hand...

[4D]

Nope, far right, same lot as bandwagoned on the yellow vests

Where is that quoted?

[pauld]

Where is that quoted?

Not "quoted" but US and German protests have both been far right, our lot tend to copycat the US, driven by a lot of the same propaganda and sometimes funding networks too. All the "anti-lockdown" stuff in the media has been from the right, thundering articles in the Telegraph and Spectator about the nanny state taking away our freedoms etc

[pauld]

Whoever runs Doncaster Council's twitter feed should immediately take over the government's communications and media departments, this is brilliant:

https://twitter.com/MyDoncaster/status/1260510008565006336

[horlock07]

Good PMQ's again today, Johnson held to account by his own statements time and time again.

[pauld]

Good PMQ's again today, Johnson held to account by his own statements time and time again.

Did they ask him the difference between a virus and a vaccine? Or water supply and sewage treatment? Because he didn't seem to know the differences between either on Monday.

[RobertT]

Not "quoted" but US and German protests have both been far right, our lot tend to copycat the US, driven by a lot of the same propaganda and sometimes funding networks too. All the "anti-lockdown" stuff in the media has been from the right, thundering articles in the Telegraph and Spectator about the nanny state taking away our freedoms etc

The US ones have been stoked by the Militia groups dotted around the Country.  Essentially armed groups who detest the idea of any form of Government and regularly act on that - armed stand offs with the FBI over Federally owned Parks have been known to happen.

There has been a not insignificant amount of anti-lock down feeling though - in a Country of nearly 350m people you are going to get noticeable fringe elements.  Plenty of people still believe it's all a conspiracy or an over publicised type of hoax.  That's made worse by the scale of the Country, so in some States people are so spread out that land itself has already provided a decent wedge of social distancing, making it harder for the virus to take hold.  In those areas it's been meat production facilities where they have seen outbreaks, so people do have some legitimate reasons to wonder why full lockdowns were necessary everywhere.  That's the result of a Federal system though - nobody wanted to take control at the outset, so by the time it was a problem in Cities, the States began reacting at their level and didn't have the testing and tracing capacity to take normal steps to contain it in rural areas while locking down big cities.

[pauld]

The US ones have been stoked by the Militia groups dotted around the Country.

They've also been funded by many of the wealthy right-wing pressure groups that created Trump's "base" e.g. the funds run by Betsy Vos, the Koch brothers and the Mercers, who also fund Breitbart and Steve Bannon. Some very nasty "dark money" there