Never forget what the Australian government did to Novak Djokovic for having natural immunity and refusing the jab. They detained him and deported him to prevent him from playing in the 2022 Australian Open. Then he returned in 2023 and triumphed, winning his record 10th Australian Open and 22nd Grand Slam: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-play-like-a-champion-part-018
As I said when The Twitter Files first broke, the real story isn't really The Twitter Files -- it's the fact that there's also an ABC Files, a CBS Files, a New York Times Files, a UK Government Files, and now an Australian Ministry of Truth Files.
They want to control everything you're allowed to say, and it's NO SURPRISE that once an entity is allowed to determine what speech isn't "allowed" that dissent quickly gets shoved under that umbrella.
The Anglosphere countries are experiencing a top-down Color Revolution, similar to the ones tried out first on former Eastern European Soviet bloc countries. The telltale signs are:
Behind-the-scenes coordination of Government—NGOs—Tech cos—media to craft and enforce narratives and then to police these narratives;
Vilification of all opponents in the most florid terms possible: they can't just be wrong or have a different perspective, they must be Nazi racist genocidal extremists;
Encouragement of a civil war-type schism in societies (You're either with us or against us), where citizens are prompted to attack those on the other side of the divide, spy on them and rat them out to authorities;
And then one more special twist: Denigration of the cultural heritage of all Anglospeshere countries, in the hope of making all prior political arrangements appear illegitimate at best or evil at worst, with the goal (as in all successful takeovers) of replacing all prior leaders, systems and beliefs with those of the new rulers, who install commissars at every institutional chokepoint, to make sure their narratives are blasted out of every megaphone, and competing narratives muted.
As the overseas Color Revolutions were just a beta test for what's happening here, Covid was another test to see how docile our populations are and how far they can be molded and manipulated by steady applications of fear and propaganda.
And in this regard, Covid was a smashing success and a blueprint for future "Emergency" takeovers, with more to come soon.
I come from the land down-under! Where the government spies and cabinet officials use cloth masks for plunder! You’d better run, you’d better not mention ivermectin….whooooaaaa….
This is the most amazing part to me: "The Australian stereotype of mocking self-important authorities was tepid at best during the crisis."
Aussies used to be merciless in ridiculing self-important scolds but now that trait seems to be disappearing from the Australian character. Such a shame, for 'twas highly admirable!
I hate that my imaginary land of the descendants of cool convicts and rabble rousers has been overtaken by people who took the guns and became tyrants. I stand with the people of my ideological 80s imagination. Really. This is not a joke post. I hope you're still down there.
I don't live in the English Speaking World but I am comfortable speaking my mother tongue. The easiest way to censor isn't to hide it from public view but to hide it in plain sight
If you want to know about censorship PEN International is a good place to start.
The Canadian historian, writer and Socratic Philosopher John Ralston Saul served consecutive terms as the President and is the foremost authority on Journalistic freedom on the planet and is invisible in the US mainstream media.
I am 75 and I was two when George Orwell died. He is the greatest literary giant known in my lifetime.
His essay on Nationalism talks about why Israel is a fascist state even as Israel was founded by democratic socialists like my grandfather and great grandfather and Orwell who understood all forms of nationalism even Christian Nationalism.
Why is the Orwell Library in Russia not in England or America?
Obviously Putin knows Orwell and has adopted the dark side just like the English speaking world. Australia is fascist just like Putin.
John Ralston Saul told us in his 1995 opus The Colapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World. That is why he was twice elected head of PEN International.
I traveled pretty extensively in my 20's and once spent almost a month in Australia. My impression of the people there at that time (and most of the Aussies I have met since that time) was that the typical Australian citizen was as similar to a typical Texan (me) as anyplace else that I had been in the world. What happened to that country? Like Texans, they all appeared to possess a great deal of national pride, but also were as irreverent to authority as anybody in the world. It appears to me that they have slowly and willingly conceded some of their basic rights to the government. Not really my intent to get into the whole 2A debate, but please recall that Australia had a terrible mass shooting event (35 people killed) in Tasmania in 1996. In the passion of that moment Australia quickly passed and enacted a ban on certain types of "assault" weapons. The subsequent data shows that the laws did indeed reduce mass shooting events, but at what cost? Their political leadership seems to have gotten more repressive since that time and there appears to currently be no serious and effective opposition to the erosion of their civil liberties. Is this a coincidence? I don't know. I am not saying that more guns are the answer, but I do also firmly believe that a government that has no fear of the governed will trend toward more repressive behavior. It is the immutable law of bureaucracies to accumulate and wield more power, regardless of where the bureaucrats are located. Since the political and media reactions to each new mass shooting event in the USA are so obviously canned and premeditated, I would assume that the anti 2A folks in the USA are using Australia as a model of what they hope to accomplish here. No one wants more mass shootings in America, but what are the unintended (presumably unintended) consequences of enacting such a ban here? Sure, Australia can always vote the little fascists out of office, but removing already enacted and restrictive legislation regarding free speech and gun rights from their law is vastly more difficult. Like it or not, the 1A and 2A freedoms that we enjoy in this country are inexorably linked. If the entrenched leadership in this country completely melted down over a couple of thousand old white dudes wearing MAGA hats marching in and around the Capitol building for a couple of hours to the point that they incarcerated and subsequently suspended their basic civil rights, while none were visibly carrying firearms, what do they really fear? A government that has a little fear of the citizens is not an all bad thing. This is basically the same dynamic that has led to zero nuclear exchanges in the nearly 80 years since they were first put on display in Japan. You do not have to actually use nukes to achieve political objectives. Everybody just has to understand that you possess them. The little functionaries (in Australia or anywhere else) that try and restrict jokes or cockamamie medical theories on the under the guise of "global health crisis" are not fearful of their citizens. Maybe they should be?
“Social cohesion” reminds of “sowing discord” and other bullshit that implies we’re all one big loving family, instead of a society in which minorities of rich and powerful people take advantage of the majority. Like take any collective bargaining process with lockouts vs strikes. You can’t tweet that managers want to crush workers to keep a greater share of company profits because that harms “social cohesion”. What’s next, goose stepping in unison?
Constant mocking like this seems like the best way to end this type of government behavior. Keep up the jokes and good cheer about this where you can, Matt.
Here's what's really troubling: what's going to happen during the next "pandemic" or other "emergency"? Governments have learned how and what to say to control the populace. How are thoughtful, mindful citizens going to fight back?
I can confirm as a voracious letter-writer to The Age newspaper during 2020 and 2021 (I'm thinking of publishing a book there were that many) that the newspaper's journalist and letters editor consistently ignored any evidence to the contrary of what appeared to be an accepted narrative.
In the state of Victoria, the lockdowns were particularly egregious. We were limited to travel within a 5km radius of our homes, even if we lived in semi-rural areas where the nearest store was 7km away. Fortunately, I live in such an area and took little notice of the outdoor mask mandate whilst retailers cracked open their doors to offer "click and collect" in an attempt to help purchase items for the home, clothing or gifts.
Once vaccines were introduced and poorly taken up, mandates were put in place, limiting access to anything other than food and alcohol sales (no clothes for that growing young child to try on, no re-soling of shoes for mum).
So many business destroyed, so many mortgage defaults. Developers who relied on a steady stream of immigrant first home buyers are only now feeling the reverberations of dreadful isolationist policy that did more to divide the country than unite it. But there was no forethought by policy makers on what this future glut of first homes would do to the economy in 2020; the building industry was exempt from working-on-site or in-person restrictions. There was no forward planning regarding any of the devastating decisions made.
Today, I'm left to reflect with despair on all the money leaving my country, on entire communities in the Victorian Alpine regions that can't get bush fire insurance (or flood-prone areas of Queensland for that matter) or the overly bureaucratic gymnastics and costly investment of time and money required to meet the requirements to operate a business in accordance with regulations that are often mired in a mush of contrary legislation.
We were a largely middle-class country where most held a passport and used in many times. Now, it's become increasingly cost-prohibitive to travel, even within our own country.
Never forget what the Australian government did to Novak Djokovic for having natural immunity and refusing the jab. They detained him and deported him to prevent him from playing in the 2022 Australian Open. Then he returned in 2023 and triumphed, winning his record 10th Australian Open and 22nd Grand Slam: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-play-like-a-champion-part-018
As I said when The Twitter Files first broke, the real story isn't really The Twitter Files -- it's the fact that there's also an ABC Files, a CBS Files, a New York Times Files, a UK Government Files, and now an Australian Ministry of Truth Files.
