Things are not fine in New Zealand and Australia.

As RedState reported earlier today, forced vaccinations of children without parental permission are occurring down under. Meanwhile, scenes of police abusing their power at the behest of lunatic politicians have become all too common.

Meanwhile in Australia police pepper spray children for not wearing masks pic.twitter.com/L0ZPhUH8c6

— 🦋𝕂𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕖🦋 (@WinterAsh12) August 17, 2021

If the people in that video weren’t white and speaking in Aussie accents, you’d be mistaken for thinking this was coming out of some third-world dictatorship in the Middle East or South America. But no, it’s in what is supposed to be one of the southern hemisphere’s most stalwart democracies. Instead of being a beacon of freedom, Australia has more recently served as a disturbing example of what an ostensibly free nation can become without far-reaching constitutional rights and a Second Amendment.

But things may be even worse next door in New Zealand. They are reentering a nationwide lockdown. The reason? A single case of COVID.

New Zealand is on nationwide lockdown due to 1 single case of COVID-19

“Don’t talk to your neighbors. Please, keep to your bubbles,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tells the public. pic.twitter.com/IHOefCYNDv

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 18, 2021

This is the kind of dystopian nightmare that transpires when a nation’s political class decides “zero COVID” is the goal. People there might as well be living in Nazi-occupied France given their inability to make basic choices such as, you know, talking to their neighbors. And I realize people hate those kinds of comparisons, but what else is there? Things really are that insane right now in New Zealand. Police roam the streets to ensure people don’t commit the grave offense of walking their dogs while children are removed from playgrounds if caught playing on them.

No attempt at safety is worth this kind of lunacy. Where does it end? Are they going to lock down every single time someone gets COVID for the rest of eternity? By the standard they’ve set up, the answer is yes, and given COVID is never going away, there’s no end game here. New Zealand’s leader may be more attractive than most despots, but she’s operating as a despot nonetheless.

Of course, none of these critiques matter if New Zealanders are content to keep accepting their fate, and it appears they are. Being under the constant threat of lockdown and arrest for leaving one’s house is no way to live. But if people don’t stand up, it’s exactly what they’ll continue to endure.