Censorship as First Step to Totalitarianism

Last night I finished reading Thomas Mann's Diaries for the second time. The Nobel Prize winner was considered one of the giants of the first half of the 20th century. This volume covers the years 1918-1921 and 1933-1939. The former is post-WWI and the latter highlights the rise of Hitler and the years leading up to WWII.

There are a number of recurring themes that make an appearance in his diaries. I was surprised at how often he took a med to sleep, and how often he mentions being uneasy and anxious. He continually mentions what he's reading (Tolstoy, Cervantes, Proust, etc.) and many of the names of people he is corresponding with.

His concerns regarding the restrictions on speech and free thought get increasingly highlighted in the late 30s. What's discouraging is seeing many of his observations playing out yet again in our own time. Here is the opening to one of Michael Shellenberger's emails from thesubstack Public News:

A little over a year ago, I participated in a public event in London with Russell Brand and Matt Taibbi. While there, I expressed my bewilderment at the censorship we had uncovered. It wasn’t the first time. When Matt and I testified before Congress in February, I also described being disoriented. After all, growing up progressive in the 1980s and 1990s, free speech was a foundational value, both for radical Leftists like myself at the time and for more moderate liberals. To watch liberal and Leftist Democrats demand censorship right in front of me was jarring, to say the least. I wondered aloud, “What is going on?” And I kept wondering until I found some answers.

I believe that my colleagues and I are now much closer to having a unified field theory of contemporary totalitarianism. We have published hundreds of articles so far on the censorship and other totalitarian tactics, including the weaponization of the FBI and CIA and the lawfare aimed at incarcerating Donald Trump, that we’ve been documenting. If I had to sum it up, I would say that there are at least four core drivers, all of which I described in a conversation I had yesterday with Russell...

--Michael Shellenberger

Are Shellenberger and friends being alarmist? How ironic that Gallup polls show that left-leaning Democrats are the ones most in favor of censoring free speech, while simultaneously declaring that Republicans are the ones determined to destroy democracy. Are the former leaders of the Sixties "Free Speech Movement" now its adversaries?

"Say it ain't so, Joe."