NY PODCAST: 'Jep, White & Blue' - Ep. 1: EU afvikler ytringsfriheden i Europa med The Digital Services Act

EUs Digital Services Act er en chokerende afvikling af ytringsfriheden i Europa - USA to the rescue?

(Scroll down for English version)

En livslang kærlighed

Jeg lærte USA at kende gennem “De Tre Detektiver”. Det var en bogserie for børn om tre gutter, der startede et detektivfirma og opklarede mysterier i Sydcaliforniens eventyrlige omgivelser. Det var larger-than-life, det de drenge oplevede i Californiens sol, dybe kløfter og på det blå hav.

Jeg konstaterede, at USA var et land, hvor tre 11-12 årige drenge kunne køre rundt i en forgyldt Rolls-Royce, få lov at opleve de vildeste ting, og finde forklaringer på mysterier, ingen voksne kunne opklare. Det var frihed. Det var storhed - og jeg blev øjeblikkelig forelsket. I USA og i Pete Crenshaw, trioens atletiske, men ikke så kloge medlem.

Det er jeg stadig. Forelsket. I USA altså - men på et meget dybere plan, for i dag er jeg voksen og jeg forstår, at “De tre detektiver” var fiktion - men efter at have boet i USA ad flere omgange, været en del af eventyret, og lært nogle vigtige livslektier i forløbet, og efter at have fulgt USA hele livet, så ved jeg, at Guds Eget Land, som det kaldes, var og er præcis lige så storladent - ligeså ‘great’ - som den fortælling, jeg blev trukket med ind i som dreng. Det er en kærlighed og en beundring, der som få, er bevaret i mig til den dag i dag.

“Jep, White & Blue” - den podcast, der har manglet … tror jeg 🥴

Velkommen til Jep, White & Blue. Min nye podcast om friheden til at være, tale, kæmpe og elske i et Europa, der er ved at tage disse meget væsentlige ting fra os. Og nej, indtil for tre-fire år siden havde jeg ikke set det komme.

Jep er mit kælenavn i familien og Jep, White & Blue er ikke bare endnu en kølig politisk bedrevidende USA-analyse. Mit forhold til USA er dybt personlig. Og Danmarks forhold til USA - vores venskab med amerikanerne - er i min optik det vigtigste, vi har. Min podcast handler om noget, du mærker, men måske ikke har fået lov til at sige højt endnu.

Jeg får så mange beskeder ad bagkanalerne på mine sociale medier. Folk - høj og lav - der siger tak for det, jeg siger, og indrømmer, at de ikke tør deltage endsige takke mig i kommentarsporet. De er bekymrede for, hvad venner, familie - eller direktionen på det forlag, hvor de har en topstilling, vil sige. Og gøre. Mod dem.

De er bange. Vi er blevet bange - for hinanden.

Min store kæft, Trump, USA-beundring og ytringsfrihed

Jeg kender udmærket fornemmelsen, men jeg besluttede for nogle år siden, at jeg er voksen nok til at kunne tage en slåskamp på ord. Jeg har nok altid været sådan. Ikke kontrær. Men jeg kan ikke lide bøller. Der er ingen, der skal sætte mig i bås og bestemme, hvad jeg skal mene. Om noget. Jeg insisterer på retten til at tænke. Selv. Og på andres ret til det samme.

Jeg er demokrat i blodet – og jeg kunne aldrig finde på at kræve, at nogen skal holde mund, bare fordi de siger noget grimt, noget forkert, noget vanvittigt. Tværtimod. Jeg vil høre det. Jeg skal høre det. For hvordan i alverden skal amn kunne gå i kamp med mørket, hvis man ikke kan skelne stemmerne i det?

Ytringsfriheds-absolutist. Det er det, jeg er. Og jeg tror på, at alle idéer skal have lov at eksistere i det åbne – også de grimme, de dumme og de farlige. For frihed kræver, at du ved, hvad du står op imod. Ikke at nogen beskytter dig mod det.

Men den frihed - den lighed for Loke og Thor - er i frit fald her i Europa.

Med min kusine på toppen af World Trade Center i 1997.

For hver eneste nye regulering, hver eneste ny kommissionsvejledning, hver eneste moralsk indignation over “tonen” – så ryger der en skive af ytringsfriheds-salamien. Og den slags går hurtigt. Meget hurtigt. Det er en salami som magthaverne elsker at mæske sig i - hvis de får lov.

Og så er der Trump. Jeg er ikke besat af Trump. Men jeg er en af de kun cirka 4% af danskerne, siger gallup, der tør påskønne det, manden, som jeg kalder Big Bad Orange - faktisk har gjort.

Indrømmet, jeg har en nærmest ubegrænset taknemmelighed og tillid til USA. Det er et land, der to gange har befriet Europa, beskyttet vores frihed i snart 80 år – og aldrig gjort os noget ondt.

Alt det slemme, vi står midt i i dag - og før -, er ting, vi har gjort ved os selv.
Nu siger USA så: “Pas på. I er ved at fucke det op ….. igen.”

