The passiveness of the people of UK – sad to see

34 comments

1. So OP, kick off the self reflection – why aren’t *you* protesting?

2. Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

   But the idea that government has just become corrupt is a bit silly.

3. India protest and they shit in the streets and have raving poverty. Wouldnt want to be them.

   The US protest because they have a race issue and a horrific identity based politics issue. Wouldnt want to be them.

   The french protest because they’re french and protest everything. Wouldnt want to be them.

   The UK turns out is quite nice to live in and a large proportion of people support the government. Back in the 80s there were some nasty riots.

4. >The government has become corrupt

   This is nothing new and has been going on for decades, which is part of the reason we just accept it as the norm.

5. I want things to change but don’t know how. I could make a sign and walk around Liverpool city centre shouting “down with this sort of thing”, but to get noticed and to get anything to change you have to be organised. And I simply Don’t know how to do that. And with a baby it would be hard finding the time as well.

6. “The UK is at its most critical juncture since the war…”

   Not sure about that. Suez Crisis? Energy crisis of the 70s? Miner’s strike? Financial crisis of 2008? Br exit? COVID?

   Sure, things aren’t perfect right now but as a rallying cry to take to the streets it’s a bit weak.

   Whilst I respect peoples right to protest, strike, self immolation and picket, I don’t think we’re quite at that stage yet.

   What you perceive as being impotent, meek, docile and passive could quite easily be people waiting for the chance to show their feelings at the ballot box.

7. Well… there *was* a protest. It was called ‘Brexit’.

   Look where that fucking got us.

8. I was going to write a strongly worded rebutal of your argument but I just can’t be bothered.

9. Indian protests – good for the short term, not ideal for long term policy

   France — not much has changed

   Usa – protests backfired in the medium term after short run euphoria.

   Your examples of effective protest are horrible

10. What’s the point in protesting about things that are happening globally (inflation, energy prices). People have always lost jobs, however unemployment is very low at the moment and there are plenty of jobs out there. Businesses come and go, that’s how commerce works, always has and always will.

    We can change the government in a couple of years time.

    So what is it you want people to protest about?

11. This is why we push for independence. All this corruption at Westminster and the support for it from Tory voters is just an absolute goldmine for us.

12. I didn’t vote for brexit I didn’t vote for the tories.

    If you complain about how things are right now and did vote for either of those things you’re part of the problem.

13. Only students and pensioners are free to protest. Once you have a family and are committed to rent / mortgage, car payments etc you have a lot to lose.
    Join the good law project and ram your MPs email every day if there’s nothing else you can manage.

14. Lived in Korea (now the UK), you can’t really compare asian cultures to the UK. I agree though, the British people are very submissive to their government. Does everyone remember all the empty grocery stores during the first 2 week lockdown. Literally everyone was hiding inside. Corruption in UK government=small shrug. In Korea the president was involved in a corruption scandal (kinda similar to Borris) and literally millions of people flooded Seoul’s city center and she eventually had to resign and stand trial. I think in some small way there is just a general lack of customer service/business discipline here.

    Also, Brits in general are very passive aggressive. I get this feedback a lot from our international business partners. Sometimes It can be viewed as really offensive. I also find they can’t take criticism or even just critical feedback. They act like you just smacked their mother in the face. Koreans will also be very blunt and upfront (in a caring and honest manner though). Even as I write this I’m certain it will be downvoted into oblivion.

    Edit: To clarify para1, my comparison was that the UK response to the lockdown was overwhelming, BUT the response to government corruption was nill. Versus Korea, where they hold their government and politicians much more accountable. Thus their response to corruption was exceptionally high (probably as high as their Covid reaponse/resiliency).

15. The British know their place in the class system and are afraid to fight against their rulers. They will fight each other, or another. But like a good dog they won’t bit the hand of the master that throws them the odd scrap from time to time.

16. Because the sentiment you see on Reddit is not reflected in the population at large and when we do protest (Brexit) fuck all happens.

    And as has been mentioned, people in Britain tend to just get on with it. Keep calm and carry on. Stiff upper lip. Whatever you want to call it, people just wanna keep their head down and get on with their lives.

    An 80 seat majority three years out from a GE doesn’t fucking help either. It creates greater apathy.

    There’s a general sense of helplessness across parts of the country and tbth, if we were protesting the things that need to be protested, we’d be protesting every week.

    I’ve said a number of times that the only way to affect change in this country is to make those who are the reason the Tories are in power to be accountable for their actions.

    It’s not something anyone wants to hear but the reality is that if your parents, older generations I.e those most likely to vote Tory were told that doing so again would cost them their relationship with you – their son, daughter, grandkid etc then maybe you’d start to see a genuine push towards being a nation that didn’t constantly fuck over the young and less well off.

    Instead we get the “you can’t fall out with family over politics” stuff. Ok well fine but I’d say not only are those who vote Tory to blame for the state of this country but also those who let them do it without (fear of) any repercussions of doing so.

17. Protest is the avenue when all else fails.

    Less than half the population vote.

    Fewer are involved with political parties that influence and shape legislation.

    Too many swallow the social media and print media bullshit.

18. Difficult to protest if you have children to look after

19. >So why are we like this? So impotent, meek, docile and passive.

    Because in the grand-scheme of things, life in the UK isn’t as bad as this sub makes it out to be?

