Riots against lockdown in Europe

[Downriver]

The scenes of young people burning down a COVID testing facility in the Netherlands and burning the Danish PM at a stake in protest against lockdown have really shaken me. Would it happen here? Who is organising this? Fascists? Sometimes I read comments against lockdown on here and I think such a mood is being primed.

"constantly label these issues as fascist" that should be.

destroying things and breathing all over each other because you don't like a natural phenomenon such as a pandemic is beyond entitled. How does wrecking things help? These people need to be sprayed with water cannon and left in an enclosure for the quarantine period. Meanwhile someone should wreck their property and see how they like it.

Yes, the situation is terrible. No-one is happy. Throwing a destructive tantrum helps how, exactly?

I'm assuming the 15K also includes the cost of accommodation. I saw a student on the news saying her uni is currently charging her £150/week for accomodation that she is barred from entering

Yes, my daughter is paying £125 a week for her room, in halls, that she is currently banned from returning to

Uni had said they would only take 50% for those who haven’t returned, but took the full amount when they processed the payments a couple of weeks ago and haven’t given any instructions on how/when students will be refunded

fur I agree.Compliance will stop when the elderly vaccinated start booking cruises. It is over then.

Always amazes me that people are either supportive or critical of anything that happens within the EU without deeper knowledge of the detail, the differences, the governance.
Not fascists - it's a cross political issue so not aligned to any political movement. You don't have to be left or right to disagree with the approach.

I wouldn't be out there rioting because it's frankly stupid - you either want the government to make decisions in time of crisis or you are pro-anarchy.

"you either want the government to make decisions in time of crisis or you are pro-anarchy."

Where do these bonkers "this or that" statements come from? Where did nuance and compromise go?

@truthisalie

I'm surprised there isn't more of this and that people are so compliant to be honest

It's because they have been microchipped brainwashed.

No, they haven't been microchipped, that's ridiculous.

Only those who have had the vaccine have been microchipped.

Some people really don’t like the elderly do they

@murbblurb

destroying things and breathing all over each other because you don't like a natural phenomenon such as a pandemic is beyond entitled. How does wrecking things help? These people need to be sprayed with water cannon and left in an enclosure for the quarantine period. Meanwhile someone should wreck their property and see how they like it.

Yes, the situation is terrible. No-one is happy. Throwing a destructive tantrum helps how, exactly?

vile "ideas" like this help how?

were going to lock you up, and now were going to treat you even worse for having a totally natural reaction to it!

i hear North Korea is nice this time of year, sounds like you might like it.

@Belladonna12

£15k per year for what is effectively an Open University remote course costing just a fraction of that.

The course fees are a maximum of 9K a year. Open University remote course is not a fraction of that nowadays.

Uni accom is typically £6k per year.

@ineedaholidaynow

Some people really don’t like the elderly do they

Some people really don't like young people and children do they?

I think riots were bound to happen after a year. I expect as more occur across Europe similar may happen in the big cities here. People have had enough (not encouraging riots but surely behavioural scientists would have predicted these to an extent).

I find it quite reassuring to see in an odd way often we in the UK are painted as being the worst for following the rules/abiding by Guidance. It seems to be happening everywhere!

It's pretty simple as to why we're not rioting. We've felt the sting of this new variant. Not all of us, but many of us are now feeling it. I didn't know a soul with covid during the last lockdown. DH, being a GP, brought the reality of it home because of his frontline work. But Covid, until this lockdown, had been less visible in my neck of the woods. We've taken covid incredibly seriously from the get go. But certainly, this current wave, and the reality that this new strain has brought with it, has brought the virus into sharper focus. What it does and the damage it can wreak is more real to us here in Britain than perhaps it is to the Danes and the Dutch, who have yet to experience the level of crises we've been subjected to this winter. That is not to say they have been immune to its crisis effect. But certainly, they have not faced what we have been dealing with, with regards to this latest strain.

I suspect we’ve got until Easter or so before it kicks off here. I can see compliance reducing day by day in my naice market town. Once the weather turns and the pubs are still shut it’ll kick off.

There are riots across Europe at the moment. We are almost unusual in not having any. I don't condone riots but I'm amazed we're so compliant, tbh.

And the term 'fascist' is massively over-used, usually to mean anyone with views the other person disagrees with. Extreme right and extreme left are not so far apart.

I can see people’s frustrations but I don’t know what they’re going to achieve to be honest!

@HmmSureJan

Fascist has just become this catch all racist term to use to label any group of white people who do something you don't agree with politically. It's messed up because real fascism is evil and it dilutes the meaning.

