Things have been moving extremely quickly the last few weeks, and the Russia/Ukraine conflict is sucking all the oxygen out of the mainstream media’s room. However, even when we focus on that part of the world, we see extremely troubling foreshadowing about what is likely to come here.
But before we get there, we must first revisit Canada’s recent protests. Truckers and other supporters moved into Ottawa, made things extremely uncomfortable for Justin Trudeau, then got their assets frozen after the Canadian government declared use of the Emergency Powers Act — despite not even being charged with a crime in most cases.
Although the freezing of protestors’ bank accounts in Canada was horrifying, at least there was a tiny bit of logic behind it. These specific people are doing things that we (just) declared illegal, so we’re going to punish them. It was bullshit that the government used emergency powers to basically unperson the protestors and their supporters, but you can sell this to the Canadian people. Almost.
That brings us to Russia. Biden has ordered the seizure of Russian yachts and other assets of people who have little connection to the Russian government. Numerous companies have pulled out of the Russian market (so much for “greedy businesses do anything for a buck”) in an attempt to show support for Ukraine or pressure the Russian government into submission, to be honest I’m not exactly clear. But stealing from and cutting off services to regular Russians doesn’t hurt the government. If anything, it makes Russians angry at us instead of Putin! How would you like to be ‘canceled’ over the actions of Joe Biden?
And given the US government’s recent collusion with social media to deplatform ‘spreaders of covid misinformation’ (who happen to have a track record better than the ‘leaders’), we should ALL be wondering if there isn’t more to this than “The companies all independently decided to pull out of Russia.” (For that matter, maybe we should all be wondering that of the BLM protests of summer 2020.) Do entertainment company executives also have a “special relationship” with government officials? (yes)
Although this financial cancel culture has been an issue for years, as Matt Taibbi’s article coincidentally points out today, it has previously been limited to ‘fringe’ positions. Wikileaks was financially ‘canceled’ in 2010. Paypal has been off-limits for guns purchases for years (the same was true of crypto until the company started offering its own services). Porn makers have been targeted, as have online poker players. And government fingerprints were all over the actions of those ‘private companies’. Hell, Operation Chokepoint guidelines targeted 32 INDUSTRIES for ‘debanking’, and that was in 2013!
And as government programs seem to do, these things constantly expand. In 2021 Parler got wiped off the internet in a coordinated attack just as they were the most downloaded app online — and for ‘crimes’ that were almost certainly just as true of Twitter and Facebook. Youtube and Twitter have deplatformed successful people with large followings, many of which simply repeated official covid information. Russia Today gets wiped off the internet because of Ukraine. Now even dead Russian composers are getting canceled.
Poke around Russia/Ukraine articles on the large news sites that still allow comments, and you’ll see a lot of accusations of “Russian plant” or “Putin stooge” to anybody who dares question the official narrative. And if we can steal the assets of actual Russians, why can’t we steal the assets of “Russian plants” here in the USA? This is dangerously close to ‘we don’t like what you are saying’ being reason enough for you to be financially unpersoned.
Think back over the last, say, 20 years. Did you protest against the Iraq war? How about protesting at Occupy Wall Street? Were you a member of the Tea Party? A member of #TheResistance? Did you disagree with the government’s covid response? It’s nearly certain that everybody with a political pulse has crossed the government at one time or another. How comfortable are you with the idea that the person you’re protesting against can shut off your bank account?
Because now, it seems, those perfectly legal actions at least have the potential to come with harsh monetary consequences, as well as the ensuing chaos caused by financial ruin. And this is happening all without a single shred of oversight or due process. It’s just some asshole in an expensive suit giving a list of ‘subversives’ to another asshole in an expensive suit. The no-fly list but with the very real potential to ruin your life.
So even as the world’s eyes move onto the newest crisis, we must closely watch the actions of the ‘leaders’, for the tools used against ‘those people’ today are likely to be the tools used against us tomorrow.
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Federalist Wisdom in a Modern Society
Expect the "no fly"-list to be made open-ended into a "no move"-list, and your governement requiring passport or other physical ID to be carried at all times. Also, expect "smart-phones" to be made mandatory, to be carried at all times. This will probably start by adding smart-phones to a list of goods being part and parcel of basic welfare and basic income/labour perks.
For the children/the Greater Good/Ze Master Race/ God wants it/who the F do you think you are questioning the why of governement, you grotty little pleb? The motto of today's democracy, no matter what nation you live in, is:
Ego sic dico.
If you really want some insight into everything thats happening, watch the movie “Ukraine on Fire”. Besides seeing just how a state dept employee (Victoria Neuland) led to the overthrow of a government, you’ll also see call outs to the color revolutions we saw during 2020. They’re using the same strategies on us. Practice on them, perfect them on us.