This crossed my newsfeed this morning.
Apparently Egypt seeks to keep protests from happening in their own country by keeping regular people from buying yellow vests. Ummm, because no protests will happen WITHOUT yellow vests? Because would-be protestors cannot ever get their hands on any yellow vests that already exist? Or find back channels to buy them?
Is the government of Egypt attempting to control human behavior by controlling access to a tool that is sometimes used by people who exhibit unwanted behavior?
Hmmm, does that sound familiar somehow??
When oh when will people realize that you cannot control human behavior by controlling an object? Especially when the object is used widely by people throughout the population for other legitimate pursuits.
I wonder if Egypt will now restrict internet shopping in order to keep people from buying yellow vests online. Will they require that trash collectors and highway workers register their yellow vests so that the government can keep track of them? I wonder if safety workers will now have to go through mandatory training and be licensed by the state to prove that they can wear their yellow vests responsibly? (And presumably not organize protests).
Will they eventually outlaw the color Hi-Viz Yellow completely? Because if protestors can’t get vests, maybe they can get jackets instead. Or hats. Or bandanas. The horror.
People in Egypt would never dream of protesting WITHOUT yellow vests, would they? And yellow vest protests are the ONLY kind of protests that ever happen, right?
When power is about control (and it almost always is), anything that is a threat to power MUST be controlled. Even a piece of clothing. Or a color. Unless the people have the means to limit that control.
If that isn’t an object lesson in the importance of the Second Amendment, I don’t know what is.
