Many agree that the left has had control of the Academia and the media since the late 1960s. It was around that time that both spheres became advocates for one side, rather than providing impartial inquiries and platforms for the free exchange of ideas. As such, the left has had decades in its disposal to shift the Overton Window and the public debate in its favour. In many cases this has given an unfair advantage to the left of centre parties that have been shielded by the media and intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic. Conservatives meanwhile have seen themselves censored, attacked, ridiculed and marginalized.
The last few years—and especially 2024—was when the influence of the media and many so-called academics waned and with it the reach and influence of their propaganda. Voters sensed that there was one establishment with its hands in the media, the academia, Hollywood, and many political parties. Many realized that they had long been left out of the public agora and decision-making processes. The elites that had been produced in the past few decades had become unrepresentative. By voting for common sense policies—low taxes, deregulation, secure borders, law and order, protection of tradition, history and culture—and choosing parties and politicians that promised to restore normalcy and became standard bearers of such policies, the silent majority was silent no longer.
Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Giorgia Meloni, Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini, Santiago Abascal and many other simply promised to return to policies that made sense, had been applied before successfully in the West, and that the new Elites that would be produced would be representative of the people that voted for them. This resonated with a considerable number of people, who in these politicians found the courage to rise up.
This change in the political arena was accompanied by the rise of alternative media, like podcasts, and it was helped massively by the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, turning it from an echo chamber of the left with massive censorship of conservatives to a free speech platform, open to all viewpoints. The dam that was keeping real information from the public was finally broken, and in 2024—the year with the most elections around the world—the propaganda of the left was torn and became utterly ineffective. The gatekeepers of information were exposed as untrustworthy and proxies of the left, while their once unassailable dominance was cracked beyond repair. The conservative movement finally had the opportunity to challenge the status quo.
‘This change in the political arena was accompanied by the rise of alternative media, like podcasts, and it was helped massively by the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk’
There are several instances that I believe could be useful to recall in terms of the hypocrisy of the left that the media, intellectuals of the left and pseudo-right, and celebrities have covered.
The left and the ecosystem they have built have not only dominated the discourse for the past several years, but they have shamed the traditional centre-right parties into supporting their viewpoint and policies. Hence, as centre-left parties moved towards the extreme left with cancel culture, cultural Marxism, wokeism and socialist economic policies, the centre-right moved to cover the space in the centre and the centre-left, leaving the centre-right conservative side empty. When common sense conservative parties and individuals started raising their voices, advocating for the same things that traditional centre-right parties had advocated for decades, they were branded as extremists, precisely because of this shift by the left.
In recent years, the centre-left traditional parties have formed coalitions with openly communist and socialist parties, and the media have protected them, while forming imaginary cordon sanitaires on the right. For example, in Spain the Socialist Party formed a coalition with the extreme left Podemos and later with Sumar, and other extremist, separatist parties that wanted to break Spain. Anytime the centre-right Partido Popular wants to cooperate with the conservative Vox (which wants to protect the unity of the country, and advocated for common sense conservative policies), it is shamed into rebuking them. The intimidation has reached such levels that the PP leadership finds it easier to collaborate with the Socialists, against its voters will, than with Vox.
In France, in the latest elections, the centrist party of President Emmanuel Macron found it easier to collaborate with the Socialist Party, the extreme left La France Insoumise, the French Communist Party and the Greens and part of the Republicans. However, the latter are intimated into rejecting any efforts to form a united right, which would be in their interest. Such examples have been seen in recent years in Portugal, in Germany and in other countries.
Things are most certainly changing, and voters are rejecting these unnatural coalitions and the intimidation. In Italy, Finland, and Sweden there have been successful coalition governments of the centre-right. People are challenging the pressure that comes from the media and the unrepresentative elites and are pushing for the return of proper conservative policies. This would not have happened without the victory of Donald Trump in 2024, the resistance of leaders such as PM Orbán, as well as the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk and the rise of alternative media.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, at the start of the Hungarian Presidency, initiated a Peace Tour, meeting with both the Ukrainian and the Russian Presidents, among other leaders. He was branded a traitor, a fifth column, and many other colourful phrases by the media and Europe’s other leaders. However, none of them had such words when French President Emmanuel Macron met the Russian President at the start of the Ukraine war, nor when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a phone call with Putin in 2024. Macron and Putin enjoyed a good relationship before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Associated Press reported in 2023, and the French President was open to dialogue with his Russian counterpart as late as last year. Why is it that when Orbán initiates peace talks, his act is considered treason, and when the Germans and French do so, it is called diplomacy? X community notes highlighted this on several posts, while from the mainstream media there was only denunciation and misinformation about only one of these European leaders. This discrepancy in perception highlights another form of political hypocrisy that 2024 exposed.
‘Why is it that when Orbán initiates peace talks, his act is considered treason, and when the Germans and French do so, it is called diplomacy?’
Furthermore, while European countries put sanctions on Russia and told their citizens the war must continue, they continued their trade relations with President Putin, effectively financing his war. Although no media or expert has talked about this, there have been several serious analyses on the social media X and on many podcasts about EU members using third parties like Kyrgyzstan to send goods to Russia, while also buying Russian gas. These reports indicate that by year-end 2022, EU exports to Kyrgyzstan had increased 953 per cent year-over-year. The same trend continued in the following two years, from relatively no relations pre-war. Instead of following President Trump’s advice and reducing dependency on Russia, while increasing trade and LNG imports from the US, the EU decided to continue business as usual with Russia, while hypocritically denouncing countries like Hungary.
Lastly, the most glaring examples concern freedom of speech and cancel culture. While the left champions freedom of speech, there’s a perceived contradiction when they support or do not oppose cancel culture or the silencing of voices they disagree with, particularly on social media or university campuses. While terrorists and those who want to destroy the West use western social media platforms freely, conservatives are censored and their accounts closed. While the left advocates for softer penalties for criminals and illegal aliens, they have no problem criminalizing free speech. In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passed Bill C-18, potentially censoring speech critical of the government. This legislation involves measures that could restrict online news sharing, impacting how conservative voices express their views on social media platforms. During the pandemic, he ordered the confiscation and freeze of bank accounts of anti-lockdown protesters.
The UK, under the recent Labour government, has been noted for actions that some perceive as censorship, particularly with the Public Order Act 2023. This act has provisions that can lead to arrests for using certain offensive language in public, which critics argue disproportionately affects right-wing protesters or individuals. For instance, there have been reports of people being arrested for using derogatory names, not threats.
There are many more examples of the hypocrisy of the media and the elite. However, the good news for all freedom–lovers is that this phenomenon has been exposed, and the developments of 2024 have ensured that conservatives at least have a fighting chance.
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