If police were opening fire on protesters in a European nation, we would have heard about it, right? If there was a mass uprising of working people in a European Union country, taking to the streets in their thousands to cause disruption to roads, airports and parliament itself, it would be getting a lot of media coverage in the UK, wouldn’t it? The radical left would surely say something, too, given its claims to support ordinary people against The System. Cops shooting at working men and women whose only crime is that they pounded the streets to demand fairness and justice? There would be solidarity demos in the UK, for sure.
Well, all of this is happening, right now, in a nation that’s just an hour’s flight from Britain, and the media coverage here is notable by its absence. As for the left in Britain and elsewhere in Europe – there’s just silence. This is the story of the revolting Dutch farmers. These tractor-riding rebels have risen up against their government and its plans to introduce stringent environmental measures that they say will severely undermine their ability to make a living.
Astonishing that there is nothing whatever about this on the bbc website.
Well actually no, it’s not astonishing at all.
There is a media blackout. Anything that goes against the establishment “narrative” is either covered up or incredibly distorted.
And the lying “fact checkers” attack posts on social media.
“The government of the Netherlands is democratically elected” – so it is, but every television and radio station (Snorri will correct me if I am mistaken) pushes the establishment line, as does the education system. It is a “managed democracy” where the people are told what to think (contrary to what one might expect from his “On Liberty”, this is the sort of thing that J.S. Mill supported).
As for the Prime Minister of the Netherlands – this “free enterprise supporting” “liberal” – a classic Economist magazine style phony. With his demands that Dutch farming should be undermined so that “Nitrogen” (his word – perhaps he meant nitrous oxide, but that does not really help his “argument”) emissions can be reduced, as if this means less global Carbon Dioxide emissions – rather than HIGHER C02 emissions due to the food and manufactured goods still have to produced and then transported to the Netherlands.
Western governments, led by the regime of Puppet Biden, are fanatically determined to destroy farming and manufacturing – to them an economy made up of lights on banker computer screens (not even token notes and coins – which is what “fiat money” USED to mean) is perfectly sane.
I have been told recently that I am out of date – that an economy based on “money” that is just lights on banker computer screens (no manufacturing or farming) will work fine, well we shall see.
I do not deny that the “financial system” (the people who can get rid of “hundreds of billions” just by pressing a button on a computer – the light on the computer screen goes out, and all your “money” is gone – you were an idiot to trust the financial system Mr Putin, your “foreign exchange reserves” could be got rid of with ease, because they-never-really-existed-in-the-first-place) is very powerful, after all they got rid of Pope Benedict in 2013 – the financial systems in the Vatican stopped working, and it was made clear that they would not work again till this “reactionary” resigned (which he did), but basing a whole economy on this?
No – I do not believe than an entire of economy of millions of people can be based on getting people in other parts of the world to sell food, raw materials and manufactured goods, in return for lights on banking computer screens – lights that can be turned off (at the press of a few buttons) at any time.
This is true for the Netherlands – and it is true for the United Kingdom as well.
@Peter I think it is astonishing, although I quite understand why you say it isn’t.
That the MSM is almost totally absent from coverage of this story must rank as quite a big story in its own right.
I wonder who’ll report it.
“No, no, no – we can have farming and manufacturing and still have “money” that is just lights on banker computer screens” – in the short term YES (we can). But in the long term the “finance economy” (the Credit Bubble economy) eats (destroys) everything else.
We are living with the consequences of the low IQ people in charge of the day to day running of our respective countries believing that MMT (Modern Monetary Theory, or the Magic Money Tree, as it is colloquially known) is a sane, sensible and consequence free ideology.
It’s interesting that none of these people take any notice of Austrian School economists.
Here’s another quotation from the classics:
“A managed democracy is a wonderful thing, Manuel, for the managers. And its greater strength is a free press, where ‘free’ is defined as ‘responsible’ and the managers decide what is responsible.”
Robert Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Yes, William H. Stoddard – Heinlein understood these matters long ago.