This.

Just like labelling anything you don't like as "The Left"...

Parts of Europe, South America, and the US are currently having the virus far worse than many countries in Asia and the African Continent on the whole.

@Downriver

UK tends to have riots in the Summer, historically. But it is the fact it is young people that interests me. It is not those under massive stress of wfh and homeschooling etc. I just want to know the demographic, the motives, whether the Q people have got into their heads.

Well yes. It is younger people whose lives will be impacted most by restrictions; younger people tend to be the ones out and about socialising, are more highly represented in hospitality industries where they have lost jobs; younger people less likely to have comfortable homes with gardens (or if they are living in them it's because they are stuck in their childhood bedroom ) and very importantly younger people for whom Covid is likely to be a mild illness .

Not in any way defending . I am horrified by both riots and reading of the large scale parties / raves etc
But I can certainly understand why younger people would be most fed up with the impact of lockdown.

@furonthecoat

But it is the fact it is young people that interests me. It is not those under massive stress of wfh and homeschooling etc. I just want to know the demographic, the motives, whether the Q people have got into their heads.

OP your narrative of this is exactly why young people are rioting. You think we're not under stress and should just put up and shut up and that you have it the hardest of all

Young people are being locked away for what we're always told is 'the best years of our lives'
We're the majority of people employed in industries that have been massively affected and shut down by COVID (bars
We've been largely ignored by the government except when they want to vilify and blame us
Uni students are paying the same amount for massively reduced teaching, restricted access to resources and no 'uni experience' (clubs, societies, ect) that we were promised
Students are paying massive amounts of rent for accomodation they can't use with not even a mention of rebates by the government
Young people are aware that we're the ones who are going to pay for this in the long run whilst simultaneously seeing our futures decimated as there are no jobs
We're being locked away to protect an NHS that realistically many of us think won't be there by the time we'll really need its services
We're staying home to (mostly) protect the elderly whom are comfortable in their big houses with their pensions whilst we have no hopes of ever getting on the housing ladder and will never realistically get a pension.

Young people feel like we're giving up tons of things for other people. And then when we dare complain about what we've had to give up were told by people like you that we have it so easy with not having to home school and to put up and shut up - essentially diminishing our struggles.

We've all been asked to sacrifice during this time. But not everyone's sacrifices are as great as others. And for many the sacrifices is not proportional to the gain.

Spot on.

You're not getting these years back (none of us are).
Lots of us are giving up good quality years of life (crucial for development in children's case) to try and extend the poorest quality years of life in others.

is it that hard to understand people have had enough and don’t consider the two years (because it will be 2years) of sacrifices to be warranted

Not hard at all. But how will rioting help? Looting? Criminal damage? If you've lost your job or your buisness has been decimated, how will getting a criminal record help?

More to the point, how will lots of people gathering together, yelling, running, getting out of breath and breathing heavily, help the current situation?

The NHS cannot cope. Schools were (sor of) closed because of the way children mixing took the virus home to adults. Prior to that schoos were closing because staff were off sick. Young people have had a rough time but so has the rest of us.

Rioting won't change the numbers of people ill. It won't open schools. It will likely add to the problem of buisness closure and job losses. It will most certainly put additional pressure on the NHS. I don't understand why people don't get that the fastest way out of this mess is to put up with it and lower the transmission rates.

@TrustTheGeneGenie

Oh, give over. Anyone who thinks rioting is self-destructive (it is) belongs in North Korea? Talk about utter overreaction.

@feelingquitehopeful

As the infection rate drops as it is already doing, and the hospital admission rate continues to decline

But if that were to happen lockdown would be eased. What makes you believe otherwise?

I like my DS and I like my DM. We are all suffering in this pandemic, but that is what happens in pandemics. My DS wouldn’t want his grandmother to be left to die so he can do his GCSEs. He certainly wouldn’t be rioting for that. And my DM doesn’t have a huge house, large pension and won’t be signing up for a cruise.
She has had her life hugely impacted by lockdown, but that doesn’t seem to matter to some people on here as supposedly she has had her life so should sacrifice it, literally, for others. What age should that sacrifice start? Should I buy her a job lot of tablets so she can kill herself as her life is ruining her grandson’s life?

Great summary by @furonthecoat.

It’s not covid denying to understand that young people are being utterly screwed over (both their present and their future) to protect old people and a health service which they predominantly don’t use. After a year of this I don’t blame them one bit for starting to rebel.