There is no “rub” as to whether self- censorship occurs because people are afraid of being insulted by some other regular person or afraid of being destroyed by the leviathan. The claim that it’s the former, coming of course from the leviathan itself, is an Orwellian joke.
Great article, RYAN. It’s clear, NGO’s have created yet another layer of unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy which shields the powerful from true public sentiment and it denies citizens true representative governance.
Even though we’ve mostly dismantled the censorship complex in the USA, we’re still fighting the behemoth of government employees undermining the public will at every turn. Disgusting.
But even more disturbing, we’re one election from another administration bringing it all back in.
You know, I keep wondering about this rift among’MAGA’ re: Israel. X’s new tool is either exposing foreign bots trying to exploit the issue to cause division OR it’s actually VPN users that actually ARE Israeli &/or intel propagandists trying to make those questioning the wisdom of endless $ streams to Israel et al as ‘rampant antisemitism’ taking over MAGA. Either way, the tool itself exposes the fakery, and could diffuse it- if used and spread widely, don’t you think?
I really think this kind of thing has been done with great success. One example is the Latin Mass contrived controversy. Data shows that where Latin Mass is on offer at parishes, the congregation grows, marriages thrive with more procreation, vocations increase and Mass attendance increases. However, Pope Francis cited increased vitriol and division in especially the American churches- I believe based on online forums cluttered with online accounts “Rad Trads” who fomented the divisive discourse. I can’t help but wonder if it was all a sham.
The principle is this- when claims are surfacing widely which portray a trend that doesn’t seem to match reality, is it actually this propaganda by bot?
By and large -- and possibly entirely or almost entirely -- the people punished were indeed justifying violent politics. The one case cited in detail by Reuters involved twisting Kirk's comment about unpolitical firearms violence into justifying assassination of Charlie Kirk. The lady Reuters wrote about was not doing the twisting, it was the Reuters editor and reporter misleading us. The logic involves fine details. However, in all the instances of leftist celebration of the assassination I've seen the leftist has been practicing the psychological defense of projection.
Wait, so you refuse to believe the numerous examples cited where the individuals never espoused violence and were still fired — which is par for the courser for MAGA denialism. But even if your metric is that we should cancel or fire or ‘punish’ anyone "justifying violent politics" then Charlie Kirk himself would've been Exhibit A- remember he called for the death penalty for Joe Biden and he openly endorsed public executions which would be open to minors.
Judicially administered penalties are what you cite as political violence. Show one -- I'm not asking for "numerous" -- example where the individual who was fired for espoused terrorism never espoused violence, including "never espoused" by being glad Mr. Kirk was assassinated.
Your contortions are amusing, I hear Cirque du Soleil is hiring. I sincerely doubt you’d come to my defense if I were fired after the Kirk assassination for saying he deserved a ‘judicially administered’ death penalty when he was alive, and of course people were fired for much less. In the case of Lauren Vaughn she merely repeated Kirk’s own words. And how about Julia Strebe? who lost her job after posting the following on FB, “empathy is not owed to oppressors.” And Joshua Bregy who was fired for posting the following? “No one should be gunned down – not a school child, not an influencer, not a politician – no one. But am I going to allow people to make a martyr out of a flawed human being whose rhetoric caused notable damage? Not a chance.” In this last example, Trump himself intervened to get Bregy fired. You don’t have a proverbial leg to stand on, no matter how much you contort and spin.
Yes, it's scary, particularly since the affordability issue does not appear to be on the front burner. I know there's steps being taken but it doesn't seem visible enough to those who need to hear it. Of course progress is buried by the extensive deep state media. Fortunately, unlike Germany, and thanks to Elon, Matt and many others, the internet remains uncensored here, at least until any democrat administration.
Censorship is still going strong under the Trump administration. Just look at Nexstar and Sinclair refusing to air Kimmel along with the FCC chairman saying “We can do this the easy way or the hard way…” Additional examples include a list of banned words that federal employees can no longer use, restrictions on Pentagon reporters, censoring scientific data and human rights reports from government websites and the removal of “divisive" or "anti-American” content from museums and parks.
The democrat point of view, well summarized. Unlike the prior administration's sub-rosa pervasive all encompassing censorship, this type is far more limited and highly visible.
“All encompassing censorship” under Biden? Laughable! Biden’s FCC did not threaten late-night comics. Federal workers were not prohibited from using certain words. Pentagon reporters were not restricted on what they could publish. Scientific and human rights reports were not censored on government websites. Decades old content was not removed from museums and parks. But all that and a whole lot more censorship is being perpetrated by the Trump administration.
Hunter's Laptop, COVID mandates (including firing tens of thousands), J6 jailings with no due process, Twitter Files & other social media large-scale censorship, Title IX mandates (censoring religious and women's rights), statues and monuments removed after George Floyd (a form of censorship), etc. Yes, censorship.
Trump was president, not Biden, when the New York Post first published the story about Hunter’s laptop in October of 2020. You think the Trump administration pressured Facebook and Twitter to restrict sharing of the Post story? Even Taibbi found no evidence the government pressured Twitter to restrict Hunter’s laptop story.
COVID vaccine mandates saved hundreds of thousands of American lives (a conservative estimate) during the first two years of vaccine availability. Public health is a core concern of government.
The J6 defendants received due process. They were charged, met with lawyers, then either plead guilty or were tried and found guilty or not guilty. Those held without bail were either flight risks or dangers to the public. Pre-trial detention is a common thing and not unique to the J6 defendants held without bail.
In June of 2023 (several months AFTER Musk bought Twitter) lawyers for Twitter (and by extension Musk) contested many of the claims made in the Twitter Files. Additionally, the Twitter Files revealed that the Trump administration made requests to Twitter for the removal of posted content.
The removal of statues and monuments honoring racists after George Floyd’s murder was a legitimate response. Most of those statues and monuments were not put up soon after the Civil War — instead they were put up during the Jim Crow era to intimidate blacks and protest integration.
Again, the Trump administration is engaging in censorship on an industrial scale. Any comparison to the Biden administration is laughable.
Nope. Sinclair and Nexstar banned Kimmel because both companies want to buy the Tegna broadcast television station group. The purchase of Tegna by either company would require a waiver from the FCC because Sinclair and Nexstar are already the two largest broadcast station group owners in America and the FCC has limits on the nationwide ownership of television stations — adding Tegna’s stations to either company’s station group would exceed that limit. Sinclair and Nexstar know Trump hates Kimmel so both companies saw an opportunity to curry favor with Trump and his FCC chairman Brendan Carr after Carr publicly criticized Kimmel's remarks and suggested regulatory action. Note that it was only AFTER Carr’s criticism of Kimmel that Sinclair and Nexstar announced their bans of Kimmel not before. Also, there are 230 ABC affiliate television stations. Nexstar and Sinclair own 68 of those ABC affiliates. If what Kimmel said was so offensive to viewers why did the owners of the other 162 ABC affiliates not ban Kimmel as well?
As for “the track we were on” under Biden, that track does not come close to the censorship campaign under Trump. The Trump administration has banned federal employees from using certain words in their communications, banned Pentagon reporters from independent reporting, banned the display of decades old content at museums and parks, filed lawsuits against media companies because of coverage Trump dislikes, removed critical findings in public health and human rights reports, revoked the security clearances of officials who were critical of Trump, targeted law firms who have represented Trump’s opponents, threatened to withhold funding from universities whose policies Trump dislikes, revoked visas of folks who have upset Trump, and on and on and on. Trump’s censorship juggernaut is far more aggressive and fast tracked than Biden’s was.
Germany is sooooo screwed. They have made it illegal to speak freely on the internet while destroying energy too. They are targeting the AfD like it’s a terrorist organization which means if you don’t think like us you will be fined and jailed. This of course is all in the name of not becoming a Facist Nazi state ever again yet what they supposedly fear the most is turning them into the exact thing they claim to be fighting against. The mental gymnastics you need to do to get here is insane. Yet Germany has almost achieved it. If their govt. wasn’t frozen and was able to make any decision right now you’d think they would see this but they don’t. Germany is headed to extinction.
Vance’s speech in Munich to this effect is probably the most historically significant piece of American foreign policy rhetoric this century, or at least since Colin Powell spoke about WMDs at the UN.
Powell was, in a way, announcing the massive expansion of the American imperial project. Vance, quite overtly, was announcing we would no longer participate in that empire which now has its strongest support in Western European capitals and the Five Eyes agencies (including ours). Hopefully these become seen as bookends to an ignominious period in our history.
