Journalist-daughter of key ally to Václav Havel offers evidence that the US government, the European Union, and George Soros are funding a crackdown on free speech in the Czech Republic
Let's see what Western governments have been up to since the start of this year:
There's this in the Czech Republic, which I can't say I know much about, but which sounds suspiciously familiar to what's been going on everywhere else; there's Poland, where a new government immediately criminalized its opponents, even invading a TV station and firing and expelling all its employees so they could be replaced by people from the new ruling party; then there's Germany, whose ruling class is desperately trying to figure out how they can get away with making it impossible for anyone to vote for the ADF; then there's Scotland, which wants to put people in prison for "offensive speech"; and the same goes for Canada, who would give you life in prison for "advocating genocide", which of course is in the eye of the beholder. And watching all this is the Deep State of America, its Dem Party and MSM apparatchiks and its billionaire ownership class, who will attempt all the same things once they can figure out some way to gut that pesky First Amendment.
The global ownership class is not fucking around anymore, they will not tolerate any further threats to their power, and the Western liberal class (just like 100 yrs ago) has been either bought off or has been so jacked up on tribalism that they have no remaining principles except whatever destroys their perceived opponents.
The postliberal future is here, our betters will tell us what we're allowed to think and say—or else! They will smother our voices, deaden every brain and soul they can get their hands on, and proclaim it Justice.
Unfortunately, they seem to have figured it out, if the questioning in Murthy v. Missouri is a bellwether for the final decision. The majority of justices seem to see the first amendment as an obstacle to smooth operation of the government.
Of course, that's exactly what the first amendment is. Without it there's no way for the public to have any idea what is really happening around them. It makes governance so much easier.
"smooth operation of the government" or the free expression of a free people?
I was about to say something along the lines of "we seem to need to re-learn the answer to this every few generations" but I don't think that's true anymore.
Now I think the real demon is when people feel power and feel like with one more turn of the screw they can lock in total power (or the converse, without turning that screw they will lose power).
The world just seems to be permanently afflicted with people who really believe they know better than the rest of us and thus they deserve total control—and these people are called politicians!
Lots to be extremely concerned with but also lots to be hopeful about: The election of Javier Milei (it remains to be seen if he can accomplish anything, but the message was clear), the bitcoin experiment in El Salvador (Bukele is of questionable morality, but he needs to be given credit for ridding the country of the gang violence... time will tell), bitcoin itself and its now institutional acceptance by the very people who try to push ESG on us (looking at you Blackrock), a strong pro-free speech base in the US and Canada and an apparent deflation of the Woke/ESG bubble in those countries, the collapse of the insane trans-advocacy industrial complex (thanks to @public!), etc.
Let's remain vigilant and call the proto-totalitarians out for what they are. They hate the spotlights.
Beautiful essay, Cecilie. We all have a duty towards our ancestors to push back against the totalitarian globalists who seek to enslave us. Havel's "Power of the Powerless" is a legendary samizdat pamphlet that stands the test of time for all freedom-loving people to read: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/power-of-the-powerless-vaclav-havel
Here in Canada, it is the people who have experienced totalitarianism who are leading the fight for free speech. The indigenous people are also on board.
It is the educated elites in the Universities who seem to be of the "hear not evil, see no evil, speak no evil" way of thinking. Ironically, these individuals also claim to speak for the victims of Colonialism, while themselves marginalizing the actual victims of Colonialism. For them good & evil are a polarity, with no consideration for the ancient teaching that "all have sinned". The humility that comes with knowing that anyone is capable of "doing evil" simply has not entered their thinking.
Independent (dissident) journalists need to begin sharing information internationally, in order to get all the pieces on the board. The details known to journalists abroad may enlighten reporting at home. My guess is we will see a lot of familiar names populating the malevolent actions abroad, as at home.
The move towards totalitarianism concerns the whole of the western world and must be fought as such.
Free speech is for the public square, where there is an opportunity to debate points of view, or not listen at all. The case of the primary school teacher, Martina Bednarova, who was removed from her post for indoctrinating her young students with Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine, is different. School children are a captive audience, they are impressionable and they cannot leave. When a teacher brings a political or social agenda into a classroom of young children it becomes brainwashing. Free speech is an extension of free thought, and when people, especially children, are subjected to brainwashing, their right to free thought is removed.
We have the same problem in the U.S. today, where it has become commonplace and acceptable for public school teachers to indoctrinate their students with their own political and social agendas. Here in the U.S., these are primarily left leaning causes and these ideologies are being taught to younger and younger children. They understand that to advance their causes they must capture the minds of children. That is a central tactic of totalitarian systems everywhere. It's not so easy to capture the minds of adults, though obviously that happens too.
