The People’s Republic of Australia/NZ

A friend used this phrase to describe his home country when complaining about the continued attack on civil liberties in Australia. While obviously hyperbolic, I was a bit surprised to see that many of his complaints were accurate.

Apparently you can only go outside without a mask if you’re exercising. Apparently the police can be quite vigorous in enforcing this.

Coronavirus Melbourne: Cyclist grilled by cops over ‘not exercising’ (news.com.au)

Not wearing a mask can have overzealous enforcement.

Victoria Police reviewing alleged ‘choking’ arrest of woman not wearing a mask in Melbourne - ABC News

Drone enforcement.

Police launch drones to make sure you’re wearing a mask | ZDNet

Victoria COVID: Mickleham quarantine camp construction under way, says Victorian government (brisbanetimes.com.au)

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Australia taking steps against people knowingly spreading infectious disease,. Fascists!

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It is not surprising that you are coming out on the side opposite of civil liberties.

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People potentially spread infectious disease all the time.

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And I thought this was about China taking over Australia…

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Nah. It’s just another hyperbole thread to push a narrative that things are worse than they actually are.

Like the California is a failed state thead.

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Some people are more accepting of authoritarianism than others.

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Australia is not authoritarian.

Thread title mischaracterises the situation in Australia.

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authoritarianism

/ɔːˌθɒrɪˈtɛːrɪənɪz(ə)m/

noun

  1. the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.

Looks like there is an increase in authoritarianism to me.

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Yes. I can read a dictionary too. Thank you.

Your point?

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If you can read a dictionary, perhaps you can read the post to which you are replying.

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And I am expressing the opinion that the thread mischaracterises the true situation.

Your freedom to punch me in the face ends where my nose begins.

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I understand; I even acknowledged the hyperbole in my OP. You also said some other stuff to which I was replying.

Apparently not if you are the State in Australia, as evidenced by the links in the OP.

Covid is far more infectious and deadly than those diseases.

When seriously deadly and infectious diseases spread, like Ebola, competent governments have no choice but to enact temporary measures to stop the disease from killing more people.

Death from a preventable disease is not freedom.

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For me, I see it as a clash between several types of freedoms and I guess we might value different things differently.

In my quote about punching me in the face, I’d see this from mask wearing. We know it remains quite dangerous. Since we know the mask is more about protecting others than yourself, I support it because I think taking it off in a pandemic is a violation of my right to life. If masks were one way and only protected the user, then I’d be yeah sure, if they wanna risk it, go for it. But it doesn’t work that way.

Australia’s not quite vaccinated yet. We know vaccines are effective and there will come a point where it does become one way through the vaccines. When everyone who wants one has one. Then I’d be happy to flip and support your argument…even if I don’t support the hyperbole. This is the case in Canada and the US. So… I am more willing to agree if we replace Australia with Canada.

Than which diseases?

Covid has a survival rate higher than 98.2%. Ebola: The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.

Scientists don’t even classify Covid as ‘extremely’ contagious. They say, ‘highly.’ CDC Yale NCBI

It’s not even considered a high-risk pathogen:

“As of 19 March 2020, COVID-19 is no longer considered to be a high consequence infectious disease (HCID) in the UK. The UK Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) is also of the opinion that COVID-19 should no longer be classified as an HCID. … .They have determined that several features have now changed; in particular, more information is available about mortality rates (low overall)UK Gov

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No it isn’t, at least not for everyone. For children, Covid is less deadly than pneumonia and the flu. It also could be less infectious than the flu.

Regardless, if you surrender your civil liberties for a bad flu, you don’t really care about civil liberties…which is good as you might not get them back.

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You keep spamming this, not only that, your original argument was 99.9%. Is it getting more deadly?

It’s obviously not working, otherwise we would have already been convinced. I think you need a new argument. We’ve already addressed the reasons why many of us think it’s a bullshit argument.

Of course it is.

Why are none of these precautions taken for the flu, which is far more deadly to kids than covid? Yes, covid is killing more overall people than the flu presently (which isn’t surprising see as it’s new), but the principle is exactly the same. When you propose justifications like those that @Marco has, there seems to be no limiting principle and no way to justify Covid policies but not advocate for the same policies for non-Covid dangers.

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