There's an upside to this. It can be used politically as an argument against backdoors for "lawful access"[1] to encrypted data.
replies(6):
https://apnews.com/article/congress-data-breach-hack-identit...
It's to maintain the status quo no matter how corrupt or abhorrent it is. The word enforcement says it all.
The way the system is supposed to work is that engaged citizenry actively overhaul unjust laws and apparatuses, and the police then enforce those new laws.
Unfortunately we have abysmally low civic engagement in most of the western world which leads to the mess we are currently in.
I like to make fun of the French as much as anyone else but I really respect and admire the French people's propensity for protest and to stand up for what they believe. That's advanced citizenship in action.
It's also completely ineffective, because the government can just ignore them when they get bored, and they don't actually get voted out or anything.
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Democratic systems of government are messy, and that's okay. It's not for you or me to decide what's a "good" thing to protest.
It's not part of the process, nobody has to listen to you.
If you want a rep to know your opinion on something you can call them.
The point of a protest is for when they're not listening to you, which is why they feature more in not-officially-democratic politics like dictatorships. But for that to work, it has to be so large they can't ignore you. (Otherwise, if they're small and still work through being annoying it's minority rule, which isn't democratic. But like I said that doesn't happen because you can just ignore them.)
All politics depends on popular support because your subjects can either leave the country or have you killed if they really don't like you. Democratic politics means there's official channels for exercising this by voting instead of having to do this.
Actually, I think there is one - government media. CBC/BBC/etc should cover these instead of covering them up. If they represented the citizens voices honestly, they might not feel they have to blockade parliament to get their point across.
> Democratic politics means there's official channels for exercising this by voting instead of having to do this.
That breaks down a bit when your media only presents one side of certain issues.
There's no requirement for corporate media to be honest, but for state media paid for by the citizens that's basically its only purpose.
> If you want a rep to know your opinion on something you can call them.
You can contact them, but if you can't do it in public others won't know and they can basically kill issues by just ignoring them.
We need to steelman the views of our countrymen, not mock them.
Think of what they'd say about your side if the tables were turned.