“All the news that is fit-to-print” as the despicable New York Times puts it.
Doing a search reveals that plenty of MSM outlets are covering it. What interests me is that the BBC can now just ignore such a major event and pretend that it isn’t happening and nobody cares or is in any way surprised.
Since Paul Marks asked … actually, i do not follow the Dutch media. In fact, i do not follow any corporate media except for the BBC, and Breitbart if it counts.
So i don’t know whether Dutch TV and radio push the establishment line. But, thanks to Breitbart, i know that at least De Telegraaf reported on the shooting, and the report seems balanced.
I believe that the main source of “”bias”” in “continental” news reporting comes from the pernicious influence of the BBC and American corporate media. When they report on domestic affairs, they seem reasonably “fair and balanced” to me on the occasions when i look at them.
But what do i know?
Not much (if any) coverage here in the States, either. Minitru has a tight lid on this one. TPTB don’t want those uppity common people to object to the measures that are put in place for their own benefit. Why, next thing, there will be a dangerous insurrection or something……
Holland is an EU member state, so it gets a pass.
Meanwhile, on my Facebook feeds, with all the bloviation about Boris Johnson that is going on, I am being told that as a Brexit supporter I must “own” the allegedly insane idea of leaving this wonderful, cozy political bloc, and “own” the difficulties of the Northern Ireland border, despite there being nothing inevitable about a need for the UK to be de-facto split between the “mainland” and NI. The following brief article gives a good explanation of why the “Brexiteers should have seen the border issue coming” line of attack fails. https://cibuk.org/three-times-the-eu-bent-its-rules-to-accommodate-unorthodox-borders/?print=print
Back to the Dutch, the authorities there really are doing their bit to push back the image of a liberal, orderly society operating under the rule of law. But then the mask is slipping everywhere.
What a time to be alive. At least the sun is shining here in Pimlico.
The treehouse reports that undercover Dutch police attempted to infiltrate the protest but (some, at least) were detected.
In Scotland, there are some mixed dairy and arable areas where organic fertiliser is routinely sprayed on the fields in late Spring. I have experienced it. If the manure that Dutch farmers are reported as spraying at Government offices is organic, the civil servants who experience it may be alerted to additional drawbacks of banning nitrogen fertilisers.
On Fox News tonight, a Dutch woman was speaking up for the farmers. Her name was Eva Vlaardingerbroek, and when she appeared on television every man in the room said “wow” simultaneously. There is a degree of high strategy in picking the right person to speak for your movement, and the Dutch farmers have done an excellent job in that respect.
“Not much (if any) coverage here in the States, either.”
– Total news blackout in Canada as well. “She Who Must Be Obeyed” was born in the Netherlands and lives-and-breathes CBC; I showed her the pictures, she hadn’t heard a word about it. I confess I was not surprised, seeing as our “natural governing Party” has openly and publicly bribed the Press to ~a $billion over the last three election cycles. In all likelihood our MSM couldn’t spare the coverage for such mundane trivia anyways, being busy 24/7 trying to smear the most-likely-incoming leader of the opposition as a rayciss misogyniss antivax nazi wypipo trucker-supporting hater, &c &c ad nauseam…
– Oh and for our faithful followers in the U.K., did you know the Red Ensign was a symbol of hate? The things you learn… #SMH
Thank you Snorri – you are on the spot, and you speak Dutch as your native language. So you are the person to ask – which is why I asked you. Thank you for giving what information you have – and for your honesty in admitting that the information you have is limited.
Johnathan Pearce – it is more than the European Union. The despicable regimes in Canada and Victoria (Australia) also get a pass, because they are friends of the international “liberal” elite.
The “liberal” elite that sees the People’s Republic of China dictatorship as a model. Interesting how “liberal” now means supporter of the Communist Party Dictatorship of the People’s Republic of China.
“Racist, racist, racist” – I see so supporting Taiwan and opposing Mr Trudeau in Canada (and the various white creatures in control of Victoria Australian) makes me a “racist”.