Last point: the goal of protests (and direct action) isn’t to target the dictator, but to shift the public. The way to bring down dictators is through building a movement so large that the regime can’t continue. Dictators want people to be afraid. Movements win by making participation feel good.

It’s true that protests alone don’t end authoritarian regimes; that tends to happen through “electoral revolution” (aka winning and enforcing an unfair election) or through mass non-cooperation like a general strike. But, protests help the movement get to the scale needed to achieve breakthrough.

Ending an authoritarian regime requires a level of mass participation that we’ve rarely seen in this country. Mass protests are an opportunity for regular people to join the movement, and to demonstrate (literally) to everyone that it’s safe and popular to take part. They help build the movement.

Seeing many big creators, many who should know better, are peddling the various misinformation. Yeah Nintendo fumbled, but if you have an audience you should do your damn job and make sure you're educated enough on the matter before opening your mouth.

Pricing comes into it too. Due to how Europe is now joining Japan in having separate prices for Physical/Digital, the narrative spread that it was happening in the US too, which it isn't. Still too high though Heck some think the upgrades for owned Switch games are $80. It's not