The European Fee president‘s marketing campaign options an unprecedented preventive crackdown on wrongthink
One of many hallmarks of the European Union is that if one thing sounds too good to be true, it normally is. The truth is, it typically means the precise reverse.
Take, for example, the concept that Ursula Von der Leyen, the European Fee president, is operating for re-election when in actuality she’s simply publicly squabbling with just a few different institution hacks to be handpicked and confirmed by the institution itself, not by well-liked vote. However that hasn’t stopped her from cosplaying as an precise democratic candidate. It’s not like she didn’t have the chance to truly be one quite than simply play one, however when her German colleagues requested her to run for an elected EU seat in Germany to ascertain some democratic credibility, she reportedly declined the inconvenience.
However that hasn’t stopped her from posting “marketing campaign” advertisements on social media, as if she’s truly making an attempt to enchantment to voters. In a single such video, she guarantees that if she’s re-coronated, er, “re-elected,” she’ll defend Europe with a “Democracy Protect.” The entire concept, she says, is to “detect disinformation and malign interference… take away content material, together with [artificial intelligence] deepfakes, [and] to make our societies extra resilient.” Nothing about defending Europe’s democracy from unelected bureaucrats wielding extreme energy although, I suppose?
Ever since billionaire tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk, took over Twitter, renamed the social media platform ‘X’, and publicly shamed all of the Western authorities authorities that attempted to use the platform instantly for their very own propaganda functions, his “group notes” characteristic has allowed customers to react instantly and in actual time to content material, together with deep pretend movies, and has confirmed that the antidote to inaccuracy is extra free and democratic speech, not much less.
“Democracy,” within the case of this “Democracy Protect” is basically only a euphemism for censorship. As a result of what does this “protect” actually shield Europe from, that extra free speech can’t obtain, apart from inconvenient details? Or from Queen Ursula and the remainder of the European institution having to defend their very own ideological lunacy and clarify to residents why the narratives they peddle typically don’t jibe with actuality.
Apparently, they determine that democracy can be higher off if every thing and everybody that didn’t match their high agenda narratives may simply be whacked over the pinnacle and dragged off into the shadows by the net Gestapo serving von der Leyen’s on-line “Democracy Protect.”
However perhaps characterizing the Democracy Protect as little greater than a “propaganda protect” is unfair. In any case, it’s not just like the EU or Ursula truly say that they’re concerned about doing propaganda. No, as an alternative she says that she simply needs to perform a little “pre-bunking,” which completely doesn’t sound like propaganda in any respect.
Talking on the Copenhagen Democracy Summit earlier this month, von der Leyen defined that “analysis has proven that pre-bunking is extra profitable than de-bunking. Pre-bunking is the alternative of de-bunking. In brief, prevention is preferable to treatment. Consider data manipulation as a virus. As a substitute of treating an an infection as soon as it has taken maintain, that’s the de-bunking, it’s higher to vaccinate, in order that our physique is inoculated. Pre-bunking is similar strategy.”
Yeah, people, simply consider free debate and dialogue as a nasty virus that would get actually messy. Could provoke verbal diarrhea. Ugly stuff. Wouldn’t it simply be higher if the EU may inject its narratives like a vaccine straight into the minds of residents to eradicate any threat of messy opposing views or data?
What if the pre-bunk narrative IS the disinformation, although? After all that by no means occurs, proper? All the pieces that the EU and Western governments say is at all times the whole and full goal reality and anybody questioning it’s some form of international agent.
By the best way, von der Leyen’s “societal resilience” right here actually simply means compliance – that everybody piles into the clown automobile on command so these bozos can take everybody on a joyride down Dystopian Freeway in direction of wherever contemporary Hell their hidden particular pursuits dictate at any given time.
However maybe Queen Ursula needs to be given the good thing about the doubt right here, although. Perhaps she actually does simply need to deploy her Democracy Protect towards armies of annoying on-line bots and never on the political taking part in area to quash dissent?
“It’s not simply fakes or fabricated content material,” von der Leyen argued in asserting the Protect. “It’s additionally shopping for affect and inflicting chaos. We have now seen far-right politicians and lead candidates from AfD in Germany within the pockets of Russia. They’re promoting their souls on Russian propaganda shops and movies.”
Properly, if she places it that manner… doubt profit erased.
Need to smear a political opponent as a result of they occur to take pleasure in free speech on a wide range of platforms? Feels like a job for Queen Ursula’s Democracy Protect, which, like NATO, is completely defensive and doesn’t ever do offensive operations and actively snuff out opponents on the political panorama. The EU already tried to select off total media shops that it didn’t like, censoring Russian platforms like RT and Sputnik on the supranational stage and imposing that ban on all member states of the whole bloc within the absence of sovereign and democratic due course of. The justification? That they have been spreading “distortion of details” that threatened the EU democratic order. Nothing higher for credible journalism than governments arguing that they’re the final word arbiters of truthful data.
It seems that blanket censorship didn’t fairly knock everybody into line, so von der Leyen says in her advert that the Democracy Protect will “monitor down data manipulation and coordinate with nationwide companies.” Looking down wrong-speakers on the informational panorama? Sounds tremendous democratic. So does the concept of “nationwide companies” deciding what qualifies as information.
Is that this authoritarian Democracy Protect going to require any unbiased oversight? As a result of von der Leyen, again when she was German protection minister underneath Chancellor Angela Merkel, wasn’t actually into that form of factor. Western press stories have been rife with particulars of her underwhelming efficiency, with the Washington Publish, for example, citing a scarcity of army gear and guarantees to rectify the scenario that have been by no means fulfilled. In addition they stated that the troops used broomsticks as an alternative of machine weapons for NATO workouts. Guess she had a number of these at her disposal.
We all know from her stonewalling of the committee demanding to see her textual content messages with Pfizer brass over her vaccine offers that Queen Ursula actually isn’t into transparency, both. Who wants precise democratic values although, when you’ve got a Democracy Protect? Perhaps we will see it deployed in actual time in a form of check. If it was really doing its job of protecting democracy, it might mow down von der Leyen’s propaganda first, then simply blow itself up.
The statements, views and opinions expressed on this column are solely these of the creator and don’t essentially signify these of RT.
Supply hyperlink
