“SMH at dumb Americans r/n, Democracy is dead” tweets Brit who supports lockdowns and stronger police enforcement of covid rules
The Twitter user — who has #WearAMask and #FBPE in their bio — was commenting on the storming of the Capitol building by Trump supporters while being confined to their home under a national lockdown that massively reduces personal freedom and that went into force before MPs even voted it into law
Reporting by democracy correspondent Siennen Rahporta
25-year-old Siobhan McJones — who uses the Twitter handle @NHSlover12 — has joined the masses in denouncing the disgraceful scenes at the Capitol in Washington DC where Trump supporters stormed into the Capitol at a walking pace, pushed some cabinets over and did some mischief at the expense of politicians an “assault on democracy”.
McJones made her comments while sat at home on her own, not leaving the house, frantically researching the worst covid stories and signing petitions demanding stronger police enforcement of covid rules.
Despite being in good health prior to the covid situation she has not seen another member of her family or any of her dwindling number of friends since the first lockdown as she believes it’s the intelligent and moral thing to do to rigidly follow every piece of government dictate she sees her favourite Guardian columnist advocating.
As well as her comments in the above headline, she said: “We’re mostly far too clever in Britain to ever descend to such madness.
“America is on the brink of descending into white supremacy and tyranny — thank god we’d never let anything of that equivalent happen here.”
Twitter users of a bigoted nature have argued that it is rather hypocritical for someone in England who wanted a national lockdown where individual freedoms are extensively curtailed to criticise Americans using their freedom to demonstrate distaste at an election they believe was rigged.
People living in England had their third lockdown enforced on them from January 5th and the new restrictions were voted into law in a vote on January 6th many are describing as “pointless as spineless MPs are never going to vote for anything that gives people more freedom and it gave no time whatsoever for people to properly voice objections”.
Since the rules came into place police have been encouraged to take a harsher approach to punishing infractions with notable incidents including a woman arrested for sitting on a bench and two ladies fined £200 for travelling five miles to exercise.
One particular deranged and angry conspiracy theorist using the handle @ivalueliberty said: “The media and government have fermented such a culture of fear that people are willing to give up their freedoms and they believe that is the eminently intelligent and sensible thing to do.
“If a government wanted to seize more power over its populace it seems to me that this is exactly how they would do it — under the guise of compassion and of being the final option when following the science.”
In response to critiques of lockdown and how it was brought in McJones said: “I have no sympathy for people getting punished for breaking the latest rules.
“It’s people like them that have put us in this situation and they’ve clearly demonstrated they’re incapable of following rules that are there for all of our protection.
“And anyway in one poll I saw around three quarters of people in this country wanted another national lockdown so isn’t this actually following the will of the people?”
Responses from the side of the argument many are now calling the “I don’t care if people die bandits” included “how illiberal and restrictive do our laws need to become before a majority of Brits might start pushing back again?” from @RommyTobinson.
And “If we vote for people to have less agency and freedom in their life in a free and fair system then is that still democracy? Or simply voluntary acceptance of an autocracy?” from @BlorgeScorwell.
McJones has also taken great pleasure in Trump being banned off nearly every social media platform, saying that’s what he gets for inciting violence. She couldn’t recall what he’d actually said that was inciting violence and she couldn’t see any way in how the banning might set a negative precedent for the future.
McJones later created the hashtag #HangMikePence.
