The people who should be our puppets use their puppets to make puppets of us
Thursday, March 07, 2013
Euro Puppets: The European Commission’s remaking of civil society | Institute of Economic Affairs.
Tell a statist that the government spends too much of GDP; that the state should be scaled down and taxes reduced and the response is highly predictable. He will start talking about doctors and nurses, teachers and policemen. Within minutes, unless we are battle-hardened by many years of political debate, he will have established an apparent moral ascendency. Onlookers will wonder how we could be so cruel.
But that's not just, or even mainly, how tax money gets spent. For example, I was horrified to learn from Chris Snowden's linked report for the Institute of Economic Affairs that an estimated €1 billion of the EU's budget is handed over to "sock puppet" charities, NGOs and other fake "civil society" actors in order to promote the political objectives of the EU Commission.
Most of these "civil society" organisations would not exist at all if it were not for EU funding. So far from being genuine expressions of voluntary, non-governmental and non-corporate opinion, they are mere political creatures. It is astro-turfing on a massive scale. The table below (from Chris's report) takes the list of the EU Civil Society Contact Group's members from its own site and shows both the income each receives from the European taxpayer and the percentage of its funding that represents.
Nota bene that much of the remaining funding for supposedly independent "civil society" groups is received from taxpayers at the national level! For example
Women in Europe for a Common Future received an EC grant of €1,219,213 in 2011, with a further €135,247 coming from national governments. This statutory funding made up 93 per cent of its total income while private donations contributed €2,441 (0.2 per cent) and member contributions just €825 (0.06 per cent).
In what universe can even the most dewy-eyed believer in the essential goodness of the state justify such a monstrous lie? If an organisation raises just 0.06% of its funding from its membership dues, it is not independent. If it gets 93% of its money from the state, it is the state's creature. This is taking money by force from the masses to tell them what to think - most notably about money being taken from them by force!
This is not about being pro- or anti-EU. It is not even on this occasion about being pro- or anti-state. Democracy is supposed to be about the people agreeing what they want done by state bodies and appointing public servants to get on with it. The servants are not supposed to steal their masters' money in order to promote their own objectives. That they do so is corruption, pure and simple.
Come on, statist readers. Justify this gangsterism if you can. And spare us the "doctors and nurses" bullshit for once.
Do you suppose Mark is all right? Does anyone know where he lives, should someone check his milk and post is not piling up? ^_^
Posted by: Moggsy | Monday, March 11, 2013 at 10:37 AM
I am still waiting for any passing leftist to justify the EU's conduct.
Posted by: Tom | Saturday, March 09, 2013 at 06:56 PM
How tediously, predictably, arrogant of him. But then the "righteous" believe everything is good, however dishonest, if it serves their goals. The end always justifies the means to them, which is why they are to be feared.
Posted by: Tom | Saturday, March 09, 2013 at 06:55 PM
You might be interested in this small exchange, Tom. Those who receive these funds see absolutely nothing wrong with it, and are dismissive of anyone who does however hypocritical it makes their own pronouncements appear.
Posted by: Dick Puddlecote | Friday, March 08, 2013 at 09:21 PM
No. And no one hardly seems to listen, or care, or even hardly think.
Posted by: Moggsy | Friday, March 08, 2013 at 02:15 PM
And yet again, we are in no position to stop it.
Posted by: james higham | Thursday, March 07, 2013 at 07:36 PM
Tom, I agree with your point 100% but this is really just another example of "fake charities".
http://fakecharities.org/
There are lots of these on a national 'domestic' level that get most of their funding from the state in one way or another.
They take stands they organise political pressure. They are statist tools prpagandizing us at one remove so people wont notice. It seems almost... sinister.
Sock puppets is exactly right... "isn't it Miss Suky-Sock?" "It surely is Moggsy. Isn't that right Tom?" ^_^
Posted by: Moggsy | Thursday, March 07, 2013 at 11:02 AM