Nibbles Ninja

Nibbles Ninja

Nibbles & bits from Alan Fahrner

Consistency

Posted on Author AlanPosted in Nibbles

This is one of my tweets from last night:

I think the final sentence is important. I always support the right to protest, even if I disagree wholeheartedly with your take. I do not support lawbreaking (with some exceptions: e.g. when laws themselves are clearly immoral).

So, during the summer of 2020 protests, I did not approve of the intentional, prolonged blocking of Interstates. I’m in line with Jazz Shaw (writing about a protest in New Zealand):

While I do not approve of blocking traffic as part of a protest, particularly when there is a risk of emergency response vehicles being isolated, there’s no question that the entire Freedom Convoy concept is rapidly turning into a movement and spreading around the world.

And, Freedom Convys are a movement that I support.

So, am I a hypocrite?

I think not, but maybe. Thoughts:

  1. I noted that I don’t approve everything they are doing. In the end, I have to decide if I support something overall. In this case, I do.
  2. New rules were established by the MSM, progressives/liberals, and governments in the summer of 2020. Heck, in Seattle they literally took over a section of the city, and the city treated it as a valid form of protest. Consistency (and morality) means you cannot approve a method of protest only based on the views of the protesters. So, I may disapprove of the tactic, but they should get the same “kids gloves” treatment the 2020 protesters got.
  3. The only prolific law-breaking the Freedom Convoy is doing is blocking traffic. That doesn’t mean it is okay, but…looking back at #2…you can’t say, “No way! It must stop!,” when you were explictly (or implicitly) approving protesters burning down buildings, looting businesses, beating and killing people, etc. during the protests riots of 2020.

Speaking of consistency, I have repeatedly said, since the beginning of the pandemic, that rights are for things are bad, not for when they are good. COVID-19 has been the excuse for totalitorian control, for why rights have to be “temporarily” given up, because it is such a huge emergency. It’s for our own good. To save grandma.

Although I do not discount the noble intentions of many involved, that’s not how rights work,  the path to hell is paved with good intentions, and…

Not to mention, it wasn’t all with good intentions.

Thanks you Canadian truckers!

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