Should the Czech teacher have been criminally prosecuted? Probably this was not the right response, but the larger question is why she was allowed to indoctrinate her students in the first place. Was this a pattern in the school? Was the school district encouraging it? Personally I believe this type of brainwashing of children is a form of child abuse and should be taken very seriously.
A free society is made up of free thinking people whose thoughts, and by extension their speech, is not censored. A society that has been brainwashed into certain ideologies from childhood is not a free society. Children, above all, need to be protected from indoctrination. Yes, it's complicated and nuanced. Society must have an intelligent conversation over how to teach subjects like history, civics and current events in a manner that respects children's right to develop their own independent thoughts.
But the case is just about the teacher being prosecuted. That's not normal. That's very dangerous. My daughter hears opinions from teachers at school every day that she may not like, that I may not like, but neither of us would think of pressuring the principal to fire a teacher, only maybe seeking some sort of reprimand. This teacher has not only been fired, but is even being prosecuted. That's a dangerous extreme.
Yes, I agree that prosecution in this case isn't normal. There are a lot of not-normal things happening today, everywhere it seems. It's especially worrisome when the not-normal becomes the new normal. A creeping totalitarianism in a free society isn't normal and we have to ask why and how this is happening.
Yes, she said the teacher "presented her opinion." Therein lies the problem. If the teacher had brought up various opinions and then monitored a debate among the students, that would be a different matter.
There was discussion in class. Students also presented their opinions. Anyway, are we going to secretly record and prosecute all the teachers who tell our children strange opinions? Where will it end?
I would think that you had been somewhat inoculated from such views, your father being who he was, but Ms. Jourová was probably not so blessed.
While I’m certainly not advocating prosecutions of teachers who espouse what could be considered propaganda, the need for objective standards in the classroom is a must.
My point is, when does stated opinion, from a recongnized authority figure, become indoctrination, especially in the case of younger children?
Teachers' strange opinions don't have a place in the classroom. Maybe students presented their opinions, but in the classroom the teacher is the authority figure. When this teacher was teaching her students that Ukrainians are Nazis, and other Russian propaganda, could a child's viewpoint prevail? I very much doubt it.
Here in the U.S., during the pandemic most teaching was done through online Zoom classes. For the first time parents had a glimpse of the outlandish nonsense that many teachers were "teaching" in the name of social justice. It was enough to cause a lot of parents to pull their children out of the public schools. It was parents exercising their right to not have their children indoctrinated with ideological nonsense.
So, no, in a free society we shouldn't prosecute anyone for their strange opinions. But we also have a right to shine a light on our schools and government so we can try to arrive at more intelligent decisions. Independent journalism is an important part of this process.
I'm not suggesting prosecuting any teacher for strange opinions, but I believe any teacher who regularly pushes his or her opinions should be facing firing. There wasn't enough information on the teacher you mentioned to make a judgement call.
That is all so sad. It is happening all over the western world. We have a moronic set of leaders who are unable to deal with anyone who disagrees with the accepted narrative. I visited Prague last year and enjoyed it so much. Such a lovely city and lovely people. We even went to see Wenceslas Square and the museum. The history of the Prague Spring was so interesting.
I know. But it would be a shame to see Western European nonsense in the Czech Republic. My favourite places to travel are in Eastern Europe. We had a lovely stay in Slovenia a few years ago. Planning a trip from Budapest to Bucharest soon.
This is an outstanding post! I learned a lot from it. When George Soros names his venture the Open Society Fund it's akin to China calling itself the People's Republic of China. Completely the opposite. We must keep speaking out. Some ppl really don't understand what is happening in Europe, Canada or here. Or they insist on sticking to their team. Ppl are starting to wake up slowly but surely so pls keep posting! Thank you! https://sabrinalabow.substack.com/p/the-slippery-slope-from-communism
Sometimes attributed to Patrick Henry, "“I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is said to have come from Voltaire. It is not from Voltaire, the 18th-century philosopher, but it was a paraphrase from a biographer named Evelyn Beatrice Hall of what she thought Voltaire was thinking." Frankly, most people are afraid to defend to the death what they say, forget about what the other guy says.
Speech by H.E. Msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop and Former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America at the Second Congress of the International Russophile Movement and the Multipolarity Forum - Moscow, February 26, 2024
It seems to me that the European Union and NATO are wielding way too much power and control on the whole of the west. It is some totalitarian globalist takeover. We have to recapture the true meaning of democracy from their twisted grasp.
