![Click to enlarge Ursula von der Leyen](/image/s35/707404/super/665323b020302705e46b0a41.jpg)
© Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFPUrsula von der Leyen speaks during a debate at the European Parliament in Brussels, on May 23, 20
The European Commission president's campaign features an unprecedented preventive crackdown on wrongthinkOne of the hallmarks of the European Union is that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. In fact, it often means the exact opposite.
Take, for instance, the idea that
Ursula Von der Leyen, the European Commission president, is running for re-election when in reality she's just publicly squabbling with a few other establishment hacks to be handpicked and confirmed by the establishment itself,
not by popular vote. But that hasn't stopped her from cosplaying as an actual democratic candidate. It's not like she didn't have the opportunity to actually be one rather than just play one, but
when her German colleagues asked her to run for an elected EU seat in Germany to establish some democratic credibility, she reportedly declined the inconvenience.But that hasn't stopped her from
posting "campaign" ads on social media, as though she's actually trying to appeal to voters. In one such video,
she promises that if she's re-coronated, er, "re-elected," she'll defend Europe with a "Democracy Shield." The whole idea, she says, is to "detect disinformation and malign interference... remove content, including [artificial intelligence] deepfakes, [and] to make our societies more resilient."
Nothing about defending Europe's democracy from unelected bureaucrats wielding excessive power though, I guess?
Ever since billionaire tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk, took over Twitter, renamed the social media platform 'X', and publicly shamed all the Western government authorities that tried to exploit the platform directly for their own propaganda purposes, his "community notes" feature has allowed users to react directly and in real time to content, including deep fake videos, and has proven that the antidote to inaccuracy is more free and democratic speech, not less.
"Democracy," in the case of this "Democracy Shield" is really just a euphemism for censorship. Because what does this "shield" really protect Europe from, that more free speech can't achieve, other than inconvenient facts? Or from Queen Ursula and the rest of the European establishment having to defend their own ideological lunacy and explain to citizens why the narratives they peddle often don't jibe with reality.
Apparently, they figure that democracy would be better off if everything and everyone that didn't fit their top agenda narratives could just be whacked over the head and dragged off into the shadows by the online Gestapo serving von der Leyen's online "Democracy Shield."But maybe characterizing the Democracy Shield as little more than a "propaganda shield" is unfair. After all, it's not like the EU or Ursula actually say that they're interested in doing propaganda. No, instead she says that
she just wants to do a little "pre-bunking," which totally doesn't sound like propaganda at all.Speaking at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit earlier this month,
von der Leyen explained that "research has shown that pre-bunking is more successful than de-bunking. Pre-bunking is the opposite of de-bunking. In short, prevention is preferable to cure. Think of information manipulation as a virus. Instead of treating an infection once it has taken hold, that's the de-bunking, it is better to vaccinate, so that our body is inoculated. Pre-bunking is the same approach."
Yeah, folks, just think of free debate and discussion as a nasty virus that could get really messy. May provoke verbal diarrhea. Ugly stuff. Wouldn't it just be better if the EU could inject its narratives like a vaccine straight into the minds of citizens to eliminate any risk of messy opposing views or information?
What if the pre-bunk narrative IS the disinformation, though? Of course that never happens, right?
Everything that the EU and Western governments say is always the total and complete objective truth and anyone questioning it is some kind of foreign agent.By the way,
von der Leyen's "societal resilience" here really just means compliance - that everyone piles into the clown car on command so these bozos can take everyone on a joyride down Dystopian Highway towards wherever fresh Hell their hidden special interests dictate at any given time.
But perhaps Queen Ursula should be given the benefit of the doubt here, though. Maybe she really does just want to deploy her Democracy Shield against armies of annoying online bots and not on the political playing field to quash dissent?
"It's not just fakes or fabricated content," von der Leyen argued in announcing the Shield. "It's also buying influence and causing chaos. We have seen far-right politicians and lead candidates from AfD in Germany in the pockets of Russia. They are selling their souls on Russian propaganda outlets and videos."Well, if she puts it that way... doubt benefit erased.