Og de har jo ret. USA har selv jævnligt været ved at ødelægge alt for sig selv - men deres grunddokument for hvad Amerika er og hvordan landet skal regeres, Den Amerikanske Forfatning, er bolværk mod bl.a. knægtelse af ytringsfriheden, på et niveau som vi slet ikke har i Danmark - eller i Europa.

Og selv om identitetspolitikken med alle dens onder kom fra de amerikanske universiteters neomarxistiske elite, og blødte ind i vores institutioner - i vores børn og unge - ved en slags pervers transatlantisk osmose, så var det os selv, der tog imod den.Vi valgte selv at drikke den giftige KoolAid - og at give den til børnene.

Og vi gør det stadig.

Jeg bliver jævnligt afkrævet en forklaring på mit Trump-positive syn. “Giv mig tre ting, der forklarer det!” hører jeg fx sommetider. Men … min rejse ind i Trump-forståelsen har været lang - og meget overraskende for mig selv også. Jeg kommer aldrig til at kunne opsummere det i tre bullets på en powerpoint.

Med denne podcast og alt det andet, jeg ikke kan lade være med at kommunikere, kan jeg højst håbe på, at folk, der synes jeg ellers er fornuftig, bliver nysgerrige og påbegynder deres egen rejse

Jeg laver tøj - så selvfølgelig skulle jeg have en Trump-jakke.

MAGA, hjælpeløse danskere - og de medier, der nødstedte os

Det er et stort arbejde, for de danske medier yder os ingen hjælp, men er tværtimod dybt medansvarlige for at danskerne har så få nuancer på Trump, på MAGA og på USA og amerikanerne. Det er årtiers ekkokammer-redaktionering og journalistisk uformåenhed, der har efterladt danskerne, der hvor de er. med en kæmpe frustration, vrede og, ja had til Trump, fordi de simpelthen ikke forstår, hvad i alverden der foregår. Forstår Trump. Og, ja, han er også for viderekomne - men han vil grundlæggende det helt rigtige i den tid vi befinder os i. Og det ved de mennesker, der støtter ham. Det har de forstået. Ofte efter en lang rejse magen til min - sommetider med store omkostninger ift. venner, familie og arbejdspladser.

Det, jeg møder i MAGA-land, er ikke de karikaturer, danske medier –navnlig DR, TV2 og. Politiken - har fremmanet – lavtuddannede, xen ofobiske våbenfanatikere. Jeg har mødt ordentlige, empatiske, kulturkriste såvel som dybt troende mennesker, der føler, at deres værdier og børns fremtid bliver trampet på. Folk der ser galskab og har turdet kalde den ved navn – hvor eliten vender blikket væk eller hylder vanviddet. De er blevet kaldt kældermennesker, fordi de protesterer mod illegale indvandrere, der voldtager og dræber – også selvom det er andre immigranter, lovlige immigranter, der er blevet ofre for forbrydelserne. De er blevet kaldt hadefulde, fordi de nægter at acceptere at børn skal kunne få medicinsk kønsskifte, der permanent ødelægger deres små, ufærdige kroppe. De er blevet kaldt racister, fordi de ikke vil påtage sig en arvesynd over at være hvide.

For disse amerikanere - af alle farver - er Trump ham, der lyttede. Der handlede. Der holdt sine løfter, da ingen andre gjorde det. Trump er en arketypisk figur i den amerikanske selvforståelse og historie – han er den afdankede, moralsk anløbe sherif, der en dag rider ind i byen, som er overtaget af banditter, og bliver den der må påtage sig opgaven med at rydde op og rense ud. Bringe lov og orden - fairness - tilbage - selv om han er aldeles uperfekt. Amerikanerne kender sådan nogle figurer - og ikke kun fra fiktionen. I virkelighedens verden har de haft brug for dem flere gange i historien - og eksemplet over dem alle er vel Abraham Lincoln.

USA, at gøre det rigtige - og den danske besættelse af ‘pænhed’

Vi har også selv haft brug for amerikanerne. To gange. Til at sikre den fred og den frihed, vi smed på møddingen senest i 1930’erne og 40’erne. Anden Verdenskrig. Og Amerikanerne blev her efterfølgende i 80 år for at sikre, at Vestens fred og frihed bestod.

Nu er det så Trump, der er præsident. Igen. Og ham forstår danskerne ikke. Slet ikke.

I Danmark er vi besatte af form og pænhed og ordentlighed. Vi lytter og retter os villigt efter det rene vanvid, hvis bare det bliver sagt i en ordentlig tone. Af pæne mennesker. Til gengæld er vi oprørte og afvisende over for dybt nødvendige budskaber, hvis de leveres med for skarpe kanter. Derfor slår danskerne sig så meget på Trump. Vi strander på formen, og afviser at lytte til og forstå indholdet. Det er ikke Trumps skyld. Det er vores uformåenhed.