One would think. The problem here is the Reps have congress but aren’t doing anything to assure this doesn’t happen here(again). They have zero laws regarding censorship (although the constitution should be enough) and while it seems things have changed they just elected a communist in NYC and AOC is looking at a presidential run. I’d like to believe there’s no possible way she could win but there has been an exodus from many blue states to red and they do bring their politics with them. This congress has been in power for a year now and has done dick
Yep. Both sides are just being entertained with their own Trump drama because it’s more entertaining than anything on Netflix. Meanwhile Congress might as well be in a coma and is not passing any meaningful legislation. In three years everything will revert back to the status quo.
Ahh, there but for the Grace of _______(fill in the blank), would have gone the USA. I don’t think there’s any denying it. Heck, this probably would have been the last Thanksgiving.
2. All actions are preceded by corresponding thoughts.
3. Therefore, if we can prevent all evil thoughts, we can prevent all evil actions.
It's one of those statements that's strictly true in a technical, logical vacuum. It takes a certain kind of white western college educated liberal bureaucrat to look at that statement and think "Hey, I've got an idea..."
But among "bad people" how many actually wake up and think "What can I do to promote evil?" I suspect that almost all humans are certain their values are good, and then make some effort to promote that goodness.
Your suggestion of a cartoon view of right and wrong does not take a delusional college education. It goes back to the dawn of ape man.
Fair point. The Enlightenment values of rationality, individualism, liberty, and the rule of law were a great advance over that caveman view. In America, they are part of our cultural DNA. But our universities have spouted anti-Enlightenment ideology for decades (incidentally, imported from Germany), which amounts to a turning back of the clock to a more primitive, savage era. Yet the recent backlash against government censorship shows we are not ready to lie down yet.
In most of Continental Europe, by contrast, the liberty they have is a thin veneer over more fundamental collectivist, authoritarian values. And they lack the disdain that Americans have for academic theories detached from reality. So their college educated bureaucrats have more of a free rein to indulge what really is a primitive ideology when you strip away the convoluted rationalizations.
tl;dr: Both can be true: The censorship impulse goes back to cavemen, but today is driven by college educated leftists.
The fact that a "college education" automatically elevates status and affords an elite position in the social hierarchy is repugnant to the American ethos (or it used to). But it's been one of the structural foundations of a rigid caste system in Europe for many generations.
The view of right and wrong has nothing to do with the college education. A college education is required to reach the conclusion "so all we have to do is keep everyone from thinking bad thoughts forever, and then no bad things will happen".
Anyone who has ever spoken with an actual human being will know that's not how anything works.
“One could argue that we’re in the business of protecting critical infrastructure, and the most critical infrastructure is our cognitive infrastructure,” Easterly said. “We now live in a world where people talk…twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
What is striking about the graph is there was NO investment in censorship prior to 2016 when Trump decided to run for president. And it has escalated ever since. Trump will go down as the greatest disrupter (in a good way by me) in history.
I have personal experience of this in my homeland, England. I live in the States and I frequently comment on substack and FB about Islamisation of Britain and Europe. Up to about 5 years ago I would get responses from friend in England, these days just crickets. If they were to agree with my comments or criticise Islam or the prophet themselves then it would mean imprisonment. The rapidly failing Starmer government is about to enact a new definition of Islamophobia which will put Islam and the prophet completely out of bounds for anyone in Britain. I’m sure you’ve all seen the rising tide of protest across all of Western Europe. Katie Hopkins has just had to defend herself against Britains police state including court appearances and being interviewed under caution for calling herself a “spaz”. There are no longer any free and open societies in Western Europe, just increasingly authoritarian and embattled establishments desperate to hold onto power even if it means destroying their own countries.
My homeland is Germany, where I lived until age 22. I’ve many cousins over there, who have turned surprisingly "stumm" regarding German politics. Horrified what Germany has turned into, grieving the country I once knew.
Centralized control of the Western world is the wet dream of the globalists. Prior to President Trump, they were well on their way. They have nearly complete control of Great Britain, France, Germany, Romania, Ireland, and most others except for Poland, Austria, Denmark, Italy, and to some degree, Switzerland.
