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You will find out how easily you can wire money to someone in the EU if you decide to hold political opinions that are not in line with the ruling elite. The t

You will find out how easily you can wire money to someone in the EU if you decide to hold political opinions that are not in line with the ruling elite. The truckers in Canada for sure found out how "free" the digits of their bank accounts were. Russian oligarchs for sure found it out in 2022.

ryandrake 2y ago
The truckers did had their bank accounts frozen due to their actions, not due to their political opinions.
- adamiscool8 2y ago
  Their actions were Charter-protected freedom of expression and the freeze was a Charter-breaching unreasonable seizure. >Justice Mosley ruled that “the decision to issue the Proclamation does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness – justification, transparency and intelligibility – and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration” [0] [0] https://www.aclrc.com/blog/2024/2/1/federal-court-rules-that-the-governments-invocation-of-the-emergencies-act-on-february-14-2022-was-unreasonable-and-not-justified https://www.aclrc.com/blog/2024/2/1/federal-court-rules-that...
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    I wasn't commenting on the legality of the asset freeze. I was responding to OP's attributing it to "if you decide to hold political opinions that are not in line with the ruling elite." As far as I'm aware, they did not survey the population and then take action against people with the wrong opinions.
    - adamiscool8 2y ago
      A distinction without a difference. The ruling elite doesn't have to survey the population. They sandbagged the population into alignment with their own opinions, then strong-armed holdouts and specifically targeted them along every possible vector (social, legal, economic, etc.) for their adherence to wrong beliefs. I shudder at how much worse this could get in a fully cashless society.
      - ryandrake 2y ago
        So, everyone in the population of Canada who disagreed with the ruling elite's opinions was personally "strong-armed" and "targeted"? Or only a subset of them? If it was just a subset, could there have been anything that distinguished much of that subset apart from the rest of the people who weren't "targeted?" Maybe some event they took part in or helped?
        adamiscool8 2y ago
        Yes, everyone in all of Canada who disagreed with the ruling elite's opinions at the time saw themselves strong-armed and targeted by both legislation and vitriol from public officials. The greater the perceived threat to destabilizing belief in the elite opinion from any subset, the more severe the measures taken - as we saw, including unreasonable wartime actions to force compliance.
        ryandrake 2y ago
        Well, since I don't live in Canada, I'm just going to have to hit the eject button and trust you that every single person in the country holding a particular political belief, likely tens of millions, were personally and directly targeted by the government with enforcement action, as ridiculous as that sounds.
        adamiscool8 2y ago
        In any country people are personally and directly affected by subjugation measures directed at their ingroup, I don't think that's particularly controversial.
singpolyma3 2y ago
Blocking terrorist financing is nothing new.
- logicchains 2y ago
  If you give the government the power to block financing to anyone they declare a terrorist then they'll just declare anyone who opposes them to be terrorists.
  - brainwad 2y ago
    Empirical evidence suggests otherwise, at least in liberal democracies.
    - eimrine 2y ago
      survirorship bias
    - elevatedastalt 2y ago
      Empirical evidence can suggest anything you want it to if you choose to ignore empirical evidence that's inconvenient to you. The Canadian trucker protesters were not "terrorists" by any stretch of imagination, but sure let's assume otherwise because it helps us sleep better at night, right?
      - singpolyma3 2y ago
        Pretty sure building a bomb on Parliament Hill makes you a terrorist group. Nevermind all the other dangerous stuff that was going on.
surgical_fire 2y ago
> if you decide to hold political opinions that are not in line with the ruling elite. Then don't. It's much easier to adhere to the status quo.
- adamiscool8 2y ago
  This is the milquetoast approach of most Canadians - a major factor in why Canada, in it's current state, is rather cooked.

ryandrake 2y ago

The truckers did had their bank accounts frozen due to their actions, not due to their political opinions.

adamiscool8 2y ago
Their actions were Charter-protected freedom of expression and the freeze was a Charter-breaching unreasonable seizure. >Justice Mosley ruled that “the decision to issue the Proclamation does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness – justification, transparency and intelligibility – and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration” [0] [0] https://www.aclrc.com/blog/2024/2/1/federal-court-rules-that-the-governments-invocation-of-the-emergencies-act-on-february-14-2022-was-unreasonable-and-not-justified https://www.aclrc.com/blog/2024/2/1/federal-court-rules-that...
- ryandrake 2y ago
  I wasn't commenting on the legality of the asset freeze. I was responding to OP's attributing it to "if you decide to hold political opinions that are not in line with the ruling elite." As far as I'm aware, they did not survey the population and then take action against people with the wrong opinions.
  - adamiscool8 2y ago
    A distinction without a difference. The ruling elite doesn't have to survey the population. They sandbagged the population into alignment with their own opinions, then strong-armed holdouts and specifically targeted them along every possible vector (social, legal, economic, etc.) for their adherence to wrong beliefs. I shudder at how much worse this could get in a fully cashless society.
    - ryandrake 2y ago
      So, everyone in the population of Canada who disagreed with the ruling elite's opinions was personally "strong-armed" and "targeted"? Or only a subset of them? If it was just a subset, could there have been anything that distinguished much of that subset apart from the rest of the people who weren't "targeted?" Maybe some event they took part in or helped?
      - adamiscool8 2y ago
        Yes, everyone in all of Canada who disagreed with the ruling elite's opinions at the time saw themselves strong-armed and targeted by both legislation and vitriol from public officials. The greater the perceived threat to destabilizing belief in the elite opinion from any subset, the more severe the measures taken - as we saw, including unreasonable wartime actions to force compliance.
        ryandrake 2y ago
        Well, since I don't live in Canada, I'm just going to have to hit the eject button and trust you that every single person in the country holding a particular political belief, likely tens of millions, were personally and directly targeted by the government with enforcement action, as ridiculous as that sounds.
        adamiscool8 2y ago
        In any country people are personally and directly affected by subjugation measures directed at their ingroup, I don't think that's particularly controversial.

singpolyma3 2y ago

Blocking terrorist financing is nothing new.

logicchains 2y ago
If you give the government the power to block financing to anyone they declare a terrorist then they'll just declare anyone who opposes them to be terrorists.
- brainwad 2y ago
  Empirical evidence suggests otherwise, at least in liberal democracies.
  - eimrine 2y ago
    survirorship bias
  - elevatedastalt 2y ago
    Empirical evidence can suggest anything you want it to if you choose to ignore empirical evidence that's inconvenient to you. The Canadian trucker protesters were not "terrorists" by any stretch of imagination, but sure let's assume otherwise because it helps us sleep better at night, right?
    - singpolyma3 2y ago
      Pretty sure building a bomb on Parliament Hill makes you a terrorist group. Nevermind all the other dangerous stuff that was going on.

surgical_fire 2y ago

> if you decide to hold political opinions that are not in line with the ruling elite. Then don't. It's much easier to adhere to the status quo.

adamiscool8 2y ago
This is the milquetoast approach of most Canadians - a major factor in why Canada, in it's current state, is rather cooked.