Legislating Speech
Freedom of Speech has been a fundamental element that has set America aside from other nations since its founding. The Founding Fathers thought this to be so essential to the survival and prosperity of America that they included it as the First Amendment to the Constitution in our Bill of Rights. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government: When this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved”. Furthermore, our first President George Washington added, “If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences that can invite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter”. Today, Washington’s words could not be more resounding. There is a war for your thoughts that is raging around the world and you may or may not be aware.
As with many aspects of America’s present and future one must first look at Europe and observe the current social climate. Many know that the United States’ path to freedom was paved by the political disdain created by oppressive and draconian British Royal Laws. Before America became a nation, its colonists faced harsh penalties for criticizing the king’s laws and decrees. Most widely known, the infamous “taxation without representation” which caused many who opposed it to suffer under the harsh punishments of Great Britain. In those times, if a person was convicted of violating the king’s decrees of speaking out against him he was placed in a prison ship. This was a ship which was anchored in the middle of a body of water whose passengers were prisoners in chains. These prisoners suffered greatly under abysmal conditions and lack of nutrition, sanitation or clean water. Many were punished in this way and similar manners before finally, the United States of America became a nation. Today, Americans enjoy the right to freedom of speech because our Founders knew this was key to every citizen’s overall pursuit of happiness.
European countries, however still face challenges when it comes to its citizen’s rights to say and express what they feel. Recently in the U.K, a court in Scotland found a citizen guilty of a hate crime for teaching his dog the infamous Roman salute (erroneously called the ‘Nazi’ salute). In Sweden, a 71 year old man was jailed for criticizing Islam. An 89 year old German woman, Ursula Haverbeck has been sentenced to prison for the crime of sedition. She has been accused of denying the Holocaust and was sentenced to 14 months in Prison. She’s not the only German facing hard time for Holocaust denial. Siblings Alfred and Monika Schaefer are currently on trial after both were accused of denying the occurrence of the Holocaust. Even if a country doesn’t have specific laws banning the denial of the Holocaust, some have what they call ‘hate speech laws’. This broader hate speech legislation exists in countries such as the Netherlands and Spain.
As if the laws in Europe weren’t weird enough, social media brings a new challenge to enforcement of these ludicrous laws. Germany implemented laws that force social networks to remove hate speech posts, which includes “defamation of religions, religious and ideological associations,” as well as illegal content within 24 hours or face fines up to 50 million Euros. The new laws give the German government expanded freedom to trample rights. In Great Britain, London authorities alone arrest more than two people every day for posting up messages that violated the country’s Communications Act 2003, which prohibits offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing messages.
Social media platforms have demonstrated not only their willingness to cooperate with Europe’s war on speech, but their intentions to assist in whatever way possible to bringing those same laws to the U.S. No doubt that the American public has noticed social media’s recent censorship of Conservative journalists such as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. These tactics are merely designed to get Americans conditioned to the idea of censoring topics that don’t fit the mainstream narrative. In an interview with CNN in July of 2018, Randi Zuckerberg the sister of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was quoted saying the following: “I don’t want to live in a world where Holocaust deniers are given a voice and I think we absolutely need to be having a debate at a national level on whether they deserve a place on any platform at all. At the same time, I also don’t want to live in a world where tech companies get to decide who has the right to speech and get to police content in a way that is different from what our legal system dictates. […] Rather than rally against technology, let’s recognize that this hate exists, that it’s not going anywhere, and use our anger as a rallying cry to call for legislation to make Holocaust denial a crime”. The Zuckerberg’s have made it no secret that this war is coming to America. Organizations such as the ADL and SPLC agree it’s necessary.
As the media continues to get Americans conditioned to the idea that certain words have no place in society, we have also seen an up rise in crooked politicians and prosecutors willing to defy the Bill of Rights to charge citizens with hate crimes for speech. Myron Gabbert, the prosecutor in Adams County, IA has recently charged Lonny Rae with felony malicious harassment and disturbing the peace. The charge comes after Rae says he uttered a racially charged word at a black man who he filmed in a scuffled with his wife over her camera. The other man involved has not faced any charges whatsoever and the Rae’s must face valuable time and resources on battling these insane charges. In New York City, the Queens District Attorney has charged 58-year-old resident Edward Ruggiero with third-degree menacing as a hate crime and second-degree aggravated harassment — crimes punishable by up to a year in jail and $1,000 fine. He was alleged to calling a black woman a racial slur on the subway. That altercation was also caught in tape.
Make no mistake about it. The media has inspired and even glorified people taking violent action against so called “racists”. Michael Harriot, a writer for the Black supremacist magazine ‘the Root’ (who is a self-proclaimed ‘World-renowned wypipologist’), recently said this of a video where a black man slaps a white woman after she utters a racially charged comment: “No one has confirmed whether man has been arrested or if the woman ever managed to reinsert her eyeball”. A New York female rapper known as Princess Nokia boasted after her violent altercation with a white man: “And yes I threw hot soup in this man’s face and kicked him off of the train, and kicked in the face. Any other racists wanna try us again”, she wrote on twitter. No charges have been filed against the rapper. These are just some examples of the frenzy that is building in America. Prepare yourselves for more of these incidents. Brace yourselves for a world where speech is illegal. The enemy has demonstrated that they have no regard for the rights of sovereign citizens and they will stop at nothing to strip us of those rights. Most of all, be careful what you say and do in public that can be traced back to you. The enemy will not spare anyone of their tactic of ruining careers and livelihoods over words. It’s my hope that Americans can wake up before it’s unfortunately too late.
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