I was going to title this piece “Not Another Fucking Elf”, in honour of Tolkien’s editor who, when faced with yet another compilation of clippings from the great man’s wastebasket, is alleged to have held his head in his hands and uttered this immortal phrase.
The recent coining of the term “Censorship Industrial Complex” is a useful one, I think. It ‘sloganizes’ something we all know about and have increasingly witnessed over the last few years - and slogans can be very powerful tools.
I suspect it really misses the mark, though. I think what we have is another CIC
The Control Industrial Complex
It’s this complex, of which all the various other ‘complexes’ we might list are just symbiotic sub-complexes, which is driving everything.
We have possible contenders for the various sub-complexes :
The Health Industrial Complex : known for its catchy advertising jingle (to the tune of I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair) - I’m gonna squirt that juice right into your arm
The Climate Industrial Complex : their advertising jingle is the old song Daisy Bell which has the lyric You’ll look sweet, upon the seat, of a bicycle made for two. Because a bike (probably made from bamboo) is all you’ll be allowed.
The Gender Industrial Complex : who use Shania Twain’s Man, I Feel Like a Woman as their theme tune
The Woke Industrial Complex : they got their facts wrong (because facts don’t really matter), and thought their choice of theme (Unchained Melody) was really called Unhinged Melody
The Trans-Human Industrial Complex : Highbrow and intellectual, this complex uses the song Turn of the Century by Yes with adapted lyrics Did xer eyes at the turn of the century, Tell me plainly, When we meet, how we'll love, oh let Klaus so transform me
The Depopulation Industrial Complex : wishing to get rid of all of the “useless eaters” out there, this complex chooses the song from Les Misérables; Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
The Military Industrial Complex : they’ve just recently changed their theme to the Ukrainian national anthem in honour of all of those tax dollars that are finding their way into their coffers at an alarming rate
The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex : itself a sub-complex of the Health Industrial (sub) Complex, their theme tune has been secret for many years. Their closed meetings begin with the ritual examination of their bank balances whilst singing The Verve’s song The Drugs don’t Work (They Just Make you Worse)
The Censorship Industrial Complex : utilised by all of the other sub-complexes this crucial and critical sub-complex adapts the Mary Chapin Carpenter song What you Didn’t Say and uses the lyric “what you couldn’t say”
The Banking Industrial Complex : being big Bluegrass fans they choose Alison Krauss & Union Station’s Another Day, Another (digital) Dollar as their theme tune
But all musical punnery aside, what really characterizes all of these things is their desire for control and domination.
When was the last time we had any of our freedoms actually improved by any of these folk? The whole direction of movement is in ever-tightening restrictions, ever-tightening surveillance, ever-tightening regulation; all ostensibly in service of some ‘greater good’.
We all suspect how this works in practice. Let’s imagine a totally, absolutely, definitely, hypothetical conversation between the totally, absolutely, definitely, hypothetical leader of a Pharmaceutical company and the President of a large country. I can’t think of what to call them - so let’s just go with Albert and Joe1.
Albert : Hi Joe, I need to drive up profits. Could you perhaps see yourself as effectively mandating our product?
Joe : Sure, Albert. Does it work?
Albert : That’s a good one, Joe. When did any of our shit work as advertised? We’ve manipulated some trials so it all looks great on paper
Joe : I’ll get right onto it. Meanwhile, could you find a consulting position for my son? He’s lost his laptop and is finding it hard to get work
Albert : Shouldn’t be a problem. He’s well-versed in taking pharmaceuticals isn’t he?
Of course, no such conversation would ever happen in the real world. To suggest such a thing would be to take a walk down to your local tin foil milliners.
David Thunder has highlighted the recent astonishing legislation that has been passed in Ireland. They seem to have been cavorting with too many Leprechauns and drinking too much Guinness over there.
This piece of legislation, if implemented in the way it could logically be, would make it a crime to possess material deemed to be ‘hateful’. We all know how that one will go, don’t we?
But more chilling (and that’s quite a lot of chill to beat) is the cavalier rejection of the long-standing principle of the presumption of innocence. You have to prove in court that you never intended to ‘distribute’ such material if you want to avoid a further penalty. How one is supposed to do that is, of course, not specified or even considered in the legislation.
