Excellent beginning paragraphs! Couldn't have said it better. Where I got bogged down was:

"Until now the masses of concerned and often angry citizens have taken to the streets to protest.."

I don't think that has happened. I think if it had, we would have had the change we wanted by now. Indeed, the state has now made protest illegal, so that we can't use that method.

I've done a lot of years of activism, including quite a lot of street activism, some of which would be lumped under the "protest" heading. I found that almost nobody protests here in Canada (or most of the USA).

We had such tiny numbers, but managed to do a lot! We always wished a few more people would feel the spark like we did, and join us, because all it took was a handful of us and we could put on incredible performances, protests, festivals, and so on. We reached a lot of people with our message of Liberty, and in specific, I did a lot of cannabis activism leading up to and around 2018's "legalization". We knew it was a corporate takeover! But the public didn't. We tried our best to reach them, every weekend (and often weekdays), outside the Vancouver public library, outside the art gallery, right on Robson street, at the beach in summertime, at the park, and so on. I was part of the largest cannabis activism scene in Canada, and one of the largest in the world, a thriving culture of activism. And yet, we just didn't have the numbers. The public wasn't fully able to be reached in time, although we made good headway! When they saw us turning the tide, and the public accepting our unlicensed farmers market as part of the city, the mayor gave the word and the cops beat the shit out of a bunch of us, including my good friend and my wife @MediKatie. Lots of us went to jail (for non-crimes, but couldn't defend ourselves because we're all dirt poor having given everything we had to the cause). Lots got hurt. Lots had all their signs, tools, equipment, and inventory stolen by the cops. Never legally. They just come and smash, yelling hateful things about how we need to get jobs and stop wasting taxpayer resources. The more people we had, the less likely the cops would attack. We just needed a few more people, it seemed. As we slowly grew, their attempts to disband us did as well. I was part of a million-dollar surveillance program called Project Apprentice, in which they infiltrated our ranks, caused drama, did false flag events, leaked info to the press, and so on. I talked about it in my "Legalization is a Lie" documentary.

We were always sad to see 40 or 50 hardcore activists turn up for a "big" cannabis event, and then some media-sponsored anti-Trump rally would go past, with literally 10,000 people (most of them at their very first "protest"). Nobody cared about the real issues that shaped their lives. They only care when they're told to. Same with the entire BLM movement, it's all just media-created. That's not real protest or real activism. (Not to mention, it's incredibly racist, but that's another issue.)

No, we in the West have not had real protest for decades.

It's a bit like saying "free market capitalism doesn't work.... case in point, the USA today!" But of course we don't have free market capitalism (did we ever?) in 2021, so the logic breaks down.

You mentioned Yellow Vests, but I didn't see any of that around here. I tried, but there was no desire for it. In places where they got going, they were met with violence, and agent provocateurs (cops pretending to be protesters getting violent in order to justify violence). But that doesn't negate the entire concept of protest. I feel VERY strongly that protest is one of our only possible ways forward. There's a reason it has been outlawed, and it's not to slow the spread of Sars2! It's to block that potential avenue of salvation.

Protest isn't necessarily about being angry. Well, something pushes people to try and change their world, of course. So yes, protest happens for a reason. But out of hundreds of protests I attended, I myself was angry at them maybe a handful of times, at most. Usually, there's a happy, jubilant, empowered feeling at the protests I go to. But "protest" covers a lot of things! Some are vocal and some are silent. Sometimes there's civil disobedience (peaceful public breaking of unjust laws) and sometimes not. The few times I was angry while at a protest, that was only because the peaceful event was attacked by violent cops under orders from the city, or Harper/Trudeau (prime minister), or just because they didn't like cannabis users. We were rightfully angry to be harmed for no reason, but we didn't stay angry! Once they stopped, we returned to peacefully educating the public. Pretty much the only violent protests I've heard about were ones fueled by the state and media.

I'm going to upload a clip tonight, check it out if you have 3 minutes. Just a glimpse at a moment I ran across while looking at video files the other day. :)

You're right that protest hasn't thus far resulted in all our goals being realized, but (IMO) not right that it hasn't led to massive change. We would be toast by now if all those protest actions hadn't been done. It's one of the only things holding back the state. They fear protest in a huge way, and rightfully so. Protest has shaped almost everything about today's political, social, and cultural landscape.

We're told "protest doesn't work", but that's to keep us from doing it. We mustn't perpetuate that untruth!

Definitely 100% agree on starving the beast via withholding taxes and other forms of support.

Your title made me think you were going somewhere else with this, but that's okay, it gave me a good idea for a post! :D

I thought you were going to say it's not enough to starve the beast, we also must feed the light... In other words, we have to withdraw support from things we don't want to empower, but we also have to provide support for things we DO want to empower. Can't just shrink from evil, we also have to strive for goodness. Something like that.

Thank you for mentioning the power of getting violence out of our diets and lives!

Go vegan, and nobody gets hurt!! :p

"a handful of hens are fairly cheap and easy to maintain, and many cities are even now beginning to allow residents to raise laying hens (most prohibit roosters, still, due to the noise)"

That brings up a question. What happens to all the baby roosters? As far as I know, we don't yet have a way to make all embryos female, so half of all birds are born male. Normally, they're ground up and composted, or fed to the females. As far as I know, on small operations that supply "laying hens" for backyard coops, it's the same story. Things could very well be changing, but last I checked (about a year ago), just under 50% of all chickens are killed immediately upon taking their first breath of air. I imagine you were careful to get laying hens in a way that didn't result in any males being killed, but there are millions of people doing backyard coops now, and they probably didn't all ensure that.

I think those birds have been genetically modified in a huge way. They're not much like any wild bird anymore. They can't survive without us feeding them, breeding them, everything. They're a dead end and completely relying on humans (scary thought). I also wonder what happens to most of them once they don't lay as many eggs anymore, but still have years left of life. Do they "get" to be somebody's pet? Or is there a financial decision made to, as my parents say, "send her to her forever home"? I guess each bird's fate is different. I'm just asking in a broad sense.

Harm reduction is obviously a good thing. Anyone who reduces the amount of harm they do to others should be commended for it. Thank you everybody who is trying to do as little harm as they can, while still themselves getting what they need to thrive!

Sorry my response was all over the place. Good topics :)