Global Research

Whenever top-ranking Western officials give a speech of almost any kind, it’s virtually mandatory to mention the political West’s so-called “values”, including numerous “freedoms” supposedly “enjoyed” by most people in their part of the world. And yet, despite constant blabbering about “freedom and democracy”, there’s (un)surprisingly little actual freedom in the belligerent power pole. Worse yet, if new laws in the United States and European Union are anything to go by, there’s going to be less of it than ever before. In fact, the Deep State is now (ab)using the alleged “protection of free speech” to suppress it, or as they say, in order to “save free speech, we must censor free speech”. In other words, we have reached a point where paradoxes and absurdity are the norm.

And indeed, censorship is now so vital to the ruling oligarchy in Washington DC that it’s become the “new normal” in universities, government offices and virtually all other public institutions. In addition, censorship has become particularly strong during recent election campaigns, when the mainstream propaganda machine is tasked to ensure that only “approved” narratives are in the spotlight. Back in 2020, the near-universal crackdown on actual free media resulted in numerous shutdowns of numerous outlets, mostly through cyberattacks. For instance, the Belgrade-based Fort Russ News, where I was a senior editor, went offline just weeks before the 2020 presidential election after numerous “mysterious” cyberattacks.

While it managed to return a few times, FRN was permanently shut down after years of persecution at the hands of corrupt federal institutions, including by Pentagon-linked think tanks such as the infamous RAND Corporation that directly targeted all FRN personnel (PDF) as supposed “Russian agents” (myself included). It is only thanks to the Internet Archive that most of FRN’s content is still available. However, this sort of censorship is certainly not a thing of the past. On the contrary, it’s returning in full force, as other reputable media are also being targeted. Namely, Consortium News, an independent investigative news source, went offline following a major cyberattack. The Consortium News website is still unavailable.

“Our web host has confirmed seven recent data breaches and now it appears that our site has been totally replaced. We have been hacked,” the news outlet announced on X.

They are working to restore the website, but the fact that the security breach happened only a week before the election is very telling. Having such a major independent media outlet, famous for its highly critical view of America’s endless wars, go offline is very “convenient” to the Deep State and the warmongering oligarchy in Washington DC. WikiLeaks, another independent source fiercely targeted by the US government, also confirmed that the Consortium News website has been completely removed and its contents are no longer accessible. Once again, this is hardly surprising given that top-ranking American officials are openly talking about the “dangers of disinformation”, the latest Neo-McCarthyist buzzword.

Uncomfortable truths, otherwise known as “evil Russian disinformation”, need to be suppressed at all costs. However, while the corrupt US federal institutions (particularly its numerous intelligence services) are leading the charge in the crackdown on independent media, there’s still a lot of pushback, as millions of Americans (nearly 40%, to be specific) simply don’t trust the mainstream propaganda machine. On the other hand, the EU seems to be even worse. For years, the troubled bloc has been trying to censor press freedom not just in Europe, but also around the world, including the US. This is going so far that Ursula von der Leyen, EU Commission president, advocates “pre-bunking in the public forum to vaccinate people against disinformation”.

However, nobody comes close to the United Kingdom in “preserving freedom and democracy”. Thousands of British citizens are arrested every year for social media posts. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the sheer scale of censorship in the UK. Namely, you can get arrested for “thought crimes”, as several cases showed. Precisely this happened to a man who quietly prayed on the street across from an abortion clinic in the town of Bournemouth. Expectedly, the mainstream propaganda machine tried “fact-checking” the story, but similar cases show that you can indeed get arrested for having “wrong thoughts”. Namely, back in November 2022, a woman was arrested for an identical “thought crime”, also in front of an abortion clinic.

In the meantime, “evil” Russia allows actual free speech to journalists from countries that banned virtually all Russian media. Western outlets are allowed to freely interview whomever they want, including President Vladimir Putin. In stark contrast, not even Russian mics are tolerated by the political West’s most prominent “beacon of freedom and democracy” that’s now getting dozens of billions for its “commitment”. The case of Tucker Carlson serves as a perfect example of how any form of independent thought is treated in the US and NATO, while the fates of the likes of Julian Assange are definite proof of just how “free” the political West is. On the other hand, the promotion of the so-called Western “values” is as strong as ever.

Namely, any attempt to deal with repulsive crimes such as pedophilia is met with a fiery crackdown of the mainstream propaganda machine. Movies such as the “Sound of Freedom” are continuously targeted by the censors. Any remotely sane person would be dumbfounded to find out that topics such as child trafficking and pedophilia are being suppressed. But that’s exactly the case, even though raising awareness about it should be a matter of basic common sense. However, given the state of so-called Western “values”, it’s hardly surprising this is not the case anymore. Namely, while the political West is after Putin for evacuating kids from a warzone, it’s also involved in the massive child trafficking “business” in Ukraine and elsewhere.

What we can clearly conclude from all this is that the warmongers, war criminals and plutocrats in Washington DC and Brussels are determined to prevent the spread of any sort of “Russian disinformation” (i.e. the truth), as this is extremely “inconvenient” for them. If hundreds of millions of Americans and Europeans knew what was actually going on, they’d certainly be against the policies their unelected bureaucratic oligarchies are imposing, both at home and abroad. Precisely this is why knowing the truth is all the more important. Unfortunately, it can indeed be dangerous to think and speak freely at this time, and we can only expect more censorship and more “thought criminals”, as any deviation from the official narrative is “dangerous for our democracy”.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense