Thursday, October 06, 2022

Online Censorship And Free Speech

Dr Mark Shaw, The Daily Sceptic 6 October 2022 7:00 AM

 

I switched on the TV on Saturday morning at 6:30am expecting to get a mixture of different short news stories, but what followed was 26 minutes of a film on the news story of the tragic death of Molly Russell – you can watch it here.

It began with melancholic music, which continued in the background. Molly’s father said that he could see how, if one was exposed to the sort of online content his daughter was exposed to, “it could destroy you”. He described the “toxic corporate culture” at the heart of social media platforms. You could feel the father’s pain and grief. The reporter, BBC’s Angus Crawford, said the coroner ruled that “social media did play a part in Molly Russell taking her own life”.

I am truly sorry for the Russell family’s loss, but the way this story has been presented here feels wrong. The general presentation bears the hallmarks of propaganda techniques I will describe later. There is little other content than what I have described above and it is repeated ad nauseum. In Molly’s death the coroner ruled that “social media played a part” but there was no mention in this media report of any of the possible multitude of other factors that may have been involved. Such a one-dimensional synopsis may even be harmful in itself because it might misrepresent the complexities underlying suicide, giving false hope or belief, with the potential to exacerbate the myriad of other factors that can lead to mental health problems and self-harm, regardless of the reporter’s intent.

It is right that the media should devote a fair amount of news discussion to the very important subject of suicide, but this should be delivered responsibly, sensitively, without pulling at the heart-strings, and provide balanced, accurate reporting that doesn’t dumb down debate or put suicide down to singular causes. The Suicide Prevention Resource Centre lists the eight major risk factors for suicide. It seemed to me that Molly’s father and indeed Molly herself were being exploited in connection with a drive to restart the upcoming Online Safety Bill. Might this particular news story coverage be a form of propaganda?

The Online Safety Bill was put on hold at the beginning of the Conservative leadership contest. It was due to have its second reading in the House of Lords. The Bill is complex and the details of what it constitutes can be found here. There are now, however, renewed calls for it to be brought back by a number of organisations in the wake of the inquest into Molly’s death. My concern is that the Online Safety Bill will effectively reinforce the tendency towards Government-approved media RELATED:

World Economic Forum Calls for Merging of Human and Artificial Intelligence to Censor ‘Hate Speech’ & ‘Misinformation’

Digital Authoritarianism: AI Surveillance Signals The Death Of Privacy


New advances in AI surveilance techniques threaten privacy, civl rights and free speech.


OLDER POSTS:

Politicians Are Offering A Trade, Safety For Freedom. But What Are We Really Trading Away?
It's the age old confidence trick, politicians and the elites offter a straight choice between security of freedom and all the risks it entails, then amplify those risks with scaremongering propaganda. In the case of the COVID crisis it has worked so far, with enough people accepting the need for masks, lockdowns and killer vaccines to make The Great Reset seem feasible - but time is running out and people are waking up ...

Big Tech tyranny is the biggest threat to democracy in our era
This weeks main story, pushing Coronavirus aside at last, has been the attempt by Twitter to censor U.S. President, classifying his somewhat rabid tweets as misinformation. Whether you love or hate Trump or any other occupant of The White House, their utterings can never be dismissed as ‘misinformation’ because they represent what one of the most powerful people in the world is thinking.

University free speech society told free speech a 'red risk', external speakers must be vetted

Sheffield University’s recently formed Free Speech Society has been warned that free speech is a “red risk” and all external speakers at events it organises will have to be vetted by the University Thought Police squad and the topics they intend to talk about shown to be in line with ideas and opinions the titty - sucking babies who run the Student Union are not frightened by.

Big Tech tyranny is the biggest threat to democracy in our era
This weeks main story, pushing Coronavirus aside at last, has been the attempt by Twitter to censor U.S. President, classifying his somewhat rabid tweets as misinformation. Whether you love or hate Trump or any other occupant of The White House, their utterings can never be dismissed as ‘misinformation’ because they represent what one of the most powerful people in the world is thinking.

French Intellectual Jailed for Calling Mass Immigration an “Invasion”
French intellectual Renaud Camus (above) has been conditionally sentenced to 2 months imprisonment for arguing that mass immigration in Europe represents an “invasion.” Summit.news reports: The writer, who is the author of Le Grand Remplacement (The Great Replacement), was charged with “public incitement to hate or violence on the basis of origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion.”

