{"id":307974,"date":"2025-05-06T06:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T06:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=307974"},"modified":"2025-05-08T06:25:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T06:25:37","slug":"this-week-in-the-new-normal-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=307974","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the New Normal #101"},"content":{"rendered":"

Off-Guardian \u2013 May 5, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Our successor to This Week in the Guardian<\/em>, This Week in the New Normal<\/a><\/em> is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. German Opposition Branded \u201cExtremists\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The German intelligence services have officially labelled right-wing political party Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland (AfD) \u201cright-wing extremists\u201d<\/a>, paving the way for a potential ban.<\/p>\n

To be clear, this is not about whether or not AfD are<\/em> far-right extremists. The powers-that-be have no strong feelings about extremism from either wing, and are happy to use either to serve their purposes in the right circumstances.<\/p>\n

This is not about extremism, it\u2019s not even really about AfD, it\u2019s about the meta-narrative of \u201cleft vs right\u201d, the kind of stunt done to enflame partisan topics and divide society.<\/p>\n

More specifically, it achieves two goals:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Normalizing the acceptance of authoritarian over-reach on the left, who will cheer on the banning of opposition parties, just as they already have done in France and Romania.<\/li>\n
  2. Further enflaming the populist right and fueling the pretense that parties like AfD really do pose some kind of threat to the establishment.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It shouldn\u2019t need to be said, but it\u2019s perfectly possible to heartily dislike AfD and what they stand for, whilst having massive reservations about any \u201cdemocracy\u201d which allows the sitting government to outlaw political parties at all.<\/p>\n

    2. Anything you can rig, I can rig better<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    The Canadian and Australian elections took place this week. Both saw the incumbent \u201cliberal\u201d Red Team win a landslide against the opposition \u201cconservative\u201d Blue Team. Both saw the leader of the opposition lose their seat.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s like poetry, it rhymes.<\/p>\n

    Or that weird thing where Hollywood studios both release animated movies about rats, or penguins, or ants or fish within just a few weeks of each other.<\/p>\n

    Or that time Canadian PM Steven Harper and Australian PM John Howard gave identical speeches<\/a> within 3 days of each other.<\/p>\n

    Almost like there\u2019s a higher authority dictating these things, and sometimes the strings show.<\/p>\n

    3. The changing CBDC landscape<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    As the IMA discussed in our recent panel, the rollout of Central Bank Digital Currencies was all guns blazing in 2021, but has slowed and almost stalled since.<\/p>\n

    Back in January, Trump explicitly banned a \u201cdigital dollar\u201d in an executive order, and this Forbes article from 4 days ago bemoans<\/a> Trump\u2019s \u201cSelf-Inflicted CBDC Vacuum\u201d, and the \u201closs of power\u201d that will accompany \u201cfalling behind\u201d the EU and China.<\/p>\n

    Meanwhile, in the EU the digital Euro is moving to a new stage of development,<\/a> partnering with 70 private companies to \u201ctest digital euro payment functionalities and explore innovative use cases\u201d.<\/p>\n

    Interesting moves in a story that has been quiet for a while.<\/p>\n

    BONUS: Fakest PR video of the week<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Back to Canada, where this video of Mark Carney celebrating his win is being passed around the internet as evidence he\u2019s a \u201cnormal human being\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n