The painless extinction of formerly free Australia

Eventually, stories of gross oppression and mass harm tend to rise to the surface, and fascism can only survive if discussion of reality is suppressed. So, the Australian government is now introducing legislation that will prevent the average person from openly discussing stuff the government does not like.

Saying something against the coal mining sector, for instance, might land a half million dollar fine for 'harming a section of the economy.' So might criticizing a vaccination program, pointing out that the government has misled the public about its safety and effectiveness. The government is excluding itself from such sanctions – it will be able to make stuff up with impunity. Australians are accepting this as a 'fair go.'

Extinction is permanent.

But Australians have been fully boiled now, and it appears they will really do pretty much whatever they are told. It is so much easier to go along than to take a stand. And if your neighbors and the media are pretending everything is just like it always was, then it is simplest to just agree.

This is, of course, not just Australia. It is most countries that have become fat and complacent in the West over the past 75 years, believing they were beyond the reach of fascists and petty dictators and were too advanced to comply with such tyrants. In truth, feudalism is the norm and the last 75 years were an aberration, built on the backs of greater people who fought to throw off the shackles of peasantry.

We are about to find out whether the frogs really boil to oblivion, or whether they recognize the water is scalding and make the effort to leap to freedom – even risking a fall and injury in the process. After all, standing against tyrants was never actually supposed to be safe. The water is quite hot. It is not the experiment as I imagined it to be, but we are soon to find the answer.