Off-Guardian – Aug 26, 2025
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Cars – the latest subscription service
Volkswagen announced, this week, that some of their electric models would now come with optional upgrades – not as a one-off purchase, but as a subscription. The BBC reports:
German car making giant Volkswagen (VW) has introduced a subscription for UK customers wanting to increase the power of some of its electric cars.
Those who buy an eligible car in its ID.3 range can choose to pay extra if they want to unlock the full power of the engine inside the vehicle.
VW says the “optional power upgrade” will cost £16.50 per month or £165 annually – or people can choose to pay £649 for a lifetime subscription.
Disregard the specifics, the concern here is clearly the precedent such a model sets. How long before these schemes spread? Or increase in price to “decrease traffic” or “encourage public transportation”?
It’s not hard to image how this could be abused. Malignant subscription models have already massively increased the cost of owning a printer, or photoshop, or watching TV. All part of the plan to make sure people own nothing.
2. Denmark’s Deepfake Legislation
Ten days ago, Denmark became the first country to grant your digital likeness – face and voice – protected status as intellectual property. Essentially, in Denmark, you now own your face.
There’s a thorough breakdown of the new law here, which is worth reading if you’re into that kind of thing.
There’s nothing that stands out as particularly bad, so far. As much as its touted as an anti-deep fake law, it maintains the “fair use” exception, which permits use for satire or parody purposed. That will likely save most deep fake manufacturers.
More importantly, I think, the burden of proof is on the complainant to prove the footage is faked or manipulated. That, theoretically, should prevent frivolous suits brought by companies or celebrities trying to hide footage behind a “fake video” defence.
I’ve not decided if this is good or bad yet, but it is interesting.
3. Facial Recognition Tech Rollout
London’s Metropolitan Police are moving forward with plans to use facial recognition technology during this year’s Notting Hill Carnival, despite reservations from the UK’s human rights watchdog.
In a classic example of liberal faux-opposition, the mainstream criticism of the technology is focusing on supposed racial or gender biases, not the general principle.
This means all the police have to do is “prove” the technology is not biased, and suddenly it’s OK to have our faces scanned 24/7 because we’re all being oppressed equally.
The whole framing of the debate, including the use of FRT during Notting Hill Carnival is designed to win-over the right wing by playing into racial and identity politics.
Transparent.
BONUS: Intriguing speech of the week
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Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank and ex-Prime Minister of Italy, gave a speech this week lamenting Europe’s recent failings. From failing to effectively stand up to Trump’s tariffs, to yielding to defense spending demands, to standing helplessly by as conflicts rage in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere.
Draghi argues that the EU can no longer rely on economic weight alone to be a player on the world stage, and suggests a solution: The United State of Europe, all the nations of the EU merging into a federation. Big if true.
It’s not all bad…
Infamous website 4chan is refusing to pay any fines levied under the UK’s new Online Safety Act. 4chan’s owners have previously stated they would not be requiring users to prove their age.
Non-compliance is always good to see.
On a more personal note, any of you that listened to the most recent IMA panel will have heard me mention that my cat has gone missing. He is still lost, and I miss him every day.
But, there’s still good to be gleaned. I have been walking the neighbourhood, putting up fliers, knocking on doors, interacting with neighbours and near-neighbours more than the last ten years combined. It makes you realise…most people are nice.
An older gentleman patted my shoulder and told me everything was going to be alright. A lady with small children and two cats of her own volunteered to walk with me. Every phone call is someone eager to help. It’s a welcome antidote to well-earned cynicism.
The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.
Ernest Hemingway
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All told a pretty hectic week for the new normal crowd, and we didn’t even mention our “golden age of lab grown meat” or the latest made-up Covid nonsense.
There’s a lot of change in the air, a lot of agendas in the works, if you see a headline, article, post or interview you think is a sign of the times, post it in the comments, email us or share it on social media and we will add it to the next edition.
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Migrant kills Victoria Adams, 37, murdered inside her west London flat by a homeless migrant she had invited to stay just three days earlier.
She suffered fatal head injuries after being struck with a mallet multiple times. The man, 39-year-old Apapale Adoum, has pleaded guilty to her murder and awaits sentencing. Police responded to reports of a break-in at a property in Coulter Road, Hammersmith. Officers later arrived to find Adams face down in her bedroom with a black bin bag over her head and a pillow placed on top. She had been hit at least ten times, both from behind and from the side.
The politicians who import in these people should be charged with aiding and abbetting the crime
There’s nothing new here. Mercedes have been demanding subscriptions for power you’ve purchased, or leased, for around a decade. Yes sir, you can buy this laptop for $299, it’s all yours, but if you want Internet and email, that’s an extra $700 per year, every year.
