UK - Mary Beard against Nigel Farage. Or for (you can't tell)
This time the Telegraph, which is usually one of the levees to wokeshit, lends itself to a cringe-worthy operation in concert with British historian and academic Mary Beard, a resume of absolute caliber (according to the wokemeter, of course), best known for lending herself to indulging in many of the, shall we say, "modern" reinterpretations of ancient Rome.
And this time in talking about her latest pre-launch book (it will be available in October) titled "Emperor of Rome", and populism she compared Nigel Farage to Julius Caesar! There is not only the title "Mary Beard: 'Nigel Farage is today's Julius Caesar'" but also the body of the interview:
“I actually dislike drawing crude lines between the past and today, but a lot of modern-day populism is taken from the playbook of Caesar, Caesar begins his speech by saying “I’m going to make Rome great again and I’m going to drain the swamp, and by the way I am talking directly to you”. And stuff the metropolitan elite. Farage’s speech [when he announced that he was becoming leader of Reform and would stand in the forthcoming election] was pretty much Julius Caesar’s, this idea that I am only intervening because I know you want me to do it. The populist song sheet hasn’t changed very much.”
Reading the interview again, it is not clear whether Beard is for or against: did she want to denigrate Farage by comparing him to the bloody creator of that bloody empire of Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (referred by Tacitus to the Caledonian leader Calgacus)? Or whether it is a genuine endorsement of one of those few politicians who truly managed to swim against the tide by making Brexit a reality, demonstrating as consistency and patience worthy of Fabius Maximus the Procrastinator? Certainly the statement brought Farage good luck.
England: graffiti artists, daddy's boys and barbed wire
At the Glastonbury music festival, an inflatable boat with dummies "surfed" over the crowd to raise "awareness" about immigration. Stunt by the legendary Banksy who claimed the "artistic" action. It should be noted that the festival has tickets in the range of 350 pounds, and most importantly is surrounded by 8 kilometers of the so-called "Super Fortress Fence" that the provider proudly claims on its website remarking:
«To help ensure the continued future of Glastonbury Festival, by stopping illegal entry into the site and providing a safe environment for legitimate festival goers, we designed and developed their formidable Super Fortress Fence – a real solution to control the huge site.»
Despite the Super Fortress Fence, there is no shortage of enthusiasts climbing over the barrier with festival access bracelets sold on the black market for 50 pounds a piece. What better allegory of the contemporary West than a super-exclusive festival with 8 kilometers of fencing where in the audience people are praising unchecked immigration surrounded by a fence designed to keep out the beggars who cannot afford a ticket?
Wales - Here is the Pinocchio Law against lies!
But let's come to Wales, which, as evidenced by last week's case, where it goes so far as to "decolonize" even the national coal mining museum, is trying to become one of the world's top wokeshit players, trying to overshadow the exploits of Scotland, Canada and Australia!
The news really makes one chill: it goes beyond the liberticidal regulations against hate speech. In Wales, they want to make electioneering lies by politicians a criminal offense. The Labour government would like to introduce this law by 2026 in order to "restore democracy and trust in the political class." The promoter, Adam Price, is a serious person; in 2004 he was among those who played theimpeachment card against Tony Blair and his lies to justify the war in Iraq. As the Guardian reported:
«Price has tabled an amendment calling for it to be made illegal for a Senedd member or candidate to wilfully mislead the parliament or the public. A defence would be that the statement could reasonably be inferred to be opinion, belief or future intention rather than a statement of fact».
No details are currently known about how such legislation would be implemented, and whether it would apply only to patently false statements made by politicians and immediately verifiable on a factual and numerical basis. The fact remains that criminal laws with foggy facts are perfect cauldrons in which to boil one's political opponents alive.
From the cognitive decline of President Biden, who became an element of absolute truth after the televised confrontation while until the day before, torments of independent fact checkers explained that there was always someone who was greeting the president. Or the issue of the Covid that uncritically was supposed to be a spillover from a Chinese corner market (as catastrophe movies dictate from a certain point on), and not a lab escape (like all previous catastrophe movies). Or the aspects related to lockdowns, which even Anthony Fauci called on June 18 "not a good idea" (although he was referring "only" to extended closures). Obviously, the concept of truth and policy is affected by time. We shall see if Wales succeeds in its endeavor.
USA - "Hello 911? Are you open or closed today?"
Do you remember the slogan "defund thepolice," which argued it was right to cut funding to the police because ACAB and especially because they killed George Floyd? Well, as the old people used to say, "by spitting in the air it falls on your face." After Toronto, which advises people to leave their keys in their cars to prevent car thieves from getting violent and entering their homes to claim them (see Bulletin No. 6), south of the Great Lakes are also adapting: A Chicago nonprofit that does statistical analysis on the state of Illinois informs us that even in the event of a robbery, assault or shooting there is only a 50 percent chance that 911 will answer the call. Good thing you can defend yourself... ah, no, in Illinois they have banned the possession of automatic rifles as of 2023.