People are scared. Seeing someone receive a two year prison sentence for a tweet tends to do that. A lot of English people, particularly younger people, have become dispirited and see nothing worth fighting for. It’s terribly sad.
I do, votes and the cynical economic Ponzi scheme that is mass immigration. Pass the buck now while in power and let those in charge later deal will the blowback. That or they are actually true believers which, though unlikely, is far more terrifying.
It's no surprise that Germany has this level of censorship and intimidation. They have a lot of experience in it. They are becoming what they purportedly are desperately trying to keep at bay.
The HateAid manifesto and the 60 minutes clip of its CEO make Orwell and The Buffalo Springfield look clairvoyant! “Step out of line and the man comes to take you away.”
The German people have been thoroughly indoctrinated in "self flagellation" since WWII. Now the country is engaged in a long term decline as is the rest of Europe. Germany is/was the industrial engine powering Europe and is involved in a self imposed deindustrialization aggravated by the loss of cheap Russian energy. A small percentage of Germans have recognized what's going on and are speaking out. Can't have that so censorship and repression are being imposed on the small number who realized the game. On top of that, distraction for masses is being accomplished by beating the war drums and that's across Europe. Europe needs to rid of NATO and the US war machine economy. Needs to abolish the EU and go back to proud Nation States and deport those who can not or will not become Europeans of the individual states. ALL current regime's need to be turfed ASAP.
Just to provoke a bit of discussion, how much of the censorship drive comes from women? Yes, opinions and biases (and actions) vary by individual regardless of gender, but as people coalesce into political groups we see distinct clumping and trends. I am thinking of the social and legal impacts described by Helen Andrews in The Great Feminization, and my own interpretation that dedicated censorship, even with good intentions, fits within that ethic.
Probably a lot. If you subscribe to Sowell’s ‘constrained’ vs. ‘unconstrained’ vision idea, you might agree cultures and societies evolve, with no one designing them. So, some might be patriarchal, others matriarchal. It appears matriarchal societies tend to self-destruct more, perhaps from the reasons Helen Andrews gave.
That’s pretty much what Andrews said, the empathy and desire for an amicable consensus tends to cancel the rule of law. That’s not to say the feminine ones are bad attributes; it’s just not good to have a culture or society dominated by them. Goes back to the Asian yin/yang concept.
REspect! - no, it's not Aretha - is a child org of the "Baden-Württemberg Youth Foundation"
Key funders include the Bavarian State Ministry for Family Affairs, Labor and Social Affairs" ....
Man, if that doesn't sound like the 21st Century version of the Hitler Youth I don't know what does. It is in their DNA, those sucking Krauts. Cut 'em off!
Great report, Greg. The Stasi is alive and thriving, and Germany is providing a blueprint for censors everywhere. Trump's pushback is looking frighteningly fragile - and there may only be a year to put more robust free speech protection in place.
There is no “rub” as to whether self- censorship occurs because people are afraid of being insulted by some other regular person or afraid of being destroyed by the leviathan. The claim that it’s the former, coming of course from the leviathan itself, is an Orwellian joke.
Great article, RYAN. It’s clear, NGO’s have created yet another layer of unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy which shields the powerful from true public sentiment and it denies citizens true representative governance.
Even though we’ve mostly dismantled the censorship complex in the USA, we’re still fighting the behemoth of government employees undermining the public will at every turn. Disgusting.
But even more disturbing, we’re one election from another administration bringing it all back in.
That’s the scary part. One election away…
You know, I keep wondering about this rift among’MAGA’ re: Israel. X’s new tool is either exposing foreign bots trying to exploit the issue to cause division OR it’s actually VPN users that actually ARE Israeli &/or intel propagandists trying to make those questioning the wisdom of endless $ streams to Israel et al as ‘rampant antisemitism’ taking over MAGA. Either way, the tool itself exposes the fakery, and could diffuse it- if used and spread widely, don’t you think?
I really think this kind of thing has been done with great success. One example is the Latin Mass contrived controversy. Data shows that where Latin Mass is on offer at parishes, the congregation grows, marriages thrive with more procreation, vocations increase and Mass attendance increases. However, Pope Francis cited increased vitriol and division in especially the American churches- I believe based on online forums cluttered with online accounts “Rad Trads” who fomented the divisive discourse. I can’t help but wonder if it was all a sham.
