Some might say my journey forked, I took a turn that led me over a cliff edge. I've hesitated about telling this story for a very long time. Only my close friends and family know what has happened to me. If I had just stayed away from the Conservative Party and Politics my life now would be very different. A small rag based in Hackney London staffed by a leftwing hack made the decision to smear my name. Some might call that smear "Doxxing" or to be "Doxxed". The editorial decision made by a Hackney Rag has cost me dearly. My career was taken from me, my job prospects were taken from me, relationships were destroyed and my life went from being very comfortable to a struggle. I am Alex van Terheyden and this sadly is my story. I hope this can be a lesson, so this doesn't happen to you - and If this doesn't put you off Politics, then I don't know what will.
My story is not entirely unique. However, I have taken the time to put that story into video form via my YouTube Channel "The Wondering Englishman". Should you choose to watch that video you will discover how my life was turned upside down. I'll show you how a member of the left and then later the mob would set about cancelling me and in turn catastrophically impacting my life detrimentally for what seems like forever.
It all started 2 years ago. In the Early Spring of 2018. I was working at a hedge fund trading bonds. This took up most of my time due to the long hours. However, I had for my entire life always had an interest in politics. This stemmed - way back to my school days, university days and working life. In 2006 I was living in South Hackney in the ward of Hoxton - which is Now Hoxton West. I was a member of the Conservative party. I agreed to stand in the very unwinnable seat along with 2 other conservatives in the ward of Hoxton. As predicted I came last along with the other Conservatives. This was Hackney after all. People don’t vote Conservative in Hackney. However, I believed in democracy at the time, meaning people should have the chance to vote for an alternative to Labour.
In 2010, I could see in the borough of Tower Hamlets, that the Labour party, was fraudulently buying the vote through postal vote fraud. I predicted in the Hustings that the Labour Mayoral candidate was corrupt. As this was a borough I had once lived in I wanted to voice my discontent to what was going on in Tower Hamlets and also stand for Free Speech so I migrated to the Pirate Party. Of course this being Tower Hamlets and Bethnal Green - Labour easily won that election. However, I did make my voice known that I believed electing a Tower Hamlets Mayor was the wrong decision for the electorate and it would lead to corruption. Low and behold years later I was proved right as the Mayor was found guilty of mass corruption. After this election, I grew despondent with politics. I realised at least in London people are tribal and will rarely care to see the corruption that is in the world around them. I concentrated on my career. I focused on making money in the financial markets. I did this for many years. However, despite standing for the Pirate party in 2010 I remained a follower and a member of the Conservative party. The Fork in the Road that led to my fall from grace.
In early 2018 I was asked if I would be a conservative candidate in the Hoxton West Ward as the Conservatives were failing to find enough people to put on the ballot paper. I declined at first as I thought I would be too busy working. I was then told that I need only be a paper candidate. A paper candidate is someone who is on the ballot paper there to make up the numbers. I agreed and said as long as I don’t have to campaign. Knowing too well that the Conservatives always come last in Hoxton. Hipsters, Progressives & long-time Hoxton residents aren’t drawn to Conservative Politics. My name was officially on the ballot paper. The election would be on the 5th of May 2018. This would prove to be one of the worst decisions I would ever make. In the run-up to the 5th May election, I would get a call from the lady running the Conservatives election campaign in Hackney. I was told that the Muslim Conservative Mayoral Candidate for Hackney wasn’t able to make the Hustings and she knew I was a fairly good public speaker and debater and asked if I would be good enough to stand in. I hesitated I really didn’t have the time for this - I was under a lot of pressure at work to perform and work USA Hours. However, as I had met Conservatives Muslim Mayoral candidate and thought he was a good man - I agreed to take part.
It was this action that I’m convinced put me on the radar of a so-called Journalist who has consistently been very closely aligned with the Labour party. The so-called Journalists name was Adam Barnet. Adam Barnett decided to do some digging into my internet history. He discovered a few things about me.
This Left-wing activist decided to reach out to me via Twitter using the Hackney papers Twitter account. I have decided not to link the Rag or refer to its name in this post as I don't think their paper deserves the clicks or the improved SEO that this blog post will give their awful paper.
