"German court convicts CJ Hopkins for satirical book cover"

An important interview with CJ Hopkins by Max Blumenthal

In order to understand the depths of the dystopian reality that continues to be installed under our noses I highly recommend listening to Max Blumenthal’s interview with satirist and playwright, CJ Hopkins.

Satirist and author CJ Hopkins was found guilty and sentenced to 60 days in prison or a 3600 Euro fine by a German court for a single tweet mocking mask mandates, and for the cover of his book, "The New Normal Reich," which examines pandemic restrictions and the propaganda surrounding them as symbols of a new authoritarian order in the liberal West. CJ joins The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal to discuss his conviction for violating Germany's unusual speech codes and what it says about the future of liberal democracy in Europe.

For more more information about CJ's case please read the following article by Matt Taibbi.

RACKET NEWS

Madness: American Satirist C.J. Hopkins Sentenced in German Speech Case

As previously detailed in Racket, the American playwright has been sent a "punishment order" and a choice: 60 days or 3,600 Euros for two tweets and a book cover

By MATT TAIBBI • 22 AUG 2023

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Just when you may have thought things couldn’t get any crazier: American playwright and humorist C.J. Hopkins, profiled in this space on numerous occasions, has been sent a “punishment order” by a German judge, offering him a Sophie’s Choice of 60 days in jail or 3,600 euros.

His crime? Essentially, insulting the German health minister in a tweet, and using a scarcely-visible image of a Swastika on a mask in a book critical of the global pandemic response, The Rise of the New Normal Reich. He was first accused of this “crime” in June, shortly after Roger Waters was placed under investigation for wearing his clearly satirical “Pink” costume in a stage performance in Berlin. As I wrote when C.J. was charged weeks later, authorities claim that through the use of the mask image, C.J. was “disseminating propaganda, the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.”

The judge in C.J.’s case has already heard free-speech argumentation from his lawyer, and this technically being a non-jury misdemeanor offense, has already ruled against those arguments. C.J. will apparently have a chance to argue for mitigation, but the decree has already been handed down:

The “Punishment Order” for C.J. Hopkins

Here is the would-be offending image:

As noted previously, here are some images currently on sale in Germany that have not been made the subjects of hate speech prosecutions:

No amount of drugs exist that if consumed would allow a rational person to conclude that the writing of C.J. Hopkins furthers “the aims of a former National Socialist Organization.” Agree with him or not, and I increasingly do, he used his imagery to compare the sweeping declarations of emergency power that were common around the world during the pandemic (and were particularly authoritarian in Germany) to Nazi tactics. He compared, for instance, the 2020 “Infection Protection Act” to the “Enabling Act of 1933,” which announced that to “remedy the distress of the people,” the “laws enacted by the government of the Reich may deviate from the constitution.”

C.J.’s real offense seems to be a response to a tweet by Die Welt, quoting German health minister Karl Lauterbach. Portrayed in full Sprockets-style smart-glasses glory, Lauterbach is shown saying, “The masks always send out a signal”:

C.J. retweeted the quote, adding the image from his book cover. That’s it, that’s the offense. No matter how you feel about that exchange, that is not “intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.” That is using the negative connotations of Nazism to criticize a currently serving government official.

I defy any American reporter to justify incarceration for this type of criticism of a still-serving politician. We’d have to build a separate Supermax just for people who used Hitler analogies during the Trump years, or published gleeful headlines like, “Lawsuit Reveals Trump Can’t Stand Being Compared to Hitler.”

The use of speech laws in this way recalls the way drug laws are applied in the U.S. We let stockbrokers blow as much coke as they want, out of the navels of exotic dancers if they like, but make possession a real crime in other contexts, effectively giving authorities a way to use an “offense” committed by many to selectively criminalize membership in certain groups, residency in certain neighborhoods, etc. As C.J. points out, the real problem is not so much with his case (although he’s certainly worried), but the now-open way in which such laws are being applied, from the prosecution of Julian Assange to the suppression of Covid speech and even the extra counts addressing “false statements” in tweets by Donald Trump.

We’ve already decided that Racket will help with C.J.’s fine if and when this matter is finally adjudicated, and we’ll keep you updated on the progress of the case, and on the progress of the many laws being considered to allow more prosecutions of this type in more parts of the world. Until then, some words from C.J., whom I reached this morning:

Matt Taibbi: What the fuck?

C.J. Hopkins: I’m relatively okay in that I just got the latest update from my lawyer yesterday, I guess.

Matt Taibbi: This is the same case? I’m not confusing this with something else?

C.J. Hopkins: You’re not. It’s the same case. It’s the weirdest thing. I’m just drafting a new thing about it. I think I wrote you, described the process a little bit, but yeah, this is just the next stage of the same case.

Matt Taibbi: So this essentially is about the use of the image on the cover, right?

C.J. Hopkins: It’s about the tweet… It’s the cover art from the book and it’s me going after the mask thing, like the one tweet I think, not exactly verbatim but pretty close, says the masks are nothing but ideological conformity symbols, and that’s all they’ve ever been. Stop pretending like they’re anything else or get used to wearing them. That’s one tweet. Then the other tweet was going after Karl Lauterbach, our health minister here. He tweeted his own tweet and his quote was, “The masks always send out a signal,” and so I just quoted it back to him and stuck the image from the book on the front as well.

That’s it. It’s basically, I insulted the health minister of Germany and put a picture of a barely visible swastika online.

Matt Taibbi: You need an electron microscope to see it!

C.J. Hopkins: I’ve said it, I don’t know how many fucking times, it’s not illegal. Yes, if you’re a Nazi, it’s illegal to spread swastikas around in Germany. But if you’re doing art, if you’re commenting on history, if you’re selling a book, there are a whole slew of reasons for exceptions where people can and do use swastikas, which you put in your piece, you put examples of the book covers. My lawyer has made all these arguments to the prosecutor.

