“It’s just 15 days to flatten the curve. It’s just a mask. It’s just 6 feet. It’s just no large gatherings. It’s just preventing ‘misinformation.’ It’s just a shot. It’s just a mandate. It’s just showing a vaccine passport...”

Naturally, anyone who objected was roundly decried in American mainstream media as a whacko. It was always going to be “this far and no further” and only “conspiracy theorists” would believe otherwise.

WHEN I READ those tweets, my 1st mental picture was in Martin Niemoller’s words: “First they came for the socialists...”

My 2nd appears in Sinclair Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here.” My 3rd is Australia.

Less than 2 years ago, Australia could be described as a “western liberal democracy.”

Today Australia’s regime is doing its best to show up Joseph Stalin and Kim Jong-Un as amateurs – and succeeding.

In parts of Australia, you’re allowed a luxurious hour a day outdoors to exercise alone. But be sure to keep your papers on you to show on demand and even prepare for police and armed forces harassment including helicopter patrols. Yes, really.

If you’re a visitor ordered to quarantine, don’t forget to download the government’s smart phone surveillance app. It texts you at randomly and gives you 15 minutes to respond with a selfie proving you’re where you’ve been ordered to be – or police will be dispatched to track you down.

ALL IS NOT lost for our Aussie friends,.

If they’re lonely, they can “nominate” one friend or romantic or sexual partner with whom to form a “single social bubble.”

If the regime approves, they’re graciously permitted to spend alone time with their “bonk bubble buddy.” But they must choose carefully. They’re stuck with their choice for the duration of the “emergency.”

Am I a whacko conspiracy theorist for worrying that America, setting its feet on that path, may continue down the road toward “Make America East Germany?”

These days, I’d rather be a whacko conspiracy theorist than an Australian. Thomas Knapp is director at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org).

Clever tweets tend to evolve in content and meaning over time. I don’t know where this one originated.

It’s edited but you’ll get where it’s going: