That is one of the biggest powers of a protest. It lets people know they are not alone. When we know we have backup, we are a lot more willing to act. If enough people act together, even giants fall.

It’s not an either/or situation.

In the (supposed) words of Al Capone

You get a lot more from a kind word and a gun than from a kind word alone.

Critically however, a gun without the kind word is also far less effective. They are like the tip and shaft of a spear. The shaft has the range, but lacks the punch. The tip has the punch, but lacks the range. Together they are far more than the sum of their parts.

In terms of protest. A peaceful protest is like the kind word. It’s a polite but forceful delivery of a message. Radical action and violence are the gun. They work best as an implied threat. The target much know that you are willing to escalate, if required.

Too much violence, and you have a riot. These can be put down with force, and have little to no public backlash. (This is what trump currently wants to happen).

Too little violence, and the protest can be safely ignored.

The perfect balance has enough to keep the government on their toes, but not so much as to drive away supporters, and burn off the anger powering things.

Currently, Trump and co are trying to goad people into over reacting and justifying an aggressive crackdown. In light of that, a message of don’t take the bait, err towards passive over violence isn’t so bad.

It likely won’t help, though it depends on the source of the brain fog. ADHD drugs are aimed particularly at the areas of the brain associated with executive functioning. Under stimulation here can cause brain fog, among other symptoms. Critically, the body’s homeostasis system wants to boost things, but can’t. It doesn’t fight the boost from the drugs, at least in the under stimulated areas.

If the brain fog is sourced elsewhere in the brain then the amphetamines won’t help much. Even worse, a normal Brian will adapt to counter the drugs effect, causing physical addiction. You would need to constantly increase the dose to gain the same effect. That’s the reason ADHD drugs are controlled substances in most countries. People chase the dragon, and end up nuking their brain with too high a dose.

Basically, don’t do it without medical oversight.

We have plenty of variants of roundabouts here too. Many would work far better. They just seem to have combined 3 good elements in a way that they all disrupt each other in practice.

Cars need to watch for cyclists doing an unusual manoeuvre., as well as other cars reacting abruptly and unpredictability.

Cyclists can’t trust their right of way due to idiot drivers.

Pedestrians will get lost behind the clutter of the cycle path and are at risk of being run down.

It’s the context switching. The cycle lane forms an effective roundabout around the roundabout. Drivers are keyed to looking for cars and cyclists on the road. The outer rim will push the cyclists out of their awareness. In effect, the bike will “appear” suddenly and at speed. Most drivers will still be fine, but a few will cause potential chaos.

Basically, it doesn’t follow the normal “flow” of most roundabouts. A few bad drivers will make everyone else’s life difficult.

My issue with this roundabout is that it’s the worst of all worlds. It’s unusual, and complex for cars. Given how bad the average driver is, I wouldn’t want to be a cyclist or pedestrian dealing with this.

While it has its problems, Milton Keynes does non-car traffic quite well. It has “red ways” that cut under or over the main trunk roads. It’s possible to reach most of the city without having to cross a major road.

While retrofitting this is harder, surely they could come up with something better, for that sort of money.

Oh and as for the woke comments. I’ve found describing it/replacing it with empathy/empathetic works well. It seems to really annoy the gammon crowd, while turning those on the fence away from it, hard.

I always assumed it was a hold over from a rodent-like ancestor. Stick your nose out of a barrow, and you want to clear it to get a good sniff of the environment.

It’s definitely one of those effects that confuses people. If you don’t do it, it seems weird as hell. If you do, it seems weird that some people don’t get it.

Children’s stories don’t teach children that dragons exist. They know that. Instead, they teach that dragons can be beaten! Overwhelming odds can be overcome with a sturdy enough heart, sufficient planning, and the power of friendship.

For the same reason that kids shouldn’t be allowed to play games dropping rocks on moving cars.

It’s also worth noting that we could also use/abuse this tendency, for the greater good. Imagine if rich lists etc were done entirely via tax returns. If you don’t pay taxes, you’re considered poor. It provides the hyper rich with a new way of comparing themselves, via actualised wealth rather than paper/virtual money.

You joke, but that’s close to how the rich see money. It’s a score keeping device.