For Whom the Bell Tolls
Diversity through singularity
"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once." - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 2.
Google recently changed its Communist Guidelines and began retroactively vanishing information across its platforms to match its updated ideology.
Though I am hardly a significant threat to the regime, several of my videos on YouTube were unceremoniously deleted and I was given a slap on the wrist for daring to pre-violate the new rules by as much as 5 years. In addition, it began putting warning labels (see image at top) on my series of Q articles for the pre-crime of promoting a “dangerous conspiracy theory”. Note that these articles did not promote Q in any way, were not censored even at the height of the Q Phenomenon, and were posted over a period of years from 2018 to 2021.
Censorship is always an act of fear. The de facto powers know that their ideologies are illogical and irrational, and that even vaguely cognizant individuals realize the absurdity of the presiding narradigm. Google’s actions are no different than, say, the Roman Catholic Church’s Nihil Obatat and Imprimatur. It’s always based on vague desires to “protect the faithful” from dangerous ideas.
Ideologs can rarely defend their positions on the basis of facts and reason. They are always terrified that access to dissenting viewpoints will undermine their deceptions and topple their power structures. They resort to high-profile violence against selected individuals in order to stifle opposition and create a climate of fear to speak out. Those who feel fear peddle fear.
One prominent example of mass censorship is the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or Index of Forbidden Books, which was a list of publications banned by the Roman Catholic Church. It was first issued in 1559 and was updated until 1966. The Index was a form of censorship that prohibited Catholics from reading certain works, on the grounds that they contained heretical or morally objectionable content. The Index was an attempt to control the flow of information within the Catholic Church and maintain doctrinal purity.
Another example of mass censorship is the burning of books and other publications by the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang in 213 BC. Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of a unified China who sought to consolidate his power by destroying all writings that he deemed critical of his rule. It is estimated that thousands of books and other documents were burned during this period. This act of censorship was an attempt to control the flow of information and eliminate dissenting voices within Chinese society.
Ho Chi Minh's pogrom against literature and academia occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s, during his leadership of North Vietnam. The campaign was known as the "Cultural Revolution" and aimed to eliminate intellectuals and perceived bourgeois elements from society.
During this time, schools and universities were shut down, and intellectuals, writers, and artists were purged from their positions and either slaughtered or sent to “reeducation” camps. Many books were also burned or censored, and the content of remaining literature was strictly controlled and had to align with the communist ideology of the regime.
In every case, censorship is cloaked in the guise of moral and cultural “purity”. Authoritarianism is always the product of self-appointed morality police “worried” about protecting the masses from “dangerous” ideas and thoughts. When we strip away to lofty rhetoric, censorship is nothing more than fear on the part of “authorities” that people will realize the illegitimacy of the regime, and its maniacal quest for power and dominance.
Throughout history, a handful of weapons have proven most effective against censorship. Education, technology, legal challenges, creative expression, and international pressure are the go-to tools in the fight against authoritarian regimes. The authoritarians know these tools, and that is precisely why these regimes always destroy education, limit access to technology, corrupt the justice system, stifle and control the arts, and work to isolate the population from outside influences.
If we survey the global situation today, we see precisely these battles taking place. There is a constant ideological drum beat in educational systems. Control of access to various apps, deplatforming/cancelling, and simply cutting off internet service is nearly ubiquitous. Two-tiered legal systems, where favored political operatives suffer no legal sanctions, are visible in many countries. The degredation of the arts through the application of public grants and false adulation of compliant creators destroys societal beauty and harmony. And finally, demonization of other cultures and constant saber-rattling isolate populations and install fear and distrust without just cause.
If our country is engaged in these activities, then we live under an authoritarian regime. No amount of apologetics can wave away that fact. All that remains is to determine how we will react. If we are like millions of people before us, we will capitulate in order to protect our perceived positions and possessions, leaving it to some distant future generation to repair our cowardice.
There is no safe place under an authoritarian regime. By keeping our heads down and our mouths shut, we only prolong the inevitable. These regimes become self-perpetuating and will eventually consume even its most ardent proponents. We are only valuable to the regime until we are not, regardless of how secure we think we are.
As John Donne reminded us in his culturally significant Meditation XVII, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less…”
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That is exactly what I was thinking of and I almost made that same comparison. It is bad. We've got grown men walking around with no balls and not an original thought in their heads. Anxious suburban Soccer mom's wringing their hands over the latest catch phrase spit out by the fake news. Climate change! Racism! Aaaaaaaahhhhh!
I'm still seeing people driving cars with their masks on. How is that safe? It's not and I get pissed off every time I see it. That's all I need is some oxygen deprived nut passing out behind the wheel and slamming into me.
Never let your enemy educate your kids. I don't know who gets the credit for that saying but it's a stark reality and then some.