The new dark age: Across Europe, free speech and democracy face their biggest threat since the Thirties

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By Dominic Sandbrook

PUBLISHED: 18:45 EST, 2 November 2012 | UPDATED: 18:45 EST, 2 November 2012

After a week dominated by the terrible effects of Superstorm Sandy, the increasingly bitter struggle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and the continuing fallout from the Jimmy Savile scandal, it was easy to overlook a little story about an obscure Greek journalist called Kostas Vaxevanis.

In its way, though, the ordeal of Mr Vaxevanis, the editor of an Athens magazine, who narrowly escaped prison for publishing the names of suspected tax evaders, is the biggest story of all.

Its themes — the freedom of the Press, the corruption of the establishment, the arrogance of the elite and the terrifying storm engulfing the economies of Europe — go to the heart of a crisis that threatens to tear the Continent apart.

An assault on free speech: Greek magazine editor Kostas Vaxevanis was arrested for naming over 2,000 individuals evading taxAssault on free speech: Greek editor Kostas Vaxevanis was arrested for naming individuals evading tax

But the Vaxevanis scandal is merely the tip of the iceberg.

From the Leveson Inquiry in London to the attempted comeback of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, and from the salons of Paris to the committee rooms of Brussels, there are disturbing signs of a backlash against democracy, free speech and the will of the people — a counter-revolution that could sweep away many of the liberties we take for granted.

For more than half a century after World War II, most of us assumed that life in Europe would always get better. And when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it seemed that the tide of freedom was irresistible.

Democratic? Greece has had more in common with a dictatorship since a new government was 'imposed' by Brussels

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About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

8 Replies to “The new dark age: Across Europe, free speech and democracy face their biggest threat since the Thirties”

  1. Dana:

    The problem is the death of secular liberal democracy and an end to the enlightenment. This is being brought about by a combination of irrational far leftist extremism, and Islam. So of course we focus on that. But its important to remember the main goal as well. The preservation of rational government and rational law and monitor how that is going. This article, and the one I am about to post in an hour or so on Norwegian law and its utter failure are important benchmarks of where we all are.

    Yes this article doesn’t mention islam. But it does talk about critical elements of the main issue. The same corruption they do mention is also responsible for grotesque immigration policies and contempt for the indigenous people of these countries.

  2. What struck me was the report about Golden Dawn attacking the theater where a play that was insulting Christianity was being performed, not the actions of traditional neo-Nazi’s but possibly the action of a new militant Christianity. The Church militant ceased to exist after the Battle of Vennia (more or less the timeline) now the West and Christianity is being threatened and it seems to be reforming.

  3. How do they take free speech away from us without us realising it?

    Simple – by allowing us to say extremely controversial things about certain subjects and by allowing us to use humour and political satire about these subjects. We think we are free, but we forget the other subjects that are closed and not subject to comment.
    In the West we have more sexual freedom than ever, and once controversial ‘swear’ words are now the norm even on live TV. We are allowed to insult our politicians by satirising them, and we can push the boundaries of ‘good taste’ with offensive humour.
    Under this illusion we believe that we are genuinely free, but speak out against the wrong subjects and you will find yourself in trouble. Look at what has happened to Tommy Robinson?

    The same sort of trick was used in Brazil whilst under the rule of dictatorship. The government who controlled the people gave them certain freedoms that they had been denied before. This way they would not realise how they were being controlled. Criticism of the government of course, was out of bounds!
    The people were given pornography. Brazilian TV was rife with it and an ‘anything goes’ attitude applied to it. Whilst the masses were dumbed down with an overload of sex, the regime continued with its political aims.
    Dictatorships start by silencing critics (which is what Islam is trying to do). The people don’t realise at first as they don’t lose their other freedoms straight away, in fact they are often given other freedoms which they never had before. In the case of Islam, child-abusers will be given more freedom and so will wife-beaters. Homosexuality will be greatly marginalised and eventually made illegal but paedophilia will be decriminalised.
    These are things that Leftists are unaware of because they have a narrow concept of history. They will eventually become the biggest victims of an Islamic state as Islam approves of virtually nothing that the Left support. Ordinary married men and women with families will suffer from job losses, or be made to work on low pay for Muslim employers, but they will lose little else (not at first anyway). The Leftists on the other hand will suffer a lot more as their will be no more tree-hugging, no more lesbian or gay couples, no more lesbian adoption, no more equal employment rights for women, no more new age beliefs, no more drugs, no more alcohol, and no more demos or marches.
    This will be poetic justice as the stupid liberals will not know what has hit them and will not have the will to fight back. The enablers will be the biggest victims of their own stupidity and will get exactly what they deserve.
    As they say ‘you made your bed, you lie in it!’

  4. “Ordinary married men and women with families will suffer from job losses, or be made to work on low pay for Muslim employers”

    In order to prevent Muslims from using hand-chopping to retain order, it must be made clear that we will not hesitate to retaliate. Islam forbids euthanasia, so a war of mutilation (or even torture) will be won by us. Oil boycots are to no avail, as these methods can even be employed in Saudi-Arabia to break the power of Islam.

  5. We still need to drill for oil over here, the more we produce the less we buy and the less money they have.