Yeah, yeah, “muh blog post”, but seriously, myself and A LOT of others, in the LDSAU Reddit community are thinking about getting out, before things in Aus get much worse.

Some already have. I know they went to Thailand, Bali and the Middle East. Those places aren’t for me, though.

So I’ve been thinking about Poland or Latin America, mostly. It’s fairly straightforward (in normal times) for an Australian of my age group to move to certain other countries on a Working Holiday Visa, at least for a year. If “my country” even LETS me leave, at least…

So… Hypothetically, I know that I can go to Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, or a couple of the Baltic states…

Some of those are obviously more appealing than others. I’m still thinking Poland or Slovakia, quite honestly. But if other people have thoughts on this… Fire away!

Obvious this isn’t, initially at least, a long term move, but if Australia actually collapses while I am/we are all gone, then I’m sure I can probably apply for asylum or whatever, lol…

No degree, to clarify. Unfortunately…

Which… Doesn’t help me, I know. 😑

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.

• Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology, 1948

I've tried twice, today, with a song. Two different videos, from two different ShitTube sources.

I can watch them fine, but when I try to post, it says, and shows "video unavailable" in the post...

Anyone got a possible explanation there??

Anyone else notice this?

Fairly unsubstantiated post, based on personal experience, and on what I am seeing elsewhere.

As a "not fully vaccinated" person, society is closing in, increasingly. I am barely allowed to participate in goings-on, anymore. My family shuns and shames me. My "friends" have essentially abandoned me. Shit is getting very, very real, now...

Mask mandates are ubiquitous, across 6 or 7 out of the Australian jurisdictions, including the one I am stuck in. Vaccine mandates, too. I'm not allowed to work. I essentially can't "go out". In another state, they want to make mandates apply in supermarkets, too, so you essentially won't be able to buy food...

"Social distancing" is also ubiquitously still in place. Businesses are closing EVERYWHERE, because they can't make money. Governments are constantly threatening "new lockdowns" and curfews, because, duhh, Omicron, means rising case numbers. It's genuinely scary to see where things are going...

Aside from not currently being in lockdown, we are currently the most restricted we have ever been. Ever. Especially if you are "unvaccinated", or, increasingly, unboosted...

Very soon, people like me won't even be able to enter a university campus, or even study online. Can't work, can't study. Logic...

And people ABSOLUTELY lap this up. Media coverage is UNIVERSALLY for more restrictions. Almost everyone I know, and encounter "IRL" is all for it. As is the entirety of local Reddit, aside from, obviously, the "critical" or "skeptical" subs. Worse than that, if you question ANY element of it, you are shamed, ostracised, demonized, treated worse than dirt. Why?

I know this isn't the case everywhere. Not in Red states. Not in Mexico, per se. Not in Japan. Not in parts of Eastern Europe, or Africa, or elsewhere. But it is, here. It IS, in NZ. It IS in Blue states. It IS in the UK, and in France, and in Germany, and in Austria, and in the Netherlands. Some of those places are even more extreme than where I am, despite less compliant populations, and lower vaxx rates...

When, and how does this end?? Next year will almost certainly be worse. In fact, for me personally, I 100% guarantee it will be.

When will people wake up? Will they ever?? What the fuck are we going to do?? How do we actually push back? I'm genuinely beginning to think that this WON'T end, because people simply do not want it to, so... Where do we go from here??