I'm sorry, my friend, I don't want to sound condescending, but the sentiment like "if only all the people did ..." is inherently flawed. There should be a material force dragging us, the people, into this mindset.
There were some opportunities in the recent times like the rise of twitter and COVID times where people had been engaging into the real politics, but apparently it was not enough yet
There's the trick: what do you call democracy? Usually, the word "democracy" is reduced to the word "elections" and here the field where the autocrats like to play.
"Slave mentality" too
In my experience, this one is usually used as a token of some superiority over another nation or over your very neighbors who elect candidates you don't like.
I just love to see that 3rd world events that were previously explained by "slave mentality" or by "lack of democracy institutions development" are happening in the 1st world countries.
Also, be brave in these uneasy times.
The lord of the rings? You were afraid of the LOTR?
No democracy movement has ever failed when it was able to mobilize at least 3.5 percent of the population to protest over a sustained period.
Belarus had more than a million people on the streets for months. It's a lot more than 10% of the whole population. Also your source seems to be BBC
How? We can see time after time how direct peaceful protest fails and violent protest either is policed down or fails successfully like in Syria, Libia, Egypt.
Approaching the politics from the moral ground perspective and making martyrs is childish
Ok, guys, at least Mr Sam is wannabe Steve Jobs and not wannabe a Hitler's orange hair twin