All political power emerges from the barrel of a gun.
What politics really is, at its most basic, core level, is an attempt to settle disputes by alternate means, so violence can be avoided.
But what many people do not understand is that "means of avoiding" is another way of saying "proxy for".
Politics is a proxy for violence. And therefore, the ultimate basis of political power is capacity to commit violence.
No ability to commit violence?
No political power.
No willingness to commit violence?
No political power.
So, Britain, understand this... your current riots are a market correction. This is what "riots are the voice of the unheard" really means.
Those without political power — power with the proxy system — will remind those who withhold it from them of their ability to wield power within the physical system it represents.
Over and for a long time, you allowed your political class to disarm you, while they remained armed, on your dime. This diminution of your real power eventually resulted in multiple market corrections... corresponding diminutions of your political power over time.
Don't think of this as "something they could get away with", because that implies that there is a "they" who had to do something to disenfranchise you, and they might have, had they been more benevolent, decided not to do that thing.
No, this was as inevitable as a market bubble bursting, and collapsing an inflated stock... the trading value of the derivative change changed to more closely match the real value of the underlying asset.
They are doing this to you because they can. They will not stop, they will never stop, because if they weren't willing to wield violence, without stopping, they wouldn't be the ones in political power. It would be different set of people, doing shit to you that would only be cosmetically different.
The only way to stop this is to demonstrate your capacity to commit violence.
And since you are disarmed, your power to commit violence is greatly reduced, and you are going to have to make up for it with extra willingness.
Go. Commit. Violence.
There. I've done it. I've broken a UK law. For which the "Crown Prosecution Service" would love to throw me in a concrete box for ten years.
But they can't, and I don't have to give a fig for UK law.
Why not? It's not just an accident of geography.
It's because I'm armed to the teeth, and I'm surrounded by neighbors equally armed to the teeth, all of whom would take it amiss if OUR political class decided that they're not gonna do that "first amendment" thing anymore.
If I were to, say, stab three little girls at a Taylor Swift themed party, they could drag me away, because all my neighbors would let them do it, but voicing a political opinion, not so much.
There's a lot of us, and we all have rifles, and they don't know exactly which of us would take exception to a power grab. -
They're stuck with us, and they don't dare piss us off too much. We have real physical power, and so we continue to wield political power, mostly by not doing anything at all, just sitting at home and passively making them afraid.
This is why they are so butthurt, still whining over the Jan 6th demonstrations after all these years. They know full well it wasn't a coup attempt. If it was, they would be dead now, because those demonstrators wouldn't have left their rifles and plate carriers at home.
That's what makes them so bitter, and mad, and envious of the rulers of third-world countries, who wield a power over their populations that American politicians can only dream of in their most torrid masturbatory fantasies.
This is why the political class, on both sides of the pond, makes violence out to be the worst possible thing.
Because their stock is overvalued. Their ability to commit violence is very low, especially if they start to lose influence over the agents who commit violence on their behalf.
They don't want a reckoning of real political power, a reevaluation of actual capabilities, and a reconciling of political influence with actual, temporal power. This would be a disaster for them.
So they try to convince you that violence (when it's committed by you, not them or their pets) is not only a bad thing, but the worst possible thing, that anything, even tyranny, extermination, child murder and rape, is preferable to you, taking power into your own hands, and committing violence.
But that's just a bluff.
Violence is not the worst possible thing. The very notion of human rights, and of criminal law, subsumes the idea of things that we will sanction violence rather than permit.
And their ability to commit violence against you is much more limited than they wish you to believe.
You're going to have to call their bluff and burn more shit down. If you don't do it now, you'll only end up having to do it later.
It is only when they believe that you are capable of enforcing your will, personally, without pleading for fair play or asking permission, that you will once again have a stake at the table.