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Having looked through this comment thread as it has built up over the past couple of hours, I'd like to point to an article in The Atlantic from earlier today t

Having looked through this comment thread as it has built up over the past couple of hours, I'd like to point to an article in The Atlantic from earlier today that raises many parallel concerns to some expressed here. The article [1] is headlined Australia Traded Away Too Much Liberty and carries the sub-heading How long can a democracy maintain emergency restrictions and still call itself a free country? I can't view the article as unbiased (and neither would I expect that from The Atlantic), although it does make some effort to support measures introduced for the public good - especially in times of pandemic. However, for me at any rate, it was worth reading and gave me food for thought. I worked in Australia for nearly three years (2013 to 2016) and wouldn't like to see a shift in its society to the extent feared by the writer. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-australia-still-liberal-democracy/619940/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-a...

stephen_g 5y ago
It’s a bit different. The State Governments are enacting health measures that only have any authority under temporary declared state of emergency, and immediately cease as soon as that expires (they have had to be extended a bit). This proposal is the Federal Government, which has been passing increasingly draconian, increasingly authoritarian mass surveillance, “national security” laws and ostensibly “eSafety” laws over decades now. They have passed the worst in the last four or five years, but really it’s been going back to 9/11, even though we never had any “real” terror attacks on our shores… These federal laws stick.
- joshuahughes 5y ago
  "It’s a bit different. The State Governments are enacting health measures that only have any authority under temporary declared state of emergency, and immediately cease as soon as that expires (they have had to be extended a bit)." Worldwide, I'm seeing a heck of a lot of extension and precious little expiry so far...

stephen_g 5y ago

It’s a bit different. The State Governments are enacting health measures that only have any authority under temporary declared state of emergency, and immediately cease as soon as that expires (they have had to be extended a bit). This proposal is the Federal Government, which has been passing increasingly draconian, increasingly authoritarian mass surveillance, “national security” laws and ostensibly “eSafety” laws over decades now. They have passed the worst in the last four or five years, but really it’s been going back to 9/11, even though we never had any “real” terror attacks on our shores… These federal laws stick.

joshuahughes 5y ago
"It’s a bit different. The State Governments are enacting health measures that only have any authority under temporary declared state of emergency, and immediately cease as soon as that expires (they have had to be extended a bit)." Worldwide, I'm seeing a heck of a lot of extension and precious little expiry so far...