Excellently explained, and encouraging! I reckon much of this censorship as well as the imposition of woke nonsense (I'm on the left, not the fake left, though I find myself in agreement with many on the right/libertarian right these days) is to divide us in never-ending culture wars, and that effort has certainly been successful. Has anyone noticed that class issues have fallen off the radar? All part of the plan, and certainly doesn't mean that life has become easier for most people - quite the opposite.
Thank you for this. Fascinating read. Agree with almost everything Lowebthal says, except one thing. I also went through a very similar anthological shock to him during the pandemic, with the associated realizations to him, however it seems to me that he is perhaps describing an old reality from around 2021/2022 (in our times of extreme rapid change, 2022 is already old history) and that he is therefore possibly missing (if I may humbly and respectfully suggest) the other half of the equation, the other half of the massive censorship and anti free speech reality that is happening today (post pandemic and post woke), which today is very much led by the NeoCon billionaire zionist supremacists, with the cynical manipulative corruption of the term 'antisemitism' used by cynical zionist billionaires and their billionaire peers in the ruling class, used as the stick in tne hands of the ruling class to silence and crush dissent today, with massive censorship laws, persecution, jailing, firing and destroying dissenter's lives, happening all over the west (and especially in zionist conservative USA) under the cynical banner of "fighting antisemitism"
(and before anyome starts with the knee-jerk automatic reactions of calling me "antisemite" for daring to say this and criticize the holy zionists nazis, please know that like Mr. Lowenthal, I am also Jewish of German ancestry and that my family are holocaust survivors. This is exactly why i passionately stand up to the neo-nazi zionist ideology and to the zionist billionaire mass murderers, torturers and child-abusers and their CYNICAL COMPLETE CORRUPTION of the term 'antisemitism' to advance their God-ignorant anti-life right-wing hierarchical agenda, which is skillfully described, for example, in this very important research essay https://www.pdrboston.org/israel-s-government-attacks-jews-to
For an example of a holocaust survivor talking specifically about the criminality, dehumanization tactics and intimate similarity of the supremacist right-wing ideology of the zionist murderers, torturers and child-abusers to the nazi ideology of his right-wing fascists persecuters in europe who dehumanized him under the exact same hierarchical sectarian/tribalistic right-wing ideology see here https://x.com/DoubleDownNews/status/1751311095602598037?s=20)
So while i fully agree with him that he is describing correctly a reality true to 2021/2022 (and i went through a very similar process to him), i think he might be missing the other half of the picture that had happened since then, where the wheel has been turned on its head so to speak, and now the other half of tyranny and massive censorship (and much worse, literal persecution and ruining people's lives) is done under the dual cynical banner of "fighting antisemitism" on the one hand, and "countering the woke tyrants" on the other (i jokingly call this second banner "the anti-woke tyrants in the name of fighting woke tyranny", or for short "the anti-tyranny tyrants")
The old/new tyranny in the name of fighting woke liberal tyranny (old/new becasue the banner of anti-woke is new but the God-ignorant right-wing hierarchical abusive dehumanizing anti-egalitarian ideology is old and the same fascist sectarian/religious/tribalist poison it has always been, just re-packaged itself now to operating under new banners and slogans)
This new/old tyranny - which now also has the cynical "fighting antisemitism" bludgeon added to it for maximum suppression and silencing of dissent - can be clearly seen, for example, in the massive level of censorship, deplatforming, shadow-banning, visibility-filteting and caging us in partisan echo-chambers on Musk's right-wing Zionist Twitter/X, and what's truly scary and unprecedentend is that it is all done under the banner of "freedom" and "fighting the elite"!!! Truly 1984 level of DoubleSpeak. And frighteningly, a blind misinformed army of millions upon millions are buying into this sick GREAT INVERSION conservative narrative (the successor to the Qanon narrative), where the biggest billionaire manipulators, exploiters, murderers, abusers and technocratic jailors of humanity are hailed in conservative circles as "pro-freedom" who are "fighting the deep state" (as the Qanin/MAGA deception would have us believe). Worshiping the holy billionaire trinity of Musk/Trump/Tucker as "freedom fighters" and "anti-elite", while "God's chosen messiah" and his deep-state zionist billionaire buddies are ushered into the white house. Truly dystopian times..The GREAT CONSERVATIVE INVERSION (Qanon version 2.0) in full swing.. The biggest billionaire abusers of humanity, scum of the earth, are worshipped by deceived conservatives as "pro-freedom anti-elite heros"!!! SICKENING!!
Excellent, incisive defence of free expression. Given the appalling culture wars and the violence erupting on the streets in the U.K. it is apparent that stifling people’s views and driving dissent underground - whether it is support for a Gaza ceasefire or the perception that there are too many refugees - is a very bad idea. Open and free debate with all perspectives represented creates a better informed, better educated society. Censorship and repression - particularly stemming from a corrupt and authoritarian elite - is massively dangerous.
The final question shows some key weaknesses to the project. It may be that containment of communicable projection ("hateful" or otherwise) given Western Enlightenment cultural frameworks is basically impossible, but for those with very well trained minds (I mean by a Buddhist definition, but not only Buddhist methods can attain it). One turns off the internet in order to focus on that as the crux of things again. The local and embodied reinstated as more real than the universalising and discursive.
If that is true, digital expression censorship makes sense. Dysfunctional self destruction of that which promises freedom but can never actually fulfill it.
