Thread by @gluboco

With no Covid Pass, my wife and I are banished from society.

We have no income.Banned from most shopping.Can barely exist.

But we will not accept authoritarianism.

Here's how life looks after one month in Lithuania,under Europe's first strict,society-wide Covid Pass regime:
1/

My wife and I have been suspended without pay for 4 weeks.

We can't return to our jobs.

Not sure our employers would let us back.

Even if they did, our colleagues despise us, wish on social media for our death. Nothing we can do will ever erase that. We can't work there.

2/

We can't find new jobs in our professions.

My wife and I have very different jobs in very different fields. But all jobs in both our fields now require the Covid Pass.

No Pass, no job.

3/

We're not allowed to buy food in the local supermarket.

We may only shop in small stores with street-facing entrances which mainly sell food,pharma,glasses/contacts, or farming/pet supplies.

In our area, that effectively limits us to one small, expensive convenience store.

4/

The Pass has wreaked havoc with the free market.

Supermarkets which require the Pass report shopper traffic is down 25% in the month since the Pass was imposed.

But in the small stores where the Pass isn't required, it’s up only 0.7%.

So where have the shoppers gone?

5/

We now buy food in old Soviet-style markets: outdoors, in parking lots, products sold on street, tiny tables, or from back of cars. Produce, eggs, cheese, meat, fish. Cash only. No Pass required.

Not as convenient as a supermarket. But it works for now. Life finds a way.

6/

I need to make some home repairs. But without a Pass, I can't enter the hardware store to buy supplies.

I can't call for a repair worker because repairs are banned for non-Pass holders. And I have no income now to pay for outside help anyway.

So our home stays unrepaired.

7/

We went to the dentist we've attended for years for an appointment for one of my children, but had to leave because I don't have a Covid Pass.

No other dentist in our area will see us. We've heard of dentists who treat people with no Pass, but they're far. So no dental care.

8/

We tried to buy art supplies for our kids from a craft store. No purchase allowed without a Pass.

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We tried to buy educational toys in a toy store. We were barred from entering.

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Can't buy kitchen supplies. Banal, but frustrating.

9/

We tried to print some papers in a copy shop. The staff refused us service without a Pass.
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We can't enter the library to browse books with our kids. That used to be one of our family's greatest pleasures. But we're not allowed any more because we don't have a Covid Pass.

10/

Our two kids outgrew/destroyed last winter's clothes.

We tried to buy new ones. But with no Pass,many stores rejected us.

Finally,my pregnant wife begging,tears in her eyes; a manager at a second-hand store relented: "Just this once,ok? Can't let you people in here again."

11/

This pressure to submit is everywhere.

And it's overwhelming. Our ability to survive has been destroyed.

But no matter the suffering imposed and the hardships we must endure, we will never accept the descent into the authoritarianism which the Covid Pass represents.

12/

QR code to enter stores?

Covid Pass needed to work?

Government approval needed to buy food,toys,clothes?

No. No. No.

The Covid Pass regime of government segregation and control - punishing undesired behavior with banishment from society - is the path to authoritarianism.

13/

When Covid vaccinations were released, the original policy was education, trust, and informed consent to vaccinate targeted groups.

But policy changed in 2021: choice and trust was replaced by coercion and punishment.

You’ve shredded trust in public health for generations.

14/

Government approval to exist in society. Banishment based on arbitrary rules. Recording of all people's movements.

That’s not health; it’s control and power.

This new authoritarian control will only grow to ban ever more behavior as bureaucrats push to expand their power.

15/

Like many cases in history, our slide towards authoritarian control in 2021 - in Europe and throughout the world - has fueled, and been fueled by, hatred and othering which is encouraged by government and stoked by the media.

And it's ripping our society apart.

16/

Segregation. Blame for disease. Accusation of wartime betrayal. Incitement. Persecution.

This is not a history textbook. This is the reality of life for my family in 2021.

Our humanity has been erased.

This is wrong.

So deeply, deeply wrong.

17/

Our winter is long,cold,dark. My wife and I don't have savings to last til spring.

But despite hardship,we decided resistance is our moral path. We want our kids some day to feel pride towards us, not disgust.

Freedom is fragile, and we must defend it. If not us, then who?

18/

You have inflicted so much suffering on us already. You plan to hurt us even more this winter.

But know this:

We will never accept your Covid Pass regime.

We will never accept the control, segregation, and hate.

We will never accept this descent into authoritarianism.

19/

We do not stop you earning a living, though you stop us.

We do not ban you from buying food and clothing, though you ban us.

We do not hate you, though you hate us.

We do not banish you, though you banish us.

We do not wish death upon you, though you wish death upon us.

20/

And when the time comes, as it inevitably will, when you too are banished by the ever-increasing, arbitrary rules of the new authoritarianism, we will fight for your rights just as we fight now for ours.

Because we are all equal.

And we all have equal right to exist in society.

@threadreaderapp unroll

Update:

Many people have written to offer help.

I'm humbled by this goodness and generosity. But I don't want, and will never take, money or donations. And I don't want recognition or credit.

All I want is to spread the message to defend freedom against the authoritarianism.

I’ve made several previous works on Lithuania’s Covid Pass regime:

Video:

https://twitter.com/gluboco/status/1441691330825031680

Article: txti.es/covid-pass/ima…

Thread: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1440910…

And for verification of all restrictions I describe, here is the law on the Lithuanian government site:
koronastop.lrv.lt/uploads/docume…

In Lithuania, the Covid Pass is already a reality.

But other countries around the world are very quickly moving down the same path.

Lithuania's Covid Pass regime is a harbinger of what will happen everywhere if enough people don't unite in principled opposition.

Freedom is fragile, and it must be defended.

Bureaucrats will never willingly relinquish their new power. "Temporary" society-wide restrictions will never vanish: bureaucratic inertia is unstoppable if we don't break the Covid Pass regime now before it becomes entrenched.

I have no connections, no power. I'm just an ordinary man trapped in a Kafkaesque world of absurdity, watching as we fall rapidly into authoritarian tyranny.

So I'd be grateful for your help to share this message, so that together, we can stop this madness before it's too late.