Thursday, October 08, 2020

Oncoming oppression...


Well, not oncoming but already here and likely to get worse. This quote is so true. Quotes.pub had the image but the reminder of this great quote was from Allison Pearson's [DT] "withering verdict" of BoZo's BoJo's speech to the Conservative [virtual] Party Conference. Hat-tip Lockdown Skeptics

Also from there some more sinister (but we all knew) news: "Many governments are using the pandemic as cover to silence dissent, stifle the free press and disrupt elections, according to a new report by Freedom House, a US-based think tank". Linking to Philip Heijmans' article on the Bloomberg website: Governments Using Pandemic to Stifle Dissent

The Freedom House article is well worth reading, on their website HERE or the report is HERE-PDF

The Media end Expression section strikes me as problematic: "91 of 192 countries (47 percent) experienced restrictions on the news media as part of the response to the coronavirus outbreak", believable;

"Journalists covering the crisis have been arrested and targeted with violence, harassment, and intimidation. Governments have exerted control over content, revoked outlets’ registrations, suspended printing of newspapers, denied press credentials, and limited independent questioning at press conferences. New legislation against spreading “fake news” about the virus has been passed, while websites have been blocked and online articles or social media posts removed. The increased public need for impartial information during a pandemic makes such varied methods of suppression particularly egregious."

However, many major countries e.g. UK and USA are in the 'free' category (as against partly free or not free); they may be 'free' on paper (hoho) but they are part of the problem: they have stoked the fear, they refuse to ask the most obvious questions, THEY are part of the problem and have encouraged the dozy inadequate politicians to continue on their disasterous path.

Update: absolute case in point: just heard on the radio news, headline: this year "COVID has killed [xyz*] times more than flu and pneumonia combined".  Complete bollocks and for various reasons.

* can't remember if they said twice, three or four times more because I was shouting at the radio "NO IT HASN'T"...

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