{"id":272585,"date":"2023-08-25T07:00:50","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T07:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=272585"},"modified":"2023-08-26T05:37:57","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T05:37:57","slug":"the-road-to-totalitarianism-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=272585","title":{"rendered":"The Road to Totalitarianism (Part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

CJ Hopkins \u2013 Substack.com Aug 24, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n

So, the Germans are putting me on trial for my thoughtcrimes, and, apparently, I\u2019ve already been found guilty and sentenced. Bear with me and I\u2019ll try to explain.<\/p>\n

The Berlin District Court has issued a so-called \u201cpenalty order\u201d or \u201corder of punishment,\u201d in which I am advised that I am now officially a criminal in Germany, for tweeting two Tweets. According to my attorney, a trial will now be scheduled, at which my attorney will argue the case before the judge that just issued the \u201corder of punishment.\u201d At this trial, the judge will listen attentively to the arguments my attorney has already made in writing, consider them carefully, and find me guilty, again. Then the judge will reaffirm the \u201corder of punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go ahead, read that paragraph again.<\/p>\n

After my Kafkaesque trial has concluded, my attorney will file a series of appeals, which will fail, at which point I will have to decide whether to pay a fine of 3,600 Euros or go to German prison for 60 days.<\/p>\n

This process will take months, if not years, and will cost me God knows how much money in attorney\u2019s fees, court costs, and then the \u20ac3,600 fine. Yes, I\u2019m going to pay the fine. I am not going to German prison for 60 days. Life is too short, and I am getting older, and it wouldn\u2019t really accomplish anything except making a narcissistic spectacle of myself.<\/p>\n

However, what will accomplish something (I don\u2019t know how much, but something) is if I see the whole process through to the end, and shine as much light on it as I possibly can, because my case is just one of many such cases, and the real story here is not about me, it is about the crackdown on political dissent that is being carried out, not just here in Germany, but also in other countries all throughout the West.<\/p>\n

There are not many outlets reporting this story, not outlets with any significant reach. If you are reading this column, you\u2019re probably aware of various alternative media outlets that are, but most of these outlets are quarantined off where \u201cnormal\u201d people never have to see them, and are delegitimized as \u201cunreliable sources\u201d and purveyors of \u201cmisinformation,\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n

There are a few bigger sources covering the story, which are also increasingly being branded \u201cillegitimate,\u201d Matt Taibbi\u2019s Racket News<\/a><\/em>, Michael Shellenberger\u2019s Public<\/a><\/em>, Glenn Greenwald\u2019s Locals operations<\/a>, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019m forgetting a few more, forgive me.<\/p>\n

The point is, unless you\u2019re a charter member of the \u201cscience-denying, conspiracy-theorizing, hate-speech-speaking, anti-vaxxing, misinforming left-or-right extremist\u201d club \u2014 i.e., people who read weird \u201cmalinformationist\u201d publications like The Grayzone<\/a><\/em>, OffGuardian<\/a><\/em>, ZeroHedge<\/a><\/em>, Dissident Voice<\/a><\/em>, and Unlimited Hangout<\/a><\/em>, and who are planning to vote for Bobby Kennedy, or, God help them, Donald Trump \u2014 you probably have no idea what I mean when I refer to \u201cthe crackdown on dissent\u201d \u2026 or you do, and you think it\u2019s just hunky-dory.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t mince words. The folks who think it\u2019s hunky-dory are totalitarians. They\u2019re fascists. They applaud the crackdown on dissent. They applaud the criminalization of dissent. They applaud the censorship of political speech, of any <\/em>speech they do not agree with. They want their political opponents in prison. They want everyone who disagrees with them punished. They want people who offend them cancelled. They want anyone who refuses to conform to their official ideology erased.<\/p>\n

I have been calling these people \u201ctotalitarians\u201d and \u201cfascists\u201d for a number of years now. I do not enjoy doing that. I\u2019m not doing it gratuitously. Some of these people were my friends. I\u2019m doing that, calling these people \u201cfascists,\u201d and comparing the nascent totalitarianism that is erupting all throughout the West to other, earlier totalitarian systems, like Stalinism (sorry, Marxist friends), and, yes, to fucking Nazi Germany, because, despite the fact that there are numerous differences, a lot of it is textbook totalitarianism. Naked textbook totalitarianism. There isn\u2019t another, nicer word for it \u2026 or for those who are enthusiastically embracing it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to present the evidence for that assertion again. I have done that ad nauseam, much of it in my latest book, which is banned by Amazon in several countries<\/a>, and which bears a warning on other Amazon sites<\/a> to \u201cvisit the WHO, the CDC,\u201d or your local national health authority, \u201cfor the latest information on Covid-19 and vaccines\u201d before you consider buying it, and the cover art of which is about to make me an official \u201chate criminal,\u201d with a criminal record.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, as I explained at greater length in a previous column<\/a>, the pretext for this so-called \u201chate crime\u201d prosecution is two Tweets I tweeted almost exactly one year ago of the cover art of that very same book, which just happens to document the rollout of the \u201cNew Normal\u201d (i.e., the new totalitarianism) in 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n

