German Government Gone Mad Again

Back in December I wrote a post about C.J. Hopkins, an American expat playwright and satirical author who has lived in Berlin since 2004.

I have followed him closely since November 2020, when he published a cogent and funny essay titled The Germans Are Back. At the time, he was facing criminal prosecution for likening the German government’s covid pandemic response to totalitarian measures imposed by the Third Reich, and for making fun of Germany’s Health Minister, Karl Lauterbach.

The specific charge was that the cover of his recently published book, The Rise of the New Normal Reich was a form of propaganda, “the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.”

In fact, the book expressly criticizes the aims and methods of the former National Socialist organization, as well as the current German government, which—like the National Socialist government did in 1933—invoked a public emergency in 2020 in order to suspend constitutional protections and rule by executive decree.

The charge against Hopkins was so manifestly ridiculous that the judge who recently heard the case couldn’t bring herself to find him guilty of committing a crime, though she also couldn’t resist the temptation to express her contempt for Hopkins and his view of the matter.

There was a time not so long ago when America’s liberal media outlets would have taken a keen interest in a distinguished American artist being tried in a German court for criticizing German state policy. Not so anymore. As we now know, The Epoch Times (which is the only media to have sent a reporter to the trial) is the only major newspaper in the United States that does serious journalism. The rest are mere propaganda organs in the service of powerful, undemocratic interests.

Hats off to independent journalist and fellow Substack author, Aya Velázquez, for writing a fantastic reportage of the historic trial, which laid bare the stunning humbug, confusion, illogic, irrationality, and illiberality of German political culture today. The incident is further evidence that the contagion of stupidity that we are now seeing in the United States is a global pandemic.

Following Hopkins’s acquittal on January 23, the prosecutor appealed the judge’s ruling, which means that the accused will now face another trial for the same charge in a different court.

Recently I had a conversation with Mr. Hopkins in which we attempted to ascertain just why the current German government apparently learned nothing from the 1933-1945 period and has once again gone mad.

You can see the video here, at the end of the article.

Author: John Leake

yogaesoteric
April 3, 2024