USA – “The racism give me cancer”
An excerpt from the hospital-based TV show New Amsterdam that tells how racism is among the causes of cancer has gone viral. The Daily Mail gives a fairly comprehensive account of the "scientific studies" that inspired the episode.
«The episode appeared to be referencing an actual questionnaire by the group UNREST, which developed a 'social resistance framework.' It 'suggests that power relations within society may encourage members of non-dominant minority groups to actively engage in acts of everyday resistance, which may include risky and unhealthy behaviors.' A 2019 study from scientists from the University of Southern California and University of California at Los Angeles also determined that African-Americans had higher levels of inflammatory molecules than their white counterparts».
Italy. Activists cuddled, activists clubbed
Also noteworthy is a brief from ADN Kronos regarding the activists of Ultima Generazione: Ultima Generazione at Risk of Closure: "They're Cutting Us Off," regarding the possibilities that the Climate Emergency Fund, a California nonprofit founded in 2019 by Aileen Getty and Rory Kennedy (yes, those Kennedys and those Getty's), may cut off funding to Italian activists to focus on U.S. activities. The bubble in short seems to be deflating. The classic question remains, however: are the big sponsors merely giving visibility to trends that are already there, or are they nurturing realities that otherwise, without these pushes, would remain minority or perhaps not exist at all?
And just to demonstrate that this question is more than legitimate, it is worth pointing out the event that took place at Don Bosco Park in Bologna in recent days. For months local activists have been trying to stop the felling of trees in the park. A deforestation preparatory to a construction site for a new school that will replace an old one. The protest is quite noisy: it has even gone so far as to risk serious injury, with one activist climbing a tree during the logging operations. Yet, apart from local press and extra-parliamentary left network, dead silence in the mainstream media.
And the question arises: why does the activist from Instagram suffering from eco-anxiety receive total media coverage, complete with invitations to TV shows, while the old-fashioned rustic ecologists are ignored by the media? Why is it that for the former who block traffic or lord over monuments go unpunished (indeed, woe betide those who try to clear a street, they risk arrest) they are referred to as "brave and extraordinary guys," while for the latter the mayor of Bologna, the liberal Lepore (the 30-per-hour one) threateningly warns that "occupying a construction site is a very serious offense" their exploits end in police clubbings?
So, we have activists who want to "save the planet" coddled by the press and tolerated by the authorities, and activists who want to save the trees, who end up in the hospital and in the police station. After all, it is the same paradox as the Glanstonbury festival and its super fortresse fence. The principle of non-contradiction in the world of unicorn woke has been in the ground for a while. But mind you: for those who put money into this only seemingly crazy pinball machine, the rational logic is there, all right.
England - Yes to sexist rules, but only if they are African
That the principle of non-contradiction is a memory is also demonstrated by the following case at the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford, which for its decolonization and "cultural safety" (culturalsafety) programs decided to remove a ritual mask of Igbo culture from display because in its ethnological context it is an object that only males can see! So, long live the patriarchy and away with the mask from display, heaven forbid someone might be offended. The Spectator lets it be known that even at the Great North Museum in Newcastle they might remove the shoes of an Aboriginal ritual executioner because they too that should not be seen by women and children.
Germany - praying in public banned
We conclude with news that comes not from the East Germany of 1954, but from the united Germany of 2024. We are informed by Il Timone that as of July 5 those caught praying in public for pregnant women within 100 meters of the facility where abortions are performed will be fined 5,000 euros. The new restriction on Germans' religious rights has been approved by the Bundestag. It involves the extension of so-called "buffer zones," the areas around clinics that perform abortions where pro-life demonstrations are prohibited because they are considered "threats" to staff and "harassment" to women having abortions. Now, similar to what is already happening in other countries in the Anglosphere, Germany is moving to ban even silent prayers, aligning itself with regulations introduced in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Australia and some 15 states in the US.
As a corollary to this, in Germany, a country with very serious problems of denatality and a now very advanced ethnic substitution, it is instead perfectly permissible to carry out campaigns for the sterilization of human beings. After all, we are the carbon they want to eliminate....
Editor of the Centro Studi Machiavelli “Belfablog,” Emanuele Mastrangelo is editor-in-chief of “CulturaIdentità” and has been editor-in-chief of “Storia in Rete” since 2006. A military-historical cartographer, he is the author of several books (with Enrico Petrucci, Iconoclastia. La pazzia contagiosa della cancel culture che sta distruggendo la nostra storia e Wikipedia. L'enciclopedia libera e l'egemonia dell'informazione).
An essayist and popularizer, his publications include "Alessandro Blasetti. The forgotten father of Italian cinema" (Idrovolante, 2023). And with Emanuele Mastrangelo "Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia and the Hegemony of Information" (Bietti, 2013) and "Iconoclasm. The contagious insanity of the cancel culture that is destroying our history" (Eclectica, 2020).
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