Are we becoming worse as a Nanny State?

There has been a real move towards Orwellianism in the past few years

Mandatory speed limiters for cars

Covid certs

Cashless society

Carbon taxes

Impending fags ban?

I wonder does anyone still value their freedom? Anyone who is against any of these things is automatically branded as a conspiracy theorist or Trump supporter

You say this like both the tobacco and alcohol industries have continued for decades after the evidence of their destructive impact became evidence.

I'm not in favour of outright bans, off the cuff, but that hasn't come close to happening in either of these cases. I am a former smoker who really enjoyed the act of smoking a cigarette and luckily I was never a heavy smoker but I have no problem with the scaled manner in which it has been targeted for reducing the number of people doing it because it was accompanied by massively overwhelming evidence as to its harm.

Why shouldn't a government look at the potential risks to the health of a society and look to mitigate against them? Why should we have an expectation to be able to do whatever we want, whenever we want, when we rely on cohabiting and engaging with everyone else in society as part of our existence.

covid certs only exist because of those who won't get vaccinated because doctor youtube, and because those of us who are vaccinated have a right to go about our business seeing as we are responsible adults who took personal responsibility.

carbon taxes are necessary so as to make things more efficient and hugely cut ridiculous pollution levels.

speed limiters have been fitted to trucks and buses for as long as i can remember, so it actually makes sense to fit them to cars as well given people do break the speed limit and cars can cause damage in an accident situation.

i will give you cashless society, i wish to be able to use cash as it's convenient for me but i don't think that it's removal is about nanny statism but about cost cutting by the banks.

i obviously don't support fag bans or nonsense like MUP and believe all restrictions in relation to alcohol bar the age limit should be removed.

What do you mean by freedom? Do you exist in a society where you don't rely on the presence and contribution of others in order to live your life as it is currently? Should you be automatically entitled to put their safety at risk just so as to not impede on your freedom?

In relation to 'those who value their freedom', I've noticed more and more over the last months that most of those who are adamant that there shouldn't be any form of restrictions are also adamant that immigration should be controlled and cry in equal measure about the introduction of covid certs while demanding that people should have papers to show that they are entitled to be in a country.

It seems to me these people aren't against government control, they just them to enforce the type of control that they are comfortable with. I'm not saying all of them are Trump supporters, I will say that a lot of Trump supporters fall in to this category. (and I'm only mentioning that as you introduced the topic, others will be along shortly to decry any mention of him on an Irish website.)

It is just that the amount of freedom you are expected to give up for the common good is continuously increasing. It has been increasing as long as I'm alive but the last couple of years of it are really taking the biscuit.

Yes

'Covid aside, we enjoy more freedom today than the vast majority of people throughout history'

There is no Covid aside, since it isn't clear when if ever the restrictions and the siege against the unvaccinated will be lifted.

Many Europeans of the last thousand years lived much freer lives than people do now.

get the vaccine and there won't be any extra restrictions on you.

Is sulking over taxes the new national religion btw?

Yet posters don't get worked up when FG siphon off billions in taxes to private interests...

Go pure

Your taking the piss with that statement aren't ya.

Yeah I remember the novel 1984 the main issue was 'carbon taxes' and 'price of alcohol'

F**k sake. This country where once contraception was illegal, where being homosexual would get you jailed, where mainstream movies and literature were banned, where children were taken from young mothers, where sexual abuse was ignored, where suicide victims weren't allowed be buried with family.

Don't give me that crap. Ireland is million times more 'free' now than even 40-50 years ago never mind 100 years when we were living under the thumb of the British empire.

Yes there are still issues in this country. A stupid war on drugs, a draconian prostitution law, direct provision (Ireland not following the international set rules for asylum seekers) among them but the price of booze or cigarettes are not an attack on your freedoms.

I value my freedom. Non regulation of those things you mentioned restricts my freedom.

Your chance of being one of those innocent parties is very small given the large population of Europe, as such I don't worry about it and I'd rather have full control over my own car. Covid certs are ineffective and should have been scrapped as soon as they realised vaccinated people could still easily spread the virus, but instead it was the first thing the government extended as soon as there was an uptick in the cases. Carbon taxes do feck all for us other than making the poor poorer and the emissions problem would be far from solved even if people stopped buying fuel altogether. The cashless society is being massively egged on my the government and payment processing companies and studies to say cash isn't spreading covid are being ignored, there is just too much money to be had from transaction fees and data about people's spending habits that they will keep relentlessly pushing for cashless society.

I actually hope the fags ban will work as I hate fags with a passion but I doubt it given the already thriving black market. For some reason governments around the world are happy to land more rules and regulation on people but do little to solve the problem.