| HN Mirror

There are always crises. The current ones are not even that great compared to historical problems. Fixing crises should not mean that you can erode democracy for the sake of fixing said crises. That is literally how totalitarian regimes start: by swift action needed to fix the current "insurmountable" issues. I am not saying that the US will become totalitarian, but taking steps in the wrong direction does not bode well.

And to address some of your points,

> voting restrictions

When people say this, it's usually about voter ID laws, which are the norm in most of the developed world, all of Europe has this, with the exception of UK. There might be some issues with voter discouraging, but it's not as big of a deal as some make it seem.

> division and distrust in institutions and democracy.

Well, the entire pandemic handling was rife with things that caused this mistrust in institutions. From the masks (e.g. Fauci, the surgeon general and others lying about them not being needed, and then Trump going against them anyway for political reasons) to vaccines where even the top democrats were saying all over the place they won't take them because they were rushed under Trump. Well, what do you know? They are still rushed, under Trump, but now we try to convince everyone they are perfectly safe (while Trump not pushing for them anymore). WHO covering for China's role in the initial spread. Democrats acting all high and mighty in regards to masks and public gatherings, only to be maskless themselves [1][2][3], sometimes in large gatherings[4]. Or like Pelosi, which personally called the beauty salon to have a special appointment, even though all the salons were closed. The republicans were at least consistently against science on this: both in front and behind cameras.

If the authorities cannot convince people about COVID truths, that is on them, not on the people talking freely about how they mistrust the government and their solutions.

Distrust in democracy will grow even larger with every censorship action.

As a disclaimer, I made my own masks and wore them in shops even before they were recommended, it was pretty obvious that an airborne disease is slowed by a mask. I was the only one in store with a mask, early on. I got my vaccine as soon as I could, driving half a day to get it. Throughout the pandemic I kept my social distancing to maybe extreme measures.

What is happening now is dangerous for democracy and society, we're handing over way too much power to the government, mass media and social apps. The government should make sure there are no monopolies, but if there are (like youtube, twitter, facebook, google search) they should make sure there is a public open oversight over the rules governing them. This is our standard oil battle but with higher stakes, and most people seem just happy to be boxed in by private corporations, with no recourse in the future.

https://www.kusi.com/photos-emerge-of-mask-less-gavin-newsom...

https://www.newsbreak.com/news/1605383471858/andrew-cuomo-sl...

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-san-francisco-hair-s...

https://nypost.com/2021/08/09/private-jets-and-no-masks-how-...