Europe is experiencing more and more censorship because the elites feel they are “losing control”, Konstantin Kisin, the co-host of the popular podcast Triggernometry, has said.
Speaking at the official launch event of Brussels Signal, the commentator emphasised the importance of free expression, warning that without it, the continent would be going “down a very dark path”.
“[T]he ability to express our concerns in a democracy about the things that are happening in our society is what allows us to vent our frustrations and to achieve the democratic objectives of the people — of our continent,” he said.
Kisin added that while he does not believe modern politicians are tyrants, their fear of social and alternative media is now pushing them towards pro-censorship positions.
“They’re doing this because the elites are losing control of the narrative,” he said. “[Because of] the fact that people are seizing the means of information production from them.”
“They’re terrified,” he added.
He went on to defend the importance of Europe’s emerging new media landscape, adding that organisations like Brussels Signal that defend free speech today are — in his view — likely to become the media empires of tomorrow.
“[T]he media empires that are gonna change the world, the media, empires of the future, they’re going to be built in the next 10 years,” he said.
“I hope that we are here at the launch event of one of them.”
World-famous author Salman Rushdie called for the unconditional defence of freedom of expression as he received the German Book Trade Peace Prize in Frankfurt on October 22. https://t.co/v9nFawBE23
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) October 23, 2023
Also speaking at the event was author and journalist Louise Perry, who warned of the increasing shift towards radicalism within the European elite, describing them as adherents of a sort of “second reformation”.
Perry highlighted the pseudoreligious hypocrisy of the new revolutionary establishment, describing how major politicians and government officials will frequently condemn criticisms of progressive ideals as types of verbal violence while letting real-life violence slide.
“These revolutionaries will be quick to describe your biological essentialism as a kind of violence even while playing down the actual violence committed by Hamas against innocent Israeli civilians,” she said.
The acclaimed journalist warned that those who believe such a status quo will eventually collapse are being naive, and that non-dogmatic societies that respect freedom of speech are the exception in history, not the rule.
Those who think otherwise, she argued, are putting their freedoms at risk.
“The culture war conscientious objectors are wrong to me,” she said, adding that it was not too long ago that Western countries executed people for religious blasphemy.
Perry concluded that such a danger was “exactly” why such a “second reformation” ideology of the political elite needed to be taken seriously.
“The truth is a kind of treasure and it can also easily be lost,” she said.
X will launch a legal challenge against forthcoming anti-hate-speech laws in Ireland, its US billionaire owner @elonmusk has announced. https://t.co/T0x46rGNqi
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 25, 2023
