On the Left, being anti-free speech is not just welcomed—it’s rewarded. This isn’t anything new. What is new is the level of creepiness that’s soaked liberal dialogues about this fundamental right. Liberals are so incensed that a) other views exist, and b) they must tolerate said opinions that they’ve established an ethos where suffocating the First Amendment with a pillow is not just warranted but necessary for society. The most extensive and intrusive system was revealed to be housed in Silicon Valley, where former spooks, all lefties, were hired in top positions, especially regarding content moderation. The FBI had a dedicated team of dozens of agents to police social media postings, ban certain accounts, reduce the reach of others, and influence public opinion in the process.
The Left’s agenda items have gone so far outside the mainstream that feelings and emotions are the only things that prop up these initiatives, which don’t do well when pressed against facts. Hence, the anti-free speech advocacy that’s camouflaged as public safety. Both parties are guilty of this behavior. McCarthyism and red scares were atrocious, but the Left’s penchant for stifling opinions, even innocuous ones, that don’t comport with their reality is otherworldly. As classical liberals, who are appalled by these antics, have observed, their side used to be for free speech. UC Berkeley was a mecca to express opinions of all sorts freely. The mob burns you at the stake if you say porn shouldn’t be in middle school libraries.
It's going international, too. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who threw in the towel earlier this year at 42 because she got gassed doing the job, spoke at the United Nations recently, equating free speech to a weapon of war. Law professor Jonathan Turley seemed horrified by her remarks:
In her latest attack on free speech, Ardean declared free speech as a virtual weapon of the war. She remains the “empathetic” face of raw censorship and intolerance. She is now the virtual ambassador-at-large for global speech criminalization. https://t.co/6UJdkI8hly
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) September 20, 2023
I'm struggling to remember the good guys in history who said the key to keeping people free is to take away their ability to speak freely. https://t.co/xEMBialTYS
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) September 20, 2023
Jacinda Ardern may no longer be Prime Minister of New Zealand, but she was back at the United Nations continuing her call for international censorship. Ardern is now one of the leading anti-free speech figures in the world and continues to draw support from political and academic establishments. In her latest attack on free speech, Ardean declared free speech as a virtual weapon of war. She is demanding that the world join her in battling free speech as part of its own war against “misinformation” and “disinformation.” Her views, of course, were not only enthusiastically embraced by authoritarian countries, but the government and academic elite.
In her speech, she notes that we cannot allow free speech to get in the way of fighting things like climate change. She notes that they cannot win the war on climate change if people do not believe them about the underlying problem. The solution is to silence those with opposing views. It is that simple.
[…]
What is so chilling is to hear Ardean express her fealty to free speech as she calls on the nations of the world to severely curtail it to prevent people from undermining their policies and priorities. She remains the “empathetic” face of raw censorship and intolerance. She is now the virtual ambassador-at-large for global speech regulation and criminalization.
And Turley added that Ardern received two fellowships from Harvard, which he has no problem with, except that they should acknowledge that she’s an anti-free speech zealot.
What’s next? Two minutes of hate, a dictionary that’s only 30-40 ages—double-plus good?