There Is No Freedom Without Transparency

The Democrat / Republican political puppets in the USA would be supported by European leaders including Prime Minister David Cameron in the UK, France's Francois Hollande and Germany's Angela Merkel who, even as I type, are preparing massive interventions in Libya and Iraq, both turned into chaotic and lawless failed states by previous US / European interventions
There Is No Freedom Without Transparency

Facebook Declares War On Free Speech

Facebook has for some time had a policy of removing text that the majority of people would consider racist. Now the social media site is now deleting and blocking comments that only one person at Facebook decides is "racist." The sinister, Orwellian reality of a society in which the expression of majority opinion is being turned into a crime has already been witnessed across Europe. Even more disturbing, social media operators such as Facebook and Twitter appear to be collaborating with governments in the suppression of free speech.
Facebook Declares War On Free Speech

Threats to Free Speech

Threats to free speech and other civil rights us ordinary punters fought and shed blood for are under threat, not from the extreme right but from the liberal left. The intellectually bankrupt lefties have realised their hundred year old arguments are never going to win the battle for hearts and minds and so have moved to the position in the political spectrum once occupied by Hitler and Stalin. Many people would never dream of questioning authority; others see their interests as being served by supporting the abuse of authority, they are the ones who call the questioners 'conspiracy theorists'.
Threats to Free Speech

Is Free Speech Being Murdered By The Media And Politically correct Left Wing Activism

There can be no doubt, the right of citizens in the developed world to free speech, free access of information and freedom to express ideas is increasingly under threat as the power elites feel their grip being loosened by increasingly well informed and articulate working and midddle classes. Without any apparent sense of irony the advocates of big government and controlled media call themselves 'the left' as though their opponents are not bright enough to know that free speech is one of the foundations of classical liberalism and the suppression of free speech is a hallmark of tyrants.
Is Free Speech Being Murdered By The Media And Politically correct Left Wing Activism

Idiotic EU Leaders Double Down On Enconomic Suicide Policy By Imposing More Sanctions On Russia

 by Arthur Foxake, 6 October 2022

https://wallpaperaccess.com/full/2273018.jpg
Picture: https://wallpaperaccess.com/full/2273018.jpg

Days before the Russian army crossed the border into Ukraine in February this year, the U.S. and the EU put reams of sanctions onto Russia in anticipation of the incursion. At the same time and in concert with other NATO allies the US, UK and EU governments also siezed $300 billion of Russia's assets that were invested in western banks. The sanctions had been negotiated between the EU (mainly France and Germany) the UK and the U.S. and their scope was prepared  over several months. Unfortunately, in the traditional manner of politicians and government advisers, the people behind it had not thought things through properly.

The aim of the sanctions, to bankrupt the Russian economy within a few weeks by excluding Russia from international trade had overlooked one big thing - that western Europe, i.e. Germany, France and other EU member states were heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas for industrial, transport and domestic fuel. Thus the sanctions quickly turned the situation around and bit the people that imposed them on the arse. Unintended consequences, the inevitable result of not thinking things through properly, had stuck again.

The deluded people behind those sanctions had no idea how greatly the world depends on oil and how many potential customers there were outside the EU eager to buy Russia's oil and gas, especially at the discounted prices on offer.  The sanctions only proved  how robust Russia's economy really is and how vulnerable the economies of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland are. 

On top of boosting the Russian economy and driving up the value of the Rouble against other leading currencies, the sanctions led to a shortfall of energy in Europe, , causing rationing of electricity in some areas, and increased the already soaring inflation rates, hitting the cost of living for most people on average incomes and driving millions into poverty. 

Meanwhile in Russia food and fuel prices are falling and its general economic numbers are good. The now higher energy prices generate sufficient additional income which more than covers the cost of its war efforts.

Any  sane policy maker would conclude that sanctions failed miserably, harming the economies of those nations which imposed them far more than the intended target and that lifting them would help Europe more than it would help Russia. But no, the U.S. and European globalist elites, as ever incapable of admitting they got it wrong, are no longer able to act in a sane manner. They are instead upping the ante with the most crazy sanction scheme one has ever heard of:

         from NY Times:

[T]he European Union pushed ahead on Wednesday with an ambitious but untested plan to limit Russia’s oil revenue.
...
If the global price of oil remains high, it would complicate the European Union’s effort to impose a price cap on Russian oil that was expected to gain final approval on Thursday, after E.U. negotiators reached an agreement on the measure as part of a fresh package of sanctions against Moscow.

