Fairweather Heroes

An attempt at expressing myself through music

Some German journalist, I don’t remember who, once said something along the lines that ‘everyone enjoys freedom of speech in Germany. One must just remember that there are consequences for saying the “wrong thing” or expressing the “wrong opinion”.’

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was said in an unironical way, but the wisdom in these words is undeniable. Covid, and later the climate hysteria, showed me that I’m one of those who holds ‘wrong opinions’ on most things. I’m not really keen on facing the ‘consequences’, so I end up staying silent in most conversations, preferring instead to express my opinions only when explicitly asked for.

Nevertheless, the weight of unspoken words and thoughts is heavy. I’ve tried to give them expression through the written word in the various articles on this blog.

However, the happenings of the last few years are so out of the ordinary that articles and essays are just not enough to express ones’ sense of horror, despair, isolation and alienation from society. So, for a long time, I’ve also been exploring the channels of music and poetry to give them voice.

In the past few years I’ve played around with several musical and lyrical ideas, motifs and themes for expressing some of my ‘wrong opinions’ in the form of songs. Some which seemed promising after the first flash of inspiration had to be abandoned because they turned out to be blind alleys, while others are simply waiting for a more opportune time to be completed. In the process I’ve piled up several fragments of half-finished songs, riffs, choruses and verse ideas.

Some time back, in August or so, I managed to finish the first complete song based on some of these ideas, which I’ve titled Fairweather Heroes. The theme of the song is the discrepancy between what one gets to see regularly in Germany in the form of grandiose speeches against fascism and promises of Nie Wieder, and what actually happens when things start getting, let’s say, a bit too close for comfort. The song has several points of contact with the book Möge die gesamte Republik mit dem Finger auf sie zeigen: Das Corona-Unrecht und seine Täter, by Marcus Klöckner and Jens Wernicke, although the idea was brewing in my mind since quite some time before I read it. (I’ve discussed this book in my earlier article Breaking The Silence.

I must confess that, while I’m happy with the overall composition, I have some misgivings in sharing my song. I think the recording quality and the mixing, as well as the vocals could have been better. But I decided to share it all the same, as this is the best I could do.

So, without more ado, with warts and all, here’s the song, Fairweather Heroes:

So, you wanna be a hero,
Facing the wrath of the dreaded [beep].
You wanna stand in line,
For your grandfathers crimes,
And show what you’re made out of.

But watch out!
Here come the signs of danger,
Here comes the moment of truth.
Here comes the chance to show your valor and
Your chance to set right what you could.

But where’s your valor when it really matters,
Has it gone for a walk in the woods?
Was it nothing more than empty prattle and
Do you only talk when the going’s good?

Fair weather heroes,
How’s the weather today?
D’you feel brave today?
Is it too cold today?
How many [beep] today?
Fair weather heroes.

Well, you could’ve been a hero,
And washed the stains from your bloodstained clothes.
You could’ve held the line, and just said Nein!
And made sure you got it right this time.

But No! What d’you decide to do instead,
When evil raises its head?
When it tells you to discriminate
And makes you instruments of hate.

Do you smell the evil in the air
And say we won’t participate?
Or do you decide to tuck in your tails
Coz it’s safer to give in instead?

Fair weather heroes,
How’s the weather today?
D’you feel brave today?
Is it too cold today?
How many [beep] today?
Fair weather heroes.

--- Guitar Solo ---

--- Interlude ---

Fair weather heroes,
How’s the weather today?
D’you feel brave today?
Is it too cold today?
How many [beep] today?

Fair weather heroes,
Would you save Anne Frank today?
Are you going to look away?
What does the mirror say?
Is it any different today?

Fair weather heroes.

You may have noticed the beeps at different places in the song, where I decided to self-censor certain words. You see, I do not want the police ringing on my doorbell at 6 in the morning raiding my apartment, and confiscating my mobile phone and laptop, in their noble efforts to make the internet ‘a safer place’ and a place ‘free of hate’. The fact that I am a insignificant individual with about 70 subscribers on this platform hardly matters to the nexus of NGOs, factcheckers and so-called ‘Trusted Flaggers’ armed to the teeth with AI tools and laws related to internet ‘safety’ and ‘hate speech’ who are dedicated to ‘curb online hate speech’, and are policing the internet for the slightest signs of anyone ‘overstepping the boundaries of free speech’. Take the case of an individual who had his house raided, his electronic devices confiscated, and his fingerprints taken, all for simply calling politicians and government officials as ‘parasites whose salaries are subsidized and financed by the state’. (Original tweet here. Further details here, here, here and here.)

Or take the case of Michael Much, a resident of Bavaria, who had his house raided by the police in 2023 and fined 6000 Euros for criticizing the Green party in 2023.

Or the case of a man from the Bavarian town of Wunsiedel, who in February 2024 was fined 2100 Euros for calling Robert Habeck, former German minister for Economic Affairs a Vollpfosten (English: Complete Idiot).

Or the case of the 64-year old pensioner Stefan Niehoff, who got a visit from the police in November 2024 at six in the morning and had his electronic devices confiscated, all for calling Habeck a Schwachkopf. (An interview with Stefan Niehoff and his family was carried out by filmmaker Alexander Tuschinski and can be seen here.)

Then there is the case of 74 year Doris van Geul from Dusseldorf, who in 2024 was hauled off to court and fined a massive 7950 Euros for criticizing the German government’s refugee politics on Facebook. (Another report here.) The fine amounts to nearly five times her monthly pension of 1600 Euros. The aim of the state apparatus seems to be to crush her out of existence.

The above individuals are just some ‘small-fry’ examples, which however show that anonymity or lack of reach in social media offer no protection against the state’s use of force. But countless prominent people occupying high positions, enjoying academic renown or considerable social media presence have been targeted as well. The cases of microbiologist Sucharit Bhakdi, author C. J. Hopkins, and biologist Stefan Hockertz are just a handful of such cases, where charges of ‘antisemitism’ or ‘spreading hate’ were slapped against them.

The real reason, of course, is to make examples out of them for having dared to criticize the official narrative, especially with regard to Covid, so that nobody else dares to do the same. The conviction of these prominent individuals shows that if anonymity and lack of social media presence is not a defence against the state’s excesses, neither are fame or social media presence.

A close insight into the tactics employed by the state, police, law enforcement agencies and NGOs can be had from an interview carried out by the American television series 60 Minutes last year with German state prosecutors tasked with the responsibility of ‘curbing online hate speech’ (linked below).

At one point the above interview shows the prosecutors merrily giggling at the discomfiture experienced by the accused upon receiving a visit from the police at 6 AM in their apartments and having their electronic devices confiscated. It also features a short interview with Josephine Ballon, CEO of HateAid, an organization dedicated to ‘combating hate speech online’, which leaves one cold and speechless.

Considerable resources and taxpayer money have been invested for creating the infrastructure needed to keep the internet ‘a safe place’ and ‘free of hate’. A glimpse of this elaborate infrastructure of ‘fact-checkers’, ‘trusted flaggers’, NGOs and other organizations was unearthed by the organization Liber Net. (Details can be found in this article.) Clearly, no fish is too small or unimportant to catch.

So, in the light of all that I have discussed above, I think I am justified in taking precautions by censoring parts of my song. Maybe I am being paranoid, but I do not want to take any chances. I’m sure that under ‘normal circumstances’ (by which I mean the years before 2020 – although already by then things had stopped being normal) they wouldn’t have mattered at all, but we are now living in times that are anything but normal.