In my book, The Indispensable Right, I discuss how free speech is in a free fall in Great Britain, where officials continue to crack down on an ever-widening array of viewpoints. Some of these actions are designated as “non-crime hate” but are still the subject of law enforcement actions. According to the Daily Mail, they now include children who have been pulled in for calling other children schoolyard names like “retard” or saying that other children smell “like fish.”
According to the Daily Mail:
“A nine-year-old child is among the youngsters being probed by police over hate incidents… Officers recorded incidents against the child, who called a fellow primary school pupil a ‘retard’, and against two schoolgirls who said another student smelled ‘like fish.’ The youngsters were among multiple cases of children being recorded as having committed non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs), The Times discovered through freedom of information requests to police forces.”
“Non-crime hate” was introduced in 2014 as part of the Hate Crime Operational Guidelines. It is chilling in its ambiguity and scope. It only requires the perception of either a victim or a third party that a statement is motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or transgender identity.
The HCOG stresses, “The victim does not have to justify or provide evidence of their belief, and police officers or staff should not directly challenge this perception. Evidence of the hostility is not required.”
That guarantees the maximal level of investigation and documentation of speech incidents. The chilling effect on free speech is glacial.
For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests. A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire.
While most of us find Brock’s views repellent and hateful, they were confined to his head and his room. Yet, Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement: “I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”
Lodder lambasted Brock for holding Nazi and other hateful values:
“[i]t is clear that you are a right-wing extremist, your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography which you have studied and appeared to share with others…”
Even though Lodder agreed that the defendant was older, had limited mobility, and “there was no evidence of disseminating to others,” he still sent him to prison for holding extremist views.
After the sentencing, Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), warned others that he was going to prison because he “showed a clear right-wing ideology with the evidence seized from his possessions during the investigation….We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.”
Great Britain is now turning, it appears, to their children in speech crackdowns. Schoolyard taunts can be investigated by officers. The impact on both parents and children will obviously be immense. It adds a coercive element to speech laws. Given the subjective and vague standard, the response is to self-censor to avoid any such accusations. Raising children in such an environment will only erode free speech values. Indeed, it fosters the type of speech-phobic generation that many activists may welcome. Speech is viewed as dangerous and subject to continual monitoring by the state.
Stopping some kid from using a playground taunt will do little to instill mutual respect, but it will instill fear over how the state may respond to your words. It is a lesson that many in the free speech community may relish but one that most citizens should reject. “Non-crime hate” investigations are meant to maintain a constant sense of oversight and monitoring of speech, even with our children.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
I don’t like the way people are. I think they deserve to be nuked.
“I don’t like the way people are. I think they deserve to be nuked.”
Why don’t we start with you, swallowing about a gram of plutonium-238?
Actually it would be much more effective if we ground it up and our autistic friend inhaled it.
Pu-238 had a very long half life, like 88 years, and although it is a powerful alpha emitter, very little of its radioactivity will emit before this numbskull takes a shit.
Alpa particles are easily blocked by linings, as well, but have a much more deleterious effect on lung cells.
Waters
“[We gave you] a republic, if you can keep it.”
– Ben Franklin
_________________
You keep the republic by perpetuating the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution.
Lincoln lost the republic after only 71 years by imposing the “dictatorship of the proletariat” of his fellow traveler, Karl Marx.
Lincoln’s communist Frankenstein hybrid is now invaded, factional, and deleteriously heterogeneous, in total disarray, and $36 trillion in debt.
The entire communist American welfare state is unconstitutional and has been since Lincoln.
All Lincoln and America had to do was stringently adhere to the fundamental and legislated statutory law.
Instead, America ended up with the “reconstruction of a social world” (letter Marx/Lincoln, 1865) and the “Reconstruction Amendments” of Karl Marx, which led to the implementation of the Communist Manifesto in America.
America exists under the “dictatorship of the proletariat” in the form of one-man, one-vote democracy, Marx’s slogan, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” and Central Planning (i.e. compulsory EVs, solar panels, wind turbines, etc.), Control of the Means of Production (i.e. unconstitutional regulation), Redistribution of Wealth, and Social Engineering.
