HN Explorer

What Is Happening to Australia?

18 points by throwawayfear ↗ HN
Covid is bad and all but why are there troops and police on the streets enforcing lockdowns? How did this happen? Why are they arresting people for Facebook posts against these lockdowns? I am not convinced that covid is this dangerous. The numbers do not justify this response.

I am catching up on Australia and I read this article which was written last September.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54007824

How could Australia, a democracy, get to the point where someone's facebook post is the cause for this kind of arrest?

Or how about how an entire apartment complex was shut down and the people living there were told they were not allowed to exit for any reason? Here is the link.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53316097

> "Unlike other Melburnians, residents of the nine towers cannot leave for any reason - they are subject to a police guard."

And this article from earlier this month just reads so wrong. Who could actually fall for this kind of propaganda?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-58066389

> "A citywide lockdown will last until at least 28 August. But unlike other Sydneysiders, these residents have been told to wear masks even outdoors. They cannot travel more than 5km (three miles) when leaving home for essential reasons, less than the 10km afforded to others. There are also stricter limits on who can work.

> New South Wales (NSW) authorities say these measures are designed to stop infections in the worst-hit areas, with the virus spreading from workplaces to large households.

> Police Minister David Elliott told local media a small minority of Sydney residents thought the rules "didn't apply to them"."

Why are people trusting this? Who are we listening to so much and why? How do we know they're trustworthy and why do these trends seem to be pointing to a dystopia? Does anybody else get 20th century vibes from this situation? What is happening to Australia? Am I even allowed to ask someone these questions?

Edit: And...flagged. Are you serious? For what?

4 comments

[ 5.8 ms ] story [ 13.0 ms ] thread
version_five
Expect to be flagged. If this was a third world country whose government turned on it, people would care.

But we just pretend it isnt happening because people value some security theatre more than any freedoms now. People as a mob have lost the ability to behave rationally, totalitarian populists have rolled in, and they've been welcomed.

Basically we're fucked.

Edit: the post is dead, which is understandable given this kind of discussion is not what the website is for. What the OP is frustrated about, and what terrifies me, is that there is literally nowhere to have a sensible discussion online about what is happening. Any questioning the official version is shut down an name called. We're not a western democracy anymore, this is truly frightening.

gtvwill
You hit the nail on the head. Aus isn't a democratic nation it's an authoritarian corprotocracy but people don't care. Most Aussies actively choose no involvement in politics whatsoever.
walkedaway
Covid has exposed the powers that be to be about exactly that: power. In the US, gun and ammo sales are through the roof due to the overreach of government. Everyone in the west has been warned by seeing how our governments react to try and control us. Well, everyone except Sweden and South Korea.

The surprise to me is not that governments are doing this. The surprise to me is that so many people fall in line with it as if they are incapable of thinking for themselves. Maybe after so many millennia of being serfs, slaves, and other subjugations its just in our DNA.

Nextgrid
> Why are people trusting this?

Because there is over a year's worth of evidence from other countries that Covid is dangerous and spreads indoors easily and that lockdowns are an effective means to (at least temporarily, until vaccines take over) counter it?