Matt Taibbi: And those arguments were rejected?

C.J. Hopkins: Not even addressed, really. It’s just we had a chance to respond first and then we asked them for the tweets. That’s when we got the tweets. Then my lawyer wrote an even longer and more detailed response citing the terms of law and explaining who I am and my whole history of published work that anybody could fucking look at and figure out who I am, and what my intentions are. And nothing. The next thing we got was called an Order of Punishment.

Matt Taibbi: Oh, my goodness.

C.J. Hopkins: We got it yesterday. Basically, the story is this judge has already decided what my punishment is, which is either 3,600 euros or 60 days in jail.

It’s so fucking Kafka-esque. So now the next step is that we go to “trial.” We go to trial where my lawyer will argue the exact same stuff that he’s already argued in written pleadings. He’ll argue that before the same judge that has already found me guilty and handed down this Order of Punishment.

Matt Taibbi: So this is sort of analogous to the process of being sentenced in the United States and asking for mitigation in sentencing?

C.J. Hopkins: I guess. I mean, I’m used to a trial where you go and you argue first and then they find you guilty. I guess the written argument was that was sufficient and so now I’m guilty. And yeah, I think that’s it. Because my lawyer is also talking about just getting the fine reduced.

Matt Taibbi: Is it going to affect your immigration status or your ability to live there?

C.J. Hopkins: I’m going to be a convicted fucking criminal, a hate criminal. I don’t think it can affect my ability to live here. I’ve got a permanent residence visa. Not that I want to stay. I spent the better part of yesterday standing on a bridge with my wife, talking about when and how I’m going to get the hell out of here. I don’t know, Matt, I don’t think that it can affect my residency status. I’ve got permanent residency.

Who knows? Who knows at this point?

Matt Taibbi: Has there been any interest from media there or here?

C.J. Hopkins: Not major media… There’s a German journalist, Dirk Pohlmann, who was in the mainstream media here for many, many years. He runs his own independent thing now, and wrote up a piece on it. There’s another independent German journalist who writes for a mainstream Swiss paper. He lives in Switzerland. He wrote up something just on his Substack. It didn’t appear in his paper. I was grateful as hell for Europeans, because I didn’t expect a ton of stuff from the US. I thought that I might get some action here in Germany and it’s killing me. This country is fucking breaking my heart.

Matt Taibbi: Absent some kind of mitigation, you’re going to have to make a decision about paying or serving. Are you thinking about doing the time?

C.J. Hopkins: No. I thought about it originally and I thought, okay, I’ll make a statement. I’m going to be 62 years old in a couple of days. Life is too short to spend two months in an extremely overcrowded jail in Berlin.

Let me say one more thing before you go. My case is my case, but really the story here is this is happening all over. This is just this naked crushing of dissent and opposition. Look at what they’re doing to Trump in the States. Look at what they’re doing to Assange, to people much bigger than me. I think that’s the real story here, just this naked crushing of dissent and opposition.

Matt Taibbi: We’ll obviously want to keep tabs on your situation. Good luck and sorry you’re going through this. Hang in there.

C.J. Hopkins: Thanks.

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Please also see this post with good news about CJ’s getaway for some much needed peace and quiet.

On the Road

By CJ HOPKINS • 31 August 2023

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So, I’m about to go hide out in a friend’s converted monastery in Italy for a while. Not the one in the picture. I just grabbed that photo off the Internet. But an actual former monastery, or convent, or something. Anyway, it’s rent free, and a place where I hope to recuperate a bit from the stress of recent Kafkaesque events.

My friend’s offer to let me stay there for a while was just one of many kind offers and messages expressing support and donations to my legal defense fund that have been pouring in. If you are one of the people who have donated money, or signed up for a paid subscription to my Substack, or have sent me one of those messages of support, or have offered me sanctuary in the Italian countryside (yes, I have had more than one such offer), I do not know how to thank you properly. I am literally overwhelmed by your support and generosity, as in I get all teary writing sentences like this.

Thank you, from the depths of my heart and soul!

OK, this is clearly not one of my columns. I just wanted to say thank you before I hit the road, and let you know that I might not be publishing as much as usual during September (although I do plan to publish at least one column from the monastery), and tell you about an update to my Substack page.

See down there, under my name, those sections? There’s one for my Legal Defense Fund, and there’s a new one called Interviews. I’ve been doing a lot of those since I received the Order of Punishment from the Berlin District Court.

You can click on that section on my Substack page …

… and you’ll find a bunch of short posts with links to some of my interviews. I also added some old ones. I don’t want to flood my subscribers with emails about every interview I do, so I thought this was a good way to make some of them accessible without doing that, i.e., flooding.

I hope that will be of some interest to folks interested in listening to me ramble on and on about GloboCap, and the new totalitarianism, and the crackdown on dissent, and all the other stuff I usually ramble on and on about, and now also my court case.

I’ll do my best to keep it relatively up-to-date.

I’ve also created a section for non-column posts, like this one, called Oddments.

Yes, I’ve gone a little “section-happy,” but I want to keep the main page clean.

That’s it for now. Again, thank you so much for your generous support! It has given me strength, and has demonstrated to me that what I have been telling readers who sometimes write to me in states of emotional distress about how totalitarian things are rapidly becoming, and about how alone they feel being surrounded by this New Normal, as many of us are, is true.

We are not alone … we’re just widely scattered.

As we plow headlong into whatever comes next, let’s remember that, and raise our voices, together, and let all those who would silence us know how not alone we are.

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If I recall correctly, CJ told Max that if anyone would like to help support his travails, the best way is to subscribe to his Substack. Alternatively you can contribute to his Legal Defense Fund.