(Please refer to video for the exact content of that Tweet)
I got their Direct Message (DM) while I was sat at my desk in my workplace. I took it for the smear that it was. At this moment in time, I didn’t know who the reporter was who was writing this story. I simply knew someone at the Hackney Rag was out for blood. And they were going to print something with my comment or not. This is a common theme in British Journalism - attack and smear those who don’t think the same as them. Is this Journalism or Activism? I thought for a moment should I just ignore this. I wanted to ignore this but I didn’t know what would be printed. Judging by the content of the DM in my Twitter Inbox the article wasn’t going to be pretty. I decided I had to defend myself from this blatant smear. At least provide context as this parasitic rag certainly had a history of attacking Conservatives.
I have always been an advocate for open discussion and open debate. The exact reason I have frequently visited Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. To put it simply, I enjoy hearing different perspectives and learning from other viewpoints. Throughout my history, I have always loved a good debate. The views I held when I was 17 were very different from the views I held when I was 27 and they changed again when in my 30s. All because I’ve challenged my own viewpoints and those of others in a civil and open debate.
On March 18th 2018 I was at Speakers Corner - I and many who believed in Free Speech were there that day. They came from all walks of life and every religious faith. However, to a far-left activist who wrote for a local rag every man and his dog that day would be smeared with the suggestion that they attended a far-right rally. When instead I and many decent people were simply at Speakers Corner on a cold Sunday in March.
Effectively Adam Barnett not only was smearing me with his accusation that being at Speakers Corner meant I and others were attending a far-right rally. What he was stating was simply not true - he was being incredibly insulting to the thousands of free speech advocates who were there that day.
Thankfully I made a video of that exact day and published it before this DM was sent to me. He knew I had attended not from the video but from the fact that I checked in at speakers corner that day on Facebook and did it publicly. Little did I know those images of a simple check-in would come back to haunt me. If you would like to watch the video that I posted days after attending speakers corner I have posted the link in the description and it has always been made freely available. The video has always been free to view on my YouTube Channel and the link is here
I decided to respond to the left-wing activist to at least defend myself. My response can be seen via my video - which is time-stamped in the description.
I felt like I was damned if I didn’t respond and damned if I did. Many defenders of common sense and free speech such as Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray & Christopher Hitchens have all at one stage stated you should never apologise. They will never accept your apology if you apologise they will simply see blood and go after you like a rabid dog. As far as I was concerned - I had nothing to apologise about I wasn’t Racist, Xenophobic or Bigotted. And yet I would be labelled as all of these in the coming days and weeks all because I dared to question the Political ideology that is Islam.
This video isn’t to argue one way or the other on the rights and wrongs of Islam. If Islam gives people peace in their lives this is great. However, the issue arises for me and other infidels when Islam impacts their lives negatively. However, this video is simply to present what has happened to me for daring to have a view. Unlike the Marxist left, I believe all sides should be given the freedom to practice their faith, have a view on XYZ and all should be able to engage in a dialogue of ideas without the fear of being smeared, attacked or doxxed.
Doxxing, also spelt "doxing," refers to the practice of using the Internet to source out and collect someone's personal and private information and then publicly releasing that information online. Derived from the word "documents," the term is an abbreviated version of "dropping dox," a method of revenge that dates back to the hacker culture of the early 1990s.
This would not be the first time someone has doxxed me. I should have seen it as a warning. However, two years prior to this when I was running a Brokerage in the City of London a fanatical female Islamist called up my workplace and demanded that I should be fired because I dared to be critical of Islam in a public forum. At the time I laughed it off as it was my company and I was the boss. I should have seen this as what was to come. No person or company should feel threatened by those who hold radical religious views. And yet submitting to those that follow the book of Submission seems to be very commonplace in the 21st century.
The local rag printed their smearing article about me and once again please refer to my video to see that article I have no intention of giving that rag any clicks by directing you to their failing website. This article was followed up by a second article only three days later as apparently one article wasn't a big enough smear. This Hackney rag is not an impartial free-thinking publication. It’s not actually interested in telling you the news - it's clearly a failing vehicle for those on the extreme left to attack and smear other people. By the second article, the left-wing press & mob had decided to parrot the story.
