The Global Crackdown on Dissent

There are a lot of theories going around about the global crackdown on dissent.

Most of these theories are, essentially, bullshit.

Some of them are innocent, well-intentioned bullshit, in that the people putting them forth are honestly trying to explain what is happening, but they have no idea what the hell they’re talking about, or, due to their allegiances, they are only seeing one part of the picture. Others of these theories are not that innocent. Some are clearly designed to deceive, confuse, misdirect, and so on.

In the end, it doesn’t matter. Bullshit is bullshit.

As my regular readers know, for the last two years, I’ve been experiencing the global crackdown on dissent “up close and personal,” and trying to report on it. A lot of my reporting has fallen on deaf ears. Which is understandable, given the nature of what we’re up against, which is (a) formidable, (b) rather challenging to really understand, and (c) virtually unassailable, currently.

People don’t tend to like stories like that. They tend to like stories with “good guys,” and “bad guys,” and identifiable enemies, and simple solutions, even if those stories are, essentially, bullshit.

One of the most prevalent bullshit stories (i.e., theories) about the global crackdown on dissent is the one about how The Big Bad Government Forced the Poor Helpless Global Corporations to Censor Everybody, or at least Conservatives. Americans are particularly fond of this story, especially conservative Americans, as it casts the Big Bad Government as the antagonist, and good, freedom-loving, military-contracting billionaires like Elon Musk as the heroic protagonists.

Variations on this bullshit story include, but are not limited to, the ones about how the Woke cabal, or the Communists, or the Democrats, or the Biden administration, or the Starmer government, or the Satanists, or the Zionists, or some other assembly of perverted evil-doers is responsible for the global crackdown on dissent, and every other bad thing you can think of.

Another bullshit story that is popular with Americans is the one about how the evil EU is the Monster, because there’s no free speech in Europe, not like there is in the USA, where there’s the 1st Amendment, and everyone is free, and extremely armed, and, anyway, Europeans are pussies.

I could go on, but you get the idea … all of these stories, and theories, are bullshit.

The global crackdown on dissent is not a European, or a British, or American, or a Canadian, or Australian, or a Brazilian operation. It is a global, systemic operation. Governments aren’t forcing or extorting global corporations into censoring dissent. Left and right politics has nothing to do with it. It is part and parcel of the ongoing evolution of global capitalism, the globally hegemonic system we all live under. Re-electing Donald Trump will not stop it. Electing Bobby Kennedy, Jr. will not stop it. The Supreme Court will not stop it. Elon Musk won’t stop it.

As I put it in a recent column …

“What is actually happening is, a dominant power — a globally hegemonic dominant power in our case — is eliminating internal resistance throughout the territory it occupies, which in our case happens to be the whole planet. Any and all forms of internal resistance. The character of the resistance makes no difference … Islamic fundamentalism, Christian fundamentalism, neo-nationalism, ‘populism,’ socialism, whatever. Any form of resistance that interferes with the consolidation of its global hegemony and commodification of virtually everything.”

I am well aware of many people’s objections to referring to the system that we all live under as “global capitalism,” but that’s what it is. It may not be the kind of capitalism you want, but it is the kind of capitalism we have.

If we cannot identify it, we cannot understand it. If we cannot understand it, we won’t be able to change it.

I am going to demonstrate how that system works when it comes to cracking down on dissent. I’m going to use the facts of my case to do it. I’ve arranged them into a simple timeline, and editorialized as little as possible.

I would like you to note a few key elements: (1) the sequence of events and their dates; (2) the various entities involved, i.e., the German government, Amazon, Twitter, and X; (3) the “nationalities” of these entities, e.g., Amazon and X are “American” companies, and Amazon operates in markets worldwide, e.g., Amazon.de, -.co.uk., -.nl, -.ca, etc; (4) seeming contradictions, e.g., the fact that Amazon banned my book in three European countries, but continues to offer it other markets all around the world; (5) the fact that “free-speech X” is still censoring my Tweets and stonewalling my attorney; (6) the way the system reacts to press attention that it cannot control, i.e., prior to my original and second trials.

