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Comment by soheil | Hacker News Reader

It is terrifying that people actually advocate for such authoritarian measures outside of mainland China. Every tyrant ever existed probably had at least one valid reason to justify their particular flavor of tyrannical rule. Coincidentally often it's not very difficult to find numbers that back up stripping people of their freedom, just find the right statistics.

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Air travelers already submit too much more invasive measures. It's not like the airport is a bastion of civil liberties or privacy. I can guarantee you that the entrances and public parts of the bathroom (including the sinks) are already monitored by cameras.

Also, I don't understand how this proposal is authoritarian in the slightest. As written it involves zero coercion. The only enforcement mechanism is social pressure, a force that already molds everybody's behavior umpteen times a day to begin with.

> Air travelers already submit too much more invasive measures. It's not like the airport is a bastion of civil liberties or privacy. I can guarantee you that the entrances and public parts of the bathroom (including the sinks) are already monitored by cameras.

This is basically the definition of a slippery slope.

I wouldn’t count publicly shaming them as “zero coercion” and by definition authoritarian is “favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom”. Even though I do agree that everyone should wash their hands, this is not the way to do it.

Yelling at people "wash your filthy hands" isn't authoritarian. Social opprobrium is how a free society regulates itself: it's the authority of your peers rather than the authority of superiors.

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