Comment by pjkundert | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pjkundert | Hacker News Reader

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> My understanding is that those citizens were using their money to support people who were intentionally blocking one of the main functions of a national government (regulating international trade).

Yes, peacefully. A large fraction of the hundreds of thousands who supported these truckers have, themselves, been blocked from employment, international travel, etc., because they refused an experimental medical treatment. Which, apparently, they felt strongly about. Strongly enough to demonstrate that blocking civilians from trade and employment is ... distressing.

Are you proposing that only ineffective peaceful blockages should be allowed? Or, that only those whose politics and beliefs you agree with should be allowed to resist (even violently and destructively -- so long as you agree with them)?

As for "it is not your right" as a citizen to access world markets. A government that prevents its citizenry from surviving by blocking access to viable money and trade should rightfully expect to be resisted -- to whatever level of intensity is required to protect its innocent citizenry. Wouldn't you agree?

> peacefully

Blocking a bridge isn't violent. But it isn't peaceful protest either.

Overseeing international trade routes is one of a government's core responsibilities. Deploying its monopoly on violence is justified. Peaceful protest (including striking) doesn't shut down critical infrastructure.

If a government lets random hooligans repeatedly shut down large sections of the economy, it's an ineffective government. In the long run, ineffective governments get replaced by more effective (read: less democratic) ones. All that said, I do think the Canadian government went a bit far. Peacefully dispersing the protests would have been more than enough.

And yet people on HN are saying Russians should go into Moscow and do what it takes to shutdown the government. Hooligans when its not convenient, responsible citizens when it is.

> people on HN are saying Russians should go into Moscow and do what it takes to shutdown the government

To overthrow the state. That is obviously not peaceful protest. It’s insurrection.

Salis populi suprema lex. The duty on a government to protect public health overrides all else, and citizens who interfere with the discharge of that duty can well expect to be dealt with harshly.

> because they refused an experimental medical treatment

At what point is this going to stop being a talking point? Billions of doses, well over a year of data, at what point will people be satisfied? Every day this seems less and less valid, and it didn't seem terribly valid when vaccines initially started rolling out.

> well over a year of data

Probably when we actually know the long-term effects instead of just making assumptions? Maybe we'll even get to see the science someday [0], exciting!

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/health/covid-cdc-data.htm...

> Yes, peacefully. A large fraction of the hundreds of thousands who supported these truckers have, themselves, been blocked from employment, international travel, etc., because they refused an experimental medical treatment.

Except Cov19 Vaccines are in fact not an experimental medical treatment. That aside though, whether someone peacefully blocks the government from doing its job or not doesn't really matter. If they block the government from doing it's job then it is only fair for the government to try and remove that blockade.

If someone was blocking ambulances from going to emergencies then i wouldn't care if they do it peacefully or not.

They don't prevent infection, so signing up for ongoing jabs two or more times per year is not the pre-2020 understanding of an effective vaccine.

In fact, CDC says natural infection and recovery is good protection.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7104e1.htm 'By early October, persons who survived a previous infection had lower case rates than persons who were vaccinated alone.'

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