💾 Archived View for ainent.xyz › gemlog › 2022-01-03-on-liberty.gmi captured on 2023-07-10 at 13:42:46. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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What is liberty? In its most basic sense, it is freedom. Freedom to live your life peacefully as you see fit, without anyone or anything pressuring, harassing or otherwise requiring that you do something simply because they want you to. That, however, is purely theoretical. What is liberty in 2022? Many would argue, myself included, that liberty is just a pastime of days gone by. For the past almost 2 years, authoritarian regimes have popped up all over the world, squashing any illusions of liberty in what used to be the free Western world. Whether it's the UK, US, Australia, Germany, Austria, China or North Korea, liberty is either but a memory, or so far gone people can't even remember that such a word even exists. You'll notice that all of those countries, except for two, have traditionally been considered to be free, some more than others, yet still free at least in comparison to the last two.
As anyone possessing critical thinking skills can see, the threat of a virus so deadly that a whopping 99.8-99.9998% (depending on demographic) of people who catch it survive (take your pick of the WHO or the CDC's own data for a source -- I'm talking their raw data sheets, not the propaganda pieces -- if you don't know this basic stat by now then I can't help you), has been used as an excuse for power grabs the world over, even in places that had once thoroughly rejected fascism. All of the listed countries are under dystopian authoritarian regimes. China, once one of the worst, has even issued a statement condemning the authortarian nature of the Australian government, of all places. (I tried to find the source for this, but it likely got memory-holed. It was from a Chinese state media outlet.)
The Chinese Communist Party. Has called a Western. Government. Too. Harsh.
Let that one sink in.
Has there been one word in the US media or political discourse about the fact that Australia is bragging about building internment camps and using the army to force people into them? Nope, at least not in the "mainstream". Now this begs the question: why? Why the hell is China the only one calling this out? Instead, the US is continuing to ally with Australia.
Meanwhile, in the US, the federal government has gone, in just under 2 years, from "wash your hands, please" to "papers please" in a Stalin-esque attempt to starve out dissent on the covid shot. In times past, history has shown us an escalation path of normalcy turning into despotism: minor off-hand derogatory comments, then social ostracization, then forced bifurcation of citizens into two classes: scapegoats, and everyone else. What comes next for those who refuse to be subjects of medical experimentation (I mean both the original shots and the neverending boosters when I say "experimentation")? History does not bode well.
Loss, even attempted loss, of bodily autonomy is abject tyranny. To those who say, "No no, you have a choice. You can get nasally raped every week instead!": that is not a fucking choice. It's an ultimatum. "My way or the highway.". "Do as I say, or starve. The choice is yours.". Stalin would have been proud of you, Comrade Joe. History will be kind neither to you nor those who comply with you.