Tag Archives: Freedom

Western “democracies” are quietly arresting dissidents

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Last updated on 12 Nov 2024 to include Haim Bresheeth

More journalists arrested in the west

Shocked to find out the truth behind our veneer of “freedom” and “democracy”, I started keeping a list of influential journalists, professors, social justice activists and free speech defenders arrested in western “democracies” since the last Russo-Ukrainian war began in 2022. I will keep updating this regularly. Creation date of this article was Sept 3, 2024, so just check the additions to the list below since then. See how quickly this all turned sideways since august 2024 (after Keir Starmer took over)!

Most on this list are charged under some vague recent sweeping anti-terrorism acts, effectively gagging the people in question and shutting them up while held under surveillance without further notice.

Note that mainstream media mostly do not, or are not allowed (by their respective govts) to report on these arrests. Many western governments have installed laws enforcing censorship in secret, making it extremely hard for the public to know the truth. One would have to do independent research as sources reporting on the true matter of events exist, but are made hard to find or deranked by algorithms of the co-opted media platforms (such as Google, Twitter and Facebook, all US owned and thus under control by the NSA).

Do you think you have intellectual freedom?

Some background regarding current censorship in the west

You see, most large influential news networks in the world are now operating under the so called “Trusted News Initiative”, effectively controlling the (non)dissemination of influential information. In effect they are censoring or framing information to fit the purposes as laid out by overarching (inter)national security agencies which were injected into their process. The COVID pandemic was used as the perfect moment to install this machinery and push forward sweeping regulations making most of this unseen to the public.
The original “five eyes” (the first 5 national security agencies collaborating on almost everything) have now grown to include even more countries dependent on the protectorate, collaborating in secret to help keep hegemonic control of the world (mostly by demonizing the “others”, to gain support for far reaching measures such as sanctions, with side effects such as fueling far-right views and racism all over the world), and have firmly taken control of western media.
(Where is the proof you may ask? Obviously not to be found in mainstream media anymore.)
You will have to start slow thinking in order not to succumb to such tricks, and keep looking beyond the simplistic narratives of the propaganda machines.

To help those interested I have created an independent news app that helps with finding out what is going on in the world for real ;)

Important notes:
This list excludes the hundreds of people local to crisis areas / war zones that were killed or arrested based on their ethnicity, and are rarely reported on. In this list I focus on famous people that are inhabitants of countries in the west, as their arrests are likely to receive more attention (and thus hopefully more condemnation) from viewers.

Those unchecked at the end are the names of people the hegemonic powers would like to see silenced, and could be next. Coordinated smear campaigns are already rampant against them, demonizing them and attacking their persons as psychologically unstable (a very popular attack nowadays). The combination of such cheap tactics are likely to trick the lazy brains of the public into the “where there is smoke there must be fire” stance on the matter, setting them up for future arrests or degradation of powers.

The current list

(Please tell me if I left out anybody, so I can update it ;)

– [x] Kit Klarenberg (UK, May 17, 2024): GrayZone reporter. Interrogated over “political views” after the GrayZone was revealing the true motives behind the Russia-Ukraine war.
– [x] Scott Ritter (USA, August 7, 2024): in depth reporting and analysis on the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine war, showing the true disasters unfolding, with strong emphasis on the military perspective.
– [x] Richard Medhurst (UK, August 15, 2024): in depth reporting and analysis on the Middle East, and vocal critic of the remaining apartheid regime proclaiming to be a democracy (Israel).
– [x] Mary Kostakidis (Australia, August 2024): Australian journalist and political commentator informing the public about sexual assault fabrications created by Israeli propagandists. Accused by Israeli govt linked agency of “supporting ethnic cleansing of Jews” after two retweets.
– [x] Danny Shaw (USA, August 28, 2024): Professor and activist speaking out against social injustice and the current unfolding catastrophe in the Middle East. In May 2024, before this arrest, he was arrested, doxxed and subsequently fired from his job at the College of Criminal Justice in New York. For protesting against the genocide in Gaza
– [x] Sarah Wilkinson (UK, August 28, 2024): activist fighting for human rights and social justice, highlighting the hypocrisy in the west around the unfolding genocide in the Middle East.
– [x] Richard Barnard (UK, August 29, 2024): Founder of Palestine Action, leading activists to fight against Israel’s genocide and for the rights of Palestinians to exist. 
– [x] Pavel Durov (France, August 31, 2024): Owner of free speech platform Telegram. (He was effectively arrested because he guarantees safety and privacy and thus won’t build a backdoor for governments/hackers for surveillance, unlike all US based platforms that have to comply to such arrangements by NSA decree)
– [x] Michael Lacey (USA, 4 sept 2024): Owner of Backpage, a Craigslist alternative. He was arrested for “facilitating prostitution” because his platform was used to place legitimate ads for meetings between individuals that subsequently engaged in illegal acts !?
– [x] Steven Thrasher (USA, 5 sept 2024): Assistant professor of journalism, author and journalist mainly focused on LGBTQ+ issues, but moved focus on the genocide in Gaza. Suspended for standing up for Palestinian rights.
– [x] Asa Winstanley (UK, 17 Oct 2024): Associate editor of the Electronic Intifada, a group of journalists chronicling the Palestine people and their legitimate resistance to military oppression by an invading force, which is Israel.
– [x] Haim Bresheet (UK, 4 Nov 2024): Retired Jewish israeli filmmaker, photographer and a film studies scholar and professor, gave a speech in which he said Israel is unable to win against Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
 