20. i’m tired. i have been to protests, i am constantly speaking out, trying to educate people, donating to food banks. and nothing has changed. i’ll keep trying but jesus, i don’t know what else i have to give

21. Not true, in 2016 over 17 million people told the EU to go fuck themselves. In the direct opposition to the EU, the globalists, the pro EU Cameron government, the IMF, the Bank of England, the EBC, most of the mainstream media, foreign national leaders such as Obama and the other half of the population of this country.

22. You need to distinguish between protests which could have an effect – eg change a war policy, cf against something which nothing can change.

    How would protesting help with reducing cost which are increasing, in part, due to the consequences of an unforeseen pandemic? A protest won’t find more money.

    I’d prefer not to have protesters taking over the streets. Not sure where the French protesters have got them. And I‘d prefer not to defund the police, as seems to be the case in the US.

    Not to mention the fact that protests cost money – in terms of affecting business, damage to property, policing, reputational damage to the country.

    NB The UK ranks 11th in the [2021 Corruptions Perception Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index) (with 1 being least corrupt) out of 180 countries.

23. I find it very British that the thing that’s causing the most response is the breaking of a social rule about some parties rather than over all the other stuff.

24. It’s far worse than you think.

    The NHS is being sold off quietly piece by piece.

    Independent media like the BBC who can’t as easily be bought are being destroyed.

    The government are taking control of every aspect of running independant elections so good luck getting the tories out of power.

    Yet nobody knows or more likely nobody cares.

25. 1million+ people protested against the Iraq War and the government invaded anyway. Protest only works if you’re protesting about some relatively minor ‘proposal’ that the government will be fairly chill about backing down on. Otherwise the only way to get change is through a general election or by widespread civil disobedience/violence (e.g. the poll tax riots).

    Boris and his government are cunts but how long’s it been since we had a government who weren’t? Going out rioting just to replace one bunch of cunts with another bunch doesn’t really seem worth it.

26. Because despite what everyone likes to bang on about for the most part we live comfortably in a far more stable society than any of the other countries you mentioned. You can’t compare us to India on standard of living. You can’t compare us to USA on racism. If we were as bad as those countries at either of those things and we weren’t protesting you might have had a point.

27. It would seem you all either have short memories or were too young to remember the 90’s and the 00’s. Back to basics, cash for questions, Bernie Ecclestone, Peter Mandelson, Iraq, David Kelly, cash for honours.

    Over a million people, possibly 2 million, protested the Iraq war in London in 2003. Did absolutely nothing and BLiar still went on to win a third term. Both the major parties are corpses that need to be torn up.

28. I’m tired.

    I’m a very anxious and depressed person whom has been in some very dark places in my life. I’m only 33 and I genuinely dont have a plan for my next few years except to try and get through it because fuck ambition anymore.

    I used to have fight in me but itscoar me my entire family. Those relationships will never be repaired.when you hold people to account for not caring the truth is it’s you that they decide are a disruptive or a downer or whatever, and back to ignoring all of the worlds problems those people go.

    My dad on climate change : who cares we’ll dead by then

    Mum on covid: it’s only effecting people with pre existing conditions (my other half physically still will not risk leaving the house as she is THAT compromised)

    My sister- the one I love the most- on justice: no one gets falsely convicted any more.

    Protest starts small with the people in your life but when even they treat you like a pariah for giving a shit it breaks you. The country does nothing but put its head on the sand about genuine issues and I’m fucking sick of it. They dont do it because they dont care. They do it because it’s too hard, leaves the burden with people who care enough to try anyway and it BREAKS them

    It’s not a stiff upper lip, Britain. Its selfishness

29. Because compared to India what you described above are non-problems.
    Yeah, things seem bad compared to a utopia, but are nowhere close to being real problems. Just the perks of living in a country that didn’t really knew what hardship is since the second world war.

30. Mass protests and actual revolutions only happen in society when the malcontents start to out number those who might not be happy with there lot in life but are not so dissatisfied that they are desperate for a change. Politics aside most human beings are “happy” in to remain in their everyday rut because routine is comforting. Unless you have reached rock bottom change is not what most people want in life.

    Despite the current shit show the UK is still a remarkably stable country( both economically and socially) in comparison with the vast majority of the world. That’s a deeply depressing thought given the current state of things for a lot of people in this country but it’s true. Things are going to have to get a hell of a lot worse before we see actual mass protest and real change.

    My prediction is things will soon settle down politically and most people will continue to vote against their best interests( logically speaking) at the next election.

31. Personally the issues you’ve mentioned just don’t affect me all that much. I’m doing ok at the minute and so is my family so for me it’s not a hill worth dying on.

    If there’s anyone who wants to call me selfish go ahead but you don’t pay my bills so I won’t care.

32. “The UK is at its most critical juncture since the war”

    What war?

33. It does suck however you shouldn’t expect protests to go the way r/unitedkingdom wants, whilst there are some issues that the general population agrees with ie the corruption there are a lot of points where this subreddit’s ideas would be the ones protested against.

34. Most critical juncture since the war? Hmmm suggest you go and read up on the 70’s/80’s….power cuts,huge piles of rubbish,unemployment,Falklands crisis,Maggie Thatcher,Miners Strike,huge inflation,etc….