Jeg var inviteret til Obamas indsættelse i Januar 2009. Stor oplevelse. Hans præsidentskab blev en stor skuffelse for mig.

Jeg ved godt, det er lettere at lade DR og TV2 og Politiken fortælle dig, hvem der er skurken. Jeg gjorde det selv engang.

Men da jeg via mit sagspolitiske arbejde blev konfronteret med, hvad identitetspolitikken gjorde ved os - navnlig ved de mest sårbare af os, børnene og de psykisk ramte unge, kvinderne, de lesbiske, ja, så kunne jeg ikke længere afvise Trump. Jeg var nødt til at dykke ned i, hvad det var han så, hvad det var han ville og hvad det var han gjorde. Og det gik op for mig til min forbløffelse at Trump så, ville og gjorde det rigtige. På et nærmest episk niveau.

Og her står jeg så. Her står vi.

Midt i et Europa, hvor vi ikke må tale om virkeligheden. Hvor censuren nu er blevet kodet ind i juraen. Det vil jeg tale om i denne den første episode af Jep, White & Blue.

For The Digital Services Act er ikke en lille ting. Det er det mest ambitiøse, strukturelle angreb på ytringsfriheden i moderne europæisk historie. Det er lovgivning som alle, der agerer online i Europa skal følge - og det handler om, hvad vi må sige - og ikke må sige.

Det værste - eller måske det bedste - er: At det rammer også USA.

For algoritmer har ingen landegrænser. Når EU tvinger Meta og X og Google til at slette indhold, sker det globalt. Det rammer dig, uanset om du bor i Herning eller Houston.

Og derfor er USA begyndt at reagere. Det er det godt..

Trump har afskåret censurkomplekset i USA fra statens penge. JD Vance har slået alarm over for os i Europa og sagt det ligeud: Den største trussel mod demokratiet i Europa i dag er ikke fjenden udefra. Det er den indefra.

Fra vores egne institutioner. Vores egne systemer. Vores egne kommissioner.

Og hvem ender igen med at redde os … hvis vi er heldige?

Amerikanerne. De står klar. Ikke med kampvogne, bombefly og faldskærmstropper denne gang. Men med krav. Med diplomatisk pres. Med håb om, at vi stadig kan kalde os frie. Og fordi amerikanerne har økonomiske interesser på spil - og fordi Trump er pissed-off på EU af andre årsager, så er der en chance for, at friheden i Europa bevares. Vindes tilbage.

The Digital Services Act

Du lytter til Jep, White & Blue – en podcast om frihed, mod og de nuancer på USA, du mærker, at du ikke får serveret i de danske medier.

I dag handler det som sagt om EU’s nye censurlov, om dansk medløberi, og om hvordan den frie vestlige verden nu kun har ét håb tilbage:

USA. Igen.

Det nyeste våben i dette vestlige selvopgør hedder Digital Services Act.

Det lyder måske som noget med cookie-bokse og databeskyttelse. Men det er meget mere. Og meget værre. Det er intet mindre end et juridisk framework for global censur – udtænkt i Bruxelles og designet til at tvinge sociale medier og søgemaskiner til at fjerne, skjule eller dæmpe indhold, EU ikke bryder sig om. Naturligvis til vores eget bedste. Må vi forstå.

Det er ikke bare teori. Det er lov. Med milliardbøder som gulerod – eller rettere EU-pisk.

Og nej, det handler ikke kun om Europa. For som Jeremy Tedesco fra Alliance Defending Freedom forklarer i et interview med Daily Wire, så kan techfirmaer som Google og Meta ikke begrænse deres censur til kun at gælde i EU. Algoritmer kender ikke landegrænser.

Så det, der bliver defineret som “hadefuldt” i Bruxelles, bliver slettet - både i Boston. Og i Brøndby.

Vi ved allerede, hvordan det her ser ud. Under corona-krisen blev påstande om lab-leak, vaccineskepsis og kritik af maskepåbud stemplet som desinformation – og fjernet. Senere viste det sig, at meget af det var enten delvist sandt eller i hvert fald værd at diskutere. Men censuren stod ved magt. Og nu bliver den ikke bare praksis – den bliver obligatorisk.

Det bliver ikke bedre, det bliver værre.

Og det stoppede jo ikke ved COVID. Da Elon Musk ville sende sin samtale med Trump live på X, sendte EU-kommissær Thierry Breton et venligt trusselsbrev og forklarede, at man var bekymret for, om interviewet mon overtrådte DSA’s regler om hadefuld tale og opildning. Som det hed sig.

Så ja – EU forsøger nu simpelthen at regulere, hvad amerikanske præsidentkandidater må sige. Under en valgkamp. I et andet land. På et andet kontinent.

Danmarks medløberi

Men før vi griner for hårdt ad EU’s overmod, så skal vi lige tage et kig i spejlet. For Danmark er jo ikke uskyldig. Vores regering indførte for et år siden den såkaldte Koranlov – et forbud mod “utilbørlig behandling” af religiøse symboler.

