ON February 19 the world-famous DJ Danny Rampling was looking forward to spinning discs at an exclusive party. He was not just hired talent: he was attending a conference by the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), an international conservative coalition, hosted by Jordan Peterson. Guest speakers ranged from Kemi Badenoch to Douglas Murray and Nigel Farage.
Rampling’s interest is not party politics but resistance to the creep of global technocracy. In an Instagram post shared by ARC on the day before the party, he praised the ‘intellectual’ opposition to the ‘globalist agenda’.
The flyer referred to a ‘secret London nightclub’ – an indictment of our society’s abandonment of freedom of speech and relinquishing to lynch mobs. But an activist group named Fossil Free London got the details and urged followers to ‘shut down the far right party’, stating that ‘the world’s worst climate deniers and far right loons are planning a luxury party after a far right conference’. The presence of James O’Keefe, an independent journalist, was particularly irksome as apparently he helped Donald Trump win the presidency. Stand up to Racism also planned a protest.
Maestro of the Ibiza rave scene in the 1990s, Rampling was one of the few in the music business to oppose the covid lockdown and vaccine coercion. Like fellow DJ Mark Devlin, who has exposed the security service links with famous bands and singers, Rampling refused to accept the deprivation of human rights for a dubious pandemic. He has continued to speak out on the march of authoritarianism. His opinions have drawn too much attention from Green and Woke puritans.
Reporting on Rampling’s involvement in the ARC conference, the RA website commented: ‘It’s not the first time that the DJ and Shoom founder has expressed fringe political views. He’s a vocal opponent of the Covid-19 vaccine, described net-zero carbon emission targets as a “scam” and implied that the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset initiative is an attempt at creating a tyrannical world government.’
The venue managers acquiesced to the righteous lefties, and cancelled the party. Rather than defending its art from censors, Mixmag, a magazine for disc jockeys and dance music enthusiasts, gave a platform to Fossil Free London gloating on its success. And now Rampling, already ostracised by peers, is at risk of losing future bookings. For four decades he has toured the top clubs around the world, but his console might be unplugged now.
We often hear the term ‘cancel culture’, a euphemism for the nasty targeting of anyone who challenges approved ideology. But perhaps more harmful is the immersion of society in conformity culture. It is not only a regime that punishes critical thinkers or naysayers, but a strictly maintained order to which the majority meekly complies.
Rebellious genres of music, and irreverent publications such as Private Eye and Viz, are now defenders of the establishment. Few pop and rock stars spoke out during the covid tyranny; many promoted the hyperbolic but unsafe vaccines. At a Kaiser Chiefs gig the lead singer asked the crowd, in turn, whether they’d had the Pfizer, Astra Zeneca or Moderna jabs, drawing an enthusiastic cheer for each; he then asked the fans what they thought of ‘anti-vaxxers’, inciting the desired jeers.
I know Danny as a fellow freedom fighter, and you couldn’t meet a nicer chap. There is no hint of ego from a man who inspired the dance scene in Britain, the Balearics and beyond. He is prominent in the Together Foundation, which campaigns against oppressive policies (such as those deemed ‘fringe political views’ above).
Reaction to the party’s shutdown has been muted, showing a lack of backbone in the conservative movement. The ARC has made little fuss about it. And there was no coverage in mainstream media including the Daily Mail and the allegedly ‘right-wing’ broadcaster GB News. With their prey ‘hoping that the crocodile will eat me last’, the bullies are emboldened.
Conformity culture is at its most shrill when the Overton Window is stretched in the wrong direction, however slightly. What the useful idiots of Green and Woke movements call ‘far right’ is really mainstream politics. Farage has taken his party to the top of national opinion polls; Tory leader Badenoch, of Nigerian stock, is hardly a fascist. And as for James O’Keefe’s acquaintance with Donald Trump, it is now ‘far right’ to support the president of the USA!
The problem for the left-wing moralists is that they have declared so many people as extremists, and treated them so hatefully, that they cannot see how extreme and hated they have become. But sadly, good people such as Rampling pay the price for standing up for freedom. We must ensure that their sacrifice was worthwhile.
