Dear Gillian
Of course, I do not trust any capitalist entity when it comes to freedom of speech – particularly the American variety – as it invariably means ‘freedom of the right kind of speech’ rather than a freewheeling association of ideas! My blog hasn’t been censored or shut down as of yet, because somewhere along the line my blogging from a pro-Russian perspective is financially benefitting WordPress! This is probably due to the massive stats the blog has been attracting from all over the news-starved world (and not because of my writing or my original content, etc)! My short-lived ‘tumblr’ account was ruthlessly terminated because I posted from a left-wing position – ‘tumblr’ is corporately associated with ‘WordPress’ – so watch this space! And this brings me to the issue of WordPress registering a small percentage of my blog visitors as arising in the ‘European Union’! Since when has a post-WWII US-derived, (right-wing) political treaty served as a marker of geographical location? Not every country in Europe is in the EU and with the UK being ‘out’ – and Northern and Southern States not being ‘in’ – the ‘EU’ as a designator cannot serve as a reliable geographical locator! If I remember rightly, the EU has rejected Moldova but has fast-tracked the membership of Neo-Nazis Ukraine! The point is that every other country of Europe is available and recorded for where they are and under their proper names. Allowing a (temporary) political treaty to replace a proper geographical location is a form of fascism! WordPress might as well define people as ‘NATO’ or ‘ASEAN’ and use these treaty names as geographical indicators! Still, when a fleet of ‘Happiness Engineers’ come at you – and particularly when you happen not to be ‘American’ or limited to their ‘anti-intellectualism’ – it can be a disconcerting experience!
THE SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 