Men hvad er “utilbørligt”? Hvem bestemmer det? Og hvor langt er der fra en bog, man ikke må brænde – til en holdning, man ikke må have?

Vi er ikke bare passive ofre for Bruxelles. Vi deltager aktivt i projektet: at indskrænke ytringsfriheden – i moralens, i mangfoldighedens og i tryghedens navn. Det er, som om vi ikke længere stoler på, at frie mennesker kan tåle fri tale. At være frie.

Men i USA ser man noget andet. En bevægelse i modsat retning. Under Trumps anden periode er hele censurkomplekset – den koalition af techfirmaer, NGO’er, universiteter og statsorganer, der i fællesskab har forsøgt at kontrollere, hvad folk må sige – blevet skåret ned til sokkeholderne.

Programmer er lukket. Funding er stoppet. Koordination er afbrudt.

Men det er ikke nok. For censuren er ikke længere kun national. Den er internationaliseret. Og USA ved det. JD Vance, der sammen med udenrigsminister Marco Rubio, er en stærk figur i amerikansk udenrigspolitik, sagde det klokkeklart i sin tale i München tidligere i år:

Truslen mod friheden kommer ikke kun udefra. Den kommer indefra. Fra vores egne eliter. Vores egne stater. Vores egne institutioner.

Vance kaldte det the enemy within.

Og nu begynder det at ligne noget. For ligesom vi så med NATO, hvor USA i årtier har truet, tigget og til sidst bare selv betalt – så sidder de igen med nøglen til at få Europa til at vågne op.

Ikke med 5% til forsvar. Den er der sat tjek ved. Men med krav om tale-frihed.

USA to the rescue?

Det her er ikke bare en diplomatisk detalje. Det er den store kamp. For selv 80 år efter Anden Verdenskrig, er det åbenbart stadig amerikanerne – 7.000 kilometer væk – der skal beskytte de europæiske demokratier mod de europæiske demokratier selv.

For USA kan ikke se meningen med at forsvare et Europa, der ikke længere deler det, som USA ser som den væsentligste demokratiske rettighed af dem alle: Retten til at ytre sig frit - en rettighed, der i USA er garanteret under Den Første Forfatningstilføjelse.

Den siger:

Kongressen må ikke vedtage nogen lov, der indfører en statsreligion, eller forbyder fri udøvelse af religion; ej heller nogen lov, der indskrænker ytringsfriheden, pressens frihed, folkets ret til at samles i fred, eller til at henvende sig til regeringen med klager og krav om oprejsning."

Det betyder, at Kongressen ikke må vedtage love, der begrænser ytringsfriheden. I praksis er det blevet tolket meget vidtgående i amerikansk ret, og Højesteret har over tid fastslået, at det beskytter borgeres ret til at:

• udtrykke sig frit – også upopulært, politisk, kritisk eller stødende,

• at undgå statslig censur,

• at udtrykke sig - tale - uden at blive straffet af staten

First Amendment beskytter altså mod statens indgreb i ytringsfriheden, men ikke nødvendigvis mod sociale medier eller arbejdsgiveres indgreb.

Og det er blandt andet det, der er gået galt over de seneste år. Det den amerikanske stat ikke må, har private virksomheder overtaget at gøre - under Joe Biden pressede staten faktisk de private aktører til at gøre netop det.. Men det er slut nu.I USA. Efter Trump kom til.

Det er bare ikke slut i Europa. Tværtimod. For her må Staten - også den overnationale stat EU - alt det, Staten ikke må i USA.

Men det er ikke bare ord, det handler om - det er, som sagt, også Amerikas villighed til at forsvare os, hvis vi ikke længere deler syn på de mest grundlæggende demokratiske frihedsrettigheder med dem. Og det gør vi ikke længere. Slet ikke.

USAs besværlige forfatning og store kampvilje

Yeah. Vi har fucket det hele op. Igen. Og kun amerikanerne kan redde os. Igen. Fra os selv. Om de gør det, ja, det vil den kommende tid vise.

Husk på det her: Når tingene i Europa brænder sammen, er det sjældent udefrakommende kræfter, der tænder bålet.

Det er os. Det er altid os selv, der fucker det op. Ved at lade os inspirere af de allerværste ideer verden omkring os og menneskerne i den kommer op med.

Nej. USA er ikke perfekt. USA har fejlet. USA er ofte på randen - men sådan designede grundlæggerne det med vilje, som tidligere speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, forklarer i sin nye bog “The Greatest Comeback”.

USAs founding fathers lagde så mange benspænd ind i Forfatningen, at amerikanerne siden har været nødt til konstant at skændes og tovtrække om deres demokrati - og på den måde holde det i live. Gøre det levende. Holde det agilt og stærkt.

Den danske konsensuskultur er gift for den demokratiske samtale, for den gør at vi kun engagerer os i den - kan rumme den - hvis den er pæn og ingen skændes og bliver kede af det. Men det duer ikke. Demokratiet dør ikke i mørket. Det dør i pænheden. Og det jeg elsker ved amerikanerne og ved USA, er deres vilje til at slug it out - at slå på tæven, figurativt, for at holde demokratiet på sporet. I live.

