In my experience if there is a masked protest here in Sweden, it is beacuase people want to riot, even if the initial idea was not to riot, the concept of a masked protest will attract more people who will riot.
Have you seen people protesting against Nazis in Sweden? That’s the sort of situation where you do not need to fear the state, but the violent and retributive people you are protesting.
Yep, I have seen them, and in my experience it is the little cowardly Nazi bitches who tend to be quicker to mask.
That’s not the point, though, is it? It doesn’t matter if Nazis mask faster. What matters is that there are Nazis and other non-state-actors who will happily try to identify and dox people who get in their way. Such doxxers aren’t even necessarily at the protests. They might be in, say, Russia and looking to shut up pro-Western activists in neighboring countries.
It may be that no one in Sweden is immuno-comprosmied and that no one in Sweden could get hacked or doxxed when their identity is uncovered, but for the rest of the world, there are plenty of reasons a person might want to wear a mask that don’t involve wanting to be riot-ready.
it is beacuase people want to riot
You may be living in a country that allows you to protest, but you have created your own mental shackles by buying into an authoritarian narrative against masked protests.
Masks == dangerous potential rioters is not a “free” mindset.
I don’t think I have ever seen any masked protest that didn’t devolve into rioting or violence in some way.
That is obviously not exclusive to masked protests, but most unmasked protests I have seen then to be be peaceful.
It is almost as if hiding their identity makes people less restrained.
I am going to posit that this says more about your media, and how it is shaping your perceptions in line with someone’s agenda.
“My government is totally fine with protesting, but our media makes it seem as though any masked protest is a precursor to a riot, so I argue against people protesting in masks, but it’s not that the government wants me to argue that and has shaped the media to ensure I do, it’s actually just my free and un-manipulated opinion!”
