About the Book
A hilarious and horrifying journey into the dark heart of the ‟New Normal Reich.”.
C. J. Hopkins’s latest volume of Consent Factory Essays chronicles his Kafkaesque prosecution in Germany, the broader crackdown on dissent throughout the West, and other unsettling features of the ‟New Normal”—the new pathologized form of totalitarianism that was rolled out during ‟the Covid Pandemic,” which is radically transforming societies around the world.
Charged by the German authorities with ‟disseminating pro-Nazi propaganda” for tweeting the cover art of his bestselling book, The Rise of the New Normal Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020–2021), Hopkins’s absurdist adventures in the German legal system—where he was pronounced guilty without a trial, then acquitted, and then ‟unacquitted”—make for harrowing and uproariously humorous reading. Prosecuted in criminal court, his book banned by Amazon, his tweets censored by Twitter, reported to Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office and the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, its domestic intelligence agency, his battle to defend his right to freedom of speech and artistic expression has become an international cause célèbre, receiving major media coverage in the USA, UK, Australia, and Switzerland, as well as Germany.
Spanning the years 2022–2024, the essays in this volume also cover the crackdown on so-called ‟disinformation,” ‟hate-speech,” and other forms of wrongthink, the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, the culture wars, the rise of the ‟Musk Cult,” the return of Trump, and the rest of the aftermath of the ‟Covid Pandemic.”
About the Author :
C. J. Hopkins is an award-winning playwright, novelist, and political satirist. His plays have been produced and toured at theaters and festivals including Riverside Studios (London), 59E59 Theaters (New York), Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh), Belvoir St. Theatre (Sydney), the Du Maurier World Stage Festival (Toronto), Needtheater (Los Angeles), 7 Stages (Atlanta), the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Brighton Festival, and the Noorderzon Festival (the Netherlands), among others. His writing awards include the 2002 First of the Scotsman Fringe Firsts, Scotsman Fringe Firsts for new writing in 2002 and 2005, and the 2004 Best Play of the Adelaide Fringe. His political satire and commentary is published by Consent Factory, OffGuardian, ZeroHedge, Dissident Voice, and many other publications. His debut novel, Zone 23, was published in 2017.
Review :
“C. J. Hopkins is our modern Jeremiah. No other prophet has described the strategies or predicted the perils of the emerging totalitarianism with such persistence and eloquence.”
—Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“C. J.’s case is an example of egregious censorship, and the free world should be repulsed by it.”
—JD Vance
“C. J. Hopkins is the modern Western version of a Samizdat writer, i.e., a forbidden wit who loudly says things that are obvious but Not Spoken Of in officialdom. Probably this is not a profitable life choice, but it is a hilarious enterprise, and his furious columns have increasingly become required reading as 'normal' media discourse strays further and further from reality.”
—Matt Taibbi
“Earlier this year, I interviewed @CJHopkins_Z23 before a German court annulled a lower court’s finding in his favor. He now faces three years in jail for writing satire. C. J.’s case is a central front on the battle over censorship and free speech.”
—Jay Bhattacharya
“C. J. Hopkins belongs to a dying breed: an old-school leftist who has stayed true to his anti-capitalist (or anti-globocapitalist, as he would say) and anti-authoritarian roots, resisting both the lure of liberal-progressive neoliberalism and the temptations of faux-revolutionary rightism. This kind of 'intellectual sovereignty' is exactly what we need to navigate these tumultuous times—and that is perhaps why he is being so harshly persecuted by the justice system.”
—Thomas Fazi, writer and journalist, coauthor of The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left
‟Reading these pages is like sitting with Hopkins and Kafka as they humorously compare their stories. Thank you, C. J., for making the madness of recent years a bit easier.”
—Gavin de Becker, bestselling author of The Gift of Fear
“C. J. Hopkins is a stone-cold hero. Remember that picture taken in Germany in the 1930s of the one guy not doing the Nazi salute while everyone surrounding him is? That’s C. J. Hopkins.”
—Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, editor in chief of Daily Sceptic, and associate editor of The Spectator
‟This book is a must-read. C. J,’s journey through the German legal system is a breathtaking commentary on bureaucratic excess. The most benign allusion to historical iconography becomes a delusional pursuit of the author by the legal system. The totalitarian impulse seems to be alive and well.”
—Drew Pinsky, MD
‟We live in a dark age. Oppression sucks the oxygen from our days with ill-intended interruptions and interventions. And then, marvelously, in marches C. J. Hopkins with his verbal lightsaber signing the air with honor. And our belly laughs bring back the oxygen and we can breathe again.”
—Catherine Austin Fitts, the Solari Report
“Not every writer is persecuted by their government. Fewer have the courage to stand up to their persecutors and risk jail time and financial ruin. C. J. Hopkins paid the price to vindicate his right to speak and write freely. The words in these pages represent his brave acts of protest and defiance.”
—Nico Perrino, executive vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
‟Hopkins’s writing on the New Normal Reich is a beacon of light, humour, and grace in these dark times. If I had to don a beret and head to the bunkers for a revolution, I’d want C. J. by my side. Buy this book for your ‘not awake’ friends and family if you want them to understand what we will lose when the censorship gates slam fully shut on free thought.”
—Trish Wood, award-winning investigative journalist and host of Trish Wood Is Critical podcast
