Disclaimer: I am not now nor have I ever been a communist. So do not take this as some call to seize the means of production, comrade. Communism is the leading political cause of death in the world. That said, there is something to We the People banding together to accomplish powerful change.
Remember that CGI cartoon about the ants? No, not Antz. That movie sucked. No, I’m talking about A Bug’s Life, the Pixar movie that people forget. Anyway, the main antagonist in the film was a grasshopper named “Hopper.” (Oh, how I long for the more creative days of Hollywood, don’t you?)
Hopper’s role was to harass the ants, demanding they provide him and his fellow moochers with food on a regular basis as some sort of tribute so they wouldn’t kill them all. Think of it as a mafia protection racket for kids. Or, think of it like government and taxes.
Through the story, the lead ant, Flick, comes to realize the ants have much more power than the grasshoppers let on. There are literal millions of them vs the dozens of tyrants. Once he realizes this and the ants do too, it’s over. They stand their ground and tell the grasshoppers, “No.” Then they are finally free.
Another appropriately memeable movie for this conversation is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The famous scene of Andy Serkis as Caesar telling his friend (totally NOT Dr. Zaius) that the apes are stronger together than alone has become the rallying cry for memable stocks (aka, stonks).
Unless you’re living under a rock, a phrase I never understood, you’ve likely heard of GameStop or AMC suddenly seeing record stock prices this year. Why? Because a bunch of users on Reddit decided they “just like the stock” and promoted buying them and holding on with diamond hands until the potential shorting ended.
Look, if you aren’t familiar with how stocks work, this isn’t the blog post you’re looking for. Basically it went like this: GameStop was going to be sold at a much lower value so some people could buy them all up at a cheaper cost and make money. Average Joe’s took it upon themselves to buy them instead and refused to sell any of them, causing the price to go up. Some people made record profits. Those people were not Wall Street hedge fund managers, and the Wall Street hedge fund managers got pissed.
The point then became very clear: the masses can drive the stock market just as easily as Michael Douglas in the 80s or Leonardo DiCaprio when he hangs out with Jonah Hill when he’s skinnier. And when the people realize they can do this, there is a power shift.
See where I am headed? If not, keep reading, because it should be abundantly clear.
Browse social media for a while, and you will come across two things. One, there are a lot of incredibly stupid and evil people in the world. And two, there are countless stories that the “news” won’t ever tell you. Why? Because they fall into category one on social media.
But one major story that is not being reported is the number of protests happening right now against vaccine mandates. They are happening in many countries, consisting of thousands of people at a time, and some are seeing progress as a result.
France, Australia, the UK, Canada, Germany, and the USA are just some who are having a spark of revolution against these unethical vaccine passport rules being handed down. Why unethical? Browse Alex Berenson’s Substack for a few minutes and you’ll see why.
Australia is of particular interest. They have seen some of the most draconian measures over COVID-19. Vaccine mandates, forcing kids to get the shots against their parents’ will, COVID concentration camps, and a manhunt for one positive patient who didn't want to quarantine.
So, it’s quite obvious that the people have had enough and want to push back, literally. But it isn’t just crowds in the street fighting the police who are “just following orders” like the Nazis claimed at Nuremberg. Another group got in on the protest action, and it seems to have had a bigger impact.
There was a warning almost a month ago by Australian truckies (their word for truckers) that they would strike and shut down the economy in protest against the COVID mandates. And they did.
You can see the impact it made on Australia after a week or two. Now, what would happen in America if our truckers did the same thing? Well, there have been a handful of threats from even last November that they would. But, sadly, nothing came from it.
But can’t you picture it? Hundreds of thousands of big rigs just stopped on the interstate, not moving, not delivering goods, food, fuel, etc. And the economy comes to a halt.
“But the average person would suffer!” Yes. They would for a bit. Those who can forecast it would be prepared. They would stock up ahead of time, make sure they had enough gas, food, etc. to make it to the other side of the protest.
But what of those “in charge”?
The “ruling class” depends more on us than we do on them. Our taxes, our goods and services all fuel their lifestyle. They know it. We ought to know it. We saw how freaked they got when we pumped AMC stocks. They also get nervous when Bitcoin skyrockets. Why? Because not only do they lose money, they get exposed to losing power.
COVID lockdowns and mandates are all about power and not health. A virus with a >99% survival rate does not require us to cripple our economy or liberties to endure. We don’t do it for the flu. We certainly don’t do it for cancer, heart disease, or any other global killer.
But COVID gave them an opportunity to seize more control over us than ever before. And we submitted out of fear. We trusted them to protect us. They lied. And the lies are being exposed. The question is: will we continue to be stepped on like ants, or will we stand strong together like apes?