Of course all governments want to control every move and thought of their citizens. It makes governing easier. We expect that in autocracies.

I don't know about The West as a bloc, but at least the USA was supposed to have respect for the basic individualistic privacy and freedom of the average citizen. We've allowed that to largely evaporate. The differences between the US and something like the PRC are rapidly eroding.

Don't get me wrong, the US is still an order of magnitude more free but you can see a future where the trend lines are converging.

In many ways the west is copying what the East and the Middle East are doing. It’s quite concerning that democratic governments and their electorate are going with it, but to be “fair” this seems to be a somewhat orchestrated global phenomenon. Of course it’s not good.

Overseas, cash is king. In Canada, and also in San Francisco, you can only tap your credit card because cash carries COVID [0].

[0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/cash-coronavirus-questions-an...