We often hear about "the deep state" and how they manipulate many things in our society, both politically and culturally. Many believe that said deep state is comprised of our intelligence agencies, as well as a select few who hold enough sway to influence the outcomes of a lot of things. So, it should come as no surprise to hear someone talk about a global kabal to censor free speech on the internet, particularly on social media.
On Tuesday, former State Department official and internet censorship expert Mike Benz appeared on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast and told host Joe Rogan about when online censorship really ramped up, specifically against the rise of Populism.
"In 2016, the Global Engagement Center [a State Dept. agency] pivoted from being counter-terrorism to counter-populism, arguing that right-wing populist governments - it wasn't just right-wing, they were also against left-wing populists. They simply never rose to power like Trump did in the U.S., Bolsonaro did in Brazil, Matteo Salvini did in Italy, Marine Le Pen almost did in France, Nigel Farage was on his way to in the U.K. in the Brexit referendum, the AFD Party in Germany, the Vox Party in Spain.
In 2016, they were afraid that social media rising all these right-wing populist parties to power would effectively collapse the entire rules-based international order unless there was international censorship. Because, Brexit would give rise to Frexit if Marine Le Pen won and she was massively overpowered on social media versus Macron. If, as I mentioned, Italy, Germany...there was going to be not just Brexit, there was going to Frexit, Spexit, Italexit, Grexit, Gerexit. So, the entire EU would come undone, which would mean all of NATO would come undone, which would mean there's no enforcement arm of the IMF or the World Bank or international creditors.
It would be the ending scene of "Fight Club," where the credit card company buildings all collapsed just because you're allowed to shitpost on the internet. And they talked about that quite openly in 2017 as they were creating this whole censorship infrastructure."
You need every part of what Benz said above in order to understand the last sentence of his comments.
For context, the Global Engagement Center's "Mission" is - according to them - "To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations."
Related: Rumble Sues California Over New Censorship Statutes
Basically, the powers-that-be were worried that the internet was facilitating this rise of populism around the world that shift the balance of power to the people because of the open dialogue afforded to the masses through the exchange of information worldwide on social media.
And they simply couldn't have that. These days, it goes without saying that - depending on what major world event is about to transpire, like an election - the intelligence community in the U.S. and around the world do what they can to cultivate and narrow the information available to the public.
Just look in 2020 when Facebook and Twitter before Elon Musk owned it intentionally suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story in order to affect the outcome. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg actually said that the FBI contacted him about censoring the story.
So, Benz isn't talking from some biased stance in order to push his own narratives. There's actual evidence that is readily available - if you're willing to do a little digging - that proves everything he told Rogan.
There's plenty more that the pair talked about in terms of censorship that would make a person spit nickels. You can check out the episode below (Note: The specific topic covered in this article begins around the 19:30 mark.)
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