The principle is this- when claims are surfacing widely which portray a trend that doesn’t seem to match reality, is it actually this propaganda by bot?
I wonder…
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It has to be fought for and defended by each generation.”
If only Ron could've seen what the future held...
No need to wait!
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/charlie-kirk-purge-how-600-americans-were-punished-pro-trump-crackdown-2025-11-19/
By and large -- and possibly entirely or almost entirely -- the people punished were indeed justifying violent politics. The one case cited in detail by Reuters involved twisting Kirk's comment about unpolitical firearms violence into justifying assassination of Charlie Kirk. The lady Reuters wrote about was not doing the twisting, it was the Reuters editor and reporter misleading us. The logic involves fine details. However, in all the instances of leftist celebration of the assassination I've seen the leftist has been practicing the psychological defense of projection.
Wait, so you refuse to believe the numerous examples cited where the individuals never espoused violence and were still fired — which is par for the courser for MAGA denialism. But even if your metric is that we should cancel or fire or ‘punish’ anyone "justifying violent politics" then Charlie Kirk himself would've been Exhibit A- remember he called for the death penalty for Joe Biden and he openly endorsed public executions which would be open to minors.
Judicially administered penalties are what you cite as political violence. Show one -- I'm not asking for "numerous" -- example where the individual who was fired for espoused terrorism never espoused violence, including "never espoused" by being glad Mr. Kirk was assassinated.
Your contortions are amusing, I hear Cirque du Soleil is hiring. I sincerely doubt you’d come to my defense if I were fired after the Kirk assassination for saying he deserved a ‘judicially administered’ death penalty when he was alive, and of course people were fired for much less. In the case of Lauren Vaughn she merely repeated Kirk’s own words. And how about Julia Strebe? who lost her job after posting the following on FB, “empathy is not owed to oppressors.” And Joshua Bregy who was fired for posting the following? “No one should be gunned down – not a school child, not an influencer, not a politician – no one. But am I going to allow people to make a martyr out of a flawed human being whose rhetoric caused notable damage? Not a chance.” In this last example, Trump himself intervened to get Bregy fired. You don’t have a proverbial leg to stand on, no matter how much you contort and spin.
My head hurts…
🤣🤣🤣 mine too. I can’t seem to simply articulate what I am thinking!
I think your comments are spot on. It’s my brain. I think it has reached the end of the internet .
You just did.
Thank you- I wasn’t sure….
Yes, it's scary, particularly since the affordability issue does not appear to be on the front burner. I know there's steps being taken but it doesn't seem visible enough to those who need to hear it. Of course progress is buried by the extensive deep state media. Fortunately, unlike Germany, and thanks to Elon, Matt and many others, the internet remains uncensored here, at least until any democrat administration.
Censorship is still going strong under the Trump administration. Just look at Nexstar and Sinclair refusing to air Kimmel along with the FCC chairman saying “We can do this the easy way or the hard way…” Additional examples include a list of banned words that federal employees can no longer use, restrictions on Pentagon reporters, censoring scientific data and human rights reports from government websites and the removal of “divisive" or "anti-American” content from museums and parks.
The democrat point of view, well summarized. Unlike the prior administration's sub-rosa pervasive all encompassing censorship, this type is far more limited and highly visible.
Well, it happened, alot, and if you want to know about it, it's been very well documented by Matt Taibbi, and several others.
“All encompassing censorship” under Biden? Laughable! Biden’s FCC did not threaten late-night comics. Federal workers were not prohibited from using certain words. Pentagon reporters were not restricted on what they could publish. Scientific and human rights reports were not censored on government websites. Decades old content was not removed from museums and parks. But all that and a whole lot more censorship is being perpetrated by the Trump administration.
You are from another planet. Go back from whence you came.
Hunter's Laptop, COVID mandates (including firing tens of thousands), J6 jailings with no due process, Twitter Files & other social media large-scale censorship, Title IX mandates (censoring religious and women's rights), statues and monuments removed after George Floyd (a form of censorship), etc. Yes, censorship.
Trump was president, not Biden, when the New York Post first published the story about Hunter’s laptop in October of 2020. You think the Trump administration pressured Facebook and Twitter to restrict sharing of the Post story? Even Taibbi found no evidence the government pressured Twitter to restrict Hunter’s laptop story.
