In the United States, anti-lockdown protests were banned by Big Tech and organizers were even arrested in blatant violation of the First Amendment. Then the Black Lives Matter riots began and protest restrictions mostly collapsed, though lefties still went out of their way to accuse church weddings and Chassidic synagogues of causing an outbreak even as they converged in the tens of thousands to riot and loot.

The US media is now echoing much of the Aussie media’s shocked reaction to protests against lockdowns in that country.

Here’s CNN’s fairly typical coverage 

Sydney Covid cases expected to rise after anti-lockdown protest – CNN

But last year, the media, including CNN, were fine with the Black Lives Matter and pro-Muslim migrant protests in Australia.

Protesters have gathered in major cities across Australia demanding justice over minority deaths in police custody in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

About 10,000 people gathered in central Sydney Saturday after a court overturned a previous injunction that ruled any protest there illegal because of social distancing restrictions. Similar demonstrations went ahead in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide, with protesters waving banners and chanting “black lives matter.”

The rallies were organized by indigenous rights groups – among others – under the banner “Stop Black Deaths in Custody.”

Jeremy, 27, who didn’t reveal his surname, attended the march in Sydney. “To know that I stand on the shoulders of black, queer people before me who have enabled me to live the life I lead, I had to ask myself if I was going to be the ancestor that people after me needed me to be,” he told CNN.

All of that has now been conveniently forgotten. 

Thousands of people have taken part in Black Lives Matter and pro-refugee protests and marches across Australia, with refugee advocates in Sydney defying a court order to take to the city’s streets.

At Perth’s Black Lives Matter event, the turnout was at least double the 8,000 organisers had expected, despite a torrential downpour midway through the rally.

Organisers ignored the pleas of the West Australian premier, Mark McGowan, and Aboriginal affairs minister, Ben Wyatt, to delay the protest until after the coronavirus pandemic was over. 

Marchers waved signs demanding that the government set loose the mobs of Muslim migrants who had invaded Australia.

RAC’s James Supple defended the decision to go ahead with the rally despite Justice Michael Walton ruling that the public health risks did not outweigh “the rights to public assembly and freedom of speech in the present context”.

Apparently it does now.