There are certain symptoms to look for that are warning signs that a once free country is becoming more and more authoritarian and totalitarian. These symptoms include, among others:
- Increased surveillance of citizens, and making it harder and harder for citizens to do things anonymously (in real life or on the internet). In other words, if the country is becoming more and more of a surveillance state.
- Ever advancing erosion of free speech rights, in other words, more and more citizens are being legally punished (or at least investigated by the police) for their expression of opinion and their words, either by abusing existing laws or passing new more restrictive laws, and often both.
- Citizens being legally punished for their criticism or derogatory comments aimed at the government, government officials (especially those in the legislative branch) and/or law enforcement. This alone is already a huge red flag, a huge warning sign of the government becoming more and more authoritarian.
- Citizens being fooled and even coerced by law enforcement into getting a criminal record in order to avoid worse charges and court trials.
- Citizens being denied legal counsel when they have been arrested and interrogated by the police. This is a HUGE red flag.
Well, what do you know, all of that has been happening at ever increasing levels in the United Kingdom, and there are plenty of examples.
For example, recently there was this gardener in Manchester who was walking home from work, carrying his gardening tools with him, when what's essentially the UK equivalent of a "SWAT team" assaulted and arrested him. This even though it's (still) not illegal to carry the type of gardening tools in public that he was carrying (after all, how exactly are you supposed to do if you go to a store to buy such tools? Teleport them to your home by magic? Send them to yourself by mail? What?)
However, not only were the cops not listening to a word of what he was saying, nor did they understand what he was saying, but most egregiously the cops denied him legal counsel even though he explicitly asked for it. They then coerced him into accepting a legal warning, at the threat of worse charges. The problem with such a legal warning is that it goes into your (UK equivalent of) criminal record, which can be seen eg. by employers.
There are plenty of examples where people in the UK have been arrested for throwing insults at cops or at politicians (something that's 100% protected speech in most other free countries, as government officials in particular have less protections against criticism, even harsh criticism.)
And, of course, the UK is passing more and more laws restricting free speech and increasing surveillance and decreasing the ability of citizens to do things anonymously. This on top of the fact that there's a heavy two-tiered policing system in place, where some citizens (and, quite particularly, non-citizens) are more protected than others.
The UK is quickly becoming more and more of an authoritarian and totalitarian hellhole. And it's only going to get worse if the British citizens don't do anything about it.
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