You are a great point with the automobile metaphor, TD! What the phuck were my parents (and perhaps many of you; I'm in my mid-thirties)
doing in the late nineties when all these speed and other cameras got shoved down our throats!?
I was thinking if this last month when my sister-in-law tried to sneak is back into Moscow to get the rest of our things before the "pass" system was put into place, were relieved when we crossed the city lines only a little after midnight and didn't see any checkpoints, but then heard the next day about those cameras being used to cross reference license plates against travel passes that had been issued (Russia is admittedly much further along this path than we are, although in not as many ways, and not in the ways that our lying MSM would have you believe).
Then, driving to our new home in the regions (just as "locked down," but the voluntary involuntary Quarantine is much less policed), I was surprised that sister-in-law was crushing the speed limit at regular intervals - she by now knew where all the cameras were on the road to/from Moscow.
I remember in my younger years, in the early-2000s, hearing about Europeans fire-bombing and otherwise destroying these money printer boxes, and thinking that that was a bit....extreme (young and not a liberal, no heart, blah blah blah).
We used to be able to determine for ourselves how safe we could drive, and evaluate the risk ourselves of whether we'd see the cop in time.
Now, speed cameras have solved all of that, and why the hell did we ALLOW (there's that word, only in it's correct, patriotic usage!) then to be installed throughout our land of the free and home of the brave!?
You can similarly see how with some of these Wuhan Flu measures (since government always creeps forward in rescinding liberty- it never recedes back) there is a strong risk of them being "normalized" and becoming permanent, especially since I have no doubt that our politicians (and especially bureaucrats!) do NOT have our best interests at heart!!
Lest I be accused of whataboutism, you decided to make the automobile metaphor, TD, and Bravo! It's quite a good one when discussing the likelihood of "mission creep" as the government "returns" (lovely use of that verb!) our liberties to us.
***On a side note, any student Veterans out there? I used to work in higher ed with the GI Bill and I know how needed those monthly stipends are; I hope they weren't reduced because everything moved online (through no choice of your own) during this involuntary voluntary lockdown. Thank you for your service, and stay strong and optimistic during this whole mess!! There ARE people out here on our great country who treasure the liberties you fought to help protect!
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