“A government of the people, by the people and for the people”

Når man slås meget, bliver man god til det. Man får muskler. Man bliver hurtig - og man ser sommetider slagene komme længe før de kommer. Det gør USA. De har sloges så mange gange. Internt. Ude i verden. For sig selv. Og for os. Det er muskel-hukommelse. Forstår du? De ved, hvad der kommer til at ske med os her i Europa. Og USA er klar over, at de er de eneste, der kan vinde den kamp. På europæernes vegne. På vores. Og at den kamp skal vindes - for alles skyld. Også USAs.

To gange før var det amerikanerne, der kom os til undsætning, da det så allermørkest ud - og to gange var det dem, der gav os, det vi havde mistet, tilbage igen.

Gør de det en tredje gang? Vi må aldrig tage det for givet, Det her er vores kamp. Men vi kan ikke selv. Vi kan stadig ikke selv. Ikke alene.

Historien om en mor - min mor

Min mor blev en gang vidne til, hvordan en ung fyr fik tæsk af nogle rockere … ja, det var dengang. Hun bad dem med al sin folkeskolelærer-autoritet om at holde op med det, men de lyttede ikke rigtig til en lille dame på 1.68. Så gik hun ud på gaden og stoppede en kæmpe lastbil, og ud steg en chauffør, der var cirka lige så bred som sit køretøj og gik med hende. Min mor er den dag i dag forundret over, at han faktisk ikke rigtig behøvede sige eller gøre noget. Bøllerne så bare på ham, slap bare deres offer og forsvandt.

Med min mor og lillebror ved Spøttrup Slot.

Men, mor, når vi diskuterer Trump - og det gør vi ofte, og det er fedt, vi kan, og selv om du ikke altid helt forstår mit standpunkt, så se på det på den her måde:

USA er dem, vi kalder på, når vi ikke kan selv. Sådan har det altid været. Og det kan godt være den lastbilchauffør var brovten, havde en fedtet rød baseballhat på og en plettet undertrøje. Og det kan godt være han knaldede uden om derhjemme, og ikke altid talte pænt. Men det var ham, der standsede sin lastbil og steg ud og hjalp, da du bad om det. Så betyder det så meget, at han måske ikke var perfekt?

Der kommer aldrig et tidspunkt, hvor jeg vil glemme det, Amerikanerne har gjort for os gennem tiden. De sendte deres sønner, deres yngste og stærkeste unge mænd, USAs fremtid for at kæmpe - dø - for vores frihed. Og de blev her efterfølgende i 80 år for at sikre, at fred og frihed bestod i Europa og i resten af verden.

Der kommer aldrig en dag - lige meget om præsidenten er sort, hvid eller orange - hvor jeg ikke vil være fuld af beundring og taknemmelighed over for vores ældste og væsentligste ven i en vild og voldsom verden:

Amerikas Forenede Stater.

Intet består uden kamp - hellere vinde end slet ikke være med.

Så spænd hjelmen - and let's go fight! 😎💪🏼❤️🇺🇸🇩🇰🙏

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MY NEW PODCAST: Jep, White & Blue - Ep. 1

My love for The United States & loathing of EU's Digital Services Act, which is dismantling online free speech in Europe – will the USA come to the rescue?

A lifelong love

I got to know America through “The Three Investigators”. It was a children's book series about three boys who started a detective agency and solved mysteries in the adventurous surroundings of Southern California. What the boys experienced in the California sun, deep canyons and on the blue ocean was truly larger-than-life.

Though, as far as I was concerned America was a country where three 11-12 year old boys could drive around in a gold-plated Rolls-Royce, experience the wildest happenings, and find explanations for mysteries no adult could solve. It was freedom. It was … greatness - and I instantly fell in love. With the USA - and with Pete Crenshaw, the trio's athletic but not so bright member.

I still am. In love - with the USA, that is - but on a much deeper level, because today I am an adult and I understand that ‘The Three Investigators’ was fiction - but having lived in the United States several times, being part of the adventure, as it were, learning some important life lessons along the way, and having followed the USA all my life, I know that God's Own Country, as it is called, was and is just as grand - just as 'great' - as the universe I was drawn into as a boy. It's a love and admiration that, like few others, has stayed with me to this day.

‘Jep, White & Blue’ - the podcast that has been missing ... I think?

Welcome to ‘Jep, White & Blue’. My new podcast about the freedom to be, speak, fight and love in a Europe that to a worrying degree is taking these very important things away from us. And no, until three or four years ago, I didn't see it coming.

‘Jep’ is my family nickname and ‘Jep, White & Blue’ is not just another dispassionate, political, know-it-all US analysis. My relationship with the US is a deeply personal one. And Denmark's relationship with the US - our friendship with the Americans - is in my view the most important thing we have. My podcast is about something you might feel, but you might not have allowed yourself to say out loud yet.

