Seasons Greetings from New Normal Germany!
So, I had a little disagreement with Jillian C. York, Director for International Freedom of Expression of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Berlin and several of her many hacker-type Twitter followers yesterday, and today … well, it appears NortonLifeLock has blocked the Consent Factory blog and slapped a big, red “dangerous webpage” warning label on it. (You may not see it wherever you live, and you certainly won’t if you’re not using Norton, but quite a lot of people do use Norton, so that’s kind of a problem for an author like me.)
Now, I’m sure this is (a) just a total coincidence, because I know that no one at EFF, nor any of the hacker types that piled in on my Twitter feed after Jillian singled me out for a Twitter mobbing, would stoop so low as to engage in this type of scumbag behavior (i.e., getting the Consent Factory blog flagged as “dangerous” website), and (b) probably just an innocent mistake on the part of the NortonLifeLock Corporation, which of course would never knowingly engage in any type of malicious, defamatory action that would damage an author’s reputation and livelihood (like, for example, as set forth in 28 U.S.C. § 4101).
In any event, while I’m waiting for NortonLifeLock to get this “mistake” cleared up, let me give you an update on the atmosphere here in New Normal Berlin, where “the Unvaccinated” (and other political dissidents who refuse to conform to the new official ideology) are effectively banned from human society (i.e., restaurants, cafes, cultural events, stores, etc., even public transport), so we are pretty much under house arrest. OK, we’re still allowed to shop for groceries, as long as we wear our medical-looking masks, and we’re allowed to go out and walk around in the cold and the rain for as long as we can stand it, so we’re technically not prisoners or anything. But it’s not exactly … you know, festive.
You’re wondering what the German on that shop window says, aren’t you? It says, “UNVACCINATED UNWELCOME!” It’s a familiar message here in Germany. Some of you might remember it from the 1930s, although it referred to a different group of people back then …
Of course, it is totally inappropriate, and wrong, and very, very bad (and, technically, a crime here in New Normal Germany) to compare New Normal Germany to Nazi Germany. I’m not doing that. I would never dream of doing that. Such comparisons, apart from being illegal, are empirically (i.e., according to “Science”) inaccurate.
Just because New Normal Germany projects a giant “VACCINATION = FREEDOM” message on an enormous TV tower or two …
… and hate-drunk New Normal German fascists are going around spray-painting “GAS THE UNVACCINATED” in big red letters on the walls of courtyards …
… and New Normal goon squads are raiding restaurants, bars, and even barber shops, “checking papers” and otherwise hunting “the Unvaccinated” …
… that doesn’t mean that “conspiracy theorists” like me are allowed to compare one form of totalitarianism to another form of totalitarianism or point out the similarities and differences between two forms of totalitarianism, or anything inappropriate like that.
I am, however, allowed to post tweets like this …
OK, but just because I’m allowed to post such tweets, that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, given the fascistic atmosphere here, currently. In fact, it prompted a lot of New Normals to spew mockery and insults at me in the replies, including, notably, Jillian C. York, Director for International Freedom of Expression of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Berlin, who, tweeting on behalf of the entire city, informed me that I am unwelcome in Berlin, and then proceeded to stalk me all day on Twitter.
Also, being the Director for International Freedom of Expression of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Berlin, and having 68,000 or so followers on Twitter, Jillian caused a number of tech-community types and … well, hackers, to pile in and spew their hate-drunk ridicule and insults at me, and just generally regard me as an evil, life-threatening, disinformation-spreading, “unvaccinated” person with a blog.
And so, here I am today, sending this out on Substack, because the Consent Factory blog is allegedly a “dangerous webpage,” at least as far as NortonLifeLock users are concerned.
But, again, I’m sure I’m just being paranoid, and this is just a coincidence … like all those heart attacks, and strokes, and the arrival of the dreaded OMICRON variant, and the Facebook censorship that I and many, many others have experienced, and the “warning” that Twitter applies to every article published by OffGuardian …
… and all the other coincidences that seem to be happening these days.
Anyway, sorry to bother you will all my personal drama, which probably has nothing to do with you, or the “news” and “verified,” “reliable” information you are allowed to read by unaccountable global corporations, which, after all, are not “censoring” anyone, technically, and which certainly have no reason to try to shape and police your worldview, or anything nefarious like that.
Happy holiday shopping … and all best from sunny New Normal Berlin,
CJ
ADDENDUM: So, in the wee hours of December 1, a NortonLifeLock robot wrote to advise me that they had removed the fake “dangerous webpage” warning and deemed the Consent Factory blog “safe” again … naturally, with no response to my request for an explanation of why and how the blog had been suddenly deemed “dangerous.”
In the meantime, one of my colleagues — an actual journalist, not a political satirist — wrote to educate me a bit about who I was messing with, or, rather, who might be messing with me.
As it turns out, Jillian C. York, in addition to "directing freedom of expression" and her other duties at EFF, and Twitter-mobbing dissident writers, is also an advisor to an outfit called the Open Technology Fund, which those of you interested in regime-change and CIA cutouts might be familiar with. I am not as familiar with the creepy NGO/CIA Cutout/Regime-Change Community as I probably should be, but, if you’re interested in that kind of thing, this Baffler piece by Yasha Levine (who wrote a book about all that stuff) might be worth a read. Also, I was informed that Jillian is a close friend of Katherine Maher, former CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, among other impressive and/or disturbing positions and activities reported in this Grayzone piece, and … well, this is where digging into the details of the US Government/Intelligence Agency/Global-Corporate “community” gets a little too creepy for me.
But that doesn’t mean Jillian, or any of her friends, associates, or her 68,000 Twitter followers, had anything to do with my blog getting flagged, or the tons of phishing emails that started coming in right after she featured me as persona non grata on her Twitter feed. It was probably … you know, just a coincidence.
FYI, for those interested in the history of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, here's a Yasha Levine piece from 2018 ... https://thebaffler.com/salvos/all-effd-up-levine
Some days I wake up motivated and energized to battle the New Normal. Other days, I'm exhausted, if not depressed. Oh, and there's the anger. At times, I think we'll win. Other times, it feels insurmountable. The world has always had plenty wrong with it, but what I would give to turn back the clock to before this madness.