COVID vaccine mandates saved hundreds of thousands of American lives (a conservative estimate) during the first two years of vaccine availability. Public health is a core concern of government.
The J6 defendants received due process. They were charged, met with lawyers, then either plead guilty or were tried and found guilty or not guilty. Those held without bail were either flight risks or dangers to the public. Pre-trial detention is a common thing and not unique to the J6 defendants held without bail.
In June of 2023 (several months AFTER Musk bought Twitter) lawyers for Twitter (and by extension Musk) contested many of the claims made in the Twitter Files. Additionally, the Twitter Files revealed that the Trump administration made requests to Twitter for the removal of posted content.
The removal of statues and monuments honoring racists after George Floyd’s murder was a legitimate response. Most of those statues and monuments were not put up soon after the Civil War — instead they were put up during the Jim Crow era to intimidate blacks and protest integration.
Again, the Trump administration is engaging in censorship on an industrial scale. Any comparison to the Biden administration is laughable.
Nope. Sinclair and Nexstar banned Kimmel because both companies want to buy the Tegna broadcast television station group. The purchase of Tegna by either company would require a waiver from the FCC because Sinclair and Nexstar are already the two largest broadcast station group owners in America and the FCC has limits on the nationwide ownership of television stations — adding Tegna’s stations to either company’s station group would exceed that limit. Sinclair and Nexstar know Trump hates Kimmel so both companies saw an opportunity to curry favor with Trump and his FCC chairman Brendan Carr after Carr publicly criticized Kimmel's remarks and suggested regulatory action. Note that it was only AFTER Carr’s criticism of Kimmel that Sinclair and Nexstar announced their bans of Kimmel not before. Also, there are 230 ABC affiliate television stations. Nexstar and Sinclair own 68 of those ABC affiliates. If what Kimmel said was so offensive to viewers why did the owners of the other 162 ABC affiliates not ban Kimmel as well?
As for “the track we were on” under Biden, that track does not come close to the censorship campaign under Trump. The Trump administration has banned federal employees from using certain words in their communications, banned Pentagon reporters from independent reporting, banned the display of decades old content at museums and parks, filed lawsuits against media companies because of coverage Trump dislikes, removed critical findings in public health and human rights reports, revoked the security clearances of officials who were critical of Trump, targeted law firms who have represented Trump’s opponents, threatened to withhold funding from universities whose policies Trump dislikes, revoked visas of folks who have upset Trump, and on and on and on. Trump’s censorship juggernaut is far more aggressive and fast tracked than Biden’s was.
The process is the punishment.
The whole idea is to make surveillance permanent in its effect, even if it's episodic in its action.
The end result is the "subject" becomes the principle of his own subjection.
Infinite examination = compulsory objectification
...And the impetus behind it is, of course money and its bastard child, power.
Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy. Same as it ever was…
Germany is sooooo screwed. They have made it illegal to speak freely on the internet while destroying energy too. They are targeting the AfD like it’s a terrorist organization which means if you don’t think like us you will be fined and jailed. This of course is all in the name of not becoming a Facist Nazi state ever again yet what they supposedly fear the most is turning them into the exact thing they claim to be fighting against. The mental gymnastics you need to do to get here is insane. Yet Germany has almost achieved it. If their govt. wasn’t frozen and was able to make any decision right now you’d think they would see this but they don’t. Germany is headed to extinction.
Vance’s speech in Munich to this effect is probably the most historically significant piece of American foreign policy rhetoric this century, or at least since Colin Powell spoke about WMDs at the UN.
Powell was, in a way, announcing the massive expansion of the American imperial project. Vance, quite overtly, was announcing we would no longer participate in that empire which now has its strongest support in Western European capitals and the Five Eyes agencies (including ours). Hopefully these become seen as bookends to an ignominious period in our history.
One would think. The problem here is the Reps have congress but aren’t doing anything to assure this doesn’t happen here(again). They have zero laws regarding censorship (although the constitution should be enough) and while it seems things have changed they just elected a communist in NYC and AOC is looking at a presidential run. I’d like to believe there’s no possible way she could win but there has been an exodus from many blue states to red and they do bring their politics with them. This congress has been in power for a year now and has done dick
Yep. Both sides are just being entertained with their own Trump drama because it’s more entertaining than anything on Netflix. Meanwhile Congress might as well be in a coma and is not passing any meaningful legislation. In three years everything will revert back to the status quo.