And This is where I am left. My name is in tatters because a left-wing activist decided to smear me and the rest of the left-wing mainstream media decided to parrot his poorly written articles. At the time I was thrown to the wolves by the Conservative party. Apparently, I was suspended pending investigation and yet I would later discover that I was no longer suspended and still a fully paid-up member of the Conservative party.
I've pleaded over and over again with Google, Bing & Yahoo to take down the smearing articles - they have refused as they consider me as a paper candidate to be a public figure comparable to Boris Johnson & Donald Trump. And because of this, I've lost two jobs potentially (as no one will admit that on record) and I've been denied employment again and again as Human Resources departments look at Google and take the option of not wanting the grief and saying no. In 2020 where political correctness and image is more important than truth and hard work.
And what do I mean by grief? Well, the average employer now has three fears when it comes to hiring me.
Will hiring me, offend the extreme left? Where they publicise this fact and cause the company to get bad press potentially lowering the company share price - smearing the companies reputation.
Will a violent Islamist go all Charlie Hebdo on the company because they hired a person who dared to question Islam.
I could really be a Far-Right, Racist, Extremist who might suddenly shoot up the workplace. As I’ve lost my hair in part due to the stress of this I may now even look the part of a far-right extremist. And yet this is not me - yes I hold conservative views and yes I believe in free speech but this doesn’t make me a violent extremist.
Is it possible a violent leftist or Islamist could attack the company I work for - yes it is - is this right or my fault, of course, it is not! And yet the world we now live in because of these threats it feels like my career is over. It feels like I have less worth to a potential employer than a hardened criminal who is fresh out of prison. Criminals are given the chance and yet because a parasitic left-wing journalist who used to write for a Hackney rag, decided to smear my name, my job prospects have been flushed down the toilet. Why do I produce content?
Since 2018, I’ve created content for the sole purpose of pushing this negativity off the internet. It’s reached the point now where I’ve lost two jobs because of this that I can no longer continue to hide from this. I believe a change needs to happen where people's lives are not ruined for speaking freely. I believe every topic should be up for political debate without fearing that careers can be ended. We as a nation & a civilisation (western civilization) are being silenced into submission by groups who would like us to submit. I am not the first person in the west who has had his life ruined and I will not be the last. Where I go from here I feel my options are very limited.
Should I have made this video? Maybe yes and maybe no - however I’ve sat in silence for too long and with each day that's passed where I can’t get a break. I feel if I didn’t tell my story about how a selfish left-wing radical destroyed my life then maybe he and people like him would continue getting away with what they do.
We need to change political discourse we need to accept people have different views. It's only through open dialogue can we learn from each other. Cancel culture is a real thing and it has clearly impacted my life. I went from being able to work in the financial markets to suddenly nobody wanting to employ me - All because of what a grubby left-wing activist had decided to print in a third-rate local newspaper. Did the author intend to cancel me or simply hold me to account for my views? Well given that the original article I was labeled as "Anti-Muslim" despite the author providing zero evidence that I was anti-muslim. He, then quickly followed up with the follow-up article which once again attacked me. I think it's easy to argue his intention was to smear my name and because of the climate we live in where the author knows that if you label someone anti-muslim you know damn well you are setting out to cancel that individual.
Did the lady who called my workplace to get me fired want to cancel me - of course, she did! Is this behaviour acceptable? Of course, it's not! Should employers discriminate based on race? Of course, they should not and legally that is a crime. However, it is now clear despite my politics being Left and Right depending on the topic at hand. Its clear due to reprisals, smears & stigma articles like this can damage a person for life. Is that fair - I’m certain if you are on the far left you will think this is fair but I think any fair normal human being would think this isn't how society should be.
The Glass is half full - I won’t let the left impact my life any more than it already has - my plan is to rebuild from the rubble and move forward. Where we go from here I hope you will join me on that journey. I'm ready for the next fork in the road and I'm prepared to climb back up the cliff. Should you wish to reach out to me with opportunities or support - you can find those details here.
Thank you for your time and attention - please support free speech and do not allow the Marxist left to continue to cancel those who do not think the same as them.
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