OPINION:
Australia has gone a bit off the deep end with coronavirus clampdowns, sending police in helicopters to buzz by people who are congregating and blare through bull horns a warning of fines to come if they don’t disperse. America, take note.
It’s a scene right out of “1984” by George Orwell. Or “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. Or “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. Choose your dystopian poison. It’s all wrapped in the same police state package.
For 210 new coronavirus case counts in and around the area of Sydney, Australia’s authorities have gone full-steam tyrannical.
From Reuters: “There were 210 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 reported in Sydney and vicinities that are under a weeks-longs trick lockdown while battling an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant. Saturday’s numbers bring the outbreak to 3,190 cases.”
Big deal.
Case counts mean nothing absent the all-important contextual observation of how many of those who tested positive actually suffered serious health impacts — or died — versus how many didn’t even know they were sick. And after a year-and-a-half-plus of collected coronavirus data, it’s clear: it’s that latter figure that dominates the spectrum of test positives. Most people don’t even know they have the virus until a test kit tells them they do — and even then, there were problems for months with the accuracy of these test kits. For this, more lockdowns?
“The lockdown [in Australia], to last at least until the end of August, spurred violent demonstrations,” Reuters went on. “But the police closed train stations, banned taxis from dropping passengers off downtown and deployed 1,000 officers to set up check points and to disperse any groups.”
Police also hovered in helicopters over beaches and parks to catch the sneaky sons of you-know-what rebels who refused to, well, partake of the police state stupidity.
“Beachgoers sneaking out during Sydney’s Covid lockdown to soak up some winter sun have been sensationally lambasted by a hovering police helicopter,” The Daily Mail wrote. “Footage uploaded to TikTok shows officers in a chopper demanding sunbathers pack up and leave Gordon’s Bay … or be hit with fines for breaking stay-at-home orders.”
Somebody cover Gavin Newsom’s eyes. Keep Gov. Andrew Cuomo off TikTok. And for God’s sake, give President Joe Biden an ice cream cone to distract him from the news. Americans don’t need the domestic coronavirus tyrants getting any ideas from the foreign coronavirus tyrants.
“Some commenters on the social media platform [TikTok] called the bizarre police measures ‘over the top’ and compared it to something that might be seen in North Korea,” The Daily Mail wrote.
Yes. That’s ‘cause it is. This is exactly how North Korea deals with dissension among the citizenry. This is just what North Korea does with citizens who dare to critically think and worse, decide, for self rather than go along with the government orders.
This is how all dictatorial societies do: utterly oppress under guise of protecting and saving the masses.
Read some Orwell, for crying out loud.
Read — and apply the Constitution accordingly. Today’s Australia is tomorrow’s America. Think about that while shopping for your kids’ back-to-school face masks for a virus that long ago met the two weeks flattening of the curve. Think about that while finagling with the mask on your face that the vaccine you just received was supposed to make unnecessary.
Freedom is both precious and precarious.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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