So every time CCTV, or ring cameras snap your chops, they need to pay a royalty. lol Maybe you’ll get taxed on those royalties.
Portugal and Spain have told Nazi NATO to feck off over additional military spending. Spain has decided that it’s economic future is more aligned to China. For instance, China returned a fully paid for shipment that was mid Pacific, and sent in back to the UK, and now gets far better pork from Spain, and from what I understand, Spanish pork is the best in the world. All the Spanish need to do now, is kick out US Nazi forces from Spain. Due to Spains position on Gaza, Joolandia, and their pivot to China, Spain has been subjected to sustained weaponised weather attacks. Maybe Nazi Amerika will invade Spain from France, across the Pyreneens… oh such fun.
Sent it back to the US. S is a long way from K, figure that one.
There’s nothing new here. Mercedes have been demanding subscriptions for power you’ve purchased, or leased, for around a decade. Yes sir, you can buy this laptop for $299, it’s all yours, but if you want Internet and email, that’s an extra $700 per year, every year.
So every time CCTV, or ring cameras snap your chops, they need to pay a royalty. lol Maybe you’ll get taxed on those royalties.
Portugal and Spain have told Nazi NATO to feck off over additional military spending. Spain has decided that it’s economic future is more aligned to China. For instance, China returned a fully paid for shipment that was mid Pacific, and sent in back to the US, and now gets far better pork from Spain, and from what I understand, Spanish pork is the best in the world. All the Spanish need to do now, is kick out US Nazi forces from Spain. Due to Spains position on Gaza, Joolandia, and their pivot to China, Spain has been subjected to sustained weaponised weather attacks. Maybe Nazi Amerika will invade Spain from France, across the Pyreneens… oh such fun.
Nigel Farage is exposing left-wing conspiracy pushing UK to its limits
Story by Tim Newark • Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has revealed his plan to solve the migrant crisis – detain and deport. Mass deportations are the only way to end the “pull” the UK exerts for thousands of scrounging migrants. Corralling them on secure military bases would also protect Britons amid a shocking reported 65% rise in sex crimes by foreign criminals.
we ask how many go unreported. Our national good will has been pushed to the limit. We can see with our own eyes that the vast majority of migrants are young men coming from failed states looking for the lottery win of free housing and social benefits, and free NHS plus the opportunity to work in the black market – or possibly in lucrative crime rackets. They gamble on our liberal woolly-headed and incompetent corrupt politicians and civil servants – and generally win, leapfrogging the asylum system by paying gangsters. Labour’s pledge to fast-track asylum claims means just opening the door even wider.
no wonder folk are asking trump to come take over
Elon Musk launches fresh attack on Nigel Farage – ‘he won’t protect Britain from migrants’ Elon Musk has criticised Nigel Farage, claiming the Reform UK leader “won’t protect Britain.” The tech billionaire’s response appeared to support MP Rupert Lowe, who Musk previously said would make a better leader for Britain than Farage.
Musk replied to Lowe’s post on X, which described the Reform UK deportation plan as “weak”, writing: “Unfortunately, the reality is that Farage will do almost nothing to protect Britain from criminal migrants. That is obvious. Existing law is clear that anyone who was an accessory to aggravated rape or murder, especially of children, is guilty of serious crime and must either serve time in prison if a citizen or be deported if not. The government simply needs to enforce the law.”
its hot news all over the world about starmer being a dirty shirtlifter
but its been blocked from UK news
zelenski sent him some ” nice boys ” but starmer typical jew refused to pay them
But the top story in the sheep news today (where most of humanity exists) is the Kelce/Swift proposal!!!!! We are doomed by morons.
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BBC
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Men who sprayed a water pistol at Orthodox Jews in a vicious anti semitic attack apologised –
Aug 12, 2025 · Two men who were arrested after filming themselves driving around a community spraying a water pistol at Orthodox Jews have apologised and been handed community resolution orders.
in another dirty vicious anti semitic attack police are searching for 2 young men in a passing car stuck out their tongues at jews going to synagogue
“Big if true.” If? When the EU was first formed, there was plenty of public speculation that the goal was to make one nation out of all its members.
One result of the 13 British colonies in North America becoming a nation is that many regional cultural differences gradually have been wiped out, everything from Southern accents to Jefferson’s honor system at the Univ. of Virginia. Some rural areas maintain their traditions, but city people across the country retain only a few symbols of what used to be integral parts of the life of their state, such as cowboy hats in Texas and mint juleps in Kentucky. We have been homogenized.