We have previously discussed the growing anti-free speech movement in Ireland. As discussed in The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in the Age of Rage, these crackdowns on free speech tend to come with periods of public panic or anger. Anti-free speech advocates use such periods as opportunities to get the public to surrender this core right to government censors or prosecutors. Right on schedule, Ireland is now pushing one of the most chilling crackdowns to date.
The excuse for the latest rollback of free speech was a riot in Dublin leading to the arrest of 34 people and extensive property damage in anti-immigration protests. The protests have challenged the government policies on handling undocumented migrants.
The bill criminalizes any “preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics.” That includes any material concerning national or ethnic origin, as well as protected characteristics including “transgender and a gender other than those of male and female.”
The bill includes crimes relating to “xenophobia” and can be committed merely by the”public dissemination or distribution of tracts, pictures or other material.”
Elon Musk has flagged the law as have other free speech advocates.
Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar has rushed to ride the political wave after the recent Dublin riot to announce that he would fight hatred by taking away rights. He declared his intent to “modernize laws against hatred” by criminalizing speech that his government decides is “incitement.” He insisted that the existing legislation is “not up to date for the social media age” and needs to have a broad reach of criminalized speech. He wants to crackdown not just on violence but on those who say things that might “stir up” others.
What was particularly chilling was a speech by the Irish Green Party Sen. Pauline O’Reilly who admitted that “We are restricting freedom, but we’re doing it for the common good.”
That is all it takes to get citizens to surrender core rights, a declaration that fewer rights is better for the common good. It has become a Siren Call on the left not just abroad but in the United States.
I have previously written columns about the rising generation of censors in our country. After years of being told that free speech is harmful and dangerous, many young people are virtual speech phobics — demanding that opposing views be silenced as “triggering” or even forms of violence. A recent Pew poll showed just how much ground we have lost, including the emergence of the Democratic Party as a virulent anti-free speech party. Pew found that “Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are much more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to support the U.S. government taking steps to restrict false information online (70% vs. 39%).”
Ireland shows how public disorder can play into the hands of government officials in further limiting the right of free speech. As O’Reilly explained, free speech is simply too dangerous and denying the right is now viewed as a public good.
Of course, some have more direct measures. Dublin Councilman Abul Kalam Azad Talukder has reportedly called for protesters to be “shot in the head or bring the public in and beat them until they die.”
“Ireland shows how public disorder can play into the hands of government officials in further limiting the right of free speech.”
How so? The public disorder has nothing to do with it. They are committing genocide, disorder or not. The decision to commit genocide was made long ago, and — as was done in the UK and Canada — the criminalization of anti-genocide speech would have happened even without any “disorder”.
I am surprised so many commenters at this site are taking Prof. Turley to task —-
So now Ireland has become the next autocratic ‘dictatorship’ following the Xi CCP example — who’s next?
Ireland is no longer a travel destination on my bucket list — Australia came off the list years ago —- if I were Irish of the boomer generation, I’d be royally pissed off at what has happened in my little old country……..even a pint of Guiness won’t solve this problem –
My sentiments on many levels!! If America sneezes,, Ireland catches a cold !!!🤣🙏👍
In legal speak, “we discussed” just means “I previously wrote about it.”
LOL — sure.
Nice try. “We have previously discussed” is actually how an OLD FASHIONED professor starts a lecture by reminding the class where an earlier lecture left off.
It’s a stilted mannerism.
man·ner·ism /ˈmanəˌrizəm/ noun
1. a habitual gesture or way of speaking or behaving; an idiosyncrasy.
“learning the great man’s speeches and studying his mannerisms”
Similar: idiosyncrasy, quirk, oddity, foible,trait, peculiarity, habit, characteristic, characteristic gesture, trick
2. excessive or self-conscious use of a distinctive style in art, literature, or music.
“he seemed deliberately to be stripping his art of mannerism”
stilt·ed /ˈstiltəd/ adjective
1. (of a manner of talking or writing) stiff and self-conscious or unnatural.