Want to smear a political opponent because they happen to enjoy free speech on a variety of platforms? Sounds like a job for Queen Ursula's Democracy Shield, which, like NATO, is totally defensive and does not ever do offensive operations and actively snuff out opponents on the political landscape. The EU already tried to pick off entire media outlets that it didn't like, censoring Russian platforms like RT and Sputnik at the supranational level and imposing that ban on all member states of the entire bloc in the absence of sovereign and democratic due process. The justification? That they were spreading "distortion of facts" that threatened the EU democratic order. Nothing better for credible journalism than governments arguing that they're the ultimate arbiters of truthful information.
It turns out that blanket censorship didn't quite knock everyone into line, so von der
Leyen says in her ad that the Democracy Shield will "track down information manipulation and coordinate with national agencies." Hunting down wrong-speakers on the informational landscape? Sounds super democratic. So does the idea of "national agencies" deciding what qualifies as news.
Is this authoritarian Democracy Shield going to require any independent oversight? Because von der Leyen, back when she was German defense minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel, wasn't really into that kind of thing. Western press
reports were rife with details of her underwhelming performance, with the
Washington Post, for instance, citing a shortage of military equipment and promises to rectify the situation that were never fulfilled. They also said that the troops used broomsticks instead of machine guns for NATO exercises. Guess she had lots of those at her disposal.
We know from her stonewalling of the committee demanding to see her text messages with Pfizer brass over her vaccine deals that Queen Ursula really isn't into transparency, either. Who needs actual democratic values though, when you have a Democracy Shield? Maybe we can see it deployed in real time in a sort of test. If it was truly doing its job of shielding democracy, it would mow down von der Leyen's propaganda first, then just blow itself up.
Comment:
Update, video added:
1) From the article:
"It's not just fakes or fabricated content," von der Leyen argued in announcing the Shield. "It's also buying influence and causing chaos. We have seen far-right politicians and lead candidates from AfD in Germany in the pockets of Russia. They are selling their souls on Russian propaganda outlets and videos."
This was said in Copenhagen earlier in May. And recently Emmanuel Macron, has been on
the first official state visit by a French President in 24 years. (May 26 -28). About the visit, there was in this
Tweet a summary with quotes from this speech, that is as is along the same lines as those of Ursula von der Leyen
French president Macron is on a 3-day state visit to Germany, where he is promoting a "democratic alliance for the defence of Europe"... not against the Russian military, or mass migration, or American vulture capitalism, but against Europeans of a different political persuasion, whom he labels as "enemies":
"We are experiencing a moment in our Europe which is existential because I really believe that our Europe can die. The EU has never before had so many enemies, inside and outside. There is a form of fascination with authoritarianism which is born in our own democracies, and which also feeds nationalism and other extremes on our continent.
"Macron painted a grim picture of "nationalists" entering government, alleging that they would have failed to tackle Covid-19 and shown "no capacity to respond to migration challenges," climate change issues, and so on."We would have abandoned backing Ukraine against Russia, which all the nationalists in our countries support. And, therefore, history would have not been the same."
You can watch the clip with Macron, though in French,
here (X.com).
2) Macron's speech comes at a time when Germany is embroiled in the Sylt-scandal, that began when a private video from a party at a club called Pony, on the North Friesian
Island of Sylt (Wiki), found its way to the public eye and ear, and became front page news. The problem for the young people, as seen from the position the Government and its followers in the media and among the public, was that they played the hit song "
L'amour toujours" (French for "Love Always"), but some guests sang changed lyrics, while the song played over the speakers. The Wiki explains the background for this trend:
As reported by several German media, since at least November 2023 the melody to "L'amour toujours" has been co-opted by right-wing extremist groups in Germany, as various videos of people joining in public chants replacing the song's original lyrics with a reprise of the anti immigration slogan, "Ausländer raus, Ausländer raus, Deutschland den Deutschen, Ausländer raus" (Foreigners out, foreigners out, Germany for Germans, foreigners out) surfaced online.[8][9][10] Members of the youth wing of far-right party Alternative for Germany were reportedly seen engaging in similar chants in several occasions,[11][12] while the party's TikTok account started posting clips featuring the song's melody as a background theme.[13][14]
In response to the reports, in March 2024 German record label ZYX, who held copyright for "L'amour toujours", filed a lawsuit against unknown figures, with the charges involving hate speech and copyright infringement.[14][15]
In May 2024, a retweeted video showing a group of people singing the aforementioned slogan over "L'amour toujours" during a party at a club on Sylt sparked widespread outrage;[12][13][14] the regional police of Schleswig-Holstein opened an investigation about the case,[12] while the clip's content was condemned by various political figures, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz,[14][16] Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser,[14] German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier,[17] Social Democratic Party member Sawsan Chebli,[12] and Minister of Social Affairs and Integration of Schleswig-Holstein Aminata Touré.[12][18] D'Agostino, who initially was not aware of the case due to his absence from social media, later reiterated that the original version of "L'amour toujours" was intended to be completely apolitical, stating that it "talked about a beautiful, big and intense feeling [of love] that unites people".[19] After the incident, the song broke into the top 50 on the German charts on Spotify, reaching number 36 on the charts.[citation needed]
3) What is odd is the perfect timing of promoting the issue in the run up to the EU elections in early June. While Leyden, Macron wish to take measures in general terms, Olaf Scholz sees himself on the forefront in the combat with this particular trend, who (
Tweet link to video clip) expressed his displeasure by saying:
Quite clearly: such slogans are disgusting, they are unacceptable.
