The Censorship Industrial Complex

I think something is seriously wrong with my brain. Yesterday, I hallucinated that Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger testified before a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives about the Censorship Industrial Complex, i.e., the US arm of the global official propaganda and disinformation apparatus that has been waging an all-out war on dissent for the better part of the last six years.

I know this couldn’t have actually happened, and was just an extended hallucination (probably the result of the copious amount of drugs I consumed in my misspent youth, or the effects of a Commie bio-weapon with a fatality rate of less than one percent, because I’ve been writing about The War on Dissent (2018), and The Criminalization of Dissent (2021), and the global Corporate COINTELPRO op (2017), and The War on Reality (2021), and The Manufacturing of Reality (2021), and Manufacturing Truth (2018), and Manufacturing Normality (2016), and The Road to Totalitarianism (2022), and The Gaslighting of the Masses (2022) … well, for quite some time. So, I’m sure it was just an hallucination, because there’s no way Matt and Shellenberger were actually sitting there talking about how …

“We learned Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation ‘requests’ from every corner of government: the FBI, DHS, HHS, DOD, the Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA. For every government agency scanning Twitter, there were perhaps 20 quasi-private entities doing the same, including Stanford’s Election Integrity Project, Newsguard, the Global Disinformation Index, and others, many taxpayer-funded.” (Matt Taibbi’s Statement to Congress)

… and documenting the coordinated censorship of sources that interfered with certain official narratives, like “Russiagate” and “The Apocalpytic Virus” …

… because that’s just a crazy “conspiracy theory.”

I am also sure I was hallucinating yesterday, because, right in the middle of my hallucination, right around the time that Stacey Plaskett started squawking like a demon pterodactyl, I had another hallucination, like my hallucinating self was hallucinating, which was like being in a Christopher Nolan film. In this one, Matt asked me to talk about how I was being censored by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, et al., and their governmental and NGO partners in 2021, and I started babbling all this “conspiracy theory” stuff about the very “Censorship-Industrial-Complex” that Matt and Shellenberger were testifying about in the hallucination I appeared to be hallucinating the other hallucination in.

And then my hallucination got weird.

Now, it’s been quite a while since I’ve indulged in any seriously mind-bending drugs, but this reminded me of a bad LSD trip, like when Satan starts talking to you through the TV. There I was, happily hallucinating these two distinguished independent journalists who had done all this historic reporting on a story of extreme importance and had been invited to Congress to talk about it, and, suddenly, it all went dark and twisted.

Stacey Plaskett, the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary subcommittee started badgering, insulting, smearing, and baiting Matt and Shellenberger like Joe McCarthy in drag. Trembling with hatred, she accused them of being members of some sort of Substack-based death squad that “poses a direct threat to people who oppose them,” and of stochastically terrorizing Yoel Roth, the former Twitter Censorship Czar, and of unleashing “homophobia and anti-Semitism” on him. Then she launched into a spittle-flecked rant about “January 6” and “threatening our democracy,” until she was restrained by James Jordan, the Subcommittee Chairman. And this was just during her opening remarks.

The other Democrats soon joined in the bullying, and lying, and smearing, and sneering, and generally acting like prosecutors at some hate-drunk witch trial. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who, for whatever reasons, is still allowed to serve in Congress after being forced to resign as the DNC Chair for rigging the 2016 election, staged a whole dog-and-pony show with blow-up photos of Joe Rogan and so on. Sylvia Garcia, who appeared to be drunk, demanded that Matt reveal his source, and then, when he refused, repeatedly tried to weasel it out of him with all the deftness of a one-legged idiot in an ass-kicking contest. Colin Allred put on a PowerPoint show involving Kanye West’s anti-Semitic tweets, random bigots on Twitter, and the Russian agents who conspired against him (i.e., Allred) personally, and then lectured Matt about the “threats to our democracy” and called him a “conspiracy theorist.” Stephen Lynch went full-McCarthy, demanding that the witnesses affirm they “believe that Russians interfered in the 2016 election.”