Under the plan, a committee including representatives of the European Union, the Group of 7 nations and others that agree to the price cap would meet regularly to decide on the price at which Russian oil should be sold, and that it would change based on the market price.

Several diplomats involved in the E.U. talks said that Greece, Malta and Cyprus — maritime nations that would be most affected by the price cap — received assurances that their business interests would be preserved, the diplomats said.

The countries had been holding up what would be the eighth sanctions package the European Union has adopted since the Russian invasion of Ukraine because of worries that a price cap on Russian oil exported outside the bloc would affect their shipping, insurance and other industries, the diplomats said.

With oil prices at a high, Russia is raking in billions of dollars in revenue, even as it sells smaller quantities. The cap — part of a broad plan pushed by the Biden administration that the G7 agreed to last month — is intended to set the price of Russian oil lower than where it is today, but still above cost. The U.S. Treasury calculates that the cap would deprive the Kremlin of tens of billions of dollars annually.

Now  how do the US treasury along with those in allied nations suppose they can make a big producer with vast reserves of a rare commodity sell its product below the general market price? Again these delusional clowns are assuming they are so powerful and so influential that wherever they lead the rest of the world must follow. That would only be possible in a buyers market, in fact the world is awash with oil and gas. Thus it is an economic impossibility to dictate to any supplier to which customers they can sell and at what price This was proved by Demented Joe Biden earlier this week when he demanded the OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Counties) nations increase production and hold prices steady. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer simply told the American president to get lost. The White House was not impressed buy was powerless to pressure the oil producers as most OPEC members have thown in their lot with China and Russia.

The Biden administration is absolutely furious with the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, including Russia, for agreeing to slash oil production by 2 million barrels per day. 

CNN's Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju tweeted that President Biden responded to the OPEC+ cut announcement by saying he's "concerned" and called it "unnecessary."  In light of today’s action, the Biden Administration also announced will consult with Congress on additional tools and authorities to reduce OPEC's control over energy prices.

It seems the dementia stricken president and his loony left handlers think America can still use dollar dominance to manipulate other nations. Unfortunately for them but fortunately for the rest of the world perhaps, the way OPEC leaders told Biden to shove his demands up his fracking orifice should have told people with a little self awareness that those days are gone.

To make the kind of measures they are hinting at effective, and cut Russian oil revenue, the United States, Europe and their allies would need to convince India, China, and a handful of other nations with growing economies and large populations, all of which buy substantial quantities of Russian oil, to purchase it only at the price dictated by Washington. Experts say that even with willing partners, such a policy would be impossible to enforce.

Russia has declared that it will not sell any oil to any party that supports the G7 price fixing regime. That is why neither China nor India nor any other country besides the EU and U.S. will agree to adhere to it.

The whole idea is crazy and too complicated to achieve anything other than further undermining the economies of the USA's European allies. Under the proposed rules, companies involved in the shipping of Russian oil — including shipowners, insurers and underwriters — would be on the hook for ensuring that the oil they are helping to transport is being sold at or below the price cap. If they are caught helping Russia sell at a higher price, they could face lawsuits in their home countries for violating sanctions.

Under the U.S. / E.U. deal, Greece, Malta and Cyprus will be permitted to continue shipping Russian oil. Had they not agreed to place their companies at the forefront of applying the price cap, they would have been forbidden from shipping or insuring Russian oil cargo outside the European Union, a huge hit for major industries.

More than half of the tankers now shipping Russia’s oil are Greek-owned. And the financial services that underpin that trade — including insurance, reinsurance and letters of credit — are overwhelmingly based in the European Union and Britain.

EU Vows To Retaliate if Nord Stream Gas Pipeline Blasts Were Sabotage - But against whom, the USA?
Yesterday's shocking news that the Nord Stream 1 & 2 gas poipelines between Russia and Germany immediately triggered speculation about who is responsible, but as the facts emerge the knee jerk blaming of Russia has failed to convince because the attack bears all the halllmarks of a false flag event engineered by the usual suspects ...

Who Blew Up The Nordstream Pipeline
So whodunnit? Sabotage of undersea gas pipe will escalate tension and move the world closer to nuclear war, but who is behind it, Russia in a bid to put more presure on Europe, Ukraine in an attempt to drag NATO into direct action, or the USA using a CIA false flag event to advance its own agenda.

