"Dictatorship is good"

[oszkar07]

There were repeated lockdowns (mass imprisonment of the people in their own homes),
whenever new cases would appear, which was often despite everything.
There were involuntary quarantine camps in Queensland I remember,
nobody was allowed to enter or leave the country for years,
there was no freedom of movement between provinces,
of course there was total censorship and legal and professional reprisals against any dissent, including from doctors,
and the police (and military) were brutal against average harmless nonviolent people, including children.
The country became an oppressive prison.

Of course businesses were closed and failed,
livelihoods and lives were destroyed,
people became destitute,
and succumbed to sickness and despair, drugs, alcohol, suicide, violence.

Of course masks were mandatory like in most other countries,
which was oppressive and nonsensical as well.
And then of course vaccination and boosting were required to participate in society,
leading to widespread vaccine-related injury and death among the population,
both in the short-term and well into the future.

Australia had some quite extreme Zero Covid policies, which were doomed to fail.
Eventually the country opened and covid quickly spread throughout the country,
but the media was not covering covid much anymore in 2022.

Well I live in Australia so I can speak from first hand experience as a citizen (:

There was that and it was stupid and unecessary however the actual extreme lock down period was for several months on and off between 2021 and 2022.

I worked all through covid and I also visited family in my local area.
I also went out to ride my bicycle or go for walks which was allowed under context of physical excercise.

People who had buisinesses suffered initially but many of them got funding packages from the Government and I know in my local area most pre covid buisinesses reopened.

Those 2 initial covid years were not bad for everyone though, in many jobs people were able to work from home still get paid they saved money and time on not having to commute to and from work. They worked not under their managers direct eye so more freedom and if they were parents they were at home with family.

But overall covid has been a major nuisance the post covid world in Australia especially we have lot of inflation increase expense of living,
shopping centre prices went up ridiculously but i hear this happened in countries internationally too including USA.

Also now we have this dumbfuck war in Ukraine and the genocide in Palestine also contributing to inflated prices.

I struggle to feel sympathy for the trouble makers and war mongers of modern world.

All that said. to say that Australia is now currently a liberal democracy with draconian measures is hardly accurate and was only really sonewhat the case for certain period during the first 2 covid years. But the post covid world sux much more than most years pre 2020.
Someones is fucking us over and many elites and certain companies have made trillions whilst most normal folk have suffered and have to just struggle harder.

of course there was total censorship and legal and professional reprisals against any dissent, including from doctors,
and the police (and military) were brutal against average harmless nonviolent people, including children.
The country became an oppressive prison.

No not exactly , I dont recall much about Police brutality - perhaps during some protests there may have been some instances of vocal protestors being wrestled to ground or people being moved on from a protest. Police brutality usually means people actually being beaten up or excessive force used. I agree that some excessive force may have been used during a protest or even an arrest but was there generally common cases of Police brutality I dont think so.

Unlike some country's generally speaking Australian Police dont have strong reputation for being trigger happy shooting people willy nilly but in all Police forces there are occasions of unecessary use of excessive force. I think there are many nations and in the west too where Police brutality is much more an issue than in Australia.

The mainstream media followed the party line for a while but I wouldn't say there was total censorship, I agree the reaction was initially over the top, because people stupidly believed we were dealing with the Black Plague ... which was the disinformation that had been spread from certain voices in America and so called international experts.
Fortunatly the extreme aspect of this period was pretty short lived within the 2021 to 2022 timespan, by end of 2022 everyone was over it and no one including most of media or Politicians took this alleged Black Plague mantra serious anymore.

[Anglo-Celtic]

What did you do? Did the police ever catch you?

Throughout Canada, and also throughout California and in Melbourne, Australia for my friends,
I had neighbours who repeatedly ratted me or my friends to the police because we were having too much fun,
and they suspected that there were too many people in the house.
Soon it became clear that this was a form of harassment, false witness and attempted persecution.

The 'normies' became hysterical and irrational, became totalitarians overnight, because of a flu with a 99.8% survival rate.

Within every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out!

I took a short drive through the town each night, and cops never stopped cars since some drivers had valid reasons to break curfew. I feel like I have an obligation to ignore dictates that aren't based in logic and morality, and the buzz from doing so is less violent than starting an insurrection.Your neighbors sound like real "see you next Tuesdays", and the bioweapon event brought a lot of them out of the woodwork, especially muh authority figures in Blue places. My guess is that they tested people's limits for arbitrary, tyrannical edicts and were very pleased with the passivity of the masked sheep before their next step.

[Anglo-Celtic]

There were repeated lockdowns (mass imprisonment of the people in their own homes),
whenever new cases would appear, which was often despite everything.
There were involuntary quarantine camps in Queensland I remember,
nobody was allowed to enter or leave the country for years,
there was no freedom of movement between provinces,
of course there was total censorship and legal and professional reprisals against any dissent, including from doctors,
and the police (and military) were brutal against average harmless nonviolent people, including children.
The country became an oppressive prison.

Of course businesses were closed and failed,
livelihoods and lives were destroyed,
people became destitute,
and succumbed to sickness and despair, drugs, alcohol, suicide, violence.

Of course masks were mandatory like in most other countries,
which was oppressive and nonsensical as well.
And then of course vaccination and boosting were required to participate in society,
leading to widespread vaccine-related injury and death among the population,
both in the short-term and well into the future.

Australia had some quite extreme Zero Covid policies, which were doomed to fail.
Eventually the country opened and covid quickly spread throughout the country,
but the media was not covering covid much anymore in 2022.

Did you wear a slave mask? I refused until local stores barred me , but I sometimes shopped unmasked, and I just got confused looks from shoppers and workers. It was so stupid because one county had mask requirements while the very next county didn't. They acted like the bioweapon wouldn't cross county lines just like it would avoid commie protests, as well as Democratic Party dinners.

[CosmoLady]

Well I live in Australia so I can speak from first hand experience as a citizen (:

I am a permanent resident through investment, but I was outside Australia from mid 2019 to mid 2022.
I have several friends, employees and tenants in Australia, and they were telling me and sending me videos all the time,
and I was watching ABC and Sky News a lot. I was watching Australian media a lot during Covid for some reason.
(I remember when Sharri Markson first reported about the Wuhan Lab Leak in mid-2021,
even though the lab leak theory was obviously true to me in January 2020)

I was travelling throughout Covid, but not to the US, Australia, New Zealand, or the Pacific.
I was in Sweden a lot, and there were no covid restrictions for everyday life,
no mandatory masks or lockdowns or vaccination as a condition of participation in society.
Shopping malls, bars, restaurants, schools were all open normally,
people were not afraid, people were living normally and enjoying themselves.

Covid did not seem more serious than a flu pandemic, EXCEPT for the world's hysterical overreaction.

The most extreme/totalitarian things about Australia's (and New Zealand's) covid response, specifically:

-The goal to have zero cases (very unrealistic), with repeated lockdowns whenever cases would appear;
not even European countries were this strict about punishing all of society for a few cases.
-Australians could not leave their province
-Australians could not leave the country
-Australians could not enter their own country, were stuck overseas
-Some Australians were sent to quarantine camps (which were nicer than China and North Korea I'm sure)

There was that and it was stupid and unecessary however the actual extreme lock down period was for several months on and off between 2021 and 2022.

So a presumably liberal democratic country imprisoned its own entire population multiple times over a course of three years.
Australia was not unique here, many other countries did the same.
There were multiple lockdowns from 2020-22, depending on the province.
Covid eventually appeared anyway and thousands died anyway.

Your total sentence was only several months? Consider yourself fortunate I guess!

I worked all through covid and I also visited family in my local area.
I also went out to ride my bicycle or go for walks which was allowed under context of physical excercise.

The state gave you permission to be outdoors? Like in prison, you were graciously allowed your daily outdoor exercise!

You had to wear a mask outdoors though, for a time this was the case.

But do remember to thank the state for allowing you to this basic courtesy.
Our basic freedom to live our lives normally depends on the whims of the state, after all.

People who had buisinesses suffered initially but many of them got funding packages from the Government and I know in my local area most pre covid buisinesses reopened.

Like in most countries,
the state decided which businesses (thus, which livelihoods) were "essential" and "nonessential". Very disturbing.
I do not know the statistics for Australia,
but in the US, which had much shorter, milder lockdowns and restrictions,
some 60% of businesses closed by Covid restrictions never reopened.

Also in the US, employment (of the native population) never returned to pre-Covid levels,
most new jobs went to foreigners, or were due to the expansion of government bureaucracy.

