Comment by nephihaha

It's not a conflation at all, it's all coming from the same mentality. The rulers trying to work out what to do with the ruled. In the Middle Ages, peasants were limited in how far they could travel, what they could eat and which fuel they could use. There are people on top who would like to see that return, and we see signs of that returning.

Lockdown killed off a lot of commerce, and we're still paying it off. Whether it was necessary or unnecessary, it was mismanaged. Automation will take almost any job if it keeps proceeding this way, and so that means the masses will become of little use to the ruling class economically. There are several ways to address that problem. One is restricting their interaction and movement. Another would be to create artificial work just to keep them quiet. As for the other possibilities, they are pretty dark.