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Lockdowns Wrecked Democracy around the World
American Institute for Economic Research ^ | March 10, 2021 | James Bovard

Posted on 03/10/2021 4:04:17 PM PST by CheshireTheCat

While the number of fatalities attributed to Covid-19 is carefully tracked by governments, few people have recognized how pandemic-spurred crackdowns have devastated democracy around the world. Emergency proclamations have entitled presidents and other government officials to seize vast new powers previously forbidden to them. Government bureaucrats became a new priesthood that could sanctify unlimited sacrifices merely by invoking dubious statistical extrapolations of future perils.

In October, Freedom House issued a report, Democracy under Lockdown – The Impact of COVID-19 on Global Freedom, which warned that since the pandemic started, “the condition of democracy and human rights has worsened in 80 countries.” Sarah Repucci, co-author of the report, warned that “governments’ responses to the pandemic are eroding the pillars of democracy around the world.” Abuses of power have been propelled by a presumption that government officials are entitled to all the power they claim to need to keep people safe.

When the pandemic arrived in America, governors in many states responded by dropping the equivalent of a Reverse Neutron Bomb – something which destroys the economy while supposedly leaving human beings unharmed. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo set the standard when he effectively declared that he was entitled to inflict any burden on his state’s residents to “save just one life.” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer prohibited anyone from leaving their home to visit family or friends. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti banned people from walking or bicycling outside. More than ten million jobs were lost thanks to lockdowns, a major reason why life expectancy in the United States last year had its sharpest plunge since World War Two....

Britain unleashed some of the most absurd restrictions. In June, it prohibited couples who live in different homes from having sex indoors...

(Excerpt) Read more at aier.org ...


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: coronavirus; deathoffreedom; economy; freedomhouse; lockdown; west
And tomorrow we get to celebrate the anniversary of all this madness.
1 posted on 03/10/2021 4:04:17 PM PST by CheshireTheCat
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To: CheshireTheCat

2 posted on 03/10/2021 4:06:49 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: CheshireTheCat

And the ChiComs are loving it


3 posted on 03/10/2021 4:07:10 PM PST by AFreeBird
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To: CheshireTheCat

Good. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for dinner. Prefer a constitutional republic that protects me from all the idiot voters who surround me.


4 posted on 03/10/2021 4:10:10 PM PST by Clemenza
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To: CheshireTheCat

‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’

Winston S Churchill, 11 November 1947


5 posted on 03/10/2021 4:18:03 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: CheshireTheCat

James Bovard is a patriot treasure. Continue writing, sir knight.


6 posted on 03/10/2021 4:22:52 PM PST by sergeantdave (Federal courts no longer have any standing in America. )
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To: CheshireTheCat

I don’t think the economic damage was a bug. It was a feature, perhaps even the objective.


7 posted on 03/10/2021 4:32:34 PM PST by Pollster1 (America is no longer in Claire Wolfe's "awkward stage")
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To: CheshireTheCat

Just as they were designed to do.


8 posted on 03/10/2021 4:52:18 PM PST by motor_racer (Who will bell the cat?)
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To: motor_racer

Just as they were designed to do.

/
/

yep


9 posted on 03/10/2021 5:26:54 PM PST by snarkytart
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To: Pollster1
"I don’t think the economic damage was a bug. It was a feature, perhaps even the objective."

Yes, indeed. They are sweeping aside all opposition to their NWO Marxist dictatorship.

10 posted on 03/10/2021 7:10:03 PM PST by Truth29
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To: CheshireTheCat
Watching the reaction of people to COVID over the past year (YEAR!), seeing the utter stupidity and irrationality instilled in them by their fear, has made me understand how the Salem Witch trials happened. People are beyond reason, and most are impervious to any facts or logic that runs counter to their conviction that they’re going to die if everyone doesn’t wear a face mask and get vaccinated.

It is collective insanity, and frightening to see.

11 posted on 03/10/2021 7:15:08 PM PST by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: CheshireTheCat

911 and now 311. Reverse neutron bomb. Good one.

For later - thanks - good find.

;—)


12 posted on 03/10/2021 7:19:43 PM PST by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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