Horse 2974 - This Is Not A Million People

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-12/thousands-of-protesters-against-mandatory-vaccination/100825478

Thousands of demonstrators have once again taken to the streets of Canberra to protest against a number of issues, including COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Protesters have been in the ACT since late January. However, on Saturday there was a "significant influx" of people at the Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) showgrounds, police said.

...

Lifeline Canberra CEO Carrie Leeson told the ABC the charity did not want to put the community at risk by going ahead with the fair.

"Unfortunately, overnight they had about 10,000 to 15,000 people descend on Exhibition Park in addition to those that were here, and the behaviours and the conduct that was broadcast online last night made it very easy to decide," she said.

"We won't put our community at risk and ask them to come down here."

- ABC News, 12th Feb 2021

I have been to the Italian Grand Prix and seen Michael Schumacher win for Ferrari in front of the tifosi and 250,000 people. This crowd is smaller than that. I was at the Oasis "Familiar To Millions" concert at Wembley Stadium when 176,000 people attended. This crowd is smaller than that. I have seen Collingwood v Carlton at the MCG in front of a packed house of 90,000 people. This crowd is smaller than that. I have been to Parramatta Stadium for 2WS's Carols By Candelight where there were 60,000 people. This crowd is smaller than that.

There were not 1,000,000 people in Canberra as right-wing political activist and self-proclaimed 'journalist' Avi Yemini suggested. There were not 1,000,000 people in Canberra as Rebel News suggested. There were not 500,000 people in Canberra as Craig Kelly MP suggested.

I can say this more or less definitively as the population of Canberra is only 432,000 people. It is simply not credible that the city of Canberra would swell more than double in population, for any kind of protest. It is simply not credible that 4% of the population of Australia would descend upon Canberra. It is several kinds of ludicrous to think that the infrastructure of the city would be able to handle that kind of traffic movement. Canberra has even fewer arterial roads than Newcastle and if a fifth of the population of Sydney were to drive up the F3, then this would be the kind of logistical dilemma which would cause a several long days' traffic jam.

This photo shows that at best, there may have been 20,000 people at this protest. To be perfectly fair, this looks no more impressive than the Australia Day concert at the Rooty Hill or any Parramatta Eels game.

What is it even for? The so-called 'freedom' movement originally agitated for lifting of lockdowns in Melbourne and had to with anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine sentiment. They like to talk about vaccine injury and the possible cause of autism, despite the former being in actual single digits and the latter being a repurposed and discredited argument. Even after lockdowns were lifted, the talk appears to have shifted to vaccine mandates and hair-brained theories paedophiles within the Australian government

The really truly idiotic thing about the 'Convoy To Canberra' anti-vax protesters yesterday, was that leaders and speakers had claimed that their mental health has been affected by vaccine mandates and COVID restrictions. At the same time, the presence of this protest forced Lifeline to cancel their annual book fair; which is the biggest fundraiser for the mental health organisation.

I'm sorry but I can not take anything which is reported from inside the 'freedom' movement as anything even approaching fact. If you want to pretend that you are oppressed so much that you will march against mandates that barely exist; if you can drive all the way to Canberra to protest and then back home safely. You are not even teaching reality to yourself. Sit down. Have a cup of tea. You are okay. Take a good hard look at yourself and for the first time in a long time, ask yourself "Is this true?", then actually look at the evidence. Because if you choose to believe that there were a million people in Canberra when clearly there were not, then you have chosen idiocy.