There are absolutely #bizarro #protests in my city regularly - literally, they're on a repeating schedule. They happen on a busy corner downtown, where there's an empty lot with wire fencing around it (Hi, putative condo owners! Good luck with that lawsuit). Lots of traffic.

As far as I can tell, it's actually an #influence operation, presumably foreign-based. I'm curious if #Canadians in other cities are seeing the same thing.

Why do I think it's a deliberate op? Because it sure as hell ain't an organic #protest.

They happen on a fixed schedule.

The protesters all show up at exactly the same time, and leave at exactly the same time, and it's rigid, like 10:00am - 4:00pm or whatever, on particular days.

They're protesting a huge variety of things, that mostly have nothing to do with each other: nuclear power, windmills-are-killing-us, 5G waves are mind control, fluoride in the water, "agro-terrorism", "climate engineering". "chemtrails", nuclear weapons, having a military at all, and on and on it goes. Any #nutjob conspiracy theory you can think of, they're pushing it, along with a few more "regular" topics. Nothing in common except that #conspiracy theories in general make people distrust the media, government, and each other, and interfere with the functioning of #society in general.

And all the signs, for all these causes, are visibly and obviously made by the same person, even though there are 10 or 15 #protestors out there dancing and waving.

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These aren't your typical "real" protestors. They aren't well-meaning #students out protesting fossil fuel use, or Israel, or student debt, or creeping fascism. They aren't the tree-hugging crowd protesting environmental #issues.

They don't seem to actually believe any of the stuff they're pushing. Like I said, they didn't even make their own signs. They're pretty obviously being paid to be there, and they do exactly the minimum they're told to do, and no more.

So, the only real effect this has is that it corrodes our functioning society. Who would pay for fake protests to do that?

I'm hoping it's #foreign. Russia and China do these sorts of things, trying anything they can to hurt their enemies and fracture their #unity. If Canadians, for example, stop trusting media reports about the war in Ukraine, or about China's brutal suppression of #Tibet and persecution of #Uyghurs, we might stop shipping arms to #Ukraine, or criticizing China at the UN. Both of those countries have the motivation, the resources, and the experience to do this here in Canada.

So, fellow #Canucks - have you noticed any of these so-far-out-there-they-can't-be-real protests in your city? What are the slogans on their signs?

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#influence #InfluenceOperation #PsyOp #China #Russia #manipulation #fake

@cazabon It’s well established that this thing has happened here in the US over the past decade or so - with disastrous results.

Careful. I’d hate to see our neighbors to the north succumb to the same brain-rot that we have down here.

@jeff

Thanks, me too. It's why I'd like to hear how widespread this is, and maybe start digging into commonalities.