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@bob Also recommended: Don't go to a demonstration intending to provoke the authorities into gassing you.
It's illegal to cover your face at a protest in Canada, and you can be arrested for no other reason than refusing to remove a face cover when asked to by police, so it's also a bad idea to do so here in Canada.-
@maiyannah It's a shame it's not like that everywhere. An unmasked person is a protester, a masked one is a bandit.
dolus likes this. -
@nerthos I can understand the desire to protect ones self from bad regimes, but in a pinch, a wet tshirt or top can be used for protection against gas. Going around in a baclava or bandana IS going to result in you being signalled out as an agitator if a protest turns into violence, whether you started it, someone else did, or the police did.
It should always be about de-escalating, and what you communicate is part of that. -
@maiyannah More often than not though, that's done in places where it's not necessary in the least and done with the intent to cause rioting or damage to property and get away with it. And police should beat and arrest anyone like that when it's not in the least warranted. It's justified in say, Venezuela? but not in most of the western world.
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@maiyannah @nerthos I've always been of two minds about this because of the fact that protesting against genuinely bad regimes with your face out in the open can result in massive harm not only to yourself but your family as well. But at the same token, I've often seen people covering their faces to use their anonymity as an excuse to start mango, especially for people who aren't protesting something worth a damn.
I guess it's due to me both seeing Tiananmen and BLM. -
@nerthos There's a difference between having contingency plans, and making the continegency plan, the Plan A. If you go expecting a fight, you will most likely find one, because people will pick up on the many ways you non-verbally communicate this (your dress, as you mentioned, your posture, demeanor, and so on).
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@maiyannah As you pointed out, in case of needing it you can just use your shirt. Hell, a peed rag will block out some irritating gases.
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@gameragodzilla @nerthos Fistful of vinegar packets from McDonald's in a ziploc bag and wearing a tshirt = almost instant moderate protection from tear gas, with the added bonus of not looking like a hooligan.
There's ways to go about this kind of thing without looking like you're there to wreck the place. It just takes some thought and consideration.
And people who actually are going to protests without meaning to wreck the place. BLM is a good example of where they've seemed to had every intention of violence. -
@maiyannah BLM was a bunch of racists trying to spark up mass rioting, so yeah. They're the north american equivalent of the local quebracho group, a bunch of thugs expert in starting trouble for political gain.
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@gameragodzilla @nerthos Absolutely nothing can stop them from IDing you if they want to. They just have to shoot you dead and remove your clothing.
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@gameragodzilla China and the like are places where it's completely justified to try to go for as much protection and anonimity as possible, as the government WILL try to make you disappear if you speak up. It's just, as you said, completely different from the west.
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@nerthos Is, you mean, they still exist.
They lost 99.99% of their power when the media stopped focussing on them though, almost like that whole conflict and problem was something the media basically fed themselves to attempt to get views from the controversy. -
@maiyannah Well yeah, terrorists and racial extremists don't just disappear, they just stop being relevant.
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@nerthos Yeah, but that carryover does make me place a ton of value in being able to be anonymous even though it's more detrimental than good in the West. Habit and family history and batcave. lol
Though frankly I don't find much worth protesting in general in the West. Maybe I'm just an apathetic son of a mango -
@gameragodzilla Generally the things worth protesting about go ignored. Things like say, governments allowing hate crimes and the like to go on with impunity.
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@nerthos Well only politically correct hate crimes ever get prosecuted unless there's massive public outcry, like those black teens who kidnapped that white man and tortured him for 48 hours. Otherwise, you only hear people care about "hate crimes" like "I got trolled on Twitter" or "There's a badly drawn swastika some edgelord drew in the back alley."
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@gameragodzilla Exactly what I mean. People protest for stupid crap like your latter examples while ignoring the really harmful stuff. And what's the point of a government that won't provide law and justice to it's people?
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@nerthos @gameragodzilla A lot of them are lead by the media and celebrities to focus on causes the government doesn't mind them focussing on, and away from the stuff that they probably SHOULD protest.
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@gameragodzilla @nerthos @maiyannah face covering is used by the police in the USA to instigate violence while pretending to be "protesters"
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@moonman As such, strict orders to beat up and arrest anyone with face coverings would end this practice.
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