It’s my observation that social polarisation is accelerating globally and locally. In the US, Trump has exploited and advanced this phenomenon for political gain. Putin in Russia now simply assassinates opposition leaders with impunity, the President of Belarus creates fake elections and China continues to indefinitely imprison and execute people who oppose the will of the communist party, as it has done for decades.

Amongst this global acceptance of polarisation, here in Australia, State Governments have selectively banned public protests, such as Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter and most recently, Anti-shutdown protests in Victoria. In WA the Police Commissioner Chris Dawson, with endorsement of the Premier Mark McGowan, is enforcing the use of ankle bracelets to monitor people in COVID quarantine.

At the national level, the Federal Government is selectively increasing University fees for studies in the Humanities and the Arts, which includes Political Science studies, under the guise of encouraging study in technology fields.

I suggest that despite the war like rhetoric used by democratic governments to describe Covid, the real fight is for Democracy itself, and the proposition that an opposing point of view warrants respectful consideration.

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