@CorvidCrone it very much gives "the Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears," only also to reject the evidence of your most intrinsic human responses.

The last time I was arrested at a protest (ages ago now, I admit) it was because the cops were beating the shit outta this homeless teenage girl, and let me tell you that someone screaming "please help me" has such an indescribable way of bypassing all logic, all self-preservation instinct, especially in a crowd. I can admit I don't know what I would have done if I had been totally alone, but as it was, there was absolutely zero thought process between her screaming for help and me throwing myself into a pile of cops. Was it effective? Ehhhhhhh....not exactly. It probably distracted them as they now had someone else to beat on, is all I can say, but it was the most basic of human instincts. I can't describe it any other way. It sure wasn't me being a "hero" or a "good person," it was just automatic.

So that so many people can be at a place where that instinct, even in a warehouse full of other people, has been so terrifyingly mutilated that it can be completely interrupted by the presence of a tiny number of fake authorities, just...makes me feel a kind of panicky despair.