“we made stilted conversation”
Similar: strained, forced, contrived, constrained, labored, laborious, stiff, self-conscious, awkward, unnatural, wooden, unrelaxed, artificial, mannered
“We have previously discussed” is actually how an OLD FASHIONED professor starts a lecture by reminding the class where an earlier lecture left off.
Exactly right. I heard it many times in college and law school. It is one of those speech idioms that carries over into writing.
Does it matter ?
This is really the best criticism that the left can come up up ?
A liberal professor, on his blog say “we discussed”, Rather than I wrote and that is the big error of his article ?
Thanks for the definitions; I learned something.!
MESPO ASKS:
Why would we “weed out” foreign trolls?
Here longtime commenter Mespo seriously doubts that foreign trolls are anything to worry about.
Mespo has no idea that Russian trolls have sought to inflame racial tensions in the United States.
Below is an article from Wikipedia to illustrate how insidious Russian trolls have been.
……………………………….
Russian operatives created hundreds of fake personas linked to social media accounts and began posting content that related to two different aspects of the Black Lives Matter movement.
On one hand, posts promoted the Black Lives Matter cause by emphasising police brutality in the United States toward minority groups; on the other hand, other posts supported police divisions, strongly criticised any opposition to the police, and denounced the Black Lives Matter movement.
Edited From:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_Black_Lives_Matter
Look at posters here.
Do you really think that the assorted “trolls” here – regardless of who they might be affiliated with are changing anyone’s minds about anything ?
If Russians or others wish to Troll the internet – LET THEM.
Russia Russia Russia,, it’s been proven a lie once.
After Watching the FBI and I think it would require Choosing a degree of naivete to avoid seeing the obvious to believe the CIA are not also involved in creating fake accounts and driving division, maybe it’s time to look closer to home for the trolls.
We all WATCHED as the body cam footage was kept hidden after the Gentle Giant, Hands up Don’t shoot killing of Michael Brown situation while the media kept harping on the Cops Shoot unarmed black guys narrative. Finally, the people’s demanding that footage, which They Did NOT want released, because, Ongoing Investigation, right?
The investigation was OVER as Soon as the footage was released. The footage PROVED the cop was well within his rights to kill that guy.
The people who are Supposed to be solving problems were Actively building strife and division,while they held the truth away from the People.
But that doesn’t mean anything?
Wake up.
Anonymous – your xenophobia shows no bounds.
Dear Professor Turley: Thanks for wonderful columns over the years. I read the proposed new Irish law a few days back. it states that material promoting hate speech is a crime, but only if it is distributed, there is intent to distribute or intent to act on the violence such material may call for. Your column first states that just possession is a crime, then says ” committed merely by the”public dissemination or distribution of tracts, pictures or other material”. So it appears that a person, say, who merely has hate speech on their phone, or a paper in their pocket, with no intent to distribute or act, could be convicted. That is not the case from my reading. I am not a legal scholar however. But I would like for you to clarify – is mere possession the crime or must a person distribute, intend to distribute or intend to act on the material. My reading is that is is the later.
Speech is distribution.
“We have previously discussed the growing anti-free speech movement in Ireland.”
LOL — I LOVE the way Turley talks AT readers, NEVER reads what his readers write, and then PRETEHDS that we all “discussed” something.
That’s such an Obama-like characteristic, especially when Dennis chimes in pretending back that he’s addressing Turley and that Turley reads his posts.
Just goes to show that the democrat apple doesn’t fall far from the DNC tree.
As Lincoln put it: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but a democrat is a democrat and will ALWAYS be a worthless lying democrat, even when RINO Rupert Murdoch is signing his pay checks.”
Why would Professor Turley read this crap?
Citizen-loathing government meets disgruntled citizens. They don’t love the arabs; they just hate the Irish. This is when people have the right to revolt. Or maybe it’s the duty to revolt.
