You see there was this switch that happened.

Democracy: wanting to increase the power of the state in all aspects of life.

Fascism: wanting to return the power of government literally to the people.

https://instapundit.com/545105/
FLASHBACK: “Now the elites are afraid.” “The elites present themselves as anti-fascist and anti-racist but this is merely a way of defending their class interests. It is the only argument they can muster to defend their status, but it is not working anymore.”

Glenn’s link goes here:
https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/01/11/the-gilets-jaunes-are-unstoppable/

The gilets jaunes (yellow vest) movement has rattled the French establishment. For several months, crowds ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands have been taking to the streets every weekend across the whole of France. They have had enormous success, extracting major concessions from the government. They continue to march.

Back in 2014, geographer Christopher Guilluy’s study of la France périphérique (peripheral France) caused a media sensation. It drew attention to the economic, cultural and political exclusion of the working classes, most of whom now live outside the major cities. It highlighted the conditions that would later give rise to the yellow-vest phenomenon. Guilluy has developed on these themes in his recent books, No Society and The Twilight of the Elite: Prosperity, the Periphery and the Future of France. spiked caught up with Guilluy to get his view on the causes and consequences of the yellow-vest movement.
* * * *
spiked: What exactly do you mean by ‘peripheral France’?

Christophe Guilluy: ‘Peripheral France’ is about the geographic distribution of the working classes across France. Fifteen years ago, I noticed that the majority of working-class people actually live very far away from the major globalised cities – far from Paris, Lyon and Toulouse, and also very far from London and New York.
…
Guilluy: Not only does peripheral France fare badly in the modern economy, it is also culturally misunderstood by the elite. The yellow-vest movement is a truly 21st-century movement in that it is cultural as well as political. Cultural validation is extremely important in our era.

One illustration of this cultural divide is that most modern, progressive social movements and protests are quickly endorsed by celebrities, actors, the media and the intellectuals. But none of them approve of the gilets jaunes. Their emergence has caused a kind of psychological shock to the cultural establishment. It is exactly the same shock that the British elites experienced with the Brexit vote and that they are still experiencing now, three years later.

The Brexit vote had a lot to do with culture, too, I think. It was more than just the question of leaving the EU. Many voters wanted to remind the political class that they exist. That’s what French people are using the gilets jaunes for – to say we exist. We are seeing the same phenomenon in populist revolts across the world.
…
Guilluy: All the growth and dynamism is in the major cities, but people cannot just move there. The cities are inaccessible, particularly thanks to mounting housing costs. The big cities today are like medieval citadels. It is like we are going back to the city-states of the Middle Ages. Funnily enough, Paris is going to start charging people for entry, just like the excise duties you used to have to pay to enter a town in the Middle Ages.
…
Guilluy: We have a new bourgeoisie, but because they are very cool and progressive, it creates the impression that there is no class conflict anymore. It is really difficult to oppose the hipsters when they say they care about the poor and about minorities.

But actually, they are very much complicit in relegating the working classes to the sidelines. Not only do they benefit enormously from the globalised economy, but they have also produced a dominant cultural discourse which ostracises working-class people. Think of the ‘deplorables’ evoked by Hillary Clinton. There is a similar view of the working class in France and Britain. They are looked upon as if they are some kind of Amazonian tribe. The problem for the elites is that it is a very big tribe.

The middle-class reaction to the yellow vests has been telling. Immediately, the protesters were denounced as xenophobes, anti-Semites and homophobes. The elites present themselves as anti-fascist and anti-racist but this is merely a way of defending their class interests. It is the only argument they can muster to defend their status, but it is not working anymore.

Now the elites are afraid. For the first time, there is a movement which cannot be controlled through the normal political mechanisms. The gilets jaunes didn’t emerge from the trade unions or the political parties. It cannot be stopped. There is no ‘off’ button. Either the intelligentsia will be forced to properly acknowledge the existence of these people, or they will have to opt for a kind of soft totalitarianism.

A lot has been made of the fact that the yellow vests’ demands vary a great deal. But above all, it’s a demand for democracy. Fundamentally, they are democrats – they want to be taken seriously and they want to be integrated into the economic order.
…

It’s been pretty clear in the years since this was posted that the elites of all countries have opted for the soft (or not so soft) totalitarianism.
In order to “protect our democracy, of course.

