This week I spoke at Web Summit, the world’s leading technology conference, in my hometown of Vancouver. The last time I was invited became the subject of controversy. In October 2022, the conference cancelled an appearance by myself and Grayzone colleague Max Blumenthal right after we arrived for the event in Lisbon, Portugal.
Another speaker, Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, threatened to pressure the event’s corporate sponsors into pulling out if we were allowed to appear. According to one source who spoke to Max, Zelenska “and the highest levels of the Ukrainian government” threatened to “yank the whole tablecloth off of the table and break everything.”
This was months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when the propaganda campaign behind the NATO strategy of using Ukraine to bleed Russia, and Zelensky’s star power for going along with it, were at peak levels. Two niche, dissenting journalists who challenged the underlying narratives of this proxy war were therefore deemed to be non-grata.
But propaganda campaigns built around jingoism and conformity have a hard time sustaining themselves over the long-term. Proxy war fatigue has set in; the US under Trump has moved on to regime change war in Iran; and more facts have emerged to corroborate the arguments that Max and I have long made. So nearly four years later, I was happy to return to Web Summit this week to discuss these themes and more.
Two videos are below: the first an interview with the outlet Coastal Front (audio also included above), and the second a panel I did with author Chris Hedges, moderated by Sharon Nadeem.