Britain is trying their damndest to out Germany Germany as well…
Ahh, there but for the Grace of _______(fill in the blank), would have gone the USA. I don’t think there’s any denying it. Heck, this probably would have been the last Thanksgiving.
Trump pardoned the White House turkey, but a DC district judge instantly ruled against him.
East Germany, for the win.
Ah, the irony…
1. We want to prevent evil actions.
2. All actions are preceded by corresponding thoughts.
3. Therefore, if we can prevent all evil thoughts, we can prevent all evil actions.
It's one of those statements that's strictly true in a technical, logical vacuum. It takes a certain kind of white western college educated liberal bureaucrat to look at that statement and think "Hey, I've got an idea..."
But among "bad people" how many actually wake up and think "What can I do to promote evil?" I suspect that almost all humans are certain their values are good, and then make some effort to promote that goodness.
Your suggestion of a cartoon view of right and wrong does not take a delusional college education. It goes back to the dawn of ape man.
Fair point. The Enlightenment values of rationality, individualism, liberty, and the rule of law were a great advance over that caveman view. In America, they are part of our cultural DNA. But our universities have spouted anti-Enlightenment ideology for decades (incidentally, imported from Germany), which amounts to a turning back of the clock to a more primitive, savage era. Yet the recent backlash against government censorship shows we are not ready to lie down yet.
In most of Continental Europe, by contrast, the liberty they have is a thin veneer over more fundamental collectivist, authoritarian values. And they lack the disdain that Americans have for academic theories detached from reality. So their college educated bureaucrats have more of a free rein to indulge what really is a primitive ideology when you strip away the convoluted rationalizations.
tl;dr: Both can be true: The censorship impulse goes back to cavemen, but today is driven by college educated leftists.
A quibble, if I may: They are not college educated, they are degreed.
Radicalized, and ignorant.
The fact that a "college education" automatically elevates status and affords an elite position in the social hierarchy is repugnant to the American ethos (or it used to). But it's been one of the structural foundations of a rigid caste system in Europe for many generations.
The view of right and wrong has nothing to do with the college education. A college education is required to reach the conclusion "so all we have to do is keep everyone from thinking bad thoughts forever, and then no bad things will happen".
Anyone who has ever spoken with an actual human being will know that's not how anything works.
Thoughts Are Infrastructure?
“One could argue that we’re in the business of protecting critical infrastructure, and the most critical infrastructure is our cognitive infrastructure,” Easterly said. “We now live in a world where people talk…twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1633197644590792705.html
Your dreams are no longer safe.
https://twitter.com/dmcdmuffin/status/1686858857329590273?s=46&t=BoHOe-_T8keg3S2zv-cm7g
JUNE 02, 2023
DHS Cybersecurity Agency Labels Private Thoughts ‘Critical Infrastructure’ To Justify Censoring You
BY: SAMUEL BOEHLKE
"DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has classified American “thoughts, ideas, and beliefs” as “critical infrastructure.”
https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/02/dhs-cybersecurity-agency-labels-your-private-thoughts-critical-infrastructure-to-justify-censoring-you/
For those in Rio Linda, this is Communism where the state owns ALL, even our thoughts?
What is striking about the graph is there was NO investment in censorship prior to 2016 when Trump decided to run for president. And it has escalated ever since. Trump will go down as the greatest disrupter (in a good way by me) in history.
I have personal experience of this in my homeland, England. I live in the States and I frequently comment on substack and FB about Islamisation of Britain and Europe. Up to about 5 years ago I would get responses from friend in England, these days just crickets. If they were to agree with my comments or criticise Islam or the prophet themselves then it would mean imprisonment. The rapidly failing Starmer government is about to enact a new definition of Islamophobia which will put Islam and the prophet completely out of bounds for anyone in Britain. I’m sure you’ve all seen the rising tide of protest across all of Western Europe. Katie Hopkins has just had to defend herself against Britains police state including court appearances and being interviewed under caution for calling herself a “spaz”. There are no longer any free and open societies in Western Europe, just increasingly authoritarian and embattled establishments desperate to hold onto power even if it means destroying their own countries.
