3 ms·

Honestly, I think "fast turning into a fascist state" is... a bit strong. Yes, the government is passing laws that reduce the threshold for protest to be stoppe

• marcus_holmes 3y ago
  I was quoting Craig Murray, kinda. I remember the Poll Tax riots, and how they affected the decision on that policy. Real, substantive, change to the government's thinking based on public protest. That couldn't happen today because of the change in laws - the protests would be stopped before they ever started, and wouldn't turn into riots (in part because police tactics have changed and they no longer try to turn protests into riots). I'm a huge optimist about the future. I believe the world is a better place, on average, than it used to be and getting better every year. But the trend to authoritarianism in the West, together with the increasing wealth gap, is worrying. Historically this produces violent revolutions - the rich get richer, and pass increasingly draconian laws to contain the anger of the rest of society, until the point where it cannot be contained and the rich get slaughtered in a revolution. I find it unbelievable that we're headed there, and yet cannot deny the evidence.