I get so many messages through the back channels of my social media. People - high and low - who thank me for what I say and admit that they don't dare participate, let alone thank me in the comments section. They're worried about what friends, family - or the management of the publishing house where they hold a top position - will say. And do. To them.

They are afraid. We have become afraid - of each other.

My big mouth, Trump, US admiration and freedom of speech

I know the feeling, but I decided a few years ago that I'm grown up enough to pick - and stay - in a fight with words. I guess I've always been like that. Not a contrarian, exactly. But I don't like bullies. I don't want anyone labelling me and telling me what to think. About anything. I insist on the right to think. To think for myself. And the right of others to do the same.

I'm a democrat - small d - in my blood - and I would never demand that someone shut up just because they say something ugly, something wrong, something crazy. Quite the opposite. I want to hear it. I need to hear it. Because how on earth can you go to battle with the darkness if you can't discern the voices in it?

Free speech absolutist. That's what I am. And I believe that all ideas should be allowed to exist in the open - even the ugly, the stupid and the dangerous. Because freedom requires that you know what you're up against. Not that someone protects you from it.

But that freedom - that equality of rights for Loki and Thor, as your great philosopher Grundtvig put it - is in free fall here in Europe

With my cousin on top of the World Trade Center in 1997.

With every new regulation, every new Commission guidance, every moral indignation heaped upon us about 'tone' - a slice of the freedom of speech salami is cut. And these things happen fast. Very fast. It's a salami that those in power love to munch on - if they're allowed.

And then there's Trump. I'm not obsessed with Trump. But I'm one of the only 4% of Danes, says Gallup, who dare to appreciate what the man I call Big Bad Orange has actually done.

Admittedly, I have an almost unlimited gratitude for and trust in the USA. This is a country that has twice liberated Europe, protected our freedom for almost 80 years - and that has never done us any harm.

All the bad things we are facing today - and before - are things we have done to ourselves.

Now America is saying, "Watch out. You're about to fuck it up ..... again." And they're right.

The US is regularly in the process of destroying itself, seemingly - but its founding document for what America is and how the country should be governed, the US Constitution, is a bulwark against, among other things, the suppression of freedom of speech, on a level that we do not have in Denmark - or in Europe.

And even though identity politics with all its evils came from the neo-Marxist elite of American universities and bled into our institutions - into our children and young people - by a kind of perverse transatlantic osmosis, it was we ourselves who embraced it. We chose to drink the toxic KoolAid ourselves - and to give it to the children.

And we still do.

I'm regularly asked to explain my Trump-positive views. "Give me three things that explain it!" I sometimes hear. But... my journey into the Trump understanding has been long - and very surprising for me too. I'll never be able to summarise it in three bullets on a powerpoint.

With this podcast and everything else I’m unable to stop myself from communicating, I can only hope that people who otherwise think I'm a reasonable chap will get curious and start their own journey.

I make clothes – so of course I had to have a Trump jacket.

MAGA, the helpless Danes - and the media that ditched us

It's a big job, because the Danish media are not helping us - on the contrary they are deeply responsible for the Danes having so few nuances on Trump, on MAGA and on the US and Americans. Decades of echo chamber editorialising and journalistic incompetence have left Danes where they are. With a huge frustration, anger and, yes, hatred for Trump, because they simply don't understand what on earth is going on. Understand Trump. And, yes, he's a piece of work - but he basically wants to do the right thing in the times we find ourselves in. And the people who support him know that. They understand that. Often after a long journey similar to mine - sometimes at great cost in terms of friends, family and jobs.

What I encounter in MAGA-land are not the caricatures the Danish media - especially DR, TV2 and Politiken - have conjured up - low educated, xenophobic gun fanatics. I've met decent, empathetic, culturally Christian as well as deeply religious people who feel that their values and children's future are being trampled on. People who see the madness and have dared to call it by name - where the elite look away or celebrate the madness. They have been called cretinous because they protest against illegal immigrants who rape and kill - even though it is other immigrants, legal immigrants, who are the victims of the crimes. They have been called hateful bigots because they refuse to accept medical and surgical child sex change, procedures that permanently destroy their unfinished bodies. They've been called racist because they won't take on the original sin of being white.

For these Americans - of all colours - Trump is the one who listened. Who acted. Who kept his promises when no one else did. Trump is an archetypal figure in American self-understanding and history - he is the washed-up, morally decrepit sheriff who one day rides into a town taken over by merciless bandits and becomes the one who must take on the task of cleaning up and cleaning out. Bringing back law and order - fairness - even though he himself is utterly imperfect. Americans know these characters - and not just from fiction. In real life, they've needed them several times in history - and the example above them all is probably Abraham Lincoln.

America, doing the right thing - and the Danish obsession with 'niceness'

We've needed the Americans ourselves. Twice. To secure the peace and freedom we threw on the rubbish heap in the 1930s and 40s. World War II. And the Americans stayed for 80 years afterwards to ensure the peace and freedom of the West.

