By: Jože Biščak
On January 7th, Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times that Donald Trump is a fascist and that there is no reconciliation with fascists. Fascists are also right-wing activists who must be imprisoned in as many numbers as possible and prevented in every way. Which is what history teaches us about dealing with fascists. Thus Krugman, who lists “evidence” but forgets, for example, to mention the violence and destruction of private property caused by the protests following the tragic death of George Floyd.
The New York Times is not just any newspaper. It is an extremely left-wing and racist medium towards whites, which with its project 1619 “teaches” that the American state was created in 1619, when the first black slaves set foot on American soil. Therefore, 4th of July should be deleted from the memory of the United States as a commemoration of the Declaration of Independence (1776). Such thoughts of the project manager and journalist Nikola Hannah-Jones have been softened (and even deleted from the web) by historians, but the basic idea of the evil white man, currently personified by Donald Trump, has remained.
Paul Krugman is not no one either. He is a Nobel laureate who, after Trump’s victory in 2016, predicted a US economic collapse, however, stock markets and the growth of the US economy soon proved him wrong. Even otherwise, the history of Krugman’s divinations is a history of false predictions. For example, he said that Ireland would follow the path of Greece; he sang hymns to the Argentine socialist economy, which was supposed to be in good shape; in 1998 he said that the internet would become completely meaningless by 2005; he predicted that Britain would collapse due to austerity measures. These are just some of his misguided and completely wrong predictions, just so you know who you are dealing with and most importantly what medium he is writing for. For four years (literally every day), the New York Times sowed hatred for the right wing, especially for the President of the United States.
The day after Krugman’s announcement, that is, Friday, January 8th, a clash of worlds occurred. Technology giants have begun to erase from their social networks anything that just smells not just of Trump, but of the right wing. A lot of people could no longer talk on digital channels, Google, Apple, Twitter, Facebook and others started a big clean-up campaign, they started disconnecting servers of Parler and Gab, the only still independent channels, which resulted in preventing their applications from loading.
And to clarify. No one denies private companies the right to set the rules of the game in their digital world. Networks are their property, so their rules apply, private property is inviolable. Even if you are the President of the United States, this does not mean that you are automatically entitled to your own profile, which no one can revoke for you. I hope I was clear that there will be no misunderstandings later.
But this mantra, now widely interpreted by leftists (until yesterday bitter opponents of private and capitalism), points to their hypocrisy. They went all crazy when a Catholic confectionery couple refused to bake a cake for a lesbian couple because of their religious beliefs. This couple has been denied the right that they now give to tech giants. Or the case from the neighbourhood, when a Croat who rented an apartment through Booking did not want to give it to a Brazilian who is gay. He was denied the right to have his private freely at his disposal; to rent out his apartments to people of his choice and belief.
If we return to the present. Do you know what the defence of technology giants was like against antitrust lawsuits? That they do not hinder the competition, that they do not intentionally harm it, that the competition is “just a click away”. Because of these promises, there was no need to establish parallel channels, as these technology giants claimed (and defended themselves) that they provide complete digital freedom of expression. Until last Friday, when, with the encouragement of the left-wing hysteria, they began to change the rules they had set themselves. That, too, is their right. A private undertaking may change their rules at any time and for any reason. Also political. We have no problem with that on the right wing; parallel channels, platforms and networks will be established. It will take a little longer, but they will be established. However, there is concern due to the announcement that left-wing dirty hands and their corrupt minds will begin to reach out through these channels as well. Not literally, but by passing legislation that will simply ban the operation of new technology companies that will not bow to political correctness. By abusing power, they will try to prevent the free digital flow of opinions and views.
The abolition of the profile of US President Donald Trump and the White House has garnered enthusiasm in the US among leftists, with Hillary Clinton also applauding. In Slovenia, too, the move of technology giants was met with approval. Some (such as prominent SD member Uroš Jauševec) even called on Twitter to abolish it for Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša. Elsewhere in Europe, it was no different, none of the prominent EU officials came forward. Imagine doing this to Ursula von der Leyen or Emmanuel Macron. We would hear about the inadmissible attack on freedom of expression by the minute.
What is happening today is politically correct totalitarianism on a socially just basis. Friday, January 8th, will go down in history as the day of the technology giants’ long knives. A society without open dialogue and differing opinions, even if parts are insulting and harsh, turns into a paradise for thieves, criminals, mobsters and useful idiots, who eventually abandon the adjective useful and only idiots remain. Fear is once again becoming the main weapon of left-wing manipulation because it brings a sense of impending catastrophe if they do not subordinate their thoughts to the new normalcy. Anyone who has read the book The Brothers Karamazov by the Russian writer Dostoevsky (especially the passage about The Grand Inquisitor) knows what I am talking about. About the freedom that God has given to a man who does not understand it. The most important thing is freedom of speech. Or, as Žiga Turk wrote on Twitter: “Censors have never been worried about lies. The censors are worried about the truth.”
Dark clouds are gathering over freedom, drawing a black future for us. Even those lamps that remain are trying to go out. Yes, freedom and democracy always die in the dark. For now, they are deleting our posts and our written thoughts, terminating our social media accounts, preventing us from accessing the platforms we want. For now, I say. In the end, real people will be erased. I will say this for the end. The next uprising may not take place digitised through screens and other digital devices, but will move into real life, into the real world.
Jože Biščak, editor-in-chief of Democracija magazine and president of the Slovenian Association of Patriotic Journalists. He is the author of three books: Stories from the Hayek Cafe, Notes from a Conservative Liberal and Journey with Orwell.