As IF Times

link:  https://x.com/JayGenXer/status/1835642855504723994

Just this past weekend in Ottawa, a small group of people gathered to commemorate the 2022  protests against the policies of the Federal government which severely attacked personal freedoms during the Covid fiasco years.  A massive police response was carried out at the time to curtail the protests and numerous ‘leaders’ were arrested for disturbing the peace.  Nothing demonstrates the freedom in a society more than being arrested for supporting freedom; that irony was lost on the Feds.

Many years later, but too late to help the brave protestors, the courts have ruled in favor of the protestors: Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley said the invoking the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and violated the constitutional right of free expression. The federal government has already pledged to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court.  Thus, even after losing in court, the government still won’t admit the wrongfulness of their actions.

Individuals cannot compete against the unlimited resources of any government.  It’s an impossible task because only one side is under any duress.  There has to be an impartial party that illuminates the cause so that people can make their own minds up as to the veracity  and validity of events.  In fact, such an institution exists, but increasingly, it no longer works in that intended role.  That institution is media.  While many may think that media’s role is to report dog bites man stories, their real role as the fourth estate, is to shed light on the activities of governments.  They have the explicit role of framing dialogue on issues that affect the general population with balanced narratives.

You could say that they play the role of referees in a society and in that role, they are offered protection for talking freely about most every issue.  What has transpired in all Western nations is that their funding (especially in Canada) is sourced from the very government they are supposed to monitor.  The CBC is a national news organization kept alive only through government handouts, but other ‘private’ networks also similarly benefit.  As an aside, I’m not sure that any nation needs a ‘national’ news source.  As an observation, the most well known national agencies that exist are Pravda in Russia and Xinhua in China. Thus, instead of wearing the striped jerseys, they conspicuously wear the jerseys of one of the playing teams.

The link above is a snippet from a recent speech by Douglas Murray which articulately calls out media for their unholy alliance with the federal government on this very issue.  The media have put themselves into a vicious cycle of irrelevance.  The less impartial they are, the less people will subscribe to them. As their audience shrinks, their dependence of government handouts increases and thus their reportage must adhere to the official narrative….which alienates their audience more….etc etc. They have become failed institutions. Thankfully, with the popularity of social networks, people can objectively access narratives not propagated by regular media.  This fifth estate has displaced much of the power of government supported media as people turn away from one sided reportage.  Don’t expect the legacy media to give up their franchise without a fight however.  They all know the power of unlimited funding.

link: https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/uk-authorities-threaten-extradition-jail-to-us-citizens-for-online-posts-stoking-riots-social-media-elon-musk-x-stabbing-taylor-swift-themed-event-children-dead-prime-minister-police-laws-free-speech

In many cultures in which there is a rich written history, one will find writings which are allegorical in nature. For example in Chinese, Japanese and Indian literature, we find stories and fables which at first pass are amusing but with deeper inspection, one will find plenty of hidden, often thinly veiled political references. Why was this?  Well for one thing, many ancient cultures had rather repressive regimes and any overt criticism of the rulers would likely lead to being disappeared from society.  These rulers imagined themselves to be kings of the world, or at least those parts that mattered, thus any negativity against them was frowned upon. One could not just paint ‘the king sucks’ on the side of a castle.

Thus, it was often through the use of allegory and fables in which artists made their points but it had to be framed in such a way that it could be excused as just entertainment without being linked directly to state criticism.  Of course, you had to expect that the autocrats wouldn’t be bright enough to figure it out. Many of the fables in Aesop’s Fables give timeless lessons and wisdom on human nature, desires and morality but often with hidden political meaning.  Western writers also contributed to this style of narrative.

Certainly some of the most notable works in this genre are by George Orwell and Ayn Rand.  Animal Farm, 1984 and Atlas Shrugged are timeless works on the proclivities of man and governments which seem all the more pertinent today.

This tradition is also evident in the west by activist music artists as they sneak messages of protest and complaint in the lyrics of their compositions.  Most don’t even know the theme of the songs until they delve into the specific lines.  An example would be “The End of The Innocence” by the Eagles in the 1980’s, an oblique critique against the Reagan years.

Over time, these types of ‘protest art’ have enriched all societies with their timeless messages and artistry.  As the world became less dominated by autocratic rulers who chafed at every imagined slight against them, criticisms of government became less oblique and in fact quite direct and pointed….at least in the West. It’s not uncommon to find images and representations of un-popular leaders depicted as all kinds of unflattering animals. Everyone in the public space was fair game.

But recently, we’ve seen a distinct thinning of the skin of those in charge (no doubt because of climate change). Increasingly, those in charge are taking umbrage at any criticism of their edicts and narratives and begin to take action or threatening to take action against any who would dare question the official narrative. The very most recent example is a functionary from Great Britain, a police commissioner named Rowley, who has threatened to reach across the oceans and prosecute and imprison anyone daring to criticize their narratives.  Though not a king, this man imagines himself to be Lord of his imaginary realm. Comically, this from the land of Monty Python which is now not only not Great, but also becoming less Britain.  It’s the equivalent of ‘I’ll cut you man!”

We can understand the frustration of those in charge since their hold on the compliant mass media has collapsed.  While there are still adherents to legacy media outlets, other sources, notably the X platform, Truth Social and Gab are now sources of real, unfiltered information without the attendant gas-lighting built into all state media.  Thanks to brave people such as Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and recently freed Julian Assange, the real truth is exposed for all to see.

This is a sea change for information and media as the Barney Fifes of the media world flail away trying to preserve their once powerful hold over people’s views. I can imagine they’ll come up with all kinds of ridiculous methods to censor people such as charging for the use of the alphabet.  Orwell was correct.  There’s always going to be the big scale tyrant wanna-be’s but it’s the little tyrants  and bootlickers that cause the most daily grief. They seem to multiply like cold sores at an orgy and are just as hard to be rid of.