If some totally, absolutely, definitely, impartial judge (because we know they are just such superior beings) decides you had that naughty meme on your laptop with the intent to distribute its hateful humour - off to the Woke Gulag you are sent. Do not pass go - and there’s no such thing as a get out of jail free card.
Initially, it will probably only be used to prosecute the more extreme cases - where ‘reasonable’ people might think “well that stuff’s a bit over the top isn’t it?” - but we all also know that whilst philosophers tell us off for getting all fallacious with slippery slopes, real world experience tells us that slippery slopes are alive and slipping.
Having just come back from the tin foil milliners I might speculate that Ireland has been chosen as the latest ‘test case’ to see if they can get away with it. It’s like the alien overlords chose Ireland this time round.
The noose is tightening folks.
No comparison with figures either living or dead (or half-dead) are intended here.
I was thinking about this last night. I am reading aloud a history book to my children, a good one, and it factually uses a racial slur that I am not going to relate here, despite my lack of squeamishness with it, because it’s your Substack and I am well aware of the angry mob with pitchforks at the gate. (It can however still be found on a helpful Wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs_and_epithets_by_ethnicity ) In any case, this book also commits other sins: it uses primary sources to humanize soldiers who fought on both sides of the Civil War and includes letters that show a Confederate soldier’s concern for his slaves’ safety and a Union soldier’s thoughts about the prejudice he’s faced as an Irish man (today’s revisionist historians, many of them dutiful and well-programmed young people, argue that no European or Asian immigrant ever experienced significant discrimination on American shores and this is all a myth, the primary source documents we have being hoaxes).
The nice thing is that this particular book we are reading is a library book; the troubling concern is “how long until someone realizes what is in this and gets rid of it?” I’m keeping my eye out for angry leprechauns (I write after cross-checking to make sure “leprechauns” isn’t an ethnic slur).
From Canada's ethicists in the healthcare sector comes a strong contender in the Riggervision Song Contest:
The Welfare Industrial Complex doing their version of Dead Kennedys' 'Kill the Poor'.
Hat tip to IgorChudov for shelling out andreading the full Aktion T4-programme, Canadian-style this time:
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/assisted-suicide-for-the-poor-recommended
Seeing as Sweden has had such a law for decades now, I can testify to what happens. See, our "hate speech law", colloquially called "hets mot folkgrupps-lagen" ("inciting hatred towards an ethnicity-law", doesn't roll off the tongue does it?) dates back to the 1980s, when it was first implemented for real.
It is vague to the point of "because the court wants to find you guilty", it makes no allowance for if a statement is factually true, and it is employed politically and arbitrarily - all nice and legal and democratic, like.
If I was to point out that somalis (f.e.) have an average IQ below the line for severe mental retardation for swedes/other white ethnicities and somalis in Sweden might therefore need help with various and sundry to fit in and function, and back thisup with scientific sources - I'm committing a crime. I'm inciting racial hatred, see, when I debate how to help those from more primitive societies to function in ours. Because all are equal - the law made by democratically selected politicians says so, so that's the truth.
If I point out that Ashkenazi jewshave higher IQs as a group, than does white americans, I'm not inciting racial hatred though. Because if the law would treat all races/ethnicities equal, the law would be racists.
(It's not just "race" either, but basically, if you're a normal swedish man then you are fair game for any slurs or any hatred including incitement to assault and hurt you; if you're a (f.e.) moslem migrant you can stand on a street corner yelling "Gas the jews!" in arabic while pointing at a synagogue without breaking the law.)
Initially, the law demanded the prosecutor showed that the charged party had knowingly and willingly with intent to harm and to inciteto violence, harassed a specific individual based on their ethnicity (if other than white, that bit's been there from the get-go). Now, if i was to overhear someone complain about a chore such as emptying out the septic tank being a "bloody negro-job" I could report them and get them convicted.
The slope is not so much slippery as it is a zero-friction surface in a vacuum.
PS: "Negro-job" (neger-göra) is an old phrase, meaning a job or a chore that is heavy, unpleasant, dirty and distasteful - the kind you'd have to enslave and force someone to do. It does not denigrate negros in any way, quite the opposite.