X Stops Operations in Brazil after 'censorship orders' from Judge Alexandre de Moraes
Last night, <Brazilian Judge> Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders.
He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions. Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process.
As a result, to protect our staff's safety, we have decided to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately.
The X service remains available to the people of Brazil. We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes.
His actions are incompatible with democratic government.
The people of Brazil have a choice to make - democracy, or (Judge) Alexandre de Moraes.
So, X is putting their employees and free speech in front of profits. May this be a wake-up call for the EU.
When the State or its political parties resort to censorship, lies, and propaganda to advance their agendas, they cannibalize long-term legitimacy for short-term gain.
More Inconvenient Nord Stream Truth
One big story that came to light this week was first published in the Wall Street Journal, but it hardly made a dent in the minds of Americans. That story is that Ukraine blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. Of course, this means we, the public, have been fed lies about the event, which has crippled the German economy ever since.
Of course, the WSJ quickly asserted that Zelinksy approved the plan and disapproved. Talk about having it both ways! The WSJ was also quick to assert that the CIA learned of the plan and asked the Ukrainian president to pull the plug, which he did- but it was too late. Of course, this propaganda is impossible to swallow and reeks of an attempt by the US government and Ukraine to cover their asses.
My friend, Mattias Desmet did an excellent and short analysis of the situation on Twitter, copied below:
A so-called 'false flag' operation is coming to light at a record pace. The media initially wanted us to believe that 'the Russians' blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. Anyone with any ability to critically distance themselves raised an eyebrow. The Russians blow up that pipeline to prevent themselves from transporting their own gas to Europe?
Besides the many other strange creases and twists in the story, the next question immediately arose: why don't the Russians simply turn off their gas tap instead of blowing up a pipeline at the bottom of the sea? And the same goes for a whole range of other elements in the Ukraine story. You don't have to be a genius to also raise an eyebrow at the story about the blown-up dam over the Dnipro River. It is not because a line of thought is completely absurd that people will not blindly follow it.
Propagandists know this all too well. All you need is a horde of unprincipled journalists, an army of thoughtless fact-checkers, and a lonely, exhausted population. As Steve Aernouts wrote on my Facebook page: 'When top journalist and former Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh argued a few months after the incident, through a CIA insider, that Russia was not to blame, the man was dismissed as some kind of idiot by all the media.' Regardless of how solid both the logic and the relationship to the facts of Hersh's story were, society chose to go along with the completely absurd story spread through the mainstream media.
To quote Hannah Arendt: "The ideal subject for a totalitarian regime is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but someone for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exists." Propaganda works, stunningly well. And we can only conclude: the media apparatus, once conceived as the societal organ that must continually give birth to the Truth in society, has largely been absorbed by the propaganda apparatus. ***
A few days ago, the media story about the Nord Stream pipeline began to slowly unravel. First, it appeared in the media that 'a Ukrainian' had blown up the pipeline, then the pointing finger identified a Ukrainian diving school, and now it is added that Zelensky himself approved the operation.
So, try to imagine it clearly: To turn European public opinion against Putin, Zelensky had a team of divers blow up the Nord Stream pipeline. The great monster Putin would thus be responsible for a winter without gas in Europe. One thing is clear: Zelensky is truly capable of anything. We can ask ourselves: is there a reason why Zelensky is being thrown under the bus here and now? But besides that—and I may be naïve—I still see it as a good sign that the media are still capable of breaking their own story. So I say sincerely: thank you to the media.
And do the same with the COVID story and all other forms of fake news that have been spread in recent years. Let the truth break through. Nietzsche said: "In the light of every truly great person, thousands of secrets of history crawl out from under their stone." To all journalists: try to be such a 'truly great person.' 'Become who you are.' Feel the pride you deserve when you remain true to the ethics of true journalism. Ensure that we can once again truly respect journalism. Stop allowing yourselves to be used, stop reducing yourselves to a propaganda tool. You can be so much more than that. ***
A century and a half ago, some began to realize: the possibilities of propaganda are virtually unlimited. Among other things, it sends thousands of young people into the trenches to fight against other young people who have done them absolutely no harm. To understand the history of the last 150 years, one must primarily study the practice of propaganda.
The way the mass media are centrally controlled according to the principles of Walter Lippmann, the way information flows are directed on the internet, the way tens of thousands of so-called 'digital first responders' constantly ridicule, criminalize, and pathologize every dissident voice—the better you understand the phenomenon of 'propaganda,' the more you realize: the world is truly ruled by lies. To everyone whose heart aches when they think of all those Russian and Ukrainian people dying on the battlefield, I ask: please watch Tucker Carlson's interview with the American top diplomat Jeffrey Sachs (see this link). These are the kinds of interviews we need: calm, nuanced, and with immense knowledge of the facts.
Listen to that interview, and you'll quickly stop thinking in black and white. Putin is no saint, we know that. But I fear that in this case, we must say: the most sinister role in the story is certainly not being played by Putin.
Make some effort to explore some of the historical context of this 'unprovoked war.' You will see that there is no question of 'unprovoked' at all. And when you begin to see that, stand up and say: not in my name.