Left or right, George Soros or Elon Musk, Biden or Putin. Claims of support of free speech while simultaneously active measures of disinformation, misinformation, and censorship are being engaged in like agitprop are happening globally.
Teachers are employees of the state and are required by law to teach the curriculum provided by the state and "the truth" discussing current events. The truth is that the Russians have repeatedly bombed Kyiv and that he student Maria Bednarova contradicted was right. She was promoting false Russian propaganda. Freedom of speech is NOT freedom to lie in the classroom.
Vaclav Havel was responsible for linking the horrors of Communism to the horrors of the Holocaust and insisting they be treated as equally evil in history class. Holocaust Denial is illegal in most of Europe and Katyn Denial is equally illegal. After the Germans had overrun Western Poland and the Russians moved in to take their share (Eastern Poland), many Polish soldiers and polish intelligentsia chose to surrender to the Russians rather than the Germans. Under Stalin's orders, the NKVD executed nearly 22,000 officers and future leaders in the Katyn Forest and several others sites in order to potential leaders of a rebellion. When they invaded in 1941, the Germans discovered and publicized the massacre, which was blamed on the Germans by Russia, UK and US. After the fall of Communism, the Russians admitted their guilt, but in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine the Russian massacre is not being called a conspiracy theory.
The same thing is happening to the Holomodor the famine genocide that follow collectivization of Ukrainian farms in 1932-33.
Let's see what Western governments have been up to since the start of this year:
There's this in the Czech Republic, which I can't say I know much about, but which sounds suspiciously familiar to what's been going on everywhere else; there's Poland, where a new government immediately criminalized its opponents, even invading a TV station and firing and expelling all its employees so they could be replaced by people from the new ruling party; then there's Germany, whose ruling class is desperately trying to figure out how they can get away with making it impossible for anyone to vote for the ADF; then there's Scotland, which wants to put people in prison for "offensive speech"; and the same goes for Canada, who would give you life in prison for "advocating genocide", which of course is in the eye of the beholder. And watching all this is the Deep State of America, its Dem Party and MSM apparatchiks and its billionaire ownership class, who will attempt all the same things once they can figure out some way to gut that pesky First Amendment.
The global ownership class is not fucking around anymore, they will not tolerate any further threats to their power, and the Western liberal class (just like 100 yrs ago) has been either bought off or has been so jacked up on tribalism that they have no remaining principles except whatever destroys their perceived opponents.
The postliberal future is here, our betters will tell us what we're allowed to think and say—or else! They will smother our voices, deaden every brain and soul they can get their hands on, and proclaim it Justice.
"...once they can figure out some way to gut that pesky First Amendment."
Excellent sentence! :)
Unfortunately, they seem to have figured it out, if the questioning in Murthy v. Missouri is a bellwether for the final decision. The majority of justices seem to see the first amendment as an obstacle to smooth operation of the government.
Of course, that's exactly what the first amendment is. Without it there's no way for the public to have any idea what is really happening around them. It makes governance so much easier.
Exactly!
what's more important:
"smooth operation of the government" or the free expression of a free people?
I was about to say something along the lines of "we seem to need to re-learn the answer to this every few generations" but I don't think that's true anymore.
Now I think the real demon is when people feel power and feel like with one more turn of the screw they can lock in total power (or the converse, without turning that screw they will lose power).
The world just seems to be permanently afflicted with people who really believe they know better than the rest of us and thus they deserve total control—and these people are called politicians!
Thank you and thanks for the excellent article.
See you in the gulag! :)))
The best literature is made in the gulag...
"..once they can figure out some way to gut that pesky First Amendment", with the aid of tools like Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson . . .
Lots to be extremely concerned with but also lots to be hopeful about: The election of Javier Milei (it remains to be seen if he can accomplish anything, but the message was clear), the bitcoin experiment in El Salvador (Bukele is of questionable morality, but he needs to be given credit for ridding the country of the gang violence... time will tell), bitcoin itself and its now institutional acceptance by the very people who try to push ESG on us (looking at you Blackrock), a strong pro-free speech base in the US and Canada and an apparent deflation of the Woke/ESG bubble in those countries, the collapse of the insane trans-advocacy industrial complex (thanks to @public!), etc.
Let's remain vigilant and call the proto-totalitarians out for what they are. They hate the spotlights.
