The Rise of the Covid19 Police State
Ironic. A lady near quiet Bowral has laughed at a couple who were arrested over mask laws. Aggressively arrested by police for not wearing masks, over health concerns.
She and others criticized the actions, calling them idiots. Covid deniers, anti vaxxers. Even the government joined in the name calling. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard criticised them, calling them Wacko’s.
Many said they would never shop there again, or pushed for the harshest penalties. It was a total lynch mob mentality. Some even said their anti mask stance was just to earn more money.
Hmmm… Sadly their ‘cost’ in protesting mask laws over health concerns will be multiple high fines and loss of patrons to their store, as well as many calling them names.
The lady posting on Twitter, Celia from Mittagong, loves her town so much she has the postcode in her twitter handle @Celia2575. I wonder if she and others who love their quiet country town and nearby Bowral are aware how rapidly global life is descending in part towards totalitarianism. Into 1984.
Where pregnant women are arrested in their pyjamas at home, in front of her small children, for daring to post on Facebook a desire to protest the draconian Covid laws. Even her asking others to follow mask and distancing laws was not enough and she was arrested. The world looked on in horror, that certainly made the global news. Australia becoming the new North Korea.
So yes there are laws, but they don’t always make it right. At some extremes, Germany had laws Aktion T4, the involuntary euthanising of disabled or ill people. 300 000 reported, and these were citizens, not ‘the Jews’. Think Australia’s laws banning citizens from coming home or making it impossible to leave are bad? But where did the line begin in Germany? When did the beaker of water slowly warm enough to cook the frog?
You would break the law if you tried to prevent these ‘mercy killings’. People have broken laws to fight against slavery, or the right of women to vote, or the right to be gay. Did you know 71 countries have laws against being gay, and 11 have the death penalty for it?
We have had people breaking laws to fight for black rights.
Would you dare to protest these laws? Any of them?
In the case of the Bowral lynch mob nearly ready to burn them at the stake and burn their shop down, their crime was to be worried at the health impacts of masks.To not wear them inside their own shop, with a sign outside politely asking no masks in their Organic shop.
It’s so easy to say they broke the law, but stop for a moment and recognise that THIS YEAR the UK high court accepted expert evidence showing significant harms from forced mask wearing by school children, which was wholly unchallenged by the government. The largest global mask study in Denmark with 6000 people found no significant benefit from masks.
And numerous professional bodies have advocated against masks over multiple health harms, as well as other Covid policy actions. These groups include very large numbers of professors and doctors, including specific experts in immunology, with large numbers of medical and media references to back up claims.
Meanwhile we have respected surgeons being sacked for daring to encourage informed consent regards young children being vaccinated (The WHO has previously said ‘Children should not be vaccinated’ and ‘there is not enough evidence about vaccines and children’)
While in Germany, a judge who ruled against forced masks in schools has been investigated by police, all electronic devices confiscated, and personal and office locations searched.
While in the UK, OFCOM, the government regulator of the media has been found to stifle any debate over the government’s response. Effectively killing free speech, and concealing all evidence that counters government policy, even when from respected scientists, medical experts or others.
Last night, Steve Baker, the Conservative MP and former minister, described the watchdog’s approach as “dangerous”, stating: “To label any kind of rational criticism as misinformation is unscientific, and a frank rejection of enlightenment values which would catapult us into a new dark age”.
Celia2575 wrote to someone else on Twitter about the Bowral incident. ‘Thanks anti vaxxer I trust science… who’s the idiot? Not me.’
In trying to open some eyes, I messaged back. Pointing out that ‘The science’ obviously depends on who you ask, just like mask laws. If you mention in the USA now they assume you are talking about laws BANNING mask mandates. If you check in with numerous professional bodies on masks you get a large body of evidence pointing to mask harms.
Sadly, I was blocked by her on Twitter before I could even send her a response.
Ironic. Those trusting the science choose to listen ONLY to those they want to, and in this case, only those replies they want to. In a culture of control of the media, of the social media platforms, we have lost freedom of speech. We’ve lost it in the controls on government messaging, in controls on sacking doctors who dare raise questions on patient consent, in controls on the judiciary who dare to find that masks (also) cause significant harms.
We can easily cite evidence showing the effectiveness of vaccines and masks. (I am well vaccinated but don’t want a Covid one, or certainly not in a hurry). We can also show major harms of both.
So in Bowral, Police have been aggressively arresting elderly shop owners whose only crime was to not even actively participate in protests, but simply to not wear a mask in their own ORGANIC shop, out of health concerns that are well supported in many other contexts by medical professionals and the courts.
We have a choice to lynch mob them for daring to flout the law, we can be in fear that their mask failure in their shop was putting others at risk. OR we can see them as fighting for health and freedom to body autonomy. This could be in the same way as those protesting many other abuses, that years later we look back on in horror. Is this one of them? Are you one of them?
I accept masks offer a (likely small) benefit, but I also see the other side and am concerned that the many harms of masks (including mental health skyrocketing) may outweigh the benefits.
I am not a mask expert, and who can know what’s real in today’s nightmare world of disinformation.
One thing is for sure though, we should protect free speech, and encourage open debate. Shutting down and banning protests, and calling anyone who dares even question the most draconian laws ever in Western society recent history is a real worry.
I love country Bowral and the Southern Highlands. I am now very worried that the citizens there are consumed with fear, and unable to see there could be more than one ‘Science’ and that lynch hate mobs are forming of those who dare even mildly protest against draconian laws might be seen in the same way as those who lynched against folk who wanted to free slaves, or allow blacks to vote, or many many other areas where ethics at the time are so very different to today.
Are you accepting the advice without any question? Are you lynch mobbing those who dare to worry on your behalf, and protest such laws, and draw attention to there being significant dispute in ‘the science’? We can throw stones and harm just as easily today on social media, and on whom we vote for.
So regardless of your views on masks or vaccines, I do hope you support those who don’t want them forced, just as they don’t want to criminalise you if you do want them.
Body autonomy and freedom of speech are vastly more important to protect, given the well known fact that Covid risk is extremely small. Let’s worry about the bigger risks.
Soldiers fought and died for your country's freedom. Let’s not give freedoms away on the ‘some’, but not incredibly high risk of any virus. Because if we don’t have the freedom to live, then how much is life really worth living anyway?
Freedom. Value this. It’s life. Mere existence isn’t.
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3 年There is an increasingly 'Orwellian' feel to things.....