2014:
No voters: Wings is a wrong'un by the way. He is seriously a bad person.

Yes voters: No he's not. You just don't like him because of his style.
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2020:

Decent Yes voters:

I apologise in advance for the rant I am about to go on here (which is the 2nd in 2 nights, I know), but I've been thinking about this for the last couple of weeks...

BUT DO YOU GET IT NOW!?

Do you get why No voters get angry when SNP/Yes people say " #IndyRef was merely a lovely exercise in democracy".
We faced this nastiness, this name-calling, the relentless torrent of abuse FOR 2 AND A HALF YEARS! We still do from some?

I still remember in September 2014, being out door-knocking and someone on the team getting a message saying that someone in a door-knocking team across the city had been chased down the street. I remember being out with people being worried about being cornered in streets.

And this just didn't stop in 2014.
I remember the #GE2015 campaign. I remember what is still referred to as "The Battle of St. Enoch Square" where a crowd waving Scotland and SNP flags tried to drown out the speech of the Leader of an opposition party and a guest speaker. >

I remember having to escort people into a car while being pushed from the back into said car by that crowd. I remember being asked to walk back to Chambers with the Leader of the Council because of that Crowd. >

I remember the Eve of Poll rally in 2015 at Tollcross Leisure Centre. The massive crowd outside with Scotland (and, again, SNP) flags. Shouting and intimidating people - including families with children - as the entered the building. I remember them getting up in my face. >

I also remember (this is an aside) them shouting "we're taking pictures" at people as the entered (some of that Natalie McGarry style community justice there) and my mum replying "Oh are you! Do you want me to pose?" and then posing for them. The Police asked HER to go inside. >

I remember all that. People who voted or campaigned or organised for No remembers that.
I'm not saying the abuse was all one way - that would be absurd. It wasn't. But, the level, the consistency, the viciousness, the nastiness and the "everyone's fair game" of it was weighted. >

So that's why the phrase "civic and joyous" is so often mocked and used as a joke - because this really wasn't a joke.

The difference between 2014 and now is that, in 2014, Wings et al were on your side. They were pissing in our direction. You never noticed it - and if you did the SNP/Yes Leadership certainly wasn't forceful in asking them to stop. >

But in 2021, Wings and his crew are outside your tent pissing in. And it turns out all those things that you couldn't believe before - about the abuse and the tactics, and the viciousness and the nastiness - they were true...and you cant' do anything about them. >

So when the prospect of #IndyRef2 raises it's head, you can tell the people who were fighting for 'No' in 2014. They're the ones cowering in dread.

People who weren't there are the ones saying we should have that "democratic debate" and we're just scared.

No - we're scarred.

PS. That ended a bit more 'National Collective Wish tree' than I had intended when I set out - but like, I still occasionally think back and wonder "What the hell happened during the 2015 Election"!