Beautiful essay, Cecilie. We all have a duty towards our ancestors to push back against the totalitarian globalists who seek to enslave us. Havel's "Power of the Powerless" is a legendary samizdat pamphlet that stands the test of time for all freedom-loving people to read: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/power-of-the-powerless-vaclav-havel
Thank you for your comment. My father didn't write "The Power of the Powerless". He wrote "Two Thousand Words."
I'm wondering why 'the internet' says your father wrote "The Power of the Powerless", and Ludvík Vaculík wrote "Two Thousand Words".
My father was Ludvik Vaculik.
Sorry about my having gotten confused.
Here in Canada, it is the people who have experienced totalitarianism who are leading the fight for free speech. The indigenous people are also on board.
It is the educated elites in the Universities who seem to be of the "hear not evil, see no evil, speak no evil" way of thinking. Ironically, these individuals also claim to speak for the victims of Colonialism, while themselves marginalizing the actual victims of Colonialism. For them good & evil are a polarity, with no consideration for the ancient teaching that "all have sinned". The humility that comes with knowing that anyone is capable of "doing evil" simply has not entered their thinking.
I want to cry when I remember that Canada was an island of freedom and a new home for some Czech dissidents who emigrated between 1968 and 1989...
Independent (dissident) journalists need to begin sharing information internationally, in order to get all the pieces on the board. The details known to journalists abroad may enlighten reporting at home. My guess is we will see a lot of familiar names populating the malevolent actions abroad, as at home.
The move towards totalitarianism concerns the whole of the western world and must be fought as such.
I totally agree.
Free speech is for the public square, where there is an opportunity to debate points of view, or not listen at all. The case of the primary school teacher, Martina Bednarova, who was removed from her post for indoctrinating her young students with Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine, is different. School children are a captive audience, they are impressionable and they cannot leave. When a teacher brings a political or social agenda into a classroom of young children it becomes brainwashing. Free speech is an extension of free thought, and when people, especially children, are subjected to brainwashing, their right to free thought is removed.
We have the same problem in the U.S. today, where it has become commonplace and acceptable for public school teachers to indoctrinate their students with their own political and social agendas. Here in the U.S., these are primarily left leaning causes and these ideologies are being taught to younger and younger children. They understand that to advance their causes they must capture the minds of children. That is a central tactic of totalitarian systems everywhere. It's not so easy to capture the minds of adults, though obviously that happens too.
Should the Czech teacher have been criminally prosecuted? Probably this was not the right response, but the larger question is why she was allowed to indoctrinate her students in the first place. Was this a pattern in the school? Was the school district encouraging it? Personally I believe this type of brainwashing of children is a form of child abuse and should be taken very seriously.
A free society is made up of free thinking people whose thoughts, and by extension their speech, is not censored. A society that has been brainwashed into certain ideologies from childhood is not a free society. Children, above all, need to be protected from indoctrination. Yes, it's complicated and nuanced. Society must have an intelligent conversation over how to teach subjects like history, civics and current events in a manner that respects children's right to develop their own independent thoughts.
But the case is just about the teacher being prosecuted. That's not normal. That's very dangerous. My daughter hears opinions from teachers at school every day that she may not like, that I may not like, but neither of us would think of pressuring the principal to fire a teacher, only maybe seeking some sort of reprimand. This teacher has not only been fired, but is even being prosecuted. That's a dangerous extreme.
Yes, I agree that prosecution in this case isn't normal. There are a lot of not-normal things happening today, everywhere it seems. It's especially worrisome when the not-normal becomes the new normal. A creeping totalitarianism in a free society isn't normal and we have to ask why and how this is happening.
Yes, she said the teacher "presented her opinion." Therein lies the problem. If the teacher had brought up various opinions and then monitored a debate among the students, that would be a different matter.
There was discussion in class. Students also presented their opinions. Anyway, are we going to secretly record and prosecute all the teachers who tell our children strange opinions? Where will it end?
What you write of Ms. Jourová is illustrative.
I would think that you had been somewhat inoculated from such views, your father being who he was, but Ms. Jourová was probably not so blessed.
While I’m certainly not advocating prosecutions of teachers who espouse what could be considered propaganda, the need for objective standards in the classroom is a must.
My point is, when does stated opinion, from a recongnized authority figure, become indoctrination, especially in the case of younger children?
Teachers' strange opinions don't have a place in the classroom. Maybe students presented their opinions, but in the classroom the teacher is the authority figure. When this teacher was teaching her students that Ukrainians are Nazis, and other Russian propaganda, could a child's viewpoint prevail? I very much doubt it.
