Originally Posted by Frownland

The impact and spread of this virus is at the forefront of the coronavirus discussion for good reason since people need to recognize how dangerous it is and do everything we can to mitigate it. That said, my biggest concern is the way that this will be exploited as the situation gets more extreme. As lockdowns and government mandated cancellations become more and more normalized, people may begin to heed an authoritarian enforcement of those new standards. Totalitarianism has traditionally flourished in situations of fear, helplessness, and economic downturns such as these. That flourish could potentially happen once family members begin dying and supplies dry up in a big way, or if riots come about that make people/leaders feel unsafe, if one military power decides to strike another during times of desperation, or once some other additional layer of fear is added on top of the legitimate threat of this disease. There's a million ways that it could go down, like areas of de facto segregation facing stricter lockdown policies, Trump not giving up office in 2021, wars and military action over debt, global conflict. Or we might just come out of this with a widespread consciousness of hygiene and cleanliness in public places, who knows.

Food for thought, obviously from an American perspective. Keep washing your hands, leave the old people alone for their sake, and watch some movies while we wait, see, and hope for the best. Then once whatever happens happens, it'll seem obvious.