This Week in the New Normal #99
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the...
…and here comes the Online Safety Act
Kit Knightly
The UK’s Online Safety Act officially came into force two weeks ago, and they have wasted no time using it. Alternative social media network Gab has already been threatened...
Making Our Rights Disappear: The Authoritarian War on Due Process
John & Nisha Whitehead
“If Trump can disappear them, he can disappear you. The Trump regime is already targeting immigrants who are here legally simply because they expressed opinions that Trump disagreed with....
The War on Whatever
CJ Hopkins
The War on Whatever is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous, which it is. Like the never-ending war in Orwell’s 1984, it is waged by...
The Speech Police
CJ Hopkins
OK, this one is for all the professional “sensitivity editors” out there, and for the US Department of Homeland Security, and President Donald Trump, and the European Union censors,...
When Dissent Becomes a Crime: The War on Political Speech Begins
John & Nisha Whitehead
“Once the principle is established that the government can arrest and jail protesters…officials will use it to silence opposition broadly.” Heather Cox Richardson, historian You can’t have it both...
The Year of the Zealot
CJ Hopkins
It was the best of years, it was the worst of years, it was a year of brilliance, it was a year of buffoonery, it was a year of...
A Tale of Two PSYOPS
CJ Hopkins
Once upon a time, on a planet called Earth, there was born a global-capitalist empire. It was the first global empire in the history of empires. It dominated the...
The Armchair Rioters – Part 4
Iain Davis
This is the final article in a four-part series. The first three parts are available here, here and here. In his 1859 essay “On Liberty” the British political philosopher...
Disinformation Isn’t the Problem. Government Coverups and Censorship Are the Problem
John & Nisha Whitehead
“What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not...
Guilty!
CJ Hopkins
So, the Berlin Appellate Court overturned my acquittal today. I am now, officially, at least according to the New Normal German authorities, a “hate-speech” criminal. I’m officially a “hate-speech”...
“Overthrowing the Constitution”: All Sides Are Waging War on Our Freedoms
John & Nisha Whitehead
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln...
The New Normal Right
CJ Hopkins
OK, this will be one of my non-satirical essays … or mostly non-satirical essays. It will serve as a companion piece to The New Normal Left, another non-satirical essay that...
Quick Take: Elon Musk vs Brazil more fake “free speech” theatre
Kit Knightly
Recently we were asked on Twitter to comment on the Elon Musk/Brazil situation. At the time we didn’t really see the point, coming so hot on the heels of...
How (and why) they sell X as a “bastion of free speech”
Kit Knightly
Donald Trump is back on the app formerly known as Twitter. After almost four years in the “Truth Social” wilderness he sat down with Elon Musk for a 3-hour...
Fascism 2.0 – The changing face of social media censorship
Paul Lancefield
Facebook make only about £34 a year from the average customer in the UK – a little under £3 a month (and that’s before costs) so clearly there is...
Stabbings to Show Trials: 9 Simple Steps to Criminalize Free Speech
Kit Knightly
In the wake of the Southport attack and ensuing riots, we wrote that the agenda had become clear – it was about attacking free speech. Little did we suspect...
The People’s Court of New Normal Germany – Part Two
CJ Hopkins
So, my second trial for alleged thoughtcrime-tweeting is going ahead as planned on August 15 in Berlin Superior Court (Das Kammergericht). Full-blown anti-terrorism security protocols will be in effect...
UK Riots: The agenda becomes clear…
Kit Knightly
Those outside the UK might not have heard, but it’s been a violent week in the UK. Here’s a quick rundown of the official story so far: Four days...
The People’s Court of New Normal Germany
CJ Hopkins
Just when I thought things could not possibly get more shockingly totalitarian in New Normal Germany, where I’m being prosecuted in criminal court (for the second time) for tweeting,...