An Energy Crisis In Tandem With A Food Crisis On Top Of An Economic Crisis And A War. This Cannot End Well
As politicians in North America and Europe try to deflect from their own failure that have contributed to the current plethora of crises by blaming Russia and Vladmir Putin for all the current problems, while the war in Ukraine is a contributory factor in each, the real blame lies closer to home.

Swedish Media Outlet Publishes Leaked U.S. Document On How to CRUSH Europe Economy via Ukraine War Effort
Swedish news organisation Nya Dagbladet has published a leaked top secret US plans to use the war in Ukraine and an induced energy crisis to destroy European economies. The report claims the RAND Corporation a defence and foreign policy think tank founded by military aircraft maker Douglas has the official aim of improving policies and decision-making, is the source of its evidence.

Has Putin Has Pushed Europe Into Economic Depression, Hyperrinflation and Currency Collapse?
Though it was entirely predictable and indeed had been expected for some time, the news over the weekend that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline which feeds gas from Russia to northern Europe via The Baltic route had been shut down completely by The Kremlin in retaliation for the continued financial and military support given by NATO and EU member states to Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. The European Commission, governing body of the EU, immediately put the community on something close to a war footing, ...
Continue reading >>>

Do We Have A Winter Of Civil Disobedience Ahead?
As many people in Britain slap on the apres sun gloop in the wake of what passes for a heatwave in these cool cloudy climes, our inept politicians caught with their pants down by unusual weather as usual have heard that that winter is coming and are making plans for a coldwave. We are in the grip of an energy crisis at the height of summer. Last week, it was reported that the UK government is laying down plans for a “reasonable worst-case scenario” including blackouts for industry and even households. And this is as energy prices spiral out of control to new records every day.

Official Advice - Prepare For Blackouts This Winter

The UK government is putting plans together for days of organised blackouts this winter, in what they call a "reasonable worst-case scenario" for energy shortages, according to reports in manstream media. Naturally they are blaming this on the embargo on importing gas from Russia but in reality Britain has never imported any more than a small amout of its gas from Russia. The real reason politicians and energy company CEOs are panicking is entirely due to their obession with obtaining all our energy from intermittent sources like wind and sunshine ...

Is Russia Selling Its Oil To The World Through An Obscure Egyptian Port?
As this blog predicted when NATO and EU member states shot themselves in the foot by reacting to Russia's invasion of Ukraine with sanctions that prevented Russia from selling oil, gas and vital raw materials to the countries that needed them most, the NATO and EU member states, the Russians have had no problems finding alternative customers for their gas and oil and no problem getting oil into the world's commodity markets through the back door.

"Our Country Is Facing The Biggest Crisis The Crisis We Ever Had": German Employers' Association Warns Over Russian Gas Cut
With the Nord Stream 1 pipeline closed for maintenance, with the possibility that President Putin will not allow it to reopen at the end of the scheduled 10 days downtime in retaliation for the EU's continued support or Ukraine in their conflict with Russia, Germany is facing an unprecedented crisis that could erase the prosperity Germans have grown accustomed to, warned Rainer Dulger, head of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations.

Europe's biggest economy would suffer a 6.5pc contraction if Russian energy is suspended, experts warn 
Even though the sanctions already imposed on Russia in respondse to the invasion of Ukraine are hitting the nations that imposed then harder that their intended target, the EU is preparing to committ economic suicide in an orgy of virtue signalling ...


While mainstream media is in a frenzy over what former FBI chief James Comey will say to a Congressional hearing about Donald Trump's alleged links with Russia and attempt to shut down an investigation into those links, the UK election, Islamic extremist terrorism, football's latest multi - million transfer deals, etc., as usual the really big story is hardly being reported. We bring you the story from The Anti Media, published here under creative commons licence.

Only One Percent Of US Bakken Shale Oil Is Profitable At Current Prices
Obama's strategy to make the USA the worlds leading oil exporter is in ruins. It is entirely in keeping with his record for fuck up and failure that has been the hallmark of his presidency. But what will be the consequences for the world of this latest failure by Obama?

Another Oil Exporting State Surrenders: Last Nail In Petrodollar's Coffin
While record mainland deficits covered by the petroleum sector is nothing new in Norwegian budget history, the 2016 budget did raise some eyebrows. The net inflow to the Norwegian Treasury from North Sea oil will be lower than the required amount to cover the deficit. This has never happened before and is testimony of the sea change occurring in the world of petrodollar recycling.