Who’s next?

Many people stand up to counter the propaganda of the neocon’s instigated/funded wars and atrocities against mankind all over the globe. The wave of political arrests is increasing, and it is very likely that people on this “next” list are targeted some time soon. They are likely to first get harassed on many levels and targeted with smear campaigns (trolled) before actually being arrested, as that never looks good from a PR perspective.

– [ ] Col. Douglas MacGregor (USA, ?): Military analyst and commentator discussing the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Offers a realistic view of the balance of powers in the current multi-polar world, which is not what the hegemony tries to portray. His network in the military and political arena make it harder for the establishment to neutralize him in public. 
– [ ] Chris Pavlovski (Canada, ?): Owner of free speech platform Rumble. France also threatened his platform as well so after Pavel Durov’s arrest he left Europe to escape potential indictment/arrest.
– [ ] Elon Musk (USA, ?): Owner of free speech platform X. Likely to keep his freedom as he is the owner of the most important low-orbit satellite array in the world, which is currently very much needed and used by the western military alliance.

About intellectual freedom

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Does this topic appeal to you?

In my opinion to become intellectually free involves a curious, open and conscious mind able to investigate what is holding one in its grip (captive). It involves willingness to see the (un)conscious subjugation to one side of a story, to detect one’s (willful) ignorance of the other side (the unknown). Once an individual detects their own polarization on an issue, they have a chance to investigate the blind spots surrounding the matter and gather new insights.

Now, you might be an intellectual with deep philosophical understanding of the world, yet we all suffer from blind spots. Sometimes those blind spots are temporarily uncovered yet quickly buried because of cognitive dissonance. Autonomous thinkers tend to withstand the pull of the majority stance on polarizing issues, but they are but a small fraction of mankind, and the majority of people still care too much what their peers think. Autonomous or not, we all suffer from the blind spots unknown to us, that have never been uncovered before.

Because in essence the mind is lazy, and always tries to come up with simple corroborating views that defend the “known”. The neurons in our brain are operating in a Last In First Out (LIFO) way, making knowledge with the most neural affirmations more important and harder to counter. It is designed that way for many reasons that served us in our scary past in the wilderness, but you probably know that and I digress. I think striving for intellectual freedom implies understanding this, and means embracing strategies that counter this innate “regressive” nature of our brain’s frontal cortex. I say regressive here as I believe as humans we are able to use our latest biological upgrade to not give in to our basic animalistic instincts when that is not desirable.

In this short piece I intend to lay out a strategy of questioning oneself, in order to help with uncovering the influences withholding you from seeing the bigger picture, the totality of any issue. In the end I will give you a practical exercise to help you see where you are in your current journey to become intellectually free.

(WARNING: the implications can be severe as it might lead to falling out with groups that demand your blind and “loyal” onesidedness. Are you prepared for that?)

This list is far from complete, but you can begin by asking yourself the following questions. (Many of these touch upon/overlap the same psychological phenomena, yet readers may resonate with one over the other. The point is to uncover these workings.)

