1. When the convoy organizers were arrested, the participants went home, and the #OttawaOccupation ended, a lot of people decided that the crisis was over and they moved on to other concerns.
In fact the people who were radicalized and motivated by the convoy are still active.
2. In communities across the country and despite mandates ending (we can argue about whether this is justified), the same rage based in large part on misinformation continues to fuel slow rolls, protests, and harassment campaigns.
An example.
dailyhive.com/vancouver/prot…
3. Among the people still agitating are people like Chris Saccoccia (aka Chris Sky) who, having found a credulous audience who doesn't mind his frequent verbal abuse directed at them, continues to gin up fear and anger for his own aggrandizement as well as for fun and profit.
4. Yesterday Saccoccia was at another event that included a speaker named Marcus Ray.
His rhetoric is very concerning as he claims (and I do take it with a grain of salt) that 1000s of former soldiers and RCMP have been in training to take direct action against the government.
5. Having claimed that he is willing to die and that the alphas are taking over, he goes on to suggest that health professionals will be put on trial for "crimes against humanity" for providing vaccines he claims are poison.
6. So who is Marcus Ray?
A Tik Tok influencer with 90,000+ followers, ray has an... uhm... interesting CV.
7.
8.
9. And at the start of the pandemic he appears to have had a very different attitude towards Covid-19 than he does now.
10. But he does have a different attitude and was in Ottawa participating in the occupation.
11. Though he doesn't have many followers, his rhetoric on Twitter is no less concerning.
12. This tweet offers a clear view of an individual who has gone deeply down into the rabbit hole.
13. So should we take Marcus Ray's claims seriously?
I'm of two minds.
On the one hand, he seems like someone who engages in significant hyperbole and self-promotion.
On the other hand, who thought Ottawa would be what it was? Or the border blockades.
14. All things being equal I think it is important to take this seriously rather than not because as we all know it doesn't matter if his claim that there are 1000s ready to overthrow the government isn't true.
It only really takes one with a gun to cause a tragedy.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.