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This has become an absolute religious stand. Religion is the only other thing that does that. It tries to stop the other point of view in favour of the "divinely" inspired behavior.
An example of that is "Confession". The idea that only through a priest is forgiveness of sin acquired. You don't know how much of a heart and brain ache this causes. The more you look at people as these ideal heroes who can do no wrong, the more of a problem you'll get yourself into. Because these "heroes" want you to stop thinking and just follow what they have to say, because they think they know best. And if you go against them, they'll label you as anything to demean you. In the religious context, they'll label you a heretic. In the context of covid above, they'll call you a science-denier, anti-vaxx, and any other bullshit term they can come up with to dehumanize you and make sure other people attack you.
So yes, Authority has gone amok, and I don't see any evidence to the contrary.
You know what, I'd love to be proven wrong. I'd love to wake up tomorrow and see that everything has returned to normal. There are no more vaccine mandates or passports, no more mask mandates. No more crack down and marginalisation of people based on their decisions. But I just don't see things correcting themselves by themselves. There will need to be an offence mounted against this type of tyranny or it will never stop.