Here in the U.S., during the pandemic most teaching was done through online Zoom classes. For the first time parents had a glimpse of the outlandish nonsense that many teachers were "teaching" in the name of social justice. It was enough to cause a lot of parents to pull their children out of the public schools. It was parents exercising their right to not have their children indoctrinated with ideological nonsense.
So, no, in a free society we shouldn't prosecute anyone for their strange opinions. But we also have a right to shine a light on our schools and government so we can try to arrive at more intelligent decisions. Independent journalism is an important part of this process.
I'm not suggesting prosecuting any teacher for strange opinions, but I believe any teacher who regularly pushes his or her opinions should be facing firing. There wasn't enough information on the teacher you mentioned to make a judgement call.
There's a Free Press article today that speaks to this problem: Inside the New Wave of Old-School Education - https://www.thefp.com/p/inside-the-new-wave-of-classical-education?
That is all so sad. It is happening all over the western world. We have a moronic set of leaders who are unable to deal with anyone who disagrees with the accepted narrative. I visited Prague last year and enjoyed it so much. Such a lovely city and lovely people. We even went to see Wenceslas Square and the museum. The history of the Prague Spring was so interesting.
I'm glad you enjoyed your time in Prague. It's not the city's fault. The city will be here when we're gone.
I know. But it would be a shame to see Western European nonsense in the Czech Republic. My favourite places to travel are in Eastern Europe. We had a lovely stay in Slovenia a few years ago. Planning a trip from Budapest to Bucharest soon.
Thank you Cecilie.
Current Czechia president is a very dangerous criminal - delivering missile launchers to Nazi-dominated Ukraine government to attack — Russia.
This can’t end well…
This is an outstanding post! I learned a lot from it. When George Soros names his venture the Open Society Fund it's akin to China calling itself the People's Republic of China. Completely the opposite. We must keep speaking out. Some ppl really don't understand what is happening in Europe, Canada or here. Or they insist on sticking to their team. Ppl are starting to wake up slowly but surely so pls keep posting! Thank you! https://sabrinalabow.substack.com/p/the-slippery-slope-from-communism
Sometimes attributed to Patrick Henry, "“I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is said to have come from Voltaire. It is not from Voltaire, the 18th-century philosopher, but it was a paraphrase from a biographer named Evelyn Beatrice Hall of what she thought Voltaire was thinking." Frankly, most people are afraid to defend to the death what they say, forget about what the other guy says.
Thank you for the informative article. I am surprised this is happening in the country of Havel. Your parents must be very proud of you.
Archbishop Carlo Vigano explains the Censorship, Climate Change Fear & more in this great speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4m5Y9GDzvg
Speech by H.E. Msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop and Former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America at the Second Congress of the International Russophile Movement and the Multipolarity Forum - Moscow, February 26, 2024
Transcript:
https://exsurgedomine.it/240226-russofili-eng/
It seems to me that the European Union and NATO are wielding way too much power and control on the whole of the west. It is some totalitarian globalist takeover. We have to recapture the true meaning of democracy from their twisted grasp.
On the one hand I have communists and socialists and want to censor them. On the other hand, I'm against censorship. It's a tough choice.
Left or right, George Soros or Elon Musk, Biden or Putin. Claims of support of free speech while simultaneously active measures of disinformation, misinformation, and censorship are being engaged in like agitprop are happening globally.
You can really put Musk and Soros in the same sentence?
That’s true blindness
Teachers are employees of the state and are required by law to teach the curriculum provided by the state and "the truth" discussing current events. The truth is that the Russians have repeatedly bombed Kyiv and that he student Maria Bednarova contradicted was right. She was promoting false Russian propaganda. Freedom of speech is NOT freedom to lie in the classroom.
Vaclav Havel was responsible for linking the horrors of Communism to the horrors of the Holocaust and insisting they be treated as equally evil in history class. Holocaust Denial is illegal in most of Europe and Katyn Denial is equally illegal. After the Germans had overrun Western Poland and the Russians moved in to take their share (Eastern Poland), many Polish soldiers and polish intelligentsia chose to surrender to the Russians rather than the Germans. Under Stalin's orders, the NKVD executed nearly 22,000 officers and future leaders in the Katyn Forest and several others sites in order to potential leaders of a rebellion. When they invaded in 1941, the Germans discovered and publicized the massacre, which was blamed on the Germans by Russia, UK and US. After the fall of Communism, the Russians admitted their guilt, but in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine the Russian massacre is not being called a conspiracy theory.
The same thing is happening to the Holomodor the famine genocide that follow collectivization of Ukrainian farms in 1932-33.
Michael, thank you for posting this. It's very important. And an example of your determination to form a global movement.