Excellently explained, and encouraging! I reckon much of this censorship as well as the imposition of woke nonsense (I'm on the left, not the fake left, though I find myself in agreement with many on the right/libertarian right these days) is to divide us in never-ending culture wars, and that effort has certainly been successful. Has anyone noticed that class issues have fallen off the radar? All part of the plan, and certainly doesn't mean that life has become easier for most people - quite the opposite.
Surprised he made no mention of the on going show trial of CJ Hopkins in Berlin
Thank you for this. Fascinating read. Agree with almost everything Lowebthal says, except one thing. I also went through a very similar anthological shock to him during the pandemic, with the associated realizations to him, however it seems to me that he is perhaps describing an old reality from around 2021/2022 (in our times of extreme rapid change, 2022 is already old history) and that he is therefore possibly missing (if I may humbly and respectfully suggest) the other half of the equation, the other half of the massive censorship and anti free speech reality that is happening today (post pandemic and post woke), which today is very much led by the NeoCon billionaire zionist supremacists, with the cynical manipulative corruption of the term 'antisemitism' used by cynical zionist billionaires and their billionaire peers in the ruling class, used as the stick in tne hands of the ruling class to silence and crush dissent today, with massive censorship laws, persecution, jailing, firing and destroying dissenter's lives, happening all over the west (and especially in zionist conservative USA) under the cynical banner of "fighting antisemitism"
(and before anyome starts with the knee-jerk automatic reactions of calling me "antisemite" for daring to say this and criticize the holy zionists nazis, please know that like Mr. Lowenthal, I am also Jewish of German ancestry and that my family are holocaust survivors. This is exactly why i passionately stand up to the neo-nazi zionist ideology and to the zionist billionaire mass murderers, torturers and child-abusers and their CYNICAL COMPLETE CORRUPTION of the term 'antisemitism' to advance their God-ignorant anti-life right-wing hierarchical agenda, which is skillfully described, for example, in this very important research essay https://www.pdrboston.org/israel-s-government-attacks-jews-to
For an example of a holocaust survivor talking specifically about the criminality, dehumanization tactics and intimate similarity of the supremacist right-wing ideology of the zionist murderers, torturers and child-abusers to the nazi ideology of his right-wing fascists persecuters in europe who dehumanized him under the exact same hierarchical sectarian/tribalistic right-wing ideology see here https://x.com/DoubleDownNews/status/1751311095602598037?s=20)
So while i fully agree with him that he is describing correctly a reality true to 2021/2022 (and i went through a very similar process to him), i think he might be missing the other half of the picture that had happened since then, where the wheel has been turned on its head so to speak, and now the other half of tyranny and massive censorship (and much worse, literal persecution and ruining people's lives) is done under the dual cynical banner of "fighting antisemitism" on the one hand, and "countering the woke tyrants" on the other (i jokingly call this second banner "the anti-woke tyrants in the name of fighting woke tyranny", or for short "the anti-tyranny tyrants")
The old/new tyranny in the name of fighting woke liberal tyranny (old/new becasue the banner of anti-woke is new but the God-ignorant right-wing hierarchical abusive dehumanizing anti-egalitarian ideology is old and the same fascist sectarian/religious/tribalist poison it has always been, just re-packaged itself now to operating under new banners and slogans)
This new/old tyranny - which now also has the cynical "fighting antisemitism" bludgeon added to it for maximum suppression and silencing of dissent - can be clearly seen, for example, in the massive level of censorship, deplatforming, shadow-banning, visibility-filteting and caging us in partisan echo-chambers on Musk's right-wing Zionist Twitter/X, and what's truly scary and unprecedentend is that it is all done under the banner of "freedom" and "fighting the elite"!!! Truly 1984 level of DoubleSpeak. And frighteningly, a blind misinformed army of millions upon millions are buying into this sick GREAT INVERSION conservative narrative (the successor to the Qanon narrative), where the biggest billionaire manipulators, exploiters, murderers, abusers and technocratic jailors of humanity are hailed in conservative circles as "pro-freedom" who are "fighting the deep state" (as the Qanin/MAGA deception would have us believe). Worshiping the holy billionaire trinity of Musk/Trump/Tucker as "freedom fighters" and "anti-elite", while "God's chosen messiah" and his deep-state zionist billionaire buddies are ushered into the white house. Truly dystopian times..The GREAT CONSERVATIVE INVERSION (Qanon version 2.0) in full swing.. The biggest billionaire abusers of humanity, scum of the earth, are worshipped by deceived conservatives as "pro-freedom anti-elite heros"!!! SICKENING!!
Excellent, incisive defence of free expression. Given the appalling culture wars and the violence erupting on the streets in the U.K. it is apparent that stifling people’s views and driving dissent underground - whether it is support for a Gaza ceasefire or the perception that there are too many refugees - is a very bad idea. Open and free debate with all perspectives represented creates a better informed, better educated society. Censorship and repression - particularly stemming from a corrupt and authoritarian elite - is massively dangerous.
A good read.
The final question shows some key weaknesses to the project. It may be that containment of communicable projection ("hateful" or otherwise) given Western Enlightenment cultural frameworks is basically impossible, but for those with very well trained minds (I mean by a Buddhist definition, but not only Buddhist methods can attain it). One turns off the internet in order to focus on that as the crux of things again. The local and embodied reinstated as more real than the universalising and discursive.
If that is true, digital expression censorship makes sense. Dysfunctional self destruction of that which promises freedom but can never actually fulfill it.
Peace.