And so on. I told you things got twisted. Thank God it was just an hallucination and not a live, televised demonstration of precisely what I have been trying to describe the emergence of for the last six years, which is a new totalitarian form of global capitalism that no longer needs to maintain the pretense of upholding (or respecting) our “democratic rights,” because it has no external adversaries, and thus is free to morph into a quasi-Orwellian dystopia where any and all forms of dissent from official ideology can (and must) be delegitimized as “disinformation,” “misinformation, and even “malinformation,” and corporate-owned political puppets feel no compunction whatsoever about behaving like vicious little fascists on television because they know they have the fearsome power of the global-capitalist machine behind them, no matter how openly (and badly) they lie, and that their fanatical followers will parrot any propaganda they are given to parrot, no matter how patently false or absurd, and will spew their mindless hatred at whomever they are ordered to spew it at, and otherwise act like a bunch of fascists.

Anyway, thank God that was just a bad flashback, or a minor cerebral infarction, or whatever, because, if it wasn’t … what a total bummer!

OK, seriously now, I assume that some of my regular readers might be confused by this essay. After all, I have been rather critical of Elon Musk and his handling of the “Twitter Files.” And now, here I am, celebrating Matt and Shellenberger’s testimony yesterday. Did I not call the Twitter Files a limited hangout? Yes, I did. And I will do it again. But not today. Today I will celebrate. I will raise a glass to Matt and Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, and the other Twitter Files journalists. I will even raise a glass to Elon Musk (who continues to maliciously defame and censor me and others like me with fake “content warnings” and other such slimy censorship tactics) for making the Twitter Files available to them.

If that baffles you … well, let me tell you a secret.

The way this little ecosystem works is, writers like me don’t get to testify on television before subcommittees. Actual journalists get to do that. Actual journalists who are “normal” enough. Actual journalists like Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, Glenn Greenwald, et al. You know who I’m talking about. Actual journalists who know where the lines are, who aren’t going to start babbling about “Pathologized Totalitarianism” and “The New Normal Reich” on national television. What writers like me do get to do (and what it is our job to do) is subtly influence, gently pressure, and pester the living hell out of actual journalists who still have a shred of integrity left by saying the things they cannot say, or saying them in a way that they cannot say them, until the time comes when they can almost say them, because we have said them over and over again, and more or less everyone can see them, so it is finally safe to say them, almost.

OK, sure, it doesn’t pay all that much, but it’s fun, and I tend to sleep fairly well.

So, don’t worry, I’ll get back to doing that shortly. The “Censorship-Industrial-Complex” is a much bigger story than just the US division. I’ll be prodding Matt and the other Twitter Files journalists to prod Elon Musk to bring in international journalists to cover the same story in countries like Germany, the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, The Netherlands, and so on. Feel free to join in the fun. Who knows? In another four or five years, we might even find out how this photo simultaneously appeared in every paper of record on the planet in January of 2020 … that is, if we’re not all locked away in “conspiracy theorist” camps by then.

In the meantime, kudos to the Twitter Files Team!

###

CJ Hopkins
March 10, 2023
Photos: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee; The New York Times

DISCLAIMER: The preceding essay is entirely the work of our in-house satirist and self-appointed political pundit, CJ Hopkins, and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Consent Factory, Inc., or its staff, or any of its agents, subsidiaries, or assigns. If, for whatever inexplicable reason, you appreciate Mr. Hopkins’ work and would like to support it, please go to his Substack page, or his Patreon page, or send a contribution to his PayPal account, so that maybe he’ll stop coming around our offices trying to hit our employees up for money. Alternatively, you could purchase his satirical dystopian sci-fi novel, Zone 23, or Volumes I, II, and III of his Consent Factory Essays, or any of his subversive stage plays, which won some awards in Great Britain and Australia. If you do not appreciate Mr. Hopkins’ work and would like to write him an abusive email, feel free to contact him directly.

18 thoughts on “The Censorship Industrial Complex”

  2. There are now organizations focused on retributive justice. Folks getting bounced from their jobs et al without or against due process. Law firms circling the scene. It’s a business now. Using legal recourse. The other guys do not want to go into court and swear on their ‘evidence’. They will be moved to settle. But cases that do get tried deliver threatening verdicts.

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  3. Hopkins will never get credit for coining “Covidian cult,” but that term seems like the only feasible explanation for this current dystopia.

