To set the tone, one my predictions. There are indications (in some countries) of governments calling a timeout on their plans for a totalitarian pharmocracy, but I doubt it’s going to be more than a temporary reprieve. Here in Taiwan, vaccine passports are quietly going ahead in the back rooms and there will probably come a point in the very near future where you can’t fart without a methane emissions license. More to the point, the public are going along with it all and sharpening their machetes - and that’s a global phenomenon. People are discovering not merely that cruelty is fun, but that it’s officially sanctioned. So despite omicron (or possibly because of omicron), I think the shit will hit the fan pretty soon, and there will be a lot of it.
So here’s the point of the post: when people start losing their jobs, getting kicked out of their apartments, or otherwise finding themselves in dire straits, they will need some support. I doubt there will be any legal recourse. “They” will come for the unvaccinated first, and then the revolution will start to devour its own children. My suggestion is this: those of us in a position to do so might use this forum to offer help when needed. I personally can probably chip in with temporary accommodation, food, and financial support … at least until they come for me. If anyone thinks it’s worth building a support network, or indeed if anyone is expecting to need such support, let’s do it by PM.
@finley you are obviously very intelligent, but you have to understand that crying wolf all the time seems bombastic at best, and predatory/Jim Jones lite at worst.
This seems like a trial balloon for some sort of covid cult lol. Are you trying to ascertain how many people here you have successfully scared the living shit out of over the past few months (year plus now?!) regarding COVID?
I honestly don’t think things will get that bad in Taiwan. The Taiwanese are inclined to comply up to a point, but if the government takes things too far, they’ll start to resist…and the government is more scared of the people than vice-versa. If they survived the fascist KMT regime, I’m confident they’ll survive any covid regime that could possibly emerge.
If anything this is likely to get worse in “Western” countries because especially the US they have not really experienced any real totalitarian government at all and so people don’t know what that’s like. And the US has become increasingly authoritarian over the last several decades.
Maybe, and frankly I hope I’m wrong. However the fact that things have even got this bad - with @bingobango and his ilk completely content with the way things are - suggests that it could get even worse than I think.
There are several parallel threads playing out simultaneously - some global, some local, some more promising, some very scary indeed. It’s complicated, and one of them will eventually win out. I don’t pretend to be right about who is going to win, but historically speaking, it’s usually the government, so I think it’s as well to be prepared for that possibility. Revolts are violently suppressed before they’re ultimately successful, and success (if it comes) depends on widespread social cohesion ranged against The Oppressor. That cohesion just isn’t there: instead, there’s a tsunami of hatred and paranoia being carefully nurtured by TPTB, and it’s a coin-toss whether it dissipates at landfall or destroys everything in its path.
I’m just suggesting here that, should any of us need to hunker down or get the hell out, those in a position to help should try to do so. I agree with TL that it’s likely to all turn to crap in other countries first, but Taiwan is not known for its original thinking, and there may be political forces at play that will impel them one way or the other.
