The US is a rare beacon of free speech
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On Friday, Vice President JD Vance gave a historic defense of free speech at the Munich Security Conference. In front of a clearly hostile assemblage of European diplomats, Vance confronted our allies with their systemic censorship as they demanded more support to “defend democracy.”
For the free speech community, it was akin to Ronald Reagan’s call: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Vance questioned how our allies could claim to be the bastions of freedom while denying free expression to their citizens.
He then delivered this haymaker: “If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you. Nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people that elected me and elected President Trump.”
Not surprisingly, the Europeans sat on their hands while glaring at Vance for calling them out for their hypocrisy. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius declared Vance’s remarks were “not acceptable.” An unnamed German official in attendance declared, “This is all so insane and worrying.”
The outrage of the Europeans was only surpassed by our own anti-free speech voices in government, the media and academia.
Commentator and CNN regular Bill Kristol called the speech “a humiliation for the US and a confirmation that this administration isn’t on the side of the democracies.”
It appears that free speech is no longer viewed as pro-democracy.
Indeed, it could be outright fascism.
In one of the most bizarre attacks, CBS anchor Margaret Brennan confronted Secretary of State Marco Rubio over Vance’s support for free speech given the fact that he was “standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide.”
In other words, it was free speech that brought Hitler to power and caused the Holocaust.
Brennan’s statement is completely detached from history and logic.
Germans did enjoy free speech protections after World War I, though the Weimar Constitution was more limited than the First Amendment. However, one of the first things that the Nazis did in coming to power in 1933 was to crack down on free speech and criminalize dissent. Censorship is the harbinger of authoritarianism and Germany is the ultimate example of how no censorship system in history has ever succeeded in killing one idea or stopping a single movement.
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The speech police in the UK and Europe are after what they see as "wrong think." The problem with that is like Nazi Germany, the politicians in power get to decide what is not allowed. That is the opposite of freedom of speech which the US constitution allows. Those who oppose free speech think it is a threat to their control of the narrative.
See also:
Rubio destroys CBS News anchor with facts after she tries blaming Holocaust on free speech
And:
He confronts a governing class that has abandoned the values America and the Continent share.
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In Munich, a historic byword for appeasement, Mr. Vance issued a call to arms. The most worrisome threat to Europe, he said, isn’t from Russia or China. It is “the threat from within.” Really, this is a threat from above. Europe’s governing class has eviscerated the “fundamental values” that Europe shares with the U.S. It has reneged on its military commitments to America and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It has opened its gates to mass immigration and Islamist terrorism. To evade the electoral reckoning, it censors, smears and suppresses the objections of the lawful majority: a “surefire way to destroy democracy.”
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And:
Laugh It Up, Funny Boy: Germans Who Laughed at Trump Over Russia Are Weeping Bitter Tears of Regret
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