And there must be no mistake about that.
And that's why it's also right that all our activities are aimed at preventing exactly that this is a thing that is spreading.
4) And now an article in German, that translates as:
After Sylt scandal: Nationwide hunt for 'Döp, dödö, döp' gives an example of how segments of the public have been mobilized backed by law enforcement:
28 May 2024 20:47 pm
After the scandal over a video from Sylt, the police are now increasingly hunting down people who listen to the 'suspicious' techno hit 'L'amour toujours'.
[...]
On Friday, a similar incident is said to have occurred in Magdeburg. A press release from the Magdeburg police inspectorate states:
'Already on Friday evening, 24.05.2024, [...]
A witness was standing at Magdeburg Cathedral at around 8:15 p.m. when a car with loud music drove past him. From the open window of the passenger door you could hear clearly perceptible loud music, where, among other things, a song by Gigi D'Agostino was sung 'Germany for the Germans, foreigners out!'. The witness then informed the Magdeburg police, who shortly afterwards were able to identify and check the described car with two occupants in Breiter Weg.'
The police then 'searched the car and the two male occupants for possible sound carriers', whereupon their mobile phones were confiscated as 'possible means of committing the crime'. According to the police report, an investigation was also initiated against the two occupants of the vehicle, two Magdeburgers aged 22 and 27, on suspicion of incitement to hatred.
However, whether the use of the slogan was really punishable has yet to be clarified - similar to the incident in Sylt. Cologne lawyer Carsten Brennecke wrote in this regard on X/Twitter:
'On the given occasion, because now, for example, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas is completely out of control demanding the 'maximum sentence' for the #Sylt-roarers - i.e. 5 years imprisonment (!): The tasteless statements in the video should not be punishable: Not everything that is tasteless is punishable. The Federal Constitutional Court has already ruled that the slogan 'Foreigners out' can in principle be a permissible expression of opinion and not a punishable incitement to hatred (§130 StGB).'
[...]
The police and public prosecutors, who have to investigate allegations of incitement to hatred ex officio or examine them, are likely to have a lot of work to do in the near future after the media hype about Sylt.
Might one say that the European establishment at the moment appears to copy the playbook of Israel? Israel, who as if to prevent a repetition of a Jewish holocaust, justifies atrocities against the Palestinians while simultaneously vehemently denying that there is a genocide, because the Palestinians are not Jews. Now, the German Government, with Macron von der Leyen and other Eurocrats in line, intend to take steps toward more control (totalitarianism) in the name of protecting European Democracy against totalitarianism denying they themselves are totalitarians, because that is a role they have assigned to their opponents. What a twist! The outcome of this policy development has, compared to the situation in Gaza, not yet 'matured', since little blood has been spilled so far, except maybe in France, but the kind of democracy they support in Ukraine, speaks volumes for how far they will go to protect their ideological interpretation of Freedom and Western Values.
Rachel Marsden is a media professional with over two decades of expertise in international politics. Her extensive career includes multilingual hosting, presenting, producing, and debating across TV, radio, and digital platforms. She has been an internationally syndicated columnist since 2011, contributing to over 100 major newspaper outlets globally. Her media background is complemented by over 20 years of business experience as the CEO of
Rachel Marsden Global Corporation, an international political and business risk consulting firm. Rachel has also taught in the Masters of Journalism and international affairs program at Sciences Po in Paris, France.Rachel's website can be found at
rachelmarsden.com
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