Very important point he's making. We are seeing the beginnings of how an authoritarian regime tries to use persecution to instill fear onto free-thinking people, and how this will eventually create a population which cannot live in honest reflection with themselves, because ... https://twitter.com/eyepressnews/status/1347211899079835648

... they are told to deny their free impulses or face persecution. This duality is something that Singapore has to deal with too, where you are taught an education but trained not to use it for certain purposes, such as critical thinking on politics, and it dumbs down a part of..

... people's thinking. But how does this affect people's ability to engage or innovate when their thinking is compromised by the state and self? Before I left Singapore and started to fear persecution, I began to understood this duality as it crept into me, and I had to fight it

... on a constant basis. Even after coming to Taiwan, it took a few years before I could regain a logical thinking I did not know I have. Authoritarianism breaks your spirit, and changes your character. You cannot be true to yourself. In some other people, ...

... the attack of authoritarianism can come in the form of arrogance to conceal the admission of fear to the self, or as an over-compensation to the powerlessness. But businesses don't care about this, which is why they invest in Singapore, because a subdued population ...

... which does not challenge offers useful docility that allows businesses to profit. But that means dealing with a lack of creativity in the majority of the populace, and which is why Singapore can be one of the best administrative regions but not Silicon Valley ...

... Authoritarianism robs society of its creativity and potential, and it can only last as long as the people who put themselves in power have the foresight to transform, but even then, most of the time it's done for their own benefit. And when the wrong leaders place ...

... themselves in power, the governance deteriorates, and with it, a disempowered society which collapses on itself if it has not yet harnessed the ability to pick itself up. Singapore's leadership is breaking apart now, and while we are starting to see an authoritarian ...

... takeover in Hong Kong, we are seeing in Singapore how political regression can impact on society. But it's a slow process. Singapore still performs well on the metrics it can massage, but when the administrative system fails due after years of top-down interference, ...

... that will be when the rot creeps in. The MRT train breakdowns over the last few years are symptomatic of the poor governance in one sector. Exposes of crony businesses and corruption are another. That leaders lie over one another now, regarding whether the #COVID19 ...

... contact tracing app data will be used for surveillance is also another symptom of destructive governance. But Singapore is small. At the very least, it becomes irrelevant. But I've always wondered, when Europe talks about democracy, does it really care about places like ...

... Singapore, or Hong Kong which will become like Singapore? Where is Taiwan learning how to market itself using democracy? It isn't the first, Europe is. Europe says it champions democracy but does it? Only when it's convenient, and perhaps this is understandable, given that...

... upholding democracy in a capitalistic world means compromising on our values, otherwise which in a world built on the GDP, we think will result in us losing economic might, votes and relevance. But sacrifices have to be made, and we need a new model of global cooperation ...

... While democracies still have the economic ability to, they need to stand for what they believe in, and use their economic might to empower one another so that they can resist authoritarian spread, given that there isn't appetite yet to challenge the capitalistic system.