They want to control everything you're allowed to say, and it's NO SURPRISE that once an entity is allowed to determine what speech isn't "allowed" that dissent quickly gets shoved under that umbrella.
The Anglosphere countries are experiencing a top-down Color Revolution, similar to the ones tried out first on former Eastern European Soviet bloc countries. The telltale signs are:
Behind-the-scenes coordination of Government—NGOs—Tech cos—media to craft and enforce narratives and then to police these narratives;
Vilification of all opponents in the most florid terms possible: they can't just be wrong or have a different perspective, they must be Nazi racist genocidal extremists;
Encouragement of a civil war-type schism in societies (You're either with us or against us), where citizens are prompted to attack those on the other side of the divide, spy on them and rat them out to authorities;
And then one more special twist: Denigration of the cultural heritage of all Anglospeshere countries, in the hope of making all prior political arrangements appear illegitimate at best or evil at worst, with the goal (as in all successful takeovers) of replacing all prior leaders, systems and beliefs with those of the new rulers, who install commissars at every institutional chokepoint, to make sure their narratives are blasted out of every megaphone, and competing narratives muted.
As the overseas Color Revolutions were just a beta test for what's happening here, Covid was another test to see how docile our populations are and how far they can be molded and manipulated by steady applications of fear and propaganda.
And in this regard, Covid was a smashing success and a blueprint for future "Emergency" takeovers, with more to come soon.
If claiming the government uses emotionally manipulative language is an offense, how much trouble can you get in for discussing this conversation?
"Rather than doing too much forward signalling, we can roll pitch with the new strain."
Mr Hancock says: "We frighten the pants of everyone with the new strain."
The adviser responds: "Yep, that's what will get proper behaviour change."
The minister then asks: "When do we deploy the new variant."
Mr Hancock announced the new variant the following day.
I come from the land down-under! Where the government spies and cabinet officials use cloth masks for plunder! You’d better run, you’d better not mention ivermectin….whooooaaaa….
This is the most amazing part to me: "The Australian stereotype of mocking self-important authorities was tepid at best during the crisis."
Aussies used to be merciless in ridiculing self-important scolds but now that trait seems to be disappearing from the Australian character. Such a shame, for 'twas highly admirable!
Remember the cop who was choking the young woman for not wearing a mask, he was never disciplined. Full on abuse of power down under
I hate that my imaginary land of the descendants of cool convicts and rabble rousers has been overtaken by people who took the guns and became tyrants. I stand with the people of my ideological 80s imagination. Really. This is not a joke post. I hope you're still down there.
We seem to be at the mercy of a generation of hall monitors.
This is what happens when schools become minimum-security prisons.
I don't live in the English Speaking World but I am comfortable speaking my mother tongue. The easiest way to censor isn't to hide it from public view but to hide it in plain sight
If you want to know about censorship PEN International is a good place to start.
The Canadian historian, writer and Socratic Philosopher John Ralston Saul served consecutive terms as the President and is the foremost authority on Journalistic freedom on the planet and is invisible in the US mainstream media.
I am 75 and I was two when George Orwell died. He is the greatest literary giant known in my lifetime.
His essay on Nationalism talks about why Israel is a fascist state even as Israel was founded by democratic socialists like my grandfather and great grandfather and Orwell who understood all forms of nationalism even Christian Nationalism.
https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat
Why is the Orwell Library in Russia not in England or America?
Obviously Putin knows Orwell and has adopted the dark side just like the English speaking world. Australia is fascist just like Putin.
John Ralston Saul told us in his 1995 opus The Colapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World. That is why he was twice elected head of PEN International.