Now it's Trump who is president. Again. And the Danes don't understand him. Even in the slightest.

In Denmark, we are obsessed with formality, courtesy and orderliness. We willingly listen and comply with pure madness, as long as it is said in a proper tone. By nice people. On the other hand, we are upset and dismissive of deeply necessary messages if they are delivered with too sharp an edge. That's why the Danes have such enmity toward Trump. We get stuck on how things are said and refuse to listen to and understand the content. It's not Trump's fault. It's our inadequacy. And it’s a dangerous one.

I was invited to Obama’s inauguration in January 2009. An amazing experience, as you’d expect. His presidency, however, turned out to be a big disappointment for me.

I know it's easier to let legacy media tell you who the bad guy is. I relied on them for that myself once.

But when, as an anti-woke LGB-activist I was confronted with what identity politics was doing to us - especially to the most vulnerable among us, the children and the mentally affected young people, the women, the lesbians - I could no longer reject Trump. I had to dive into what he saw, what he wanted and what he did. And I realised to my amazement that Trump saw, wanted and did the right thing. On an almost epic level on this his second tour of duty in The White House..

And here I am. Here we are.

In the middle of a Europe where we are not allowed to talk about reality. Where censorship has now been coded into law. That's what I want to talk about in this first episode of ‘Jep, White & Blue.’

Because the Digital Services Act is no small thing. It is the most ambitious, structural attack on freedom of expression in modern European history. It's legislation that everyone who acts online in Europe must follow - and it's about what we can and cannot say.

The worst - or maybe the best - part is: That it also affects the US.

Because algorithms have no national borders. When the EU forces Meta and X and Google to delete content, it happens globally. It affects you, whether you live in here or Houston.

And that's why the US has started to react. And that’s a bloody good thing.

Trump has cut off the censorship complex in the US from government funding. JD Vance has sounded the alarm to us in Europe and said it plainly: The biggest threat to democracy in Europe today is not outside enemies. It is the enemy from within.

From our own institutions. Our own systems. Our own commissions.

And who will end up saving us again... if we're lucky?

The Americans. They are standing by. Not with tanks, bombers and paratroopers this time. But with demands. With diplomatic pressure. With the hope that we can still call ourselves free. And because the Americans have economic interests at stake - and because Trump is pissed-off at the EU for additional reasons, there is a chance that freedom in Europe will be preserved. Won back, as it were..

The Digital Services Act

You're listening to ‘Jep, White & Blue’ - a podcast about freedom, courage and the nuances of the USA that you realise you're not getting from the Danish media.

Today it's about the EU's new censorship law, Danish complicity, and how the free Western world now has only one hope left:

THE UNITED STATES. Again.

The latest weapon in this Western showdown is called the Digital Services Act.

It may sound like something about cookies and data protection. But it's much more. And much worse. It's nothing less than a legal framework for global censorship - conceived in Brussels and designed to force social media and search engines to remove, hide or silence content the EU doesn't like. For our own good, of course. Is what we’re told.

It's not just theory. It's law. With billions in fines as the carrot - or rather, the EU stick.

And no, it's not just about Europe. As Jeremy Tedesco of Alliance Defending Freedom recently explained in an interview with Daily Wire, tech companies like Google and Meta cannot limit their censorship to the EU. Algorithms don't recognise national borders.

So what's defined as "hateful" in Brussels gets deleted - both in Cincinnati and in Copenhagen.

We already know what this looks like. During the corona crisis, claims of lab leaks, vaccine scepticism and criticism of the mandatory mask-wearing were labelled as disinformation - and removed. Later it turned out that much of it was either partially true or at least worth discussing. But the censorship remained in place. And now it's not just becoming practice - it's becoming mandatory.

It's not getting better, it's getting worse.

And it didn't stop with COVID. When Elon Musk wanted to broadcast his conversation with Trump live on X, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton sent a friendly threatening letter explaining that the EU was concerned that the interview might violate Digital Services Act rules on hate speech and incitement.

So yes - the EU is now simply trying to regulate what US presidential candidates can say. During an election campaign. In another country. On another continent.

Denmark's complicity

But before we laugh too hard at the EU's hubris, we should take a look in the mirror. After all, Denmark is not innocent. A year ago, our government introduced the so-called Koran Act - a ban on "improper treatment" of religious symbols.

But what is "improper"? Who decides? And how far is it from a book you can't burn to an opinion you can't hold?

We are not just passive victims of Brussels. We are active participants in the project: to restrict freedom of expression - in the name of morality, diversity and security. It's as if we no longer trust that free people can tolerate free speech. Can bear to be free.

But in the US, you see something different. A movement in the opposite direction. During Trump's second term, the entire censorship complex - the coalition of tech companies, NGOs, universities and government agencies that have worked together to control what people can say - has been cut to the bone.

Programmes have been shut down. Funding has stopped. Coordination has been cancelled.