So-Called ‘Free Speech’ Movement Favors Foreign Trolls
The U.S. federal government has stopped warning some social networks about foreign disinformation campaigns on their platforms, reversing a years-long approach to preventing Russia and other actors from interfering in American politics
The developments underscore the far-reaching impact of a conservative legal campaign against initiatives established to avoid a repeat of the 2016 election, when Russia manipulated social media in an attempt to sow chaos and swing the vote for Donald Trump.
The shift erodes a partnership considered crucial to the integrity of elections around the world — just months before voters head to the polls in Taiwan, the European Union, India and the United States.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/30/biden-foreign-disinformation-social-media-election-interference/
…………………………………..
Professor Turley knows that foreign trolls are a major presence on social media. Yet strangely he is not the least bit concerned. House Republicans have, in fact, waged an aggressive campaign to prevent social media companies from weeding-out foreign trolls; which speaks volumes about today’s GOP.
“Professor Turley knows that foreign trolls are a major presence on social media. Yet strangely he is not the least bit concerned. House Republicans have, in fact, waged an aggressive campaign to prevent social media companies from weeding-out foreign trolls; which speaks volumes about today’s GOP.”
****************************
Why would we “weed out” foreign trolls when our own are so numerous (looking at you Aninny) and by your implication, benign. These foreigners no more dangerous than our good sense allows. Most folks aren’t infleunced by the damnable internet. They are influenced by events in their real lives. The Left thinks only they can resist the “foreign trolls” siren song when in the greatest of ironies, they are in fact the real “foreign trolls.”
Explain exactly how Russians manipulated social media in order to help Trump. This was propaganda by the state and the controlled media. Explain how this was done.
Would it matter ?
What is there that Russia can do through social media ?
Vulcan min melds ?
The US government constantly speaks regarding foreign elections.
Foreign governments constantly speak about US elections.
The Ukrainian Ambassador to the US wrote an anti-Trump op-ed in 2016 and had anti-trump information on the embassy web site.
Why is it that left wing nuts are so stupidly worried about speech ?
Washington Post is complete fake news gov’t propaganda, “Pravda on the Potonmac.”
GOOD.
We do not need our government telling ANYONE who is allowed to speak on the internet.
Left wing nuts seem to think that everyone who disagrees with them is a russian troll or a nazi, or has engaged in hate speech.
So where do you go after you have accused everyone you disagree with of being a russian troll, a nazi, a racist, a sexist, … and no one is listening – because supermajorities grasp that:
Your the troll.
Your wrong
It does not matter.
100 years ago – liberal justice Brandeis famously told us that the only legitimate response to bad seech was more speech.
How far those of you on the left have fallen.
Joe MacCarthy will welcome you to hell.
Professor Turley knows that foreign trolls are a major presence on social media.
I won’t speak for the Prof, but I know no such thing. I don’t believe our govt. Their only purpose is promoting a political narrative. So if they believe it will keep them in power, they just make stuff up. Remember the Whipping of Hatians at the border? The Dems refuse to apologize for their lies, Biden even doubled down on the lie. After the agencies conducted a long investigation, and cleared the mounted border guards, Biden ordered the men still be discplined.
Muller report claimed the Russians influenced the 2016 election. Proof offered was $150K in facebook ads. $2 Billion in ads spent on the presidential election, and the left believe $150k had influence.
Absolutely we can not trust our government – nor is that new. Do people forget the Church Commission, or the MacCarthy era,
or any of a very long list of lies we have been told over the years ? Vietnam ? Golf of Tonkin ? The Vincenze ? Wacco ? Ruby Ridge ?
Richard Jewel ? Bruce Ivers ? and Iraqi WMD’s ?
The question is why would anyone Trust our government on anything ?
As to Mueller – he was personally involved in several past FBI scams. And as we now KNOW the Collusion Delusion was not only a hoax from the start but the FBI KNEW it.
Had Mueller been an actually honest person, within a week of opening the SC office he would have reported to the AG that he could not proceed. That the Collusion delusion was a hoax perpitrated by Clinton and that there was no evidence that would enable him to open an investigation much less get a warrant.