  1. Do I tense up when I receive information unknown to me? Tension is detrimental to an open stance, to cooperation. Cooperation is key to understanding, because it is only through other perspectives that we can escape our own intellectual bubble.
  2. Do I tend to find opposing arguments to reject new perspectives? In other words, am I dominated by an egocentric intellect that (again) tends to reject new knowledge in order to hold on to your own “intelligence gathering”? An “open mind” strategy can more effectively gather new insights, whilst the energy lost in a “rejective” mindset would be better used in the (cooperative) pursuit of knowledge.
  3. Do I tend to reject arguments that do not fit my internal status quo? This is similar to the second question, yet it directly points to the resistance towards questioning a particular belief system one has deeply identified with. It is here that we probably tense up most, as our brain’s neural network is “short circuited” in a way, to make new connections, yet the old connections are fighting to stay alive and relevant.
  4. Am I challenging the viewpoints I gathered over time? Over time we might have (subconsciously) taken on one-sided narratives either fed to us or subconsciously chosen by us (that support an identified belief system). As an intellectual it is foolish to think that we are free from our psychological tendencies, and as such one needs a birds eye view on oneself in the bigger context. Luckily it only needs an open mindset to investigate this.
  5. Am I voicing simplistic arguments that align with those in power? Do you intuitively feel that you are ignoring a more nuanced view? This is an indication that deeper investigation into the matter is needed. It is all too easy to feel supported by the populist stance on something, simply by feeling one is part of a majority. Yet any intellectual seeking freedom is always ready to do the work of diving deeper into any issue that begets a one sided presentation, especially in support of powers with vested interests. The moment one becomes aware of this should surely trigger alarm bells.
  6. Is my reasoning free from fallacies? Are you aware of the mental gymnastics your mind has to perform in order to try to defend your previously held beliefs? Do you understand the corrosive dynamics of believing such fabrications over truth?

Do you think you are already aware of these inner workings of your psyche? It not only requires the acquired mindset as described, but it involves an active awareness throughout our walk of life, moment to moment, decision after decision. It is very easy to fall back to our ancestral patterns of giving in to those appealing to our basic fears, or to carefully “planted” belief systems. The pull of our brain neurons, shaped year over year, are hard to ignore, yet an intellectual wants to understand this and take the bigger picture into account to let in new and more revealing insights.

Great, you made it this far and are probably hungry for some practical application. Let’s see how our “reactive” mind responds to the following topics, and if we can navigate towards “freedom from the known” and gain more comprehensive insights.

  1. How do you view racism? (Unfortunately the word “racism” implies multiple races, yet there is only one race: the human race.) This implies favoring one (usually bigger) group of humans over another based on their ethnicity, skin color, or any other traits they are not responsible for. You might think you are free from this, but let me give you some examples that might trigger your defenses:
    • Should muslims have more or less rights than Christians? Easy question that can have an easy answer. If you favor one over the other, does that involve mental gymnastics to make it seem “right”?
    • Is the Israeli government involved in systematic oppression of the Palestinian people? Do you think they seem to use sophisticated methods like propaganda and ad-hoc fabricated lies in response to events to influence the world’s perspective? Do you think they are involved in the abuse of basic human rights? There is ample work done by researchers/scholars to get to the facts and deeper insights. Are you voicing only their arguments, or do you want to know what is really happening?
    • Is democracy for everybody or just some select group(s)?
      This touches upon equal chances for everybody and basic human rights. Again, what is happening in your mind? Do you feel a pull towards favoritism? What is the reasoning involved? Is it convincing/appealing to some basic instinct?
  2. How do you view speciesism? This is the view that one animal’s life is more valuable than the other, and should be protected from harm/slaughter. (Cats ‘n dogs over pigs, that way of thinking.) Let me ask the following in particular to get a it closer to your defenses:
    • Do you care about sentient beings’ (humans/animals) suffering unnecessarily? What would be the consequence of that stance for your daily life? In your version of paradise, would you kill other beings for pleasure? Knowing we already live in a world with abundant food options and science showing us that a plant based diet is the healthiest, does your mind reject this? If so, what thoughts are coming up? Are mental gymnastics involved (fallacies in reasoning)? Are you willing to do work to investigate this? Is that worth it?

Those are just some issues I came up with that seem to have a polarizing effect in the world. I am curious to hear where you are in your journey towards intellectual freedom, and what other issues you think deserve more honest attention.

(Trolls and propaganda accounts will be banned. Please be constructive!)