They march in huge mobs citing Democracy and take a sense of pride in doing so. But they have no problems to attack people who have different political views sending them home bloody and bruised. To them that is what they call democracy, but to most everyone else, it is anything but.
It does make people think, Are the Red Shirts so backwards that they don’t know what democracy is? Democracy is all about you expressing your opinion and letting others do the same. Democracy does not include making threats to judges nor attempting to impeach them if they did not rule in their favor. It also does not include attacking Senior Statesmen and politicians who Thaksin just happens to disagree with. None of these things come under the heading of democracy. They do however come under various definitions of bullies, and no we are not talking about the pub named “Bullies” in Bangkok.
Then you start to think back a bit before the Red Shirts ever came together, and think where did you see that behavior before. Where did you see some laws being ignored and others used. Where did you see people who disagreed with Thaksin getting mugged or run through the courts on various charges with Thaksin as the plaintiff. Then suddenly you connect, the Red Shirts are Thaksin’s thugs trying to hide under the cry of democracy.
Now not all the Red Shirts are of a violent nature, in fact most of them are older and more reserved and are only seeing Thaksin as the man who has helped them. Only a small percentage of the Red Shirts are Thaksin’s thugs. The similarities are too close with Thaksin’s past thugs to be coincidence.
So this now brings us to think about Thaksin’s behavior and what type of personality would actively attack people who are in his way or disagree with him. Certain former leaders of Iraq who had their neck stretched come to mind as well as some present day leaders from Syria who have a gas problem also have the same personality traits. In both cases they are very far from a democratic state.
So as it is, the Red Shirts can be seen as mimicking a variety of past groups. The Hitler Youth Group tends to come to mind or any group that develops a mob mentality. Getting violent enough to burn down the Downtown part of Bangkok and to cry foul when the military came in to break them up. They tend to forget they were shooting live ammo at the military thus provoking and equal response. When you look at all of that collectively you start to see some serious personality disorders the Red Shirts are enacting just like in the previous paragraph.
Now this is not to say the Red Shirts are a reincarnation of the Hitler Youth group, but most certainly the same type of brain washing is being applied to them. With all the fire and brimstone and end of the world rhetoric coming from some of the Red Shirt leaders, it is easy to see violence and the use of physical force is being encouraged as the only means to get their goal.
So once again this just becomes another example of Thaksin doing whatever it takes to get his way, and that includes having the Red Shirts crying democracy while acting like a dictator’s thugs.