But it's not enough. Because censorship is no longer just national. It's internationalised. And the US knows it. JD Vance, who along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is a powerful figure in American foreign policy, said it loud and clear in his speech in Munich earlier this year:

The threat to freedom doesn't just come from outside. It comes from within. From our own elites. Our own states. Our own institutions.

Vance called it the enemy within.

And now it's starting to look like something. Because just as we saw with NATO, where for decades the US has threatened, begged and eventually paid its own way, it once again holds the key to waking Europe up.

Not with 5% for defence. That’s in the bag.. But with demands for freedom of speech.

USA to the rescue?

This is not just a diplomatic detail. It's the big battle. Because even 80 years after the Second World War, it is apparently still the Americans - 7,000 kilometres away - who must protect the European democracies from the European democracies themselves.

Because the United Sttes sees no point in defending a Europe that no longer shares what the US sees as the most important democratic right of all: The right to free speech - a right guaranteed in the US under the First Amendment.

It states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This means that Congress cannot pass laws that restrict freedom of speech. In practice, it has been interpreted very broadly in US law, and the Supreme Court has ruled over time that it protects citizens' rights to express themselves freely - even unpopular, political, critical or offensive speech, protects citizens' rights to avoid government censorship and to express themselves - through speech and writing - without being penalised by the state

In other words, the First Amendment protects against government interference with free speech, but not necessarily against social media or employer interference.

And that's one of the things that has gone wrong in recent years. What the American state is not allowed to affect, private companies have taken over to do - under Joe Biden, the state actually pressured private actors to do just that... But that's over now in the US. After Trump came to power.

It's just not over in Europe. Quite the opposite. Because here, the state - including the supranational state of the EU - is allowed to do everything the state is not allowed to do in the US.

But it's not just about words - as I said, it's also about America's willingness to defend us if we no longer share their views on the most basic democratic freedoms. And we no longer do. Not at all.

America's cumbersome constitution and willingness to fight

Yeah. We've fucked it all up. Again. And only the Americans can save us. Again. From ourselves. Whether they do, well, only time will tell.

Remember this: When things in Europe burn down, it's rarely external forces that light the fire.

It's us. It's always ourselves who muck it up. By being inspired by the worst ideas the world around us and the people in it come up with.

And no. America is not perfect. America has failed. America is often on the brink - but the founding fathers designed it that way on purpose, as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich explains in his new book "The Greatest Comeback".

America's founding fathers put so many constraints in the Constitution that Americans have had to constantly argue and wrangle over their democracy ever since - thus keeping it alive. Keeping it agile and keeping it strong.

The Danish consensus culture is poison to the democratic conversation, because it means that we only engage in it - can accommodate it - if it's nice and no one argues and gets upset. But that's not good enough. Democracy doesn't die in darkness. It dies in niceness. And what I love about Americans and the US is their willingness to slug it out - to take a swing at each other, figuratively, to keep democracy on track.

"A government of the people, by the people and for the people"

When you fight a lot, you get good at it. You gain muscle. You get fast - and you sometimes see the punches coming long before they arrive. That's what America does. They've fought so many times. Internally. Out in the world. For themselves. And for us. It's democratic muscle memory. Do you see? They know what's going to happen to us here in Europe. And the US realises that they are the only ones who can win that fight. On behalf of the Europeans. On our behalf. And that this battle must be won - for everyone's sake. Including the United States.

Twice before it was the Americans who came to our rescue when things looked bleakest - and twice it was they who gave us back what we had lost.

Will they do it a third time? We must never take it for granted, this is our fight. But we can't do it ourselves. We still can't do it alone. Even after 80 years.

A Mother’s Tale - my mum’s

My mum once witnessed a young guy getting beaten up by some thugs. She told them with all her primary school teacher authority to stop it, but they didn't really listen to a little lady of 168cm. Then she went out into the street and stopped a huge lorry and out got a driver who was about as wide as his vehicle to come with her. To this day, my mum is amazed that the lorry driver didn't really have to say or do anything. The thugs just looked at him, let go of their victim and disappeared.

With my Mum and little Brother at Spøttrup Castle.

But, mum, when we discuss Trump - and we often do, and it's great that we can, and even if you don't always fully understand my position, look at it this way:

America is who we call on when we can't do it ourselves. That's the way it's always been. And that lorry driver may have been a braggart, wearing a red baseball hat and a stained undershirt. And he may have been screwing around, and he might not always speak nicely. But he was the one who stopped his lorry and got out to help when you asked him to. So does it matter so much that maybe he wasn't perfect?

There will never be a time when I will forget what Americans have done for us over the years. They sent their sons, their youngest and strongest young men, the future of America to fight - die - for our freedom. And they stayed behind for 80 years to ensure that peace and freedom endured in Europe and the rest of the world.

There will never be a day - whether the president is black, white or freakin’ orange - when I will not be full of admiration and gratitude to our oldest and most important friend in a wild and violent world:

The United States of America.

Nothing survives without a fight - better to win than to be left out.

So strap on your helmet - and let's go fight! 😎💪🏼❤️🇺🇸🇩🇰🙏