> The entire point of having a liberal democracy is that we are the government, and we can pull it back from authoritarianism.
The counterpoint: we (as in, the Western-aligned countries) don't have a true liberal democracy and likely never had. Not with the amount of open and veiled influence that religion (and for what it's worth, money) has in our societies - ranging from openly Christian centrist/center-right parties in Europe to entire communities in the US dominated by religious sects of all denominations.
And all of these tend to run on a "think about the children" mindset, especially regarding anything LGBT.
The result? It is very hard if not outright impossible to prevent or roll back authoritarian measures that were sold as "protect the children", since dominant religious-affiliated people and institutions (not just churches, but also thinktanks, parties and media) will put anyone in their crosshairs. Just look at how almost all blog pieces and many comments on the CSAM scanner debacle have an "I don't like pedophilia" disclaimer...
The counterpoint: we (as in, the Western-aligned countries) don't have a true liberal democracy and likely never had. Not with the amount of open and veiled influence that religion (and for what it's worth, money) has in our societies - ranging from openly Christian centrist/center-right parties in Europe to entire communities in the US dominated by religious sects of all denominations.
And all of these tend to run on a "think about the children" mindset, especially regarding anything LGBT.
The result? It is very hard if not outright impossible to prevent or roll back authoritarian measures that were sold as "protect the children", since dominant religious-affiliated people and institutions (not just churches, but also thinktanks, parties and media) will put anyone in their crosshairs. Just look at how almost all blog pieces and many comments on the CSAM scanner debacle have an "I don't like pedophilia" disclaimer...