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Australia's Next Authoritarian Move To Control Covid Is So Insane That It Would Make Orwell Blush
Red State ^ | 09/02/2021 | Bonchie

Posted on 09/02/2021 9:08:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

At what point does an ostensibly free country cease to be a liberal democracy? Wherever you choose to draw that line, we can all rest assured that Australia has not just passed it, but done a double back-flip over it while shooting double birds in the air.

I’ve written previously about some of the wildly authoritarian scenes emanating from Down Under, including police abuse and the government keeping people essentially locked in their homes for all but one hour a day (measures vary among Australia’s six states).

But if you challenge tyranny to one-up itself, it usually delivers. That’s the case in South Australia, as they prepare a new COVID “mitigation” app that is so insane, it would make Orwell blush.

Read this from The Atlantic and understand that the following is not satire.

Intrastate travel within Australia is also severely restricted. And the government of South Australia, one of the country’s six states, developed and is now testing an app as Orwellian as any in the free world to enforce its quarantine rules. People in South Australia will be forced to download an app that combines facial recognition and geolocation. The state will text them at random times, and thereafter they will have 15 minutes to take a picture of their face in the location where they are supposed to be. Should they fail, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person. “We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” Premier Steven Marshall explained. “I think every South Australian should feel pretty proud that we are the national pilot for the home-based quarantine app.”

This is the kind of thing that a fiction writer would love to have come up with. The South Australian government will force you to put an app on your phone. Then the state will text you with a challenge to prove you are where you are “supposed” to be. After that, a person has only minutes to respond with a picture that proves their whereabouts, coupled with facial recognition technology. Finally, if you don’t respond, they’ll send the police to come verbally, and possibly physically, accost you.

What’s even more nuts about this is that the officials involved are actually proud of their work. Take this quote from Victorian leader Daniel Andrews.

In responding to a question about whether he had gone too far with respect to imposing a curfew (avoiding the question of why a curfew was needed when no other state had one), Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews replied: ‘it is not about human rights. It is about human life.’

Politicians have begun to actually feel superior and virtuous in their pursuit to crush individual rights and bring about a dystopian hellscape. That’s a scary place to be, for a nation that used to be a symbol of freedom in the Southern hemisphere. And unfortunately for those that live in Australia, there are very few signs that things are going to ease up. While the government has finally admitted that “zero COVID” is not attainable, officials are still pursuing mitigation that amounts to that.

Where does this end? I’m not sure it does, until enough Australians decide to say no more and refuse to comply. They can’t arrest everybody, and at some point, disobedience is the only choice. That applies to any other part of the world, including some parts of the United States, that is forcing unscientific, draconian mitigation on its residents. These politicians and officials need to be reminded that they do not have a right to control the individual choices of people just trying to live their lives in peace.



TOPICS: Government; Society
KEYWORDS: 1984; australia; bigbrother; covid; lockdown; orwell; plandemic; policestate; privacy; quarantine; spying; surveillance; tyranny
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1 posted on 09/02/2021 9:08:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I’d be taking a picture of my penis.


2 posted on 09/02/2021 9:11:15 PM PDT by Jonty30 (My superpower is setting people up for failure, without meaning to. )
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To: SeekAndFind

Time to pull a Romania.


3 posted on 09/02/2021 9:11:26 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: SeekAndFind
Australia's Next Authoritarian Move To Control Covid Is So Insane That It Would Make Orwell Blush

It's as if Australia isn't averaging just 4 COVID deaths a day.

4 posted on 09/02/2021 9:16:17 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: SeekAndFind

A little surprised Aussies haven’t rebelled yet.


5 posted on 09/02/2021 9:17:59 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: SeekAndFind

Cell phones are evil bump.

They can’t use them to spy on you if you don’t have a cell phone.

Easy peasy.


6 posted on 09/02/2021 9:18:29 PM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

RE: A little surprised Aussies haven’t rebelled yet.

Thousands of Aussies have taken to the streets. But it isn’t enough. You gotta vote the bums out and replace them with people who will support FREEDOM ( while you still have the chance to vote ).


7 posted on 09/02/2021 9:20:22 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: Jonty30

An anal shot would be more appropriate I think.


8 posted on 09/02/2021 9:29:46 PM PDT by Safrguns
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To: SeekAndFind

And the govt assumes everyone has a cellphone.


9 posted on 09/02/2021 9:31:23 PM PDT by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57 returning after lurking since 2000) )
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To: cgbg

cgbg wrote:

“Cell phones are evil bump.

They can’t use them to spy on you if you don’t have a cell phone.

Easy peasy.”

Exactly; they —assume— everyone has a cellphone.


10 posted on 09/02/2021 9:32:30 PM PDT by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57 returning after lurking since 2000) )
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To: WildHighlander57

Yup—I am gonna be a crazy Luddite when I grow up—evil jerks have turned modern technology into a horror show.


11 posted on 09/02/2021 9:34:27 PM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

They have no guns.


12 posted on 09/02/2021 9:35:11 PM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt, “The Weapon Shops of Isher”)
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To: SeekAndFind
Thousands of Aussies have taken to the streets. But it isn’t enough.

That's it? They'll have to actually drive to police roadblocks. Get arrested. If they all do it in a line, the police will eventually give up.

13 posted on 09/02/2021 9:37:29 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: cgbg

What if you travel and your cell is at home?

What if you’re asleep?

Off to the Goolag?


14 posted on 09/02/2021 9:37:37 PM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt, “The Weapon Shops of Isher”)
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To: Ancesthntr
They have no guns

So? Australia is not totalitarian like China. The police/military will not be willing to slaughter their people. Use that against them.

15 posted on 09/02/2021 9:41:01 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: Ancesthntr
What if you travel and your cell is at home?

I don't think anyone is permitted to leave their state in Australia. Depending where you are, you may not even be allowed to leave your home.

16 posted on 09/02/2021 9:42:08 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: Ancesthntr

They have lots of guns. But just like here, no one is willing to fire the first shot and who do you aim at anyway?


17 posted on 09/02/2021 9:42:08 PM PDT by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc O'Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

“I think every South Australian should feel pretty proud that we are the national pilot for the home-based quarantine app.”

The Aussies should start with the person who uttered that creepy statement.


18 posted on 09/02/2021 9:42:14 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: Jonty30

I’ll bet they’re going to be getting a lot of those.
Any time they’ve done their tattletale tip lines and websites, they get flooded with peepeechosetz.


19 posted on 09/02/2021 9:42:22 PM PDT by Trillian
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To: SeekAndFind
At what point does an ostensibly free country cease to be a liberal democracy?

When they turned in their guns.

20 posted on 09/02/2021 9:59:02 PM PDT by gunsequalfreedom (ui)
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