in fiction and reality such as 1984 and stalin, the state always crowed about how free you were;

The EU loves talking about freedom.

Just look at one of its recent press releases, launching something called the European Democracy Shield, which promises to protect everything from “free people” to “free elections” to — this being Brussels — “a vibrant civil society”.

All admirable stuff, perhaps, at least on paper.

In reality, though, the Democracy Shield is just the latest vision in unfreedom: suppressing dissent and policing speech under the pretext of defending democracy from foreign interference and fake news......more..........