I am disapointed that Turley has not taken this up.
AGAIN in August of 2016 FBI KNEW the course of the Alpha Bank scam and the Steele Dossier was CLINTON.
And they KNEW it was all manufactured.
The constitution forbids the Government from conducting fishing expiditions.
Mueller promised to follow the DOJ/FBI guidelines – which are actually more than guidelines, they are The LAW and Constitution expressed as DOJ policy.
The moment Mueller was apointed – his FIRST task was to determine whether he had enough credible evidence to even open an investigation – He did not.
One of the reasons that DOJ ultimately dropped the Flynn case was that Strzok has illegally kept the case open after Canchenko was interviewed and admitted it was all made up. The Interview of Flynn was conducted as part of an illegal investigation.
The law regarding lying to a federal agent REQUIRES a legitimate investigation.
There was none when Strzok interviewed Flynn. There was none when Mueller started his investigation.
Americans do not trust Democrats which explains why Democrats want to take guns away from them.
Apparently the distrust is mutual. And yet Democrats are outnumbered by Republicans and Independents
Many More Voters With Guns
More than half of American voters say that they or someone in their household owns a gun, according to a poll by NBC News. That’s the highest level since its polls began asking in 1999. After progressives drove up firearm ownership with policies that are soft on violent crime, they can’t figure out why their gun-control ideas fail to pass.
The share of voters with a firearm in the household is 52%, up from 46% in 2019 and 42% in 2013. A partisan split is evident. Gun households now include 66% of Republicans, 45% of independents, and 41% of Democrats.
Twenty-four percent of black voters were in gun households in 2019. Today it’s 41%, up 17 points. Over the same period, the number for white voters rose three points, to 56% from 53%.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-voters-with-guns-than-ever-black-ownership-republican-democrat-c9d98aca
Jonathan: Speaking of attacks on “free speech” the Irish government can’t hold a candle to DJT. Yesterday he posted an attack on NBCUniversal. Why? Because the media giant continues to criticize him. DJT even attacked Brian Roberts, the CEO of NBCU parent Comcast. DJT called Roberts a “slimeball who has been able to get away from these constant attacks for years”. He says MSNBC criticisms amount to “election interference”.
So what is DJT demanding? He says “our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay pay for their illegal [?] political activity”. Does he really expect the Biden administration to “come down hard” on the media? It just shows how much DJT is out of touch with reality.
But DJT has big plans for a second administration. He has said he will appoint a special prosecutor to go after the Biden family. He will no doubt use the DOJ to go after his media critics–the NY Times, the WP and MSNBC. Probably not Fox News–although Rupert has turned his back on DJT as a candidate. So who knows. There is no end to DJT’s vengeance.
DJT has never been a proponent of “free speech”–except for his own. So why do you continue to defend DJT?
Dennis, does it ever bother you that Hunter and Bidens are scoring millions of dollars from Ukraine and China while you are slaving away for peanuts commenting on the Turley blog?
LOL — I LOVE how you begin every post with “Jonathan,” pretending that you’re commuticating with the Professo, as if Turley actually reads his comment section. But remember, Christmas is coming, so instead of starting with “Jonathan,” you should probably begin with “Dear Santa.”
Dennis you “attack” people all the time. You attack Turley, You attack Trump, you attack conservatives.
That is called free speech. It is free speech when you attack Fox. It is free speech when Trump attacks NBC.
If you do not like what Trump says – do not vote for him.
Attacking the press IS free speech. Using the power of government to coerce the press, or social media to censor people – that is anit-free speech.
And yesterday we learned even MORE about past and ongoiing government efforts to censor the free speech of others.
There should have been a special prosecutor long ago. During the Obama administration.
Joe and the Biden’s have been corrupt for decades.
Further the Biden’s are stupid. Hillary atleast ran here bribery operation openly as a private charity.
Oligarch pay her hundreds of millions and the clinton family and cronies use it to wine and dine and jet arround the world to talk about how other people should conduct charity.
