
Elon Musk calls US shelter-in-place orders fascist, un-American - mrfusion
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-rant-coronavirus-shelter-place-orders-fascist-unamerican-imprisoning-2020-4
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ryankemper
It would be more accurate to call it authoritarian as opposed to fascist (I
just learned about the distinction the other day).

Not sure if it's faux pas to drop a link in a different thread than the
original submission, but my thoughts on the "shelter-in-place" orders are
captured here:

[https://www.ryankemper.io/post/2020-04-29-the_case_for_endin...](https://www.ryankemper.io/post/2020-04-29-the_case_for_ending_lockdown/)

A few select pieces:

> There is an ironic parallel to the concept of cytokine storm. Just as our
> immune systems sometimes get overzealous and destroy the body, so too has
> our response to COVID-19 ironically ended up damaging the stability of our
> economic and socioemotional systems and made us less resilient in the face
> of future crises.

And

> We as American citizens need to fight against this worrying trend of
> censorship and mass surveillance. Other countries do not even have the
> concept of freedom of speech/assembly embedded into their founding
> documents. Thus we are in a unique position where we are fighting not just
> to save lives, but perhaps more importantly, to save the soul of our
> country.

\--

Focusing on what Elon said:

> "Frankly, I would call it forcible imprisoning of people in their homes
> against all of, their constitutional rights, in my opinion," he said. "It's
> breaking people's freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why
> they came to America or built this country.

I agree with this, although I would probably soften the language around
forcible imprisonment slightly.

Along that same vein:

> "If somebody wants to stay in their house, that's great and they should be
> able to," he said. "But to say they cannot leave their house and that they
> will be arrested if they do: that's fascist. That is not democratic; this is
> not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom."

Yup, no argument here.

~~~
krapp
>Other countries do not even have the concept of freedom of speech/assembly
embedded into their founding documents.

Many countries recognize such rights as part of their constitution or primary
legal framework, and those rights are recognized by the United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The First Amendment itself was inspired
by the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the
English Bill of Rights.

The premise that the United States, alone, recognizes freedom of speech as a
legal right is simply absurd.

>I agree with this, although I would probably soften the language around
forcible imprisonment slightly.

I'd soften it a lot, because as far as I know, no one is being forcibly
imprisoned in their homes under shelter-in-place orders in the US. At least in
my case, the orders for my city don't prevent me from moving freely. I have to
wear a mask in public, and my local supermarket opens later and closes earlier
and has item limits to stop panic buying, and there is an 11pm curfew, but
those are hardly what I would consider to be the signs of a totalitarian
police state.

~~~
masonic

      The First Amendment itself was inspired by the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
    

From Wikipedia: "The Declaration was drafted by the Abbé Sieyès and the
Marquis de Lafayette, _in consultation with Thomas Jefferson._ "