What we are up against is a global system. A system. Not a clutch of conspirators. Not a political party. Not a “cabal.” A system. A decentralized, supra-national, hegemonic, global system. Which is eliminating internal resistance. Like a body’s immune system fighting an infection. Yes, the system is run by people, individual people, but they are all replaceable, interchangeable parts of the system. No one is giving anyone orders to censor anyone or prosecute anyone or telling anyone what to publish or broadcast. No one has to. Anyone in any position of power knows what to do, without being ordered. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be in their positions. They are organs of the body that the system comprises. We are the infection.

Until we understand that, and accept it, and embrace it, we are going to get nowhere.

Anyway, let me not spoil the fun. If you’re not too fed up with reading about my case, go ahead, review the following timeline. Note the six points I outlined above. And, if you subscribe to one of those theories I listed at the top of this piece, and referred to as “bullshit,” try your theory out on these facts. If it works, feel free to let me know.

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May 4, 2022 — The Rise of The New Normal Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020-2021) is published. It is an instant Amazon #1 bestseller in Political Science in the USA, Canada, and The Netherlands, and a Barnes & Noble bestseller. The cover art, by Anthony Freda, is an homage to William Shirer’s 1960 classic.

August 24-27, 2022 — Three months later, as the German authorities debate whether to lift the Covid mask mandates, I tweet the following Tweets. (Translation: (1) “The masks are ideological-conformity symbols. That is all they are. That is what they have always been. Stop pretending that they were ever anything else or get used to wearing them.” (2) “The mask always sends a signal.” — Karl Lauterbach, Germany’s Minister of Health, as quoted in Die Welt.)

August 29, 2022 — Amazon/KDP bans The Rise of The New Normal Reich in Germany.

August 30, 2022 — The Hessen CyberCompetenceCenter (“Hessen 3C”) reports the two Tweets to Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office’s Central Reporting Center for Criminal Content on the Internet. (Hessen 3C is “a department within the Cyber and IT Security Administrative Digitalization department in the Hessian Ministry of the Interior,” and an official partner of The National Cyber Response Center (“Cyber-AZ”), “a core element of Germany's Cyber Security Strategy.”)

August 30, 2022 — Hessen 3C reports the Tweets to Twitter for censoring. Twitter censors the Tweets, claiming they violate German “hate speech” laws.

August 30, 2022 — Amazon bans the book in Austria and The Netherlands, as well as Germany. The book becomes “unavailable to order” in German bookstores. Amazon applies warning notices to the book in markets where it is not banned (e.g., USA, UK, Canada, etc.), advising readers to visit the CDC, the World Health Organization, etc., “for the latest information on COVID-19 and vaccines.”

August 30, 2022 — Hessen 3C reports the Tweets to Germany’s domestic Intelligence agency, The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or “BfV”), one of the “core authorities” of Cyber-AZ. (Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungsschutz (“LfV”) at the state level, the BfV is tasked with “intelligence gathering on efforts against the liberal democratic basic order; counter-intelligence; protective security and counter-sabotage.”)

September 19, 2022 — The Federal Criminal Police Office forwards the case to the Berlin District Prosecutor. An official criminal investigation is launched. (I am not notified of the investigation at this time.)

June 2023 — Nine months later, the Berlin District Prosecutor notifies me that I am under criminal investigation on suspicion of “disseminating propaganda, the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization,” a violation of Section 86(a) of the German Criminal Code, punishable by up to three years in prison.

June 2023 — Matt Taibbi reports on the investigation in Racket News.

August 8, 2023 — The Berlin District Prosecutor’s office concludes its 11-month-long criminal investigation of my Tweets.

August 15, 2023 — The District Court of Berlin issues an Order of Punishment. I am sentenced to 60 days in jail or ordered to pay a €3,600 fine.

August 21, 2023 — My attorney appeals the Order of Punishment and requests a trial.

September 2023 — The Berlin District Prosecutor’s office launches a second criminal investigation of me, after I republish the Tweets in a Substack column reviewing the facts of the case. (I am not notified of this second investigation, which is temporarily suspended pending the outcome of the original prosecution. My attorney discovers it in the criminal investigation file after the fact.)

September 2023 — Stefan Millius reports on the prosecution in Weltwoche.

October 2023 — Marc Neumann reports on the prosecution in Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

October 2023 — Matt Taibbi reports on the prosecution in Racket News.

