That's true, but these things always have an expiration date. People don't actually turn their brains off for long. They stew over stuff for a long time while they're still too afraid to say anything. Then when the cracks form in the dam, it appears to break with amazing speed, because people finally feel free to agree with those first movers who speak up.

Story time:

A long time ago, I talked to an old woman who lived through the Nazi regime as a civilian during the war. She was neither a hero hiding Jews, nor a party member hunting them down. She was just an average German, trying to get by day to day. I asked what it was like to live in a city under that government. She told me that she understood why people afterwards asked why the average citizens didn't do something to try to stop the Nazi machine. She said that what nobody could understand was just the level of pervasive fear that every single person lived under, every single day. She was there alone. Her husband was deployed to the front. She has a young child to take care of. Everyone knew of people in their neighbourhoods who would be there one day, and the next day, they would be gone. Disappeared for good. Nobody knew why, and, even if it was a close neighbour, nobody even asked. She said the way to get by each day was to keep your head down and don't ask questions. Everyone was living under fear and knew something was terribly wrong with their own government, but nobody wanted to risk sticking their neck out and being the next to disappear. You never knew which of your neighbours was going to be the one to rat you or trump you up on false allegations just because you may have slighted them. Was it the woman next door? Was it the man at the butcher shop? She had a child. If she went missing, he would starve to death. Many didn't know a thing about the treatment of the Jews, again, because they didn't want to know anything.

People today act very heroic, saying "If I were there, I would helped. I would have been part of the resistance." All well and good, but I think this woke thing has put the lie to that. Many "Good Canadians" I know are keeping their mouths shut and their heads down. They won't stand up to this thing, even though the worst that could happen to them is they'd lose their jobs, but most likely, they'd just lose some friends on social media. And far too many have become the people who would rather join the dog pile on someone else. I understand, because I was there for a few minutes before I asked myself "What the fuck am I doing??"

This is why I'm on this site. I still don't rock the boat much at work, but I won't join the chorus when it's time to wish everyone Happy Pride on Slack. If someone asks, I'll politely tell them my views on intersectionality. I'm not storming the ramparts on this, but I won't join the chorus either. And I've been getting louder as this has started becoming more socially acceptable. There are a lot of people on this site whose views I strongly disagree with - for example, the black and jew haters - but as the old chestnut goes, "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend your right to say it". And that's important, because if you don't defend that right for others, eventually the political tables are going to turn, and the laws you so happily used against others will be swung against you.