Joe was so stupid he modeled his public corruption scheme after Drug Cartels.
The Biden’s are not the most corrupt career politicians – BY FAR.
But they are the stupidest
And YOU voted for Joe Biden to be president.
Wasn’t it Obama that said – “never underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to F#$K things up” ?
The country is suffering from YOUR stupidity in voting for this demented moron to be president.
Trump is not going after Biden. He did not go after Hillary, Depsite the “Lock her up” chants – and no one deserves an orange jumpsuit more than Hillary.
Regardless, we are in the midst of massive political theater.
Democrats are struggling desparately to try to make their abuse of power in going after political enemies look legitimate – and Failing misserably.
Republicans are trying to push Joe to the point he must pardon Hunter.
10% of possible Trump voters have said they will not vote for Trump if they are presented with REAL evidence of a crime.
4 indictments, 91 counts and you STILL have nothing that most people beleive.
Conversely the Biden scandal grows by the day. In addition to the Ukrain bribery which is proven end to end, we are also seeing a growing body of evidence that Hunter was given access o classified information that he used in his businesses.
Regardless, shortly after the 2024 election is over – no matter the outcome – if Biden manages to survive to the general election,
Biden will pardon himself and his family. There will be no Biden family Special counsel.
Everyone including Trump knows that.
Right now Trump’s threats are putting the court on notice that if they allow what Democrats are doing, that they will not be able to stop republicans from doing the same to democrats in 2025.
The real goal is to get the courts to stop this nonsense.
Which they should have long ago.
AS to NBC and the rest of the media – they should expect to be treated with the respect they have earned.
I have no respect for LIARS.
If Trump is bashing lying pundits – GOOD FOR HIM.
You bash Fox all the time – why is it that Trump and Republicans can not bas the far less credible MSM ?
Verbally tongue lashing the media is not anti-free speech it is FREE SPEECH.
as Justice Brandeis write in Whitney V California
“If there be time to expose through discussion, the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
“We have previously discussed the growing anti-free speech movement in Ireland.”
Not to be confused with the anti-free-speech movement right here in Turleyville.
Anti-Semite NYU Law ousted from student bar for praising Hamas massacre of Jews on Oct 7.
One less immoral, unethical, self-absorbed lawyer to inflict pain on Americans.
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https://nyunews.com/news/2023/11/29/sba-presidency/
Students at NYU Law voted to remove the president of the school’s Student Bar Association after they sent a statement in support of Palestinian resistance in a newsletter.
“To not even know that this vote was moving forward felt kind of disrespectful to me and a lack of courtesy,” Workman said. “I was disappointed in the outcome, but I wasn’t upset with law students regarding the vote. I really place a lot of the blame on the administration for taking the extraordinary steps for removing me as president when they did not elect me.”
Kathy Griffin is in legal trouble again ….this chick is poison.
https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/23a0240p-06.pdf
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
No. 23-5257
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville.
No. 3:22-cv-00295—William Lynn Campbell, Jr., District Judge.
SUTTON, Chief Judge. Kathy Griffin, a California-based celebrity and social activist, sent a series of tweets to her two million Twitter followers asserting that Tennessean Samuel Johnson, the CEO of Tennessee-based VisuWell, had engaged in homophobic conduct. She encouraged her followers to make him “online famous” and tagged his company. She then asked
his employer to “remove[]” him from the Board of Directors and threatened that the “nation w[ould] remain vigilant” if it did not. Within a day of her first tweets, the company fired Johnson and removed him from the Board. Johnson and his wife sued Griffin in federal court in Tennessee, claiming (among other things) that she tortiously interfered with his employment.
Griffin argued that her tweets did not subject her to the State’s personal jurisdiction, and the district court dismissed the case. We disagree and reverse.
“The Johnsons sued Griffin in federal court in Tennessee for tortiously interfering with Johnson’s employment, inflicting emotional distress, invading their privacy, and negligently injuring them. The district court dismissed the lawsuit for lack of personal jurisdiction over Griffin.”