    Sure, the narrative has exploded spectacularly. But were they to actually take responsibility for submitting to hive mentality, at this point, I think their heads really would explode. Simpler to fumble along in the Matrix.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Keep the praise and the criticism coming when warranted. Your even-handed, sobering perspective is what’s needed. And I appreciate that you seem to have no intention of letting Elon off the hook. He is the alt-frontman to Klaus. It’s always been set up this way.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. The junction of Big Tech and one political party across federal agencies is quite disturbing to say the least. Using it to ‘Control The Message’ and squash any dissent no matter how legitimate, even more so.

    Just remember if the government were to create an official digital currency, they would control the blockchain (ledger) of that currency. They would also be able to identify all individuals and corporations in the ledger thus connecting the dots. A blockchain ledger is FOREVER. The Check & Mate move would be to then outlaw the cash dollar. Suddenly, the government gets to say who can buy or sell. They would also likely implement a social credit score and penalize those whom the government disagrees.

    Sounds rather dystopian? Perhaps ‘Biblical’? Well the CCP is already doing it right now and Big Tech helped them build the social credit system. They also helped with their extreme surveillance systems and facial recognition. All the Big Tech operating in mainland Communist China allow the CCP secret police full access to the China data centers. There are Chinese citizens who cannot travel who cannot make business deals who cannot open a line of credit and who are shunned by others who do not wish their own social credit score to be impacted by even associating with them.

    In the name of convenience and safety your freedoms and privacy are under attack.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. With regards to my earlier statement of offense. I have been thinking. Which often is a sure sign that soon my position will change.
    Why would you block me?
    We’ve never even interacted.
    Obvious answer is you didn’t.
    It’s obviously a conspiracy of my enemies..

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  12. I hope that we are cellmates CJ! And fully in the shadowy view of the majestic global panopticon of the New Ukraine. ;-)
    “Can ya spare a smoke?”

    Good luck to all! :-)

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  13. But once the government-cia-media turns on you (even their own), it’s all over and most people (who get their information from the government media) will never hear the truth that they are being conned and lied to. So Taibbi and Shellenberger will never be heard from again and people will continue to go about their daily routines stuck on social media and what they are told to think.

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  14. “totalitarian form of global capitalism”

    Those two words — “totalitarian” and “capitalism” — cannot exist in the same sentence. This may involve firms making money, and it may involve the enforcement of law, but this is in no meaninful sense “capitalism.” There is also no such thing as “crony capitalism” or “late-stage capitalism.” Capitalism is what happens when you leave people alone (within certain boundaries, of course) to employ their resources and pursue their own interests as they think fit. This is either “corporatism” or “fascism,” whichever you prefer.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Definitely not dear brother. Capitalism with or without adjectives amounts to much more than letting people do whatever… It’s a system of how to organize a society under the motto: “all for us (1%) and nothing for the rest (99%). It could only lead to disaster. Marx clearly advised : either socialism or barbarie. It’s where we are now.

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  15. It has been always my understanding that amongst all the crimes that Christianity has committed, communism is also one of them, not directly, but indirectly.

    It is because of Christianity, its stupid superstitions, its exploitation of the people, its protection of the richest and its consolations for the poor, that Karl Marx had to say that religion is nothing but opium for the people.

    This is perfectly true for organized religions, but this is not true about enlightened men like Zarathustra, or Bodhidharma, or Basho.

    They are the pinnacles of consciousness.

    Christianity has done so much harm that the intelligentsia, particularly people like Karl Marx, who were geniuses, became so frustrated with Christianity that they created an alternative, a materialist philosophy with no God, with no soul, with no consciousness.

    Communism is a reaction against Christianity.

    It is understandable, but not forgivable, because Karl Marx was not acquainted with the enlightenment of Gautam Buddha, nor was he acquainted with the Eastern flowers of Zen, of Tao, of Yoga.

    Without knowing anything about authentic religion, he thought that Christianity was equivalent to a religion, he created a religion-less society.

    Remember, all Communist countries including the Soviet Union and now China have all become concentration camps.

    This very same enslavement model which is now overtaking the whole world, championed by the insane elite criminals of the WEF, UN, WHO, EU, NATO and all the Marxist leftist led western countries.

