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by pprotas21 hours ago |
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upvoteby pibaker20 hours ago|
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It's crazy how much deference is given to farmers compared to every other occupation.

If the garbage men started dumping the contents of garbage bags in public places I bet they will not be given a free pass.

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upvoteby Aromasin20 hours ago|
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Look to Birmingham in the UK for evidence of the same deference. Many have been on strike since 2025. The city was a rat infested public waste dump for nearly 3 months until the government hired private firms to do the waste handling while the public worker strike action continued.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%932026_Birmingham_b...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxlxv0vvnxo

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upvoteby ktm5j19 hours ago|
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You can go a long while without your trash being taken away for you.. you can't go very long without food.
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upvoteby yuye19 hours ago|
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Most of the food the farmers produce in the Netherlands is exported.

Meanwhile, trash piles up quickly: https://nltimes.nl/2023/02/07/utrecht-garbage-strike-comes-e...

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upvoteby vanviegen20 hours ago|
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I think this deference is largely inspired by the police not knowing how to deal with these huge tractors.
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upvoteby pjc5019 hours ago|
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Rubbish. They don't want to. The tractors have license plates, allowing them to be pursued after the fact, and the NL police have firearms if they want to get spicy.

There have been a number of attacks in Europe of the form "deranged person drives vehicle into crowd". I'm sure the police wouldn't sit back and shrug if that was done with a tractor. The vehicle doesn't have magic properties, the driver has police protection.

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upvoteby vanviegen15 hours ago|
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The protestors tape their license plates. And I'm happy to report Dutch police generally doesn't draw guns on people who are no direct threat.

And how is the "vehicle driven into crowd" even relevant here? Nobody's using these tractors to kill (intentionally), but they're just many and hard to stop.

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upvoteby pjc5011 hours ago|
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> The protestors tape their license plates.

One weird trick: simply commit an offense in front of the police, and suddenly they can't do anything because it's "too hard".

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upvoteby contravariant12 hours ago|
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> If the garbage men started dumping the contents of garbage bags in public places I bet they will not be given a free pass.

I mean, they wouldn't have to, they just need to stop cleaning it up. Such an action likely will be given a free pass, anything other than that is strikebreaking which is either illegal or heavily discouraged depending on jurisdiction.

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upvoteby account4218 hours ago|
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It's almost as if food security is much more important than most other jobs.
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upvoteby koiueo20 hours ago|
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Don't believe everything you read.

This is russian sabotage + russian trolls now trying to make it look like it's something else

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upvoteby vanviegen20 hours ago|
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Who's the troll here? Do you even know what you're talking about?
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upvoteby Zagitta21 hours ago|
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Farmers and right wing people in all of Europe are actively being disinformed by Russian intelligence service and either wilfully ignores it or too incompetent to realize it.
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upvoteby pprotas21 hours ago|
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We are all being disinformed, whether it's by a foreign or our own government. This is not a problem unique to Europe, right-wingers, farmers or Russia. The goal is to have us fight while the powerful become even more powerful. It is important to be aware of this fact, it is not just "the other side I don't agree with" that are affected, and thinking of them as willfully ignorant or incompetent is what the powerful would like you to think (infighting is the goal).

You are right in the sense that there is likely an underlying meddling causing these farmers to act this way. It does not excuse their actions.

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upvoteby lmf4lol21 hours ago|
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can you explain how Dutch farmers are being disinformed by Russian intelligence services? I am REALLy curious.
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upvoteby nmeofthestate20 hours ago|
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Russia spends a huge amount on manipulating western citizens via the internet, let's not play dumb about that. You may not think that it has any effect, but apparently Russian intelligence does.
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upvoteby account4217 hours ago|
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So the gas prices are all in their heads put there by Russian trolls, as are the other government policies that affect them?
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upvoteby lmf4lol17 hours ago|
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Fair, but I want to know how they specificially disinform and target Dutch farmers. That was the claim.

Last that I checked, Dutch farmers are in an existential struggle with the government. I wonder how Russia disinforms them.

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upvoteby AlexandrB19 hours ago|
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We're all being misinformed by various interest groups. If you think you're immune and have some perfect understanding of reality, you're kidding yourself.
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