This is part of why I'm not a proponent of going out to protest. There are so many problems and risks with doing so, and whether it's effective or not depends mostly on whether MSM decides to even cover it or make a big deal about it, and then you gotta hope they don't demonize your side. I mean, if you're gonna get in legal trouble, make it worth it and help take down MSM and make it harder for them to demonize the resistance lol.

I'm not saying don't go out and protest, I'm just saying look at it realistically and ask whether there are other actions that would have a better chance at building a better world. I recommend building resilience at the community level, it's hard, especially for introvert types. Help work each other's gardens and learn skills.

Authoritarian tactics to suppress protest typically intend to have a chain of effects like this:

• protest will decrease
• those who protest will protect themselves better, legally (in terms of planning and considering how to avoid charges)
• those who protest will protect themselves better, physically (in terms of not being detained and overcoming the police)
• in the second scenario, police will then be able to depict the protests as "violent" and call it an "insurrection"
• consequently, they can press heavier charges against anyone they do manage to detain
• organizing a protest becomes dangerous
• participating in a protest will be perceived as dangerous
• people with families and a job and elderly people will fear to participate
• protest will lose effect due to few participants
• that will prompt some individuals to anonymous protest and actual sabotage
• nobody should want that, yet that's where the path leads to

The solutions?

• fixing the problematic laws via political process, adding a freedom-of-protest agenda to other goals
• disputing the problematic laws where the legal system allows (appealing to constitutions, conventions and charters)
• bypassing the laws after analysis, protesting in ways that cannot be criminalized
• in rare cases where it's worthwhile and there is exceptional mass support, just ignoring the laws, because if there's a million people blocking streets for some reason, cops are powerless

All of that won't be doable in every country, and in some countries, something else might be doable instead.

governments from Canada and the US to Guatemala and Chile, from India and Tanzania to the UK, Europe and Australia, are cracking down on activists trying to protect the planet.

It's remarkable that China, Russia, and Iran aren't the "baddies" in this article. What's the common thread here?