My homeland is Germany, where I lived until age 22. I’ve many cousins over there, who have turned surprisingly "stumm" regarding German politics. Horrified what Germany has turned into, grieving the country I once knew.
Well there's a lot of hope in Poland, Hungary, Italy, and Latvia I believe. When it comes to Muslim immigration, they are not towing the EU line.
Do you have any theory why this is?
Centralized control of the Western world is the wet dream of the globalists. Prior to President Trump, they were well on their way. They have nearly complete control of Great Britain, France, Germany, Romania, Ireland, and most others except for Poland, Austria, Denmark, Italy, and to some degree, Switzerland.
People are scared. Seeing someone receive a two year prison sentence for a tweet tends to do that. A lot of English people, particularly younger people, have become dispirited and see nothing worth fighting for. It’s terribly sad.
I do, votes and the cynical economic Ponzi scheme that is mass immigration. Pass the buck now while in power and let those in charge later deal will the blowback. That or they are actually true believers which, though unlikely, is far more terrifying.
It's no surprise that Germany has this level of censorship and intimidation. They have a lot of experience in it. They are becoming what they purportedly are desperately trying to keep at bay.
The Abyss stares back, no?
Anyone who has subscribed to Eugyppius on Substack is fully aware of the ridiculous levels the German government goes to censor their citizens.
The HateAid manifesto and the 60 minutes clip of its CEO make Orwell and The Buffalo Springfield look clairvoyant! “Step out of line and the man comes to take you away.”
The German people have been thoroughly indoctrinated in "self flagellation" since WWII. Now the country is engaged in a long term decline as is the rest of Europe. Germany is/was the industrial engine powering Europe and is involved in a self imposed deindustrialization aggravated by the loss of cheap Russian energy. A small percentage of Germans have recognized what's going on and are speaking out. Can't have that so censorship and repression are being imposed on the small number who realized the game. On top of that, distraction for masses is being accomplished by beating the war drums and that's across Europe. Europe needs to rid of NATO and the US war machine economy. Needs to abolish the EU and go back to proud Nation States and deport those who can not or will not become Europeans of the individual states. ALL current regime's need to be turfed ASAP.
Great work, Greg. Thanks!
I’m liking your comment praising this article from Germany.
Now I’m having second thoughts about doing that.
second. long live journalism!
Just to provoke a bit of discussion, how much of the censorship drive comes from women? Yes, opinions and biases (and actions) vary by individual regardless of gender, but as people coalesce into political groups we see distinct clumping and trends. I am thinking of the social and legal impacts described by Helen Andrews in The Great Feminization, and my own interpretation that dedicated censorship, even with good intentions, fits within that ethic.
Probably a lot. If you subscribe to Sowell’s ‘constrained’ vs. ‘unconstrained’ vision idea, you might agree cultures and societies evolve, with no one designing them. So, some might be patriarchal, others matriarchal. It appears matriarchal societies tend to self-destruct more, perhaps from the reasons Helen Andrews gave.
I am also thinking of the drive to make society "nicer" and more protecting, and suggesting these urges are more common among women than men.
That’s pretty much what Andrews said, the empathy and desire for an amicable consensus tends to cancel the rule of law. That’s not to say the feminine ones are bad attributes; it’s just not good to have a culture or society dominated by them. Goes back to the Asian yin/yang concept.
Yes, to quote Eugyppius, the schoolmarm domination of these bureaucrazies.
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REspect! - no, it's not Aretha - is a child org of the "Baden-Württemberg Youth Foundation"
Key funders include the Bavarian State Ministry for Family Affairs, Labor and Social Affairs" ....
Man, if that doesn't sound like the 21st Century version of the Hitler Youth I don't know what does. It is in their DNA, those sucking Krauts. Cut 'em off!
Yes, they gave us Marx, Hitler, and the Frankfurt School. But at least we also got Bach and Nietzsche from them.
TBF Hitler was Austrian, but your point stands.
Just across the border from Bavaria—in any case, he was a German creation, not Austrian.
Hence my “your point stands”.
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Great report, Greg. The Stasi is alive and thriving, and Germany is providing a blueprint for censors everywhere. Trump's pushback is looking frighteningly fragile - and there may only be a year to put more robust free speech protection in place.