On 9 January 2007, when Steve Jobs took the stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, the world did not yet know that it was about to witness the unveiling of something that would change the way we live forever. Jobs presented the iPhone as three devices in one: a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod and an innovative Internet browsing device. But the real revolution was not in the hardware: it was in the concept. It was the way that object put new power into the hands of users, making old patterns and paradigms obsolete.
Here, JD Vance did the same thing at the Munich Security Conference on 14 February 2025. Only the device he presented has no touch screen, no processor and no integrated camera. It is a much more powerful tool: it is a mirror of reality.
Vance took the stage and, like Jobs, pulled out his revolutionary device. He pointed the mirror in front of the European leaders and forced them to look at themselves. He showed them not the idealised image they like to tell themselves at institutional conferences, but their true face. And them? Like those who have avoided really looking at themselves for too long, they got scared.
Because the mirror does not lie. It does not distort. It does not beautify. And the reflection it has given them back is that of a ruling class that, while obsessively talking about democracy, is afraid of the will of the people.
Vance reminded Europeans that a democracy that cancels elections, censors dissent, and threatens to shut down social media in the event of civil unrest is no longer a democracy. He told, in no uncertain terms, of a Europe that bans silent prayer in the street and in homes, that criminalises thought and considers freedom of expression dangerous. He lined up instances of censorship, of repression of ideas, of alternating current democracy.
And just as it happens with those who refuse to accept the truth, the reaction of the old information giants was predictable: panic. No mainstream media reported Vance’s speech without manipulating it, without distorting it, without taking one sentence and turning it into something else. As usual, the big media were more concerned with rewriting reality than reporting it.
The great paradox is that, in 2007, Steve Jobs was accused of using his famous Reality distortion field to make everything seem more revolutionary than it was. Today, the real reality distortion field is the one created by European governments and the media that protect them.
An example.
Vance denounced the fact that a court in Romania annulled the presidential elections. He pointed out that in Germany they are threatening to do the same. He mentioned that EU leaders obsessively talk about Russian disinformation, as if the entire European democratic system was so fragile that it could be demolished by a few Facebook posts. Well, now go and read the mainstream headlines on this passage of his speech. Did anyone report his entire reflection? No. They wrote: that “JD Vance criticises the fight against Russian disinformation”. As if his concern was defending Putin’s propaganda, and not the fact that European democracy is becoming an empty shell.
Or take the part about religious freedom. Vance told the story of Adam Smith Conner, a British veteran guilty of praying in silence near an abortion clinic. No signs. No interaction with anyone. Just silent prayer. The result? Conviction and hefty fine. How did the media report this passage? “JD Vance attacks UK abortion laws”. Why tell the truth when you can construct a narrative?
The central point of Vance’s speech is that there is no security without freedom. You cannot defend a civilisation if you are afraid of the voice of the people. You cannot build the future based on the repression of dissent.
Yet, today the political debate in Europe is being reduced to a war between the elite and the people. European leaders think they can ‘govern’ without being accountable to anyone. That they can ignore the people’s vote without consequences. That they can shut down social media, cancel elections, persecute dissidents, and call all this defence of democracy.
But the truth is that the wind has already changed.
The mirror that JD Vance has placed in front of Europe is not a rhetorical stunt. It is a reflection of a change that is already taking place. From England to France, from Germany to Italy, discontent is mounting. More and more people see the great deception and are preparing to break it.
What Steve Jobs did in 2007 with the iPhone, Vance did in 2025 with Europe. He showed a reality that others were trying to hide. And those who try to deny it, who try to break the mirror, will only prove Vance right.
Because the truth cannot be erased, it can only be delayed. The truth hurts.
