Anti-Social Distancing

Despite calls for social distancing, crowded public demonstrations were a regular feature of the year. Free speech took centre stage in movements whose time had come — such as Black Lives Matter — but also at marches sparked by the debunked theories of the ‘tinfoil hat brigades’. In late August the Victorian Police Assistant Commissioner had condemned planned protests against masks, vaccinations and 5G technology: ‘It’s just crazy,’ he declared, ‘it’s bat-s–t crazy nonsense.’