David Foster: YouTube says the Meloni video was removed in error.

So if the removal involved a human, are there going to be any consequences for that human?

If it was removed by an algorithm acting on its own, what is being done to alter that algorithm?

And a new case (which may have been mentioned already in another post, but should be drawing more attention):

Judicial Watch files lawsuit against California secretary of state, asserting that the California Office of Elections Cybersecurity (OEC), which Secretary of State Shirley Weber oversees, caused YouTube to remove Judicial Watch’s election integrity video on September 25, 2020. The 26-minute video featured Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton discussing the vote-by-mail processes, changes to states’ election procedures, ballot collection (sometimes referred to as “ballot harvesting”), and states’ failures to clean up their voter rolls, among other topics.

Records show the Office of Elections Cybersecurity communicated with YouTube and/or Google to have Judicial Watch’s video taken down.

And a warning about why protecting free speech starts with the people nobody likes (well, somebody obviously likes them, but YKWIM):

Caroljoy:
Some years ago, I posted the consequences of people accepting that David Ickes is so outside the normal margins of human discourse, as well as their accepting that Alex Jones is so far outside those margins, that they willingly overlooked how the social media PTB was busy censoring them.

This remark was not an endorsement of Ickes or Jones. It was an endorsement of how the more upsetting or “non-realistic” the views of individuals may be, the more important to early on draw a line in the sand and state clearly “No you may not do this.” Because those who censor will continue to do so.

Five years ago, the Never Trump crowd did not seem to mind the implications of legacy media lying through their teeth regarding statements he made at press conferences. They did not cringe when “comedian” Kathy Griffin held up Trump’s bloody severed head in effigy.

I clearly have stated over the years that should censorship not be protested early on, then eventually there would be difficulties here at Ricochet [or any platform] with regards to the ability to have a high level of discourse.

https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/16259.html
The Scribes and the Idea of Freedom
October 3, 2010

Shortly after reading Erin’s review [ of Jonathan Franzen’s novel, Freedom], I encountered this NYT article by a philosophy professor who talks about the “seething anger” of the Tea Parties.

Two excerpts: “The great and inspiring metaphysical fantasy of independence and freedom is simply a fantasy of destruction” and “To date, the Tea Party has committed only the minor, almost atmospheric violences of propagating falsehoods, calumny and the disruption of the occasions for political speech — the last already to great and distorting effect.”

(I would think a philosophy professor should be aware that “propagating falsehoods,” even if such a charge were true, is not violence–and asserting that it is seems to me to be inherently undercutting of free speech and to be intellectually preparing the battlefield for various forms of speech-control.)

It’s gotten hard to argue against that observation.

I certainly agree with you, although with the quibble that, unlike the Holy Roman Empire (“neither holy nor Roman”), our rulers also include Princess-Electors (until they all transition, of course).

The books you cite are chilling in their forecasts, in the Heinlein Mode of “If this goes on…” — it would be an interesting exercise in forensic history to see what was happening in their days that they extrapolated from.
However, as has been said often of Orwell’s “1984”: these are supposed to be warnings, not instruction manuals.

Thanks for keeping us posted on your articles; it’s always rewarding to read your thoughts.

That was my initial point. Switzerland is getting a bit of that NG coming through Italy as well. Germany, they made their bed with Russia.

One of the many reasons Trump was warning the EU about making long term purchase agreements for NG from Russia was because the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP – Azerbaijan to Turkey) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP -Greece to Italy) were being completed. This would bring NG from Baku to EU’s southern border. If you click the previous link, you’ll see the landing on Italy’s “heel”.

In March of this year, the first 10 billion cubic-meters of NG was shipped to EU. Of course, sales have been a bit down for that pipeline, due to a combination of a love for Russian NG and climate change activists trying to cut any use of fossil fuels (Not sure if the “and” is necessary because they seem one in the same most of time). Now there appears to be no other major competitor in the market.

Meanwhile, through democratic referendums, the Western liberal globalist order demonstrably lost territory today (Friday, September 30th, 2022).

See above. Had this been talking about Italy it would make sense. But fraudulent, rigged shams carried out in the shadow of bayonets lack any legitimacy. Moreso when you realize how corruptly they were done, such as lying about population displacement in order to justify it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7cyYxgzIKQ