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In September 2020, I launched a Facebook group named Prayers for America. After enduring the tumultuous summer of BLM rage, our intention was to pray for 40 days leading up to the November elections. Initially consisting of 18 MAGA-supporting friends, this private group rapidly mushroomed to 750 members within a few weeks. Recall, this was when even a hint of support for the orange man with mean tweets could elicit being treated as if one was lice infested.
On my page, I shared daily news, commentary, and prayers addressing our current circumstances. This is how I became a citizen journalist. Amidst this endeavor, I encountered censorship on Facebook—censored for sharing prayers! It seemed incredulous to me. I was a tiny minnow. How could they target a little fish like me? For years, we had witnessed morally objectionable content protected under the First Amendment, so how could this censorship occur in America?
I urge you to listen to Mike Benz on Tucker Carlson's network. Mike skillfully connects the dots to create a vivid picture that was once hazy but is now strikingly clear. Investing your time in this is highly valuable for understanding the current state of America. Personally, I've listened to it twice to create this summary. Here's what you need to know.
A bit of historical context here: Post-WWII, the United States emerged as the sole superpower. There was a collective agreement to prohibit territorial acquisition by military force. Everything had to go through a political ratification process, endorsed by the people's hearts and minds. America congratulated itself when "democratic" governments were installed, even if the leaders were essentially puppets chosen by the State Department and ushered in by CIA tactics. Domestically, the approach was sanctimonious, with the State Department and the CIA expressly forbidden from operating on US soil.
In 1991, when the internet went live, the Department of Defense (DoD), State Department (SD), and intelligence services quickly recognized it as a platform for dissenters to gather on blogs and forums. Such groups were not only encouraged but also facilitated because they provided a means for swiftly enacting regime change operations, bolstering the State Department's agenda. In essence, free speech on the internet became an instrument of our government's statecraft.
A notable example is Google, which began with a DARPA grant to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both PhD students at Stanford. It received further funding from a joint CIA and NSA program called Massive Digital Data Systems. After its launch, Google effectively became a military contractor. The capability to monitor free speech on the internet served as a means to bypass state-controlled media in countries of "interest." It accelerated the work previously conducted in a more diplomatic, covert manner. VPNs, specialized software like Tor, end-to-end encrypted chats, and other workarounds were essentially created by our intelligence and defense agencies to facilitate the overthrow of problematic governments, dating back to the Clinton era.
Freedom of speech on the World Wide Web enjoyed widespread support, reaching its zenith during the 2011 Arab Spring. Governments opposed to the Obama administration's agendas fell one by one as tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and others collaborated to facilitate communication among dissidents. This led to the overthrow of governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, and elsewhere. Free speech became an instrument of statecraft, with a well-established architecture stretching from NGOs to the relationships between tech companies and the national security apparatus.
However, after the 2014 coup in Ukraine, an unexpected counter-coup occurred as Donetsk and Crimea broke away, with the latter voting to join Russia. NATO deemed this unacceptable. The alliance concluded that it wasn't just military might that won wars, but the ecosystem of social and legacy media that influenced election outcomes. By installing the right administration, who would control the military, they could ensure a cooperative relationship. Initially focused on Eastern Europe, NATO expanded its mission from tanks to tweets after Brexit in 2016. Opposition wasn't only towards Russia but also directed at nationalist/working class groups within Italy, Spain, Greece, Germany, and other Western European nations.
In other words, the new enemy was democracy
Tucker Carlson
The powers that be concluded that if the European Union disintegrated, NATO itself would perish without firing a single bullet. Furthermore, without NATO's military might, all the democratic institutions and infrastructure that shaped the modern world post-WWII would collapse, including the blunt military enforcement arm of the IMF, World Bank, and other financial stakeholders.
During this era, censorship within the Eastern European bloc transitioned to censorship policies in Western European nations. And then, Trump won the US Presidency. Washed over by Russiagate, any moral ambiguities that had previously provided a semblance of restraint were thrown out the door, justified by matters of national security. In other words, if Trump was a Russian asset, then free speech censorship was imperative to safeguard the country. In 2019, when no evidence of such collusion was found after two-plus years of active investigation, we see the foreign-to-domestic transition take place in the United States, as the same technologies used to enact regime change in distant lands were now shaping up to become a major disruptor in the upcoming 2020 elections.
All the censorship architecture that was in place to enforce our foreign policy through the DHS, CIA, FBI, DOD, DOJ, and thousands of government-funded NGOs and private sector digital mercenaries transitioned from a Russia disinformation narrative to a democracy-saving predicate. The justification being that disinformation is not only a threat when it comes from the Russians; it is an intrinsic threat to democracy itself. Thus, the entire toolkit was reformatted just in time for the 2020 election, and the same professional class of operatives and artists employed to topple other governments concocted a job for themselves on US soil: to censor those who dared to tell the truth under the guise of protecting our democracy.
This, dear reader, explains my first question: How did this happen in America? Here is the answer in Part 2.
Father in Heaven,
We are grateful for people such as Tucker Carlson with courage to show Mike Benz’ work. We are thankful for people like Mike Benz who stand for freedom and have dedicated their time and resources to understand and expose the lies and manipulations. Bless these and the many patriots who stand for transparency, accountability, and the sacred principle of free speech.
Lord, shine your light upon this nation and the world. Illuminate the path towards a future where honesty, integrity, and respect for human dignity prevail. Strengthen our resolve to protect our rights and freedoms. Empower us participate fully in the democratic process.
Amen.
Mike Benz @MikeBenzCyber on Twitter/X is the executive director of the foundationforfreedomonline.com and his depth in the area of censorship and our governments dirty tricks is to be commended.
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Ignorance is bliss but information is power. I write to share so your loved ones start asking questions and seek answers for themselves. I mostly cover Election Security (or lack thereof) but sometimes the Lord points me elsewhere.
It's unbelievable how the USA, the country of freedom, is being monitored by big tech, in my country Brazil, we are in a dictatorship of a consortium of old sold media, an executive with a thief in power and his gang and the supreme federal court, arresting opponents and persecuting former president Bolsonaro. We are in a very worrying moment!
Is there some way we can download the audio from this and your other articles?