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> it’s easier to discuss when it happens to another country with an entirely different social system.

I'd say it's actually harder, because one cannot compare like for like. But of course that shouldn't discourage one from careful analysis.

> I was surprised, last year, that techniques we were condescending about, and saying it only happens in China, were applied in Europe and USA.

I think those making condescending remarks about China were not realists, and perhaps a little racist. Of course similar authoritarian responses were applied around the globe, some less heavily handed than others, and some with better results than others. And in some places there was a liberal response that put choice and civic responsibility into the hands of citizens, again some with tragic outcomes, and some with joyful results. Quite a mixed bag.

> As if it was an emergent property of a human group facing a new disease.

It certainly is. I think the results surrounding disgust and disease that Jordan Peterson and his group of researchers talk about , as well as the theories of Adorno etc on the "authoritarian mind" should now be checked against data we have from the pandemic. There will surely be xome confirmations and surpises.



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