A week used to be a long time in politics but one day is all it took for an unelected bunch of authoritarians to close down one of the most popular new-media commentators out there, Alex Jones. This is the most significant political development since Trump was elected as it calls into question our power to protect freedom of speech, one of the absolute pillars of the free state.
Do we want China/Google/Apple etc deciding on our “access levels”, or do we trust free people to winnow out the good from the bad? Under the US Constitution’s First Amendment, Congress does not have the right to abridge freedom of speech – but it seems a bunch of unrepresentative nerds in Silicon Valley think they do. Whilst they have no legal monopoly on new-media channels, they have an almost complete practical lock-hold on them.
Apparently, Zuckerberg himself made the final decision to cut Jones off from Facebook, a clear example of the regal power these individuals now seek to wield. Unelected yet extremely powerful, they are a real threat to our liberties and need treated as such.
The fog is clearing and even utopians suffering from their usual myopia must be able to see the shape of things to come. Looming out of the mists is a bleak-looking place, previously heavily cloaked behind the obfuscation used by the deep-staters to conceal their control of the power and the money.
This moment brings to mind Caesar allegedly muttering “the die is cast”, when in contravention of his order to return to Rome alone he waded with his Legion across the Rubicon which marked the border of Italy. Thus began the Civil War which he would win to initiate a four-century long dictatorship, transforming the Republic into a family business, an Empire.
Crossing a small river demonstrated the future dictator’s intent, and our bunch of immature odd-balls with their strange social skills (see Zuckerberg drinking water in the Senate hearings) are launching an inane assault, demonstrating why they are congenitally unsuited to being the arbitrators of public policy.
They have certainly not learned the lessons from Milton’s Areopagitica which covered all the usual arguments nearly four centuries ago. The elite would describe themselves as reasonable but they must think we are not, for as Milton argued, all individuals should have open access to information on which to base their decisions, that they must have “freedom to choose, for reason is but choosing”.
Now these near-monopolists, whose only “genius” is often to buy up their competitors so that they can retain all their markets’ revenue and power, are obviously coordinating their counter-productive attempt to strong-arm Infowars out of business. They are unwise, and their actions have made Jones leap to even greater prominence while also hardening opposition to this self-referential elite.
They bring to mind how kings centralised power in the old tribal communities and took control of their newly minted “subjects”. We’ve seen this before and we don’t need to go through it again. Time to flick the switch, to cross our Rubicon but go the other way, taking out the dictator and his supporters.
How to fight back? Peacefully, of course, by protesting on the streets and never stopping until Trump can implement his reforms, Brexit is that stated at the time of the Referendum and the Silicon Valley guys and gals global tax “avoidance” shenanigans are openly reviewed by even better lawyers than they can afford.
We all need to make clear to the politicians that universal suffrage came long after we earned our fundamental rights. Many in the UK are, I am sure, already on a proxy-war footing as regards our incredible hate speech laws. These appear to allow anyone, including some Scottish police employee to decide they are insulted on behalf of others and can then attempt to see a comedian incarcerated for “hurt feelings” over a humorous video. No threat, real or implied, of violence needed.
Voting does not trump rights, which are basically being re-defined on-the-go as a result of the hate-speech blizzard fanned by the hard left. These numpties would be Communist Party members today if their predecessors had not lost the argument back in the 80s, managing a niggardly 0.1% of the vote. Now they have morphed into Momentum and sling the weaponised words of racist, hater, fascist and far-right to slander anyone engaging them in argument.
We live in a democracy which can never be perfect as we are all very imperfect human beings. However, there will always be those who believe they have found the grail, seen the light and have the duty to issue those who pass muster with Certificates of Correct Thinking – at first, they only wish to cut off your right to speak but as we push back they generally move onto your head.
The base of our democracy was not built on votes but was set firmly on rights earned and enacted in law, long before universal suffrage had been gained. That base is now under attack, and no legislator, company or individual business owner has any right to undermine it, let destroy it. That way lies blood.
So, we fight for our rights or our wee experiment in democracy is over and we can be enslaved again – and we would deserve to be. That is why we must fight now as elections mean nothing if your right to sway them through argument had been stripped away when Zuckerberg crossed his Rubicon.
Never apologise, never explain and never surrender.
Capital is a coward, they say, and that makes the moneyed look askance at anyone rocking the boat. Turbulence needs to be avoided if they are to see the consumers out there continue to consume, as confident folk borrow and spend. If there are choppy waters, people stick to the port and don’t head out. Just as Baldwin and Chamberlain recognised, that there was a threat from Herr Hitler the need to keep the economy ticking over was their immediate aim, keeping their fingers crossed that he would behave and that what he wrote in his book was purely bravado. In the back of their minds, they knew Winston would step in with Baldwin stating as much. Today we have the same cowardice, compromise and appeasement from the Tories, but no WSC to fall back on – Boris is not of the same calibre. It is incumbent on us to bring things to a head asap, before the point of no return is met. Personally, I think we are headed there and Brexit and Trump have triggered the counter-thrust. We’ll win, though it will be messy as it always is.
‘The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. ‘ It may be unclear who actually said this but it is so true. Sadly our society has become complacent and lulled into a false sense of security for a number of reasons including government policy on education education where there is an intentional failure to teach the lessons of history.
Is it not more a case that Zuckerberg et al have been persuaded by big government to play ball with them if they wish the big bucks to keep rolling in. It’s a no brainer for Zuckerberg and his pals as both government and the corporations wish to operate in a world without competition and minimal tax – they are at heart both monopolists.
I wonder when all of our so called leaders will put their minds together and AGREE to UNITE the RIGHT.
So far I can list NINE parties…..
UKIP
For Britain
Football Lads Alliance
Democratic Football Lads Alliance
Fishing For Leave
Veterans Against Terrorism
Peoples Charter
Leave Means Leave
Generation Identity
No doubt others can provide more group names.
If I were to be of a suspicious bent, I might think that all this fragmentation is not accidental…
Are we lions being led by donkeys, or is something else afoot….
With the exception of the top 2, none of those are registered political parties. Those pledging out have mushroomed. Democrats & Veterans – derived from John Rees-Evans’ Affinity, Libertarian Party, something called Time, the Sovereign Party, (a former UKIP candidate heavily promotes this one on Twitter.) The SDP – yes, really! And following Lord Owen’s lead they’ve realised the error of their ways. Then Winston MacKenzie set something up and of course there is Bonker Bolton’s vanity project One Nation
Yes – unity, united we stand, divided we fall
@Rob,
I totally agree except for the “Right” pigeonholing.
I reckon most of the supporters of those groups are socially and economically to the Left.
Liberal leaders that appear from Eton, Oxbridge etc etc need to create a fake Right narrative to create divide and rule against the masses.
Mass economic migration is an attack on the less fortunate in our country. Liberals, both economically and socially, grow rich on the back of unemployment and lowering of workers’ pay and conditions.
Liberals are using deflection to hide their shame at stepping on the poor to get rich. Every time a Liberal spews out an insult against the poor, the Liberal is seeing their standard of living rise at the expense of the people they demonise.
We know that Liberals and their Remain partners would happily paint stars on Leavers doors, remove their employment, close their businesses and send them to prison for the herecy of non-Liberal Groupthink.
How far away are we from the Liberal State tattooing numbers on their enemy ? Nazis can be anyone if they think they can get away with it, even vicar’s daughters.
We need to stick together. Every supporter of every group on your list has to look forward, see the bigger picture and offer compromise and good intention between those groups.
That is the only way we win. That means stuck up Tory sympathisers support Tommy Robinson and TR’s massive support joins with UKIP.
The only real problem is the leaders of some of these groups.
They prefer to be big fish in little ponds.
So Corporate Socialists AKA Corporatists (Benito Mussolini’s favoured synonym for Fascists) try to stop the propagation of information they disapprove of.
What a surprise!
If they’ve removed Alex Jones it is surprising they haven’t removed Paul Joseph Watson from Youtube yet, as he is one of their contributors and presenters on some days, but perhaps they are politically astute enough to avoid firing up UKIP with him a key member now?
We should be incensed about it anyway: the timing of this act is political gerrymandering designed to affect the outcome of the 2018 USA mid-terms, but it is the thin end of the totalitarian wedge, as anyone right of of left-of-centre, or anti-globalist, is in their sights.
I think our rights are only written in law , lets start with Magna Carta. But the ideas in Mag cart did not come out of the ether to be written in Latin in 1215. Our practical rights must go back before that- to time out of mind.
No commie or bad King can change that.
Oh, and I might add that The Powers That Be will try and blame Brexit for their complete and utter mess: don’t believe a word of it!
Poacher – unfortunately I think the blood is coming. The nut jobs that have been running our country are at a point that have been faced by similar regimes throughout history, people realise that their crackpot schemes don’t work and so they try and resort to totalitarian methods to hold it all together.
Multiculturalism is a failure and always was. The once stable population of the country is going through the roof and we have to print money out of thin air to keep the economy going, it just won’t support such a large population.
The Turkish currency crisis is just the start of financial mayhem in the emerging markets, many of these bankrupt countries will dump the US dollar and trade in Yuan. I’ve been watching this strategic alignment form for a while now and the bankers just can’t wait to get a war going with the aid of Theresa May and her government.
The US will eventually lose reserve currency status, without which it cannot survive. These sorts of events always start of gently over time, then one day you wake up and the cliff edge has been reached, I think 2019 is going to be scary.
When times are hard, racial tensions will explode and we’ll find out the Religion of Peace is no such thing, such a surprise when are government, that we’ve elected to look after out interests, keep telling us: ‘everything’s alright and we’re heading for the sunlit uplands.’
The best thing the UKIP branches can do, is to get together and discuss how you’re going to survive.
You didn’t really believe this orgy of illusion, lies and deceit was going to carry on forever did you?
Great comment Flyer. I have hope, there are ALWAYS ‘techniques’ to get around state control of media and they must be used vigorously.
Flyer,
The majority of people, including in UKIP branches, wear blinkers or are already blind.
The question is, how to remove the blinkers and how to warn and educate.
I try to warm my family and friends, but mainly they think I have lost the plot.
You are not alone Robc. None so blind as those who don’t want to see. Only today I was told (seriously )that although the ladies daughter nearly died in hospital and the treatment and attitude of the staff was dire, it was not their fault as they don’t have enough staff to deal with all the patients.
Not able to think or ask WHY?
One day Rob the wheel is going to come off in their nice little lives and they are going to find out the hard way that they are on their own
Warn by all means, but when push comes to shove, they will need you more than you will ever need them.
Flyer,
Guns will be required.
The TOWNSHIPS will be teeming with them, while we have none, so what next
Flyer, having read a good many of your posts it is clear to me that you are one of the very few on this forum who lives in the real world. The vast majority of contributors continue to live in a world of fantasy where we are playing a gentleman’s game but unfortunately the other side is being rather tiresome in not observing the rules. There is only one game in town and it is not Brexit. It is the very survival of the White Race.
You are so correct and right on the money Flyer, but apparently the masses particularly the younger ones really do think the good times built on lies credit and deceit will carry on forever, it’s on the telly and in the written media every day, and that’s what they along with their 40 something parents believe! Although if there is civil unrest brewing, it’s difficult to see how they would deal with it, presumably from behind a key board and in a nice safe space.