https://www.johnralstonsaul.com/non-fiction-books/the-collapse-of-globalism/
I traveled pretty extensively in my 20's and once spent almost a month in Australia. My impression of the people there at that time (and most of the Aussies I have met since that time) was that the typical Australian citizen was as similar to a typical Texan (me) as anyplace else that I had been in the world. What happened to that country? Like Texans, they all appeared to possess a great deal of national pride, but also were as irreverent to authority as anybody in the world. It appears to me that they have slowly and willingly conceded some of their basic rights to the government. Not really my intent to get into the whole 2A debate, but please recall that Australia had a terrible mass shooting event (35 people killed) in Tasmania in 1996. In the passion of that moment Australia quickly passed and enacted a ban on certain types of "assault" weapons. The subsequent data shows that the laws did indeed reduce mass shooting events, but at what cost? Their political leadership seems to have gotten more repressive since that time and there appears to currently be no serious and effective opposition to the erosion of their civil liberties. Is this a coincidence? I don't know. I am not saying that more guns are the answer, but I do also firmly believe that a government that has no fear of the governed will trend toward more repressive behavior. It is the immutable law of bureaucracies to accumulate and wield more power, regardless of where the bureaucrats are located. Since the political and media reactions to each new mass shooting event in the USA are so obviously canned and premeditated, I would assume that the anti 2A folks in the USA are using Australia as a model of what they hope to accomplish here. No one wants more mass shootings in America, but what are the unintended (presumably unintended) consequences of enacting such a ban here? Sure, Australia can always vote the little fascists out of office, but removing already enacted and restrictive legislation regarding free speech and gun rights from their law is vastly more difficult. Like it or not, the 1A and 2A freedoms that we enjoy in this country are inexorably linked. If the entrenched leadership in this country completely melted down over a couple of thousand old white dudes wearing MAGA hats marching in and around the Capitol building for a couple of hours to the point that they incarcerated and subsequently suspended their basic civil rights, while none were visibly carrying firearms, what do they really fear? A government that has a little fear of the citizens is not an all bad thing. This is basically the same dynamic that has led to zero nuclear exchanges in the nearly 80 years since they were first put on display in Japan. You do not have to actually use nukes to achieve political objectives. Everybody just has to understand that you possess them. The little functionaries (in Australia or anywhere else) that try and restrict jokes or cockamamie medical theories on the under the guise of "global health crisis" are not fearful of their citizens. Maybe they should be?
“Social cohesion” reminds of “sowing discord” and other bullshit that implies we’re all one big loving family, instead of a society in which minorities of rich and powerful people take advantage of the majority. Like take any collective bargaining process with lockouts vs strikes. You can’t tweet that managers want to crush workers to keep a greater share of company profits because that harms “social cohesion”. What’s next, goose stepping in unison?
Constant mocking like this seems like the best way to end this type of government behavior. Keep up the jokes and good cheer about this where you can, Matt.
Here's what's really troubling: what's going to happen during the next "pandemic" or other "emergency"? Governments have learned how and what to say to control the populace. How are thoughtful, mindful citizens going to fight back?
I can confirm as a voracious letter-writer to The Age newspaper during 2020 and 2021 (I'm thinking of publishing a book there were that many) that the newspaper's journalist and letters editor consistently ignored any evidence to the contrary of what appeared to be an accepted narrative.
In the state of Victoria, the lockdowns were particularly egregious. We were limited to travel within a 5km radius of our homes, even if we lived in semi-rural areas where the nearest store was 7km away. Fortunately, I live in such an area and took little notice of the outdoor mask mandate whilst retailers cracked open their doors to offer "click and collect" in an attempt to help purchase items for the home, clothing or gifts.
Once vaccines were introduced and poorly taken up, mandates were put in place, limiting access to anything other than food and alcohol sales (no clothes for that growing young child to try on, no re-soling of shoes for mum).
So many business destroyed, so many mortgage defaults. Developers who relied on a steady stream of immigrant first home buyers are only now feeling the reverberations of dreadful isolationist policy that did more to divide the country than unite it. But there was no forethought by policy makers on what this future glut of first homes would do to the economy in 2020; the building industry was exempt from working-on-site or in-person restrictions. There was no forward planning regarding any of the devastating decisions made.
Today, I'm left to reflect with despair on all the money leaving my country, on entire communities in the Victorian Alpine regions that can't get bush fire insurance (or flood-prone areas of Queensland for that matter) or the overly bureaucratic gymnastics and costly investment of time and money required to meet the requirements to operate a business in accordance with regulations that are often mired in a mush of contrary legislation.
We were a largely middle-class country where most held a passport and used in many times. Now, it's become increasingly cost-prohibitive to travel, even within our own country.
The most effective censorship is self-censorship, when there are truths, not lies but truths, you cannot bring yourself to say out loud.