Thanks to the enlightened liberal democratic governance,
people lost their businesses, homes and livelihoods, for nothing in the end,
whilst their bank and creditors still demand debt and interest payments.
Any aid money received temporarily is not much of a comfort, but better than nothing of course.
The personal damage is long-term for many.

Those 2 initial covid years were not bad for everyone though, in many jobs people were able to work from home still get paid they saved money and time on not having to commute to and from work. They worked not under their managers direct eye so more freedom and if they were parents they were at home with family.

Yes, my employees and you and I are lucky, we were already working from home, on our laptops, even before the pandemic.
My friends and employees simply stayed home, luckily they all have swimming pools.
Sadly the state did not allow them to go to the beach, even though some of them lived on the beach.

Most people do not have work-from-home jobs though.

But overall covid has been a major nuisance the post covid world in Australia especially we have lot of inflation increase expense of living,
shopping centre prices went up ridiculously but i hear this happened in countries internationally too including USA.

Also now we have this dumbfuck war in Ukraine and the genocide in Palestine also contributing to inflated prices.

I struggle to feel sympathy for the trouble makers and war mongers of modern world.

Yes I agree.

All that said. to say that Australia is now currently a liberal democracy with draconian measures is hardly accurate and was only really sonewhat the case for certain period during the first 2 covid years. But the post covid world sux much more than most years pre 2020.
Someones is fucking us over and many elites and certain companies have made trillions whilst most normal folk have suffered and have to just struggle harder.

Australia and New Zealand were definitely more oppressive than most countries,
with the internal and external travel restrictions and Zero Covid policies and quarantine camps.
I remember the panicked story of the manhunt when a few teens escaped from a quarantine camp.
Otherwise Australia was similarly oppressive to the worst European countries, which is not very reassuring.

The point is, any "liberal democracy" can suddenly become totalitarian,
due to any pretext where people are made to feel afraid, and where bureaucrats and transnational forces take control.
Often the strongest restrictions were in NATO, EU, or Five Eyes countries,
inspired by China no doubt, so I was pleasantly surprised by Sweden.

Lockdowns and other oppressive measures and mandates were similar to other presumably "liberal democratic" countries,
not unlike the strictest countries of Europe.

Some of my Aussie friends and employees also live in Singapore, which was oppressive but still milder than Australia,
and in Dubai, which had no lockdown (despite some pandemic restrictions).

No not exactly , I dont recall much about Police brutality - perhaps during some protests there may have been some instances of vocal protestors being wrestled to ground or people being moved on from a protest. Police brutality usually means people actually being beaten up or excessive force used. I agree that some excessive force may have been used during a protest or even an arrest but was there generally common cases of Police brutality I dont think so.

Unlike some country's generally speaking Australian Police dont have strong reputation for being trigger happy shooting people willy nilly but in all Police forces there are occasions of unecessary use of excessive force. I think there are many nations and in the west too where Police brutality is much more an issue than in Australia.

The mainstream media followed the party line for a while but I wouldn't say there was total censorship, I agree the reaction was initially over the top, because people stupidly believed we were dealing with the Black Plague ... which was the disinformation that had been spread from certain voices in America and so called international experts.
Fortunatly the extreme aspect of this period was pretty short lived within the 2021 to 2022 timespan, by end of 2022 everyone was over it and no one including most of media or Politicians took this alleged Black Plague mantra serious anymore.

Are you joking mate? My Aussie girls were sending me new Twitter, Rumble, TikTok videos all the time of:

extreme, unimaginable Australian police violence and brutality in the Covid context,
against regular, everyday people, kids and normal peaceful protestors or passive resisters (NOT rioters),
by regular, everyday police officers. (and even some soldiers)

If I were a police officer, I would resign and drop my badge in the toilet before brutalising my own people.

It was very depressing and tiresome, my household probably watched around 100 of these videos.
Australia has fallen, Australia is not a free country.
This will happen again. Meanwhile, speech restrictions are increasing.

Australia was NOT unique here though, similar things were happening in Europe, North America.
The Netherlands and Canada were horrible too.
And I was NOT referring to police shootings, this has to do with violent conditions in the US, like in South Africa.

Of course these things were not shown on ABC or Sky News.
Only occasional, mild, tepid criticism of government policy was permitted,
no dissent against masks and vaccines,
these were especially sensitive areas for the Five Eyes/NATO/EU countries.

