C.J. Hopkins, an award-winning American
playwright, novelist and political satirist based in Berlin, speaks
openly about the pathologized totalitarianism that is subtly taking over
society. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he criticized lockdowns and
COVID-19 shot mandates, as well as the censorship of dissenters.
During the early phases of the pandemic, Hopkins’ work was heavily
censored by YouTube and Facebook, which went so far as to even suspend
or restrict the accounts of people who tried to share Hopkins’ posts.1 Now, he’s facing another challenge to freedom and autonomy, as he’s facing criminal charges for a satirical tweet.
German Government Prosecutes Hopkins Over Tweets
The Berlin State Prosecutor’s office is pursuing criminal charges
against Hopkins for "disseminating propaganda, the content of which is
intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist
organization."2
The propaganda referenced is two tweets from 2022, which include an
image with a mask carrying a faint image of a swastika. Writing in The
Atlantic, journalist James Kirchick notes:3
"To argue that Hopkins was advancing National
Socialism by imposing a swastika over a face mask is absurd. He was
clearly doing the opposite: invoking a symbol of what is widely regarded
as the most evil and destructive ideology in human history to express
his feelings — however histrionic — for state-promulgated public-health
policies he dislikes.
Hopkins was 'comparing the evolution of one system
which I think is totalitarian in nature to the evolution of another
totalitarian system that we all know,' he told me, not glorifying
fascism."
But in Germany, national laws
prohibit Nazi insignia, which is why Amazon banned the sale of Hopkins’
book, "The Rise of the New Normal Reich," which also features the
swastika-emblazoned mask, in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. If
Hopkins is found guilty, he could be fined about $4,000 or sent to jail
for 60 days. Kirchick writes:4
"Hopkins sees his ordeal as part of a broader
'criminalization of dissent' sweeping the Western world. 'Basically
anyone prominent, halfway prominent, and even little fish like me, if
you get on the radar of challenging the official ideology, the program
of the day, they’re making examples of people is basically what it is,'
he told me.
Against his lawyer’s advice, Hopkins republished the
tweets in his Substack newsletter — sparking, as he reported, a second
criminal investigation, this time for minimizing Nazi crimes."
Are Authoritarian Measures Accelerating in Germany?
In "The Rise of the New Normal Reich," Hopkins details how measures
of totalitarian control are being normalized around the world. Depending
on where you live, you may or may not be experiencing these things
firsthand.
"If you're aware of how people are behaving in different countries or
in different states in the U.S., what have you, there are many places
where it is becoming just completely normal to walk around with a
medical-looking mask on, and people don't think twice about segregating
and banning people and imposing vaccine mandates and what have you.
All of these measures that were rolled out during the shock and awe
phase are just subtly becoming a part of daily life," he explained
during our 2022 interview.5
"We're being conditioned to walk around in our lives, terrified of
some pathogen that is going to come and attack us, or some health
threat. It's really, it's a wholesale revision of reality, and it's
frightening."6
At the heart of his argument is that the global-capitalist ruling
establishment, which Hopkins refers to as GloboCap, is using fear as a
strategy for control over the population.
In Germany, Hopkins says fascist measures have been quickly
accelerating. "Seriously, assuming you don’t live here, you likely have
no idea how fascistic German society and culture has become," he wrote
in November 2023, "and how quickly the transformation has occurred. It
began in the Spring of 2020 with the introduction of the ‘Corona
measures,’ and has been intensifying ever since."7
"The shock and awe phase that we went through in '20 and '21 is
over," Hopkins said in our interview. "You can't sustain shock and awe
like that forever. What we're experiencing now is really the
normalization of the pathologization of society."8
Even the charges against Hopkins seem baseless, as, even in Germany,
Nazi imagery is allowed for certain purposes, including countering
anti-constitutional activities. Kirchick continues:9
"So far, although he retains U.S. citizenship,
Hopkins’s case has attracted little attention in the American media. But
his predicament offers an important opportunity to examine how we think
about the most loaded political symbols — and to cherish the
exceptional free-speech culture ensured by America’s First Amendment.
On its face, the charge against Hopkins seems
specious. Although the display of Nazi imagery is generally prohibited
in Germany, the country’s criminal code allows the display of such
symbols for 'civic education, countering anti-constitutional activities,
art and science, research and education, the coverage of historic and
current events, or similar purposes.'"
The Goal Is to Silence Dissenters and Control Society
In the past, totalitarian regimes used drastic and obvious shows of
control, putting people into concentration camps. Today’s ruling
establishment is far more subtle in its tactics, but possibly even more
dangerous. Hopkins says:10
"I don't think they can put us in camps ... they
don't have to. If you look at what's happening to the economy, if you
look at what's happening to our ability to travel, to our ability to
communicate, I mean, the censorship that is going on, I think the
technologies that are being deployed in the service of this new form of
totalitarianism are much more subtle and, in many ways, much more
effective.
