Are the people protesting in London mad?

[JKD1982]

I agree that what happened in the USA is appalling but why would anyone risk their own health and go against all the social distancing rules to protest in London? It won’t make a difference to what’s happened and could cause another crisis in London hospitals because people catch COVID.

AIBU thinking they are mad and there is a better way (from a laptop?) to express anger

[Tigersneeze]

incorrect @Porcupineinwaiting systemic racism is killing more people than covid at it's highest point.

systemic racism kills across all areas of life for example, it includes medical racism, amongst many other areas.
just one example on giving birth:

African American mothers are dying at three to four times the rate of non-Hispanic white mothers, and infants born to African American mothers are dying at twice the rate as infants born to non-Hispanic white mothers.
source:

www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/reports/2018/02/01/445576/exploring-african-americans-high-maternal-infant-death-rates/

the above example of disadvantage also stretches across wealth, income, criminal justice employment, housing, education, healthcare, political power and so on - calculate all the premature death caused by racism together, of course the numbers are higher than covid death.

[Knucklehead101]

Oh for fucks sake. Let's all just sit and tremble in our homes with our masks on. Please tell me mumsnet is not representative of the general population. I really really despair of the human race. In answer to your question - yes you are being unfathomably unreasonable.

[Porcupineinwaiting]

@Knucklehead me too. Better a couple of months cowering at home with a mask on than a couple of months choking on your own lung fluid - or eternity in the grave.

[SpnBaby1967]

Imagine how bad it must be that during a global pandemic when your demographic is most at risk from the virus, that you make the decision to still go & protest despite the risks......instead of staying home behind your laptop tweeting.

[Porcupineinwaiting]

A lot of the London protesters are young and white. They risk contracting a virus that poses little danger to them individually but that does endanger many of the people whose rights they are protesting for, starting w the NHS staff that they'll no doubt turn to for help when they get ill. You'll forgive me if I'm not sat here in awe and wonder at their great sacrifice.

[user1477391263]

Imagine how bad it must be that during a global pandemic when your demographic is most at risk from the virus, that you make the decision to still go & protest despite the risks......instead of staying home behind your laptop tweeting.

Oh give me a break. The problem is that they are potentially exposing OTHERS to risk.

By the way, the number of people (all races) killed by police officers in the UK over the last 10 years, averages a little over two per year (and no word on how many of those were armed. If we restricted it to "unarmed" people, it would almost certainly be even lower).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_by_country

[user1477391263]

I'll just C&P something I wrote in another post:



I am seeing a lot of "the virus is only spread by people I disagree with."

I've seen a lot of Trump types on Twitter who are now moaning about "looters spreading the virus" yet were very quiet about the spreading that went on a week or two back, when largely conservative protesters were doing their idiotic and selfish anti-lockdown protests (and not even wearing masks!)

I've also got quite a lot of very nice left-wing people on my FB who have spent a lot of time in the past few months shouting self-righteously at people for doing things like spending socially-distanced time outside, letting their children ride bikes or play bubbles in the park.... yet are now rushing to explain to us all that "when we have a second spike of the virus in a few weeks, don't blame it on the protesters!!" Or just saying nothing whatsoever. They also apparently believe that masks are magic and completely substitute for any kind of social distancing.

Because apparently viruses are these little teeny-weeny people with thoughts and feelings, who carefully refrain from spreading themselves when a crowd of people are gathered for a political purposes that the poster approves of.

It's all so blatantly hypocritical and ridiculous. On both sides.

The long-term consequence is that it will be really hard to ask people to engage in any sort of social distancing ever again. Because it's been politicized.

People who were skeptical of lockdown etc. anyway, are already starting to make comments along the lines of "So, you people who have spent the past couple of months scolding people for going out, you never REALLY believed in this, did you? It's so obvious now that it was just an excuse for virtue signaling and was all about having a socially-sanctioned excuse for shouting at people and acting superior to them."

And it's unfair, because social distancing really IS important. But it won't be taken seriously again after this.

In addition, the message has been sent out that "as long as you have a political excuse for not-social-distancing that sounds convincing enough and ticks a few 'identity-politics boxes,' then it will be excused and the police won't stop you and social media won't shame you." And a lot of people are going to start really pushing the enveloped and more and more people will quickly start to find reasons why they, too, need to break the guidelines.

"If people are allowed to break the guidelines to protest, well, why can't I break the guidelines to engage in work? I need the money because I'm not well off, that's social justice too!" "Going to church is important to me too, I think I should be able to bend the rules as well."

Let's hope the scientists are right and that the virus is getting less lethal, because we now have a lot fewer tools available for dealing with any kind of second wave.