Here are the two Tweets that constitute my \u201chate crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Say what you want about me and my writing. I can be \u201cprovocative,\u201d and some of my political satire is bombastically over-the-top, but, as Matt Taibbi put it in a recent <\/a>Racket News<\/a><\/em> piece<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cNo amount of drugs exist that if consumed would allow a rational person to conclude that the writing of C.J. Hopkins furthers \u2018the aims of a former National Socialist Organization.\u2019 Agree with him or not, and I increasingly do, he used his imagery to compare the sweeping declarations of emergency power that were common around the world during the pandemic (and were particularly authoritarian in Germany) to Nazi tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that is what I am being accused of, and \u201cpunished\u201d for doing, by the German authorities, i.e., \u201cfurthering the aims of a National Socialist Organization\u201d \u2026 basically, promoting Nazism, for tweeting those two Tweets above.<\/p>\n

There is no complex legal issue here. Yes, swastikas are banned in Germany if you\u2019re a Nazi or promoting Nazism or Fascism, but they are permitted for the purposes of \u201ccivic education, countering anti-constitutional activities, art, science, research and education, coverage of historic and current events,\u201d and similar purposes, according to German law<\/a>. Do you seriously believe that the German hate-crime police and the prosecutor and the judge do not understand that? Of course they understand that. They\u2019re not complete imbeciles. They know the charges are just a pretext. And they know we know the charges are just a pretext. They do not care. They do not have to. They don\u2019t even have to pretend to be following the rule of law. Not anymore. Because they know the majority of the masses are with them.<\/p>\n

The point of prosecutions like this (and much more serious and significant prosecutions, like that of Julian Assange, for example) is to send a message. The naked disregard for the rule of law, the blatant absurdity of the charges, the open contempt for democratic principles, is all part of the message. It\u2019s not a message about the law. It\u2019s a message about power. Who has it, and who doesn\u2019t. And what happens to those who refuse to bow down to it.<\/p>\n

The message is not intended for me, or for more important figures like Julian Assange, or the many other less well-known dissidents that are being made examples of currently. We’re just the medium that conveys the message. We’re the delivery service. The message is for you.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty sure you\u2019re getting the message. The question is \u2026 how are you going to respond?<\/p>\n

I do not mean by \u201cstorming\u201d your capitol. Please do not go out and get yourself shot. I mean, are you going to help shine a light on where we are headed? Because it\u2019s pretty fucking dark. Folks are offering to send me money to help with my legal costs, and I\u2019m extremely grateful, because I\u2019m going to need it (and here\u2019s how to do that<\/a>), but what I think we need to do is a little harder, and costs more, and is much more important.<\/p>\n

We need to talk to the totalitarians \u2026 yes, the ones who wanted to put us in camps. If we can\u2019t get through to them, we\u2019re probably screwed. And there is a window of opportunity to do that now. It\u2019s not 2020 or 2021. The mass hysteria has worn off for a lot of people. I know, not all of them, but for some of them, a lot of them. Some of them are finally reachable.<\/p>\n

Take a chance, talk to them, the ones you know, or used to know. Try to get through to them. Not the bug-eyed, fanatical, foaming-at-the-mouth types who can\u2019t wait for the return of the \u201cemergency measures.\u201d The other ones \u2026 you know the ones I mean. The ones who want out. You can see it in their eyes. Take a chance. Talk to these people. Totalitarianism, fascism, it is not an identity. It\u2019s a mindset. No one is born a fascist. People can be deprogrammed. Some of them can. And, at this point, we need all the help we can get.<\/p>\n

So, if you\u2019re one of the kind and generous folks who have been asking what you can do to help and offering to send me money, sure, go ahead and send me the money \u2014 thank you, I\u2019ve been overwhelmed by your messages, and I\u2019m sorry that I can\u2019t personally respond to all of them \u2014 but also consider what I\u2019m suggesting, if you can possibly bring yourself to do it. If you can\u2019t, I completely understand. Trust me, I am still just as angry as you are. I am hurt. I feel betrayed and abandoned. I have a feeling that some of you feel that way too. So I know what I\u2019m asking when I ask you to talk to the New Normal totalitarians, the ones who might be reachable.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t yet, don\u2019t. But if you\u2019re able to, try.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t try to convince them that you were right and they were wrong. Just shine a light on the road we\u2019re on. Try to get them to recognize where we\u2019re headed. Regardless of who was right and who was wrong about whatever, we are all going down this road together.<\/p>\n

Personally, I\u2019d rather not ride it all the way to the end and face what is down there this time.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

CJ Hopkins is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CJ Hopkins has just been tried for sending two tweets. The first opened with the words: \u201cThe masks are ideological-conformity symbols\u201d, while the second was a quote from Karl Lauterbach, the German Minister of Health. That\u2019s all it took to convict Hopkins for promoting Nazism <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":272587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272585"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272591,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272585\/revisions\/272591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/272587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}