I've made the point, online, I made the point in the
book again, I don't think global capitalism can go openly
totalitarianism in the same way that systems in the 20th century did. I
think it's suicidal for global capitalism. It needs to maintain the
simulation of freedom, the simulation of democracy, and so the
technologies that are being deployed are much more subtle."
While people may not end up in prison-like camps, the end-game may be
no less restrictive. Technologies like the upcoming central bank
digital currency (CBDC), for instance, could easily lead to tight
control over your finances, limiting your ability to purchase food or
pay rent if your access to your funds is turned off. In the case of
Germany prosecuting Hopkins, he says:11
"Basically, the government no longer needs to justify
its crackdown on dissidents with plausible legal (or even just
rational) arguments.
They know that the majority of the German public
supports the 'New Normal' Gleichschaltung campaign, or at least will
look the other way as they carry out police raids on the homes and
offices of 'Islamic influencers,' ban demonstrations (exactly as they
did in 2020), censor and criminalize dissent, imprison political
dissidents based on blatantly false criminal charges, and otherwise make
a mockery of the German constitution."
In explaining why he republished the swastika-mask images again,
knowing it would likely lead to additional charges against him, Hopkins
wrote:12
"No, I am not a glutton for punishment. I’m not at
all enjoying my introduction to the so-called 'German legal system.' …
The goal of … prosecutions like mine (and those of many other dissidents
currently) is (a) to punish us for speaking out against 'New Normal'
totalitarianism by making our lives as miserable as possible, (b) to
make examples of us to discourage others from speaking out, and (c) to
intimidate us into shutting … up.
Totalitarians, fascists, and other power freaks are
essentially just glorified schoolyard bullies. They may cloak themselves
in the mantle of the law, but their modus operandi is brute force …
their message is simple: 'either do what we say, or we will hurt you.' …
The point is, never give in to a bully. Never reify a bully’s
'authority.' If you do, you will find yourself sucked into the bully’s
sadistic, nihilistic 'reality.'
You will be playing by the bully’s rules. And that is
all 'reality' actually is, a set of rules we agree to play by, or, in
this case, do not agree to play by.
So, getting back to my criminal case, and the Berlin
State Prosecutor’s latest attempt to bully me into shutting up and
demonstrating my 'respect' for the 'authority' and 'power' of the Berlin
State Prosecutor … I do not respond well to threats. I do not take
orders from totalitarians and fascists, or any other type of
authoritarians or bullies.
So that is why I have republished those Tweets, and
why I will continue to republish those Tweets every time the German
authorities threaten me with additional criminal charges for refusing to
obey their 'authority.'"
Dissent Is Essential in a Free Society
When citizens are punished for criticizing government policies, we
should all worry that totalitarianism is near. Using clever tactics like
censorship and attacks on people’s reputations and credibility, those
in control are moving toward taking away something that’s essential in a
free society — dissent. Kirchick explains why, regardless of how you
feel about Hopkins’ message, his prosecution should trouble us all:13
"Some might argue that, as a permanent resident of
Germany, Hopkins ought to have known what he was getting into by
conjuring the country’s ultimate taboo, and that his posturing as a sort
of latter-day Martin Niemöller, the anti-Nazi theologian, would not
endear him to his hosts.
'Of course; it’s Germany,' he said, when I put this
to him. 'Of course they’re hyper about anything that is promoting the
Nazis and, frankly, God bless them. That’s the way I feel about it; I’ve
always supported it and understood it even though I’m a free-speech
absolutist.'
One can call his method of argument likening
anti-COVID policies to Nazism misguided, intellectually lazy, or
tasteless — I personally find it to be all three — but endorsing 'the
aims' of National Socialism it is not. Which strongly suggests that
Hopkins is being punished not for promoting an outlawed political
movement from the German past but for criticizing a government of the
German present.
Such a conclusion is only reinforced by the second
proceeding against Hopkins for the tweet ridiculing one particularly
powerful member of that government, the country’s health minister.
That a citizen could be tried on these grounds in a
Western democracy should trouble us, and Germany’s unique experience as
the birthplace of Nazism offers no justification. On the contrary,
precisely because that fraught history gives Germany ample reason for
vigilance about support for fascism, it must be scrupulous in how it
regulates expressions of said support.
According to the country’s criminal code, expression
aimed at 'countering anti-constitutional activities,' as Hopkins’s
swastika-branded mask clearly was, is protected. A government that
prosecutes a writer for calling its policies fascistic unwittingly
validates the criticism. Even if some find Hopkins’s views and the way
he expresses them offensive, that does not lessen the danger that his
prosecution represents."
Source: https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/01/25/when-freedom-of-speech-is-no-longer-free.aspx?ui=ad0b6c9f1bde25e8797f3504b8d062e396a914597c470577a2e8244ba6d2db40&sd=20200908&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art2ReadMore&cid=20240125_HL2&foDate=false&mid=DM1522496&rid=2027968795
