Alan, What is freedom? People are looking for freedom from what, public health orders?
Don't like the public health orders here? Then feel free to go anywhere else…

Alan, we weren’t allowed to go anywhere else. Here in Melbourne we weren’t supposed to go 5km from our address.

I would have happily spent the last few years in Sweden. The results are in, and the figures are laid bare.

Sweden: No lockdowns ; No school closures ; No mask mandates.

Sweden had the lowest overall cumulative excess deaths in all countries analysed by the OECD during the pandemic era from March 2020 to June 2022.

‘No lockdown’ Sweden performed the best, not among the best, the best of all the OECD countries.

This is what Karl Popper referred to as black swan falsification.

The idea comes from how for a long time in Europe, people were inclined to say that all swans were white. They would attempt to justify that theory that all swans were white by showing us endless numbers of white swans. (This can be referred to as induction.) However, it doesn’t matter how many white swans you find, the theory that all swans are white can be debunked by producing one black swan, which occurred once European sailors started to explore Australia and came across them. (Popper calls this falsification, and it’s the basis of all good science.)

The theory that the lockdown strategies were good for our overall health was argued by many countries around the world that were trying to implement it. Most went pretty hard at it, and many tried to out-do the next in craziness and lunacy. But the theory that lockdowns are any good is easily falsified if you can just demonstrate one country which clearly benefits from not having them. Sweden is that black swan.

No lockdown Sweden, in fact, performed better by the parameter of excess deaths over the COVID era than any other OECD country.

https://youtu.be/Y2KWFBn5pLg

Dear Diver Dan,

«Well, you are radical with that view,»

I have my view - you may judge it as radical or anything, but rest assured that this is not how or why I form my views.

«and it very much resembles the view of the Sovereign citizen movement.»

Resembles, yes, for the superficial minded. Not my fault.

«The Sovereign citizen movement is the ideology, not a stand alone organisation. You might need to be careful you are not officially targeted.»

If you read my previous comment carefully enough, you can realise that I do not share their ideology.

If I am to be targeted for my independent views than so be it.

«These radical thinkers are becoming more conservative middle of the road»

I have never set out to be radical or conservative. I observe, I analyse, I consider, then I form my views, wherever they happen to fall on somebody else's game-board.

«The Trains were much a part of that group think.»

You lost me there - what Trains?

«People of all shades are walking away from State control which increasingly sidelines the population it should serve.»

Why "increasingly"? Did States ever care about ordinary people?
Sadly also, I cannot see more people today walking away from State control than in any previous era, probably the opposite.

«Anarchism is popular to all shades of political think!»

Ruling over others without their consent is wrong, it is a form a violence. Everyone hates it when others forcibly rule over them, so by the Golden Rule, is it right to do the same unto others? I just state what I observe, the obvious - does it make me an anarchist?

---

Dear Andras Smith,

«Yuyutsu: Did you read this part at the end?»

Yes I did - what about it?

«'politics which motivates some people to deny the inevitables and instead resort to bizarre claims.'»

Yes, nobody likes to acknowledge the sayings of their enemies and oppressors, even when they make sense, even when they are scientific - is this surprising?

Dear Foxy,

«... after which the Australian Cardinal's body will be brought
to Sydney for a funeral Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral
in Sydney. His remains will be buried in the crypt.»

These are just technical arrangements: you have not answered my question - Did Cardinal Pell agree to any such arrangements?
- Did he indicate in his will, or in any other document, even verbally, where he wants his remains to be buried?
- Would Cardinal Pell not be disgusted at still being called "the Australian Cardinal" after all that Australia did to him?

(sorry about the last post - wrong thread)

Foxy, you speak of seeing ‘hundreds’ of protesters on February 20, 2021, who marched to the Shrine in Melbourne.

I don’t think that date is correct. I don’t think there were any large protests in that month. But at various times in the COVID period, there were numerous protests, some big, some small, and some absolutely huge.

It was the November 20, 2021 protest that was the biggest. It was possibly the biggest gathering of people Melbourne has ever witnessed for any single event. The Age newspaper reported it as ‘more than 100,000’. Although many are still claiming, with photographic evidence, that it was more than 200,000 people.

There is a YouTube link there in the post, if anyone wants to try and count the numbers for themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB91GepJHxI (Hundreds of thousands march in Melbourne.)

But estimating crowds is a difficult task. The first Sunbury music festivals in the early 1970s hoped to be Australia’s answer to Woodstock. Definitely there were tens of thousands there, but the estimates varied greatly, from between 25,000 and 60,000.

There were some pretty big anti-Kennett rallies in the 1990s. I know because, as a union member, I attended some of them.

While there’s been some big numbers at various sporting or other events at the MCG, or Flemington Racecourse, or at Grand Prix events, the biggest crowd of any description I’ve ever previously heard of in Australia, was the Billy Graham Crusade at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1959, with estimates of over 130,000 people. Normally, the MCG might hold 100,000, but on that day, crowds were allowed to spill out onto the grass area itself.

So this freedom gathering on 20 November, 2021, which started at Parliament and then marched through to Flagstaff Gardens, even if it wasn’t 200,000 would only have to be 150,000 or more to easily make a claim to be the largest single gathering of people in the history of Australia.