[pastureofplenty]

If those people hit the streets they'll be hit by chemical weapons (i.e. tear gas) that are illegal for our government to use in war but perfectly legal to use on peaceful protesters. Just something to keep in mind in case anyone is wondering why Americans don't really protest.

[numpad0]

There is a reason why people, especially those outside the US, are treating the series of events of past few days as if it were a regime change, and the reason is it satisfies most criteria for it. From [1]:

  “Regulations, basically, should be default gone,” Musk said. “Not default there, default gone. And if it turns out that we missed the mark on a regulation, we can always add it back in.”

  “These regulations are added willy-nilly all the time. So we’ve just got to do a wholesale, spring cleaning of regulation and get the government off the backs of everyday Americans so people can get things done,” Musk said, adding later: “If the government has millions of regulations holding everyone back, well, it’s not freedom. We’ve got to restore freedom.”

1: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-regulations-default...

[barnas2]

Tear gas is illegal to use in war because of a fear of escalation/retaliatory strikes due to an enemy thinking you're using other more dangerous chemical/biological weapons (chlorine, sarin, mustard, phosgene, etc).

It's not banned in war because it's as dangerous as chemical weapons, it's banned in war so people don't think you're using chemical weapons.

[tekknik]

I’d also add that in basic training you’re hit with tear gas so you know what it’s like and learn to trust your equipment. They don’t do that unless there’s a chance you may encounter it.

[torben-friis]

I keep reading this as if it was not the case for most major protests and riots around the world.

[BryantD]

French police use tear gas on protestors, and in 1980, the South Korean government fired on and killed protestors. I don't think it's just the tear gas; I think it has more to do with the fact that we're way more distributed (it's very practical for most French people to descend on Paris than it is for US residents to descend on DC) and culturally not in the habit.

[tiborsaas]

It takes a critical mass to be unmanageable by any amount of tear gas. Even if they use various types of anti-protest weapons, so what? Do you want to cry at home or on the streets?