But my Aussie friends were VERY upset about how their once-free country turned into a prison (as it once was anyway).
We remember how much fun Oz used to be, what fun-loving travellers and adventurers Aussies once were, not anymore.

We became very disillusioned about the police and the state during Covid, including in Australia.
And all of this will happen again.

[Scarface F]

Australia became a prison. Some provinces were worse than others. And the police were brutal.
People could hardly go outside at times, and could not live life normally for years.

My friends who were Australian but in Singapore or Dubai could not even return home, they were stuck overseas for years.

Some people I know via other people (Canadian citizens) couldn't return to Canada for months if not more than a year because they were not vaxxed, If I remember correctly.

[Scarface F]

GDP per capita is still miserly in China compared to even the poorest parts of Europe. It may be catching up rapidly, but we shouldn't be deceived into thinking that all of it is like Guangzhou or Shanghai. But yes, it is ironic how although the regime is called "Communist", in reality it is a kind of authoritarian state capitalism they practice. (I don't deny that it does work, for the most part, even though Chinese factory workers do work long hours and in conditions no one in Europe would tolerate).

Hainan where he lives is among poorest parts of China and it's far from being a shithole. Urban parts don't look nice, but it's safe and functional part of the world (plus nice beaches)

[Scarface F]

There were repeated lockdowns (mass imprisonment of the people in their own homes),
whenever new cases would appear, which was often despite everything.
There were involuntary quarantine camps in Queensland I remember,
nobody was allowed to enter or leave the country for years,
there was no freedom of movement between provinces,
of course there was total censorship and legal and professional reprisals against any dissent, including from doctors,
and the police (and military) were brutal against average harmless nonviolent people, including children.
The country became an oppressive prison.

Of course businesses were closed and failed,
livelihoods and lives were destroyed,
people became destitute,
and succumbed to sickness and despair, drugs, alcohol, suicide, violence.

Of course masks were mandatory like in most other countries,
which was oppressive and nonsensical as well.
And then of course vaccination and boosting were required to participate in society,
leading to widespread vaccine-related injury and death among the population,
both in the short-term and well into the future.

Australia had some quite extreme Zero Covid policies, which were doomed to fail.
Eventually the country opened and covid quickly spread throughout the country,
but the media was not covering covid much anymore in 2022.

Serb tennis star Novak Đoković (best player in the world) was arrested upon arriving in Australia to play Australian Open and defend his title (which he was unable to do) because he refused vaccination.

[CosmoLady]

Serb tennis star Novak Đoković (best player in the world) was arrested upon arriving in Australia to play Australian Open and defend his title (which he was unable to do) because he refused vaccination.

Yes, I remember that! And by that time, I was ALLOWED to travel to Australia as an unvaccinated person.

The reprisal against Djokovic was a petty, personal, POLITICAL reprisal because he is a symbol for the unvaccinated!


I do not follow tennis and I very rarely play, but Novak and his wonderful wife are my heroes for their strong principles!

[Scarface F]

I'm glad that your friend is being well-treated by China.
I think that he is given some special privileges, the USSR would do something similar to selected foreigners.

I wanted to visit Hainan Island too (this is like the southernmost tropical resort island of China), but it never happened.

It's possible. He was trying to sell me China (we became romantically involved and I was thinking about visiting there), but he is personally quite honest nonetheless. Since he is very gifted and crazy, there were rumors on Facebook (and among certain people in his hometown) he was recruited by Chinese secret service already when he was a student on scholarship.

[Varda]

Serb tennis star Novak Đoković (best player in the world) was arrested upon arriving in Australia to play Australian Open and defend his title (which he was unable to do) because he refused vaccination.

Canada and Australia turned to woke dictatorships in the last several years. I known few Serbian younger couples with small children which returned from Canada and Australia few years ago and their only reason was strong woke propaganda and terror there.

One Serb from most prominent Serbian forum Krstarica who live in Yucon said that decline of Canada in economic sense started about 2010. He said until 2010. Canada was like Switzerland by standard of living, between 2010. and 2020. like France, and after 2020. is like Slovenia. He mentioned mass migrations of non-whites to Canada in the last 15 years (Latinos and South Asians mostly) and small number of white migrants in the same period (few Balkanites and Ukrainians). According to him economic decline of Canada is direct product of significant growing of non-white population. Earlier he lived in Toronto, but escape to Yucon because Toronto became too much contamined with non-whites. He says Yucon is too cold for non-whites, they don't want to live there.