Authoritarianism Advances As World Battles The Pandemic
AP News, July 15, 2021. - Ed.
LONDON (AP) Heres some of what happened while the world was distracted by the coronavirus: Hungary banned the public depiction of homosexuality. China shut Hong Kongs last pro-democracy newspaper. Brazils government extolled dictatorship. And Belarus hijacked a passenger plane to arrest a journalist.
COVID-19 has absorbed the worlds energies and isolated countries from one another, which may have accelerated the creep of authoritarianism and extremism across the globe, some researchers and activists believe.
COVID is a dictators dream opportunity, said Theary Seng, a Cambodian-American human rights lawyer who has been indicted on charges including treason in the ostensibly democratic southeast Asian nation, where Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power for more than three decades.
Human Rights Watch accuses Cambodias government of using the pandemic as cover to imprison political opponents without due process. Scores have been indicted and face mass trials.. Restrictions on civil liberties or political opponents have been stepped up during the pandemic on several continents...
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https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-health-religion-government-and-politics-a127151d7208b79c02767b435355511d
- June 30, 2021 file photo: a demonstrator holds a poster with an image of President Jair Bolsonaro and a message that reads in Portuguese: "500 thousand deaths", in reference to the deaths caused by COVID-19, during a protest outside Congress to demand that Bolsonaro resign, in Brasilia, Brazil. The pandemic has upended life around the globe, but it has hasnt stopped the spread of authoritarianism and extremism.
MiHale
(9,734 posts)Democracy is running rampant infusing the very cells of both political parties.
Slightly/s.
Blues Heron
(5,938 posts)colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)Its like an auxiliary Pandemic. It is a problem....imagine Hitler, Mussolini etc and their followers with social media.
appalachiablue
(41,146 posts)another global 'Pandemic' we're dealing with.
A 'vaccine' is needed for this authoritarian virus/plague. It's real and growing too wide and fast.
Democracy has never been more threatened in the US in my lifetime.