    What do you really think Marxist Klaus Schwab is doing?

    He is digging a grave for humanity as deep as possible.

    The endgane is to bury all free speech, intelligence and individuality, by introducing Smart city’s, CBDC’s, full spectrum digital surveillance and track-able ID’s, we have mRNA bio eugenics warfare, retarded woke ideology, divisive social justice warriors, unlawful lockdowns, abeyance and obedience to all US/UK/Five Eyes war mongering and propaganda.

    All of these ideas are suicidal and tragically dangerous.

    If people can just have some respect for themselves, some dignity of being human, then you cannot reduce them all to slaves, you cannot destroy their souls and make them unconscious robots.

    Has humanity completely forgotten the endless obscene crimes against humanity of this last century?

    Up to now, humanity has only pretended to live, our life has been only hypothetical.

    Realize now, that nuclear weapons and all of the destructive, apocalyptic measures of the so-called elites are just a preparation for a global suicide.

    The old humanity has decided to die.

    It is up to the intelligent people in the world to disconnect from the old humanity before they destroy you too.

    To disconnect yourself from old traditions, old religions, old nations, old ideologies.

    For the first time, the old is no longer gold.

    The old is the rotten corpse of an ugly past.

    It is a great responsibility for the new generation, for the young people to renounce the past.

    In the past, religions used to renounce the world.

    But now, you have to love the world so that it can be saved, and to renounce the past totally and irrevocably, to be discontinuous.

    The new man is not an improvement upon the old, he is not a continuous phenomenon, not a refinement.

    The new man is the declaration of the death of the old, and the birth of an absolutely fresh man, unconditioned, without any nation, without any religion, without any discrimination of men and women, of black and white, of East and West, or North and South.

    The new man is a manifesto of ‘One Humanity’.

    It is the greatest revolution the world has ever seen.

    The new man is a revolt against the whole past.

    He is a declaration that we are going to create a new way of life, new values of life; that we are destined for new goals, faraway stars are our targets.

    And we are not going to allow anybody to sacrifice us for any stunted ideology.

    We are going to live our lives, not according to ideals, but according to our own longings, our own passionate intuitions.

    And we are going to live moment to moment.

    We are no longer to be befooled by the tomorrow, and the promises for tomorrow.

    The new man contains the whole future of humanity

    Let the old die.

    Let the old be led by people like Klaus Schwab.

    Let the blind people follow these blind fools.

    Remember, the new man is not someone coming from another planet.

    The new man is you in your freshness, in your silences of the heart, in your depth of meditation, in your beautiful spaces of love, in your songs of joy, in your dances of ecstasy, in your love of this earth.

    Realize the responsibility, man has never faced a greater responsibility before, a responsibility to renounce the whole past, to erase it from your being.

    This earth can be a splendor, a magic, a miracle.

    Our hands have that touch, it is just that we have never tried it.

    Man has never given a chance to his own potential to grow, to blossom, to bring fulfillment, contentment, to shower the whole earth with flowers, to fill the whole earth with fragrance.

    That fragrance is godliness.

    The new man will not worship a god as a creator of the world, the new man will create godliness as a fragrance, as beauty, as love, as truth.

    Up to now god has been the creator.

    For the new man from now, man will be the creator, and god is going to be the created.

    We can create godliness, it is within our hands.

    That’s why I say the new man is the greatest revolution that has ever happened in the world.

    And there is no way to avoid it because the old man is determined to die, determined, committed to commit suicide.

    Let him die peacefully.

    Those who have a rebellious spirit should just disconnect themselves, and they will be the saviors, they will create a Noah’s ark of consciousness, they will be the beginning of a new world.

    And because we have known the old world and its miseries; we can avoid all those miseries, the politicians, the globalists, the banksters, the intelligence agencies, we can avoid all those jealousies, all those angers, all those wars, all those destructive tendencies.

    We can go through a total transformation.

    We can create innocent people, loving people, people who breathe in freedom, people who help each other to be free.

    We can create nourishment for everybody to be dignified, to be respected, not according to some ideals and values, but just as they are.

    The new man is going to be the very salt of the earth.

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