January 2023 — James Kirchick reports on the prosecution in The Atlantic.

January 23, 2024 — I stand trial in The District Court of Berlin. I am acquitted.

January 2024 — Aya Velázquez, other independent German journalists, and Epoch Times report on the trial. It receives zero coverage in the German mainstream press.

February 26, 2024 — The District Court Judge publishes her written acquittal verdict.

March 23, 2024 — The Berlin District Prosecutor files a notice of intent to appeal the acquittal verdict.

March 2023 — Ralf Hutter reports on the prosecution and the banning of the book in Multipolar, a prominent independent magazine in Germany.

March 27, 2024 — My attorney submits disclosure requests to Hessen 3C, Twitter/X, and Amazon, requesting information regarding the censoring of the Tweets and the banning of the book. (Both X and Amazon refuse to comply. X refers us to the X Help Center, noting that, on X, “people are free to be their true selves.” Amazon responds by sending me a zip file of irrelevant “data sets” and advising that they have thereby met their legal obligation to respond.)

May 3, 2024 — The Berlin District Prosecutor appeals to overturn my acquittal and requests a new trial before the Berlin Superior Court (Das Kammergericht Berlin).

May 2024 — Despite repeated reminders, Elon Musk and X continue to ignore my attorney’s disclosure request. Notwithstanding my acquittal, X continues to censor the two Tweets.

May 2024 — Both Der Spiegel and Stern magazine print covers featuring swastikas. Der Spiegel’s cover concept is exactly the same as my book cover concept/Tweets, the only difference being that the Spiegel cover features a swastika covered by the German flag, whereas my book cover and Tweets feature a swastika covered by a medical mask.

June 2024 — In response to my attorney’s disclosure request in March, Hessen 3C denies having instructed Twitter to censor the two Tweets, despite the fact that, on September 1, 2022, in the criminal investigation file, the Federal Criminal Police Office noted, “Hessen 3C has already taken measures to have the Tweets deleted.”

Hessen 3C also denies contacting Amazon regarding the book cover, despite the fact that Amazon banned the book less than 24 hours prior to Hessen 3C’s reporting of the Tweets to the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

July 18, 2024 — The Berlin Superior Court schedules the new trial for August 15, and issues an Order imposing security protocols on the proceedings, i.e., airport-style full-body scanning, no computers, phones, cameras, writing instruments, etc., allowed in the courtroom. Members of the press and the public (and my attorney and I) must surrender all personal items, including jackets, head coverings, etc., and completely their empty pockets before entering the courtroom. Members of the press and public will be limited to 35 and must be seated in the rear six rows of the gallery, so that they can be monitored by security personnel. The Superior Court’s pretext for this Order is that a certain high-security trial sometimes takes place in the same courtroom.

July 22, 2024 — My attorney files a motion objecting to the Court’s Security Order. We are informed that the judge that issued the Security Order has gone on vacation and is unavailable to respond.

July 26, 2024 — The Superior Court denies my attorney’s motion to lift the Security Order, which it explains is required due to the “overall tense security situation” and the need to protect the Court against “recently introduced wiretapping technology.” The trial is set to go ahead on August 15. The Security Order remains in effect.

August 4, 2024 — John Mac Ghlionn reports on the prosecution and the banning of the book in Sky News Australia.

August 9, 2024 — The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (“FIRE”) releases a video feature about the prosecution and the banning of the book.

August 12, 2024 — My attorney files a bias complaint against the judge that issued the Security Order.

August 14, 2024 — Ralf Hutter reports on the prosecution and the banning of the book in Berliner Zeitung, a mainstream German newspaper.

August 14, 2024 — The Superior Court postpones the trial without explanation. A new trial date is set for September 30. The Security Order remains in effect.

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N.B. The Rise of The New Normal Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020-2021) continues to sell briskly in countries where it is not banned. It remains banned by Amazon in Germany, Austria, and The Netherlands. Despite also being distributed internationally by Ingram Content Group, the book remains “unavailable to order” from bookstores in Germany.

P.S. And, yes, that’s Mr. Jensen up there again. I’m rather fond of Mr. Jensen. If you haven’t rewatched Network recently, or read his speech, I recommend doing that.