The West rejecting God’s gift of liberty (John 8:32)
In a dozen or more States of the Union, in Canada, in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, in Germany and many other places, the termites are nibbling at the foundation of modern civilization. That is, the Bible and all truth. Even when we see communication technology giving us more opportunity than ever to edify, evangelize, encourage, and change the world one soul at a time, we find that more and more government agencies and antichrists are busy using the same technology to enslave more and more of God’s creatures.
From a correspondent:
The 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum was held in Oslo from June 1–3, 2026. It was organized by the Human Rights Foundation and carried the theme “Dismantling Dictatorship.”
There, on June 2, 2026, Telegram Founder Pavel Durov spoke about how the loss of personal freedom is destroying Western Civilization. If you want to listen or watch, go to:https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14f7vMDcpcT/
The title of Pavel Durov’s 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum talk was: “Communication Technology and the Struggle for Freedom”.
It focused on digital freedom, censorship, surveillance, and the increasing pressure that governments in both authoritarian and democratic countries are placing on online communications platforms. The Titanic analogy and his warnings about Europe’s gradual loss of civil liberties came from this address.
Pavel Durov, already a victim of those who would steal away a God-given right, drew a striking comparison between the passengers aboard the Titanic and modern Europeans (and many others) watching their freedoms disappear in slow motion
“The Titanic did not sink all at once,” Durov observed. “Most passengers remained calm because they did not yet understand what was happening. Today, we find ourselves in a similar situation. Our ship has already hit the iceberg. We have already begun to sink, and many people have not even realized it. I am talking about the ship of our personal freedoms.”
Durov went on to recount his own experiences dealing with government pressure, fraud, and political corruption across Russia, the European Union, and France. His broader point was that censorship and state control rarely arrive as a dramatic event. They advance incrementally, justified as necessary, reasonable, or temporary, until citizens wake up to discover that rights once taken for granted have quietly disappeared.
He pointed in particular to the United Kingdom under [soon-to-be-gone?] Prime Minister Keir Starmer, where authorities have dramatically expanded enforcement actions tied to online speech. [He could have also cited Canada, where the Parliament passed Bill C-9 expanding the definition of forbidden, illegal speech.]
Thousands of people are now investigated or arrested each year in Britain over social media posts. Across parts of Europe, expressing an unpopular political opinion online can result in fines, police visits, prosecution, or even imprisonment. In Germany, for example, citizens have faced legal penalties for speech that government officials deem politically unacceptable.
The warning Durov offers is not really about social media. It is about the tendency of free societies to assume that freedom is permanent. History suggests otherwise. Rights are rarely abolished in a single act. More often, they are eroded one exception, one emergency, and one “reasonable restriction” at a time—until the iceberg is visible to everyone, and by then it is too late to change course.
Whatever we do to teach the truth, to spread liberty, spread the Gospel, to rescue people from tyranny, sin and lies, to “proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants therein,” we know that the world will seek to prevent that being done. We must never surrender to the temptation to go along to get along, to not challenge those who deny our God-given right, and our God-ordained obligation, to speak out.
This commentary is, of necessity, mixing politics and religion. We realize that it may offend some people, either from mixing these or because we even bring up topics such as God, the Bible, and sin. We welcome your thoughts, whether we offend or not.
About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.
The Price of Liberty 
The West rejecting liberty
The West rejecting God’s gift of liberty (John 8:32)
In a dozen or more States of the Union, in Canada, in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, in Germany and many other places, the termites are nibbling at the foundation of modern civilization. That is, the Bible and all truth. Even when we see communication technology giving us more opportunity than ever to edify, evangelize, encourage, and change the world one soul at a time, we find that more and more government agencies and antichrists are busy using the same technology to enslave more and more of God’s creatures.
From a correspondent:
The 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum was held in Oslo from June 1–3, 2026. It was organized by the Human Rights Foundation and carried the theme “Dismantling Dictatorship.”
There, on June 2, 2026, Telegram Founder Pavel Durov spoke about how the loss of personal freedom is destroying Western Civilization. If you want to listen or watch, go to:https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14f7vMDcpcT/
The title of Pavel Durov’s 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum talk was: “Communication Technology and the Struggle for Freedom”.
It focused on digital freedom, censorship, surveillance, and the increasing pressure that governments in both authoritarian and democratic countries are placing on online communications platforms. The Titanic analogy and his warnings about Europe’s gradual loss of civil liberties came from this address.
Pavel Durov, already a victim of those who would steal away a God-given right, drew a striking comparison between the passengers aboard the Titanic and modern Europeans (and many others) watching their freedoms disappear in slow motion
“The Titanic did not sink all at once,” Durov observed. “Most passengers remained calm because they did not yet understand what was happening. Today, we find ourselves in a similar situation. Our ship has already hit the iceberg. We have already begun to sink, and many people have not even realized it. I am talking about the ship of our personal freedoms.”
Durov went on to recount his own experiences dealing with government pressure, fraud, and political corruption across Russia, the European Union, and France. His broader point was that censorship and state control rarely arrive as a dramatic event. They advance incrementally, justified as necessary, reasonable, or temporary, until citizens wake up to discover that rights once taken for granted have quietly disappeared.
He pointed in particular to the United Kingdom under [soon-to-be-gone?] Prime Minister Keir Starmer, where authorities have dramatically expanded enforcement actions tied to online speech. [He could have also cited Canada, where the Parliament passed Bill C-9 expanding the definition of forbidden, illegal speech.]
Thousands of people are now investigated or arrested each year in Britain over social media posts. Across parts of Europe, expressing an unpopular political opinion online can result in fines, police visits, prosecution, or even imprisonment. In Germany, for example, citizens have faced legal penalties for speech that government officials deem politically unacceptable.
The warning Durov offers is not really about social media. It is about the tendency of free societies to assume that freedom is permanent. History suggests otherwise. Rights are rarely abolished in a single act. More often, they are eroded one exception, one emergency, and one “reasonable restriction” at a time—until the iceberg is visible to everyone, and by then it is too late to change course.
Whatever we do to teach the truth, to spread liberty, spread the Gospel, to rescue people from tyranny, sin and lies, to “proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants therein,” we know that the world will seek to prevent that being done. We must never surrender to the temptation to go along to get along, to not challenge those who deny our God-given right, and our God-ordained obligation, to speak out.
This commentary is, of necessity, mixing politics and religion. We realize that it may offend some people, either from mixing these or because we even bring up topics such as God, the Bible, and sin. We welcome your thoughts, whether we offend or not.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.