[The following post is by TDV Chief Editor, Jeff Berwick]
The recent reports of a number of gunmen murdering some cartoonists/journalists in France has been front and center in mainstream media this week. Here, at TDV, however, we are stoic, never over-react emotionally to events and always filter through information before we comment on them.
This, unfortunately, is not how most humans function. The great majority of humans react with new, shocking information completely emotionally and, even worse, due to their fear they stop all rational thought. This tends to always get us labelled, by them, as crazy, cynical conspiracy theorists. It's a burden we always bear but someone has to!
These types of people tend to get their information, and even their opinions, from mainstream media which they, for some deluded reason, consider to be unbiased and objective!
Many great minds have warned us about this. Mark Twain said, "If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed." And, Malcolm X said, "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."
This, even despite access to the internet, is still mostly the case today for those who have yet to ween themselves from mainstream media programming... and it is called programming for a reason.
With that in mind, let's take a rational, calm look at the events in broad strokes.
CHARLIE HEBDO SHOOTINGS
On January 7th, three hooded gunmen were reported to have stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly satirical newspaper, and killed twelve people and injured eleven more.
Interestingly, there was not much video evidence of the attacks except for two videos. One was
a strange rooftop video, that appears to have been edited, which shows a number of people on the rooftop of the building as the attacks occurred in bulletproof vests... which is strange. Unless Charlie Hebdo was under such a threat that they had numerous plain-clothed security with bulletproof vests on the premises this seems odd. But if that were the case, you would think, they would have attempted to stop the attackers and not hid on the roof.
The other video that has been broadcast widely around the world seems to show two military-trained masked gunmen shoot a policeman and then run up and appear to shoot into the pavement beside him nonchalantly. The policeman's body does not react at all, indicating he wasn't hit, and there was no blood evident indicating either the gunman missed or that it was staged.
Some people may be reacting emotionally here and saying, "Staged! You conspiracy theorists! It was on TV!"
My point exactly.
It's not like the mainstream media hasn't completely staged other events. Like, CNN with its totally faked Gulf War "coverage".
Or Sandy Hook, where even the FBI has now admitted that no one was killed. Or the Boston Marathon "bombing" which has been shown to have been mostly staged if not completely staged. And don't forget about the biggest lie of them all, 9/11, where three skyscrapers were knocked down at freefall speed in New York.
Still to this day people are trying to get access to more evidence of what really happened on 9/11 as it most certainly wasn't how mainstream media portrayed it. A bi-partisan group of Congressmen along with the families of those killed on 9/11 renewed their efforts to get 28 pages of classified documents exposed again this week. One of the Congressmen, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), said, “I went into the soundproof, secret room here in Congress and read those 28 pages. And it was a really disturbing event for me to read those. I had to stop every two or three pages and rearrange my perception of history.
So, to posit that it is possible that part of what happened in France this week may have been planned or staged in order to scare people into giving up any last vestiges of freedom they have is not just possible. It's quite probable.
That could be seen the day after the shootings in the media in France. The front page of every newspaper exclaimed that this was an attack on "liberte"... or liberty. Very similar to how the 9/11 attacks were pushed as being done because "they hate us for our freedom".
The main question is, "What freedom?"
France nearly went full commie (
Never Go Full Commie) recently when it proposed a 100% income tax and only recently rescinded it's 75% income tax after Gerard Depardieu and any productive person with any brains fled the country. And the French government is embroiled in almost every facet of day to day life with countless regulations, laws, welfare, war and taxes.
Even in terms of "free speech" France's record is appalling. France has countless laws criminalizing speech that insults, defames or incites hatred, discrimination or violence on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, sex or sexual orientation. These laws have even been used to harass the Charlie Hebdo and threaten its staff for years!
According to the Washington Post, "In 2008... Brigitte Bardot was convicted for writing a letter to then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy about how she thought Muslims and homosexuals were ruining France. In 2011, fashion designer John Galliano was found guilty of making anti-Semitic comments against at least three people in a Paris cafe. In 2012, the government criminalized denial of the Armenian genocide (a law later overturned by the courts). "
In other words, in France, you are free to say what they let you. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault even said that recently, stating freedom of speech “is expressed within the confines of the law and under the control of the courts.”
COLLECTIVISM AND THE POLICE STATE
Much like 9/11, this event appears to have been the impetus to usher in a complete police state. 80,000 police and military were let loose in France chasing the supposed two shooters.
How, by the way, did they know who the shooters were, since they did not show their faces? One of the shooters left his ID in the getaway car. This was similar to how the hijackers were identified so quickly during 9/11, when a passport from one of the hijacked planes that hit the World Trade Center, was found in perfect condition, on the street, a few blocks away.
However, it is still early in this event and we aren't stating that it, for sure, was a somewhat staged attack... but it already is showing the same old similar signs of past, proven false-flag events.
More importantly, however, is the chain reaction this event has already unleashed.
It has created violence and chaos amongst the populace with numerous Frenchmen bombing Mosques, a prayer hall and a kebab shop near a Muslim temple in recent days. This, too, will be used to bring in more police, military, checkpoints, searches and over-all tyranny.
This is why collectivism is so dangerous.
From an individualist and libertarian/anarchist perspective a few people killed some people on January 7th. That is terrible, for certain. But what needs to be done is a) Figure out what happened (which no one has done yet, not even close) and b) Find the culprits and hold them accountable.
From the collectivist perspective, this was an attack on "us" and on "our freedoms" (which we don't have) and "they", meaning every person who may have the same religious beliefs as the supposed aggressors, must pay (meaning be killed). And in order to do that "we" must turn the country, or entire world, into a police state and get extorted (taxed) to pay for numerous terrorist attacks (wars).
Sadly, the great majority of people react emotionally, and collectively, to events such as these which eventually lead to where the US is today... a fasco-communist police state engaged in countless conflicts around the world which has completely bankrupted the country.
As Benjamin Franklin wisely said, "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
It appears France, through its anti-freedom welfare, warfare and state-forced multiculturalism actions will now, also, have neither.