Lincoln, Karl Marx, and the Communist Manifesto must have been kept out of America.
The singular American failure has been the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court, the Justices of which swore an oath to support the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what they forbid.”
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
Selected Bee headlines:
– RFK Jr. unveils new school lunches that are just a 24-ounce ribeye and a white claw
– After illegal immigrant found guilty of murder, Dems sentence him to flying coach
– Don Lemon writing Broadway musical about leaving X
– White House chef excited to work with solid foods again
– Musk says federal regulations must fit within 280 characters
– Jaguar releases 3-hour commercial that’s just a naked guy doing a one-man performance of Hamilton
– Before DOGE cuts funding, NIH working feverishly to complete study on the effects of giving meth to jetpack-wearing hamsters
– Lot tells his salt-pillar wife she should drink more water
– Post-menopausal lesbians (Ellen Degeneris and wife) flee America over concerns about forced pregnancies
– Male passenger disappointed after another flight ends without a stewardess frantically asking if anyone can land the plane
Selected headlines by MSM on the Trump ‘dance craze’ sweeping the nation:
– Thousands of liberals dead as Trump unleashes epic dance attack (OAN)
– Do you know who else danced? Hitler (Salon)
– The racist roots of the ‘Trump Dance’ (Huffpost)
– Fact check: it is not sweeping the nation, as sweeping is something only a broom does (Snopes)
– Inside Project 2025’s secret plan to enslave everyone with a mind-controlling dance spell (Vox)
– Why Trump dancing means you should get an abortion (Teen Vogue)
– Don’t let the Trump Dance distract you from the fluoride that’s turning you into a homosexual (Infowars)
– Trump callously dances as the genocide against one-legged sex workers rages on (Vice)
– 4D Chess: Trump winds dance trophy after identifying as winner (Babylon Bee)
– Trump mesmerizes millions with hot, sexy dance moves (Fox News)
We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.
If only they had a mirror…
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Aristotle
Elon Musk’s recurring contact with Russia raises concerns about Putin’s access to Trump’s circle
We’re all very concerned that nuclear Armageddon might be avoided if this communication channel remains in place.
Yikes, totally Flabbergasted by Priggish Moron’s, luckily the United States escaped before such behavior consumed us!
Aaand Western Europe continues its descent into 1930s level fascism part a million. Britain is lost. So are Germany, France, Australia, Spain, Italy, and others. The EU is about primed to be destroyed, IMO. But Britain, *Britain*, is the object lesson. People in Ireland (‘real’ Ireland, not Northern Ireland) should be thanking their lucky stars they are shaking off the UK’s influence, though even that does not appear to be enough.
Western Europe can no longer be considered countries that represent Western freedom. Such is the result of oligarchical globalism. Tsk, tsk. Sad, and something to pay attention to (there is the worst of our worst have headed to the UK to be unelected tyrants), though FWIW, it has been worth paying attention to for well over a decade or more, when the stirrings of revitalized fascism were becoming clear in their nascent stages, which nobody seemed to care about.
I really do feel for people there though, and it could be karma due to Britain’s rampant and historic colonialism: you can’t do this to people forever. Eventually, they will have had enough. One would have thought the Dark Ages or Robespierre would have been sufficient illustration, but I guess nobody studies history anymore.
God bless our 1A, 2A, electoral college, filibuster, and separation of powers. And heaven help the Brits. They are in for a long and not very fun fight.
You should all be ashamed of yourselves! Nasty comments can drive even the most mentally stable person into Insane Asylums! For example, Rob Reiner!
Rob Reiner Says He’s Checking Into Facility To Find ‘Peace’ After Leaving X For Bluesky
Rob Reiner said he’s checking into a facility to find “peace and relaxation” after he left X for the Bluesky social media platform following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.
In a series of posts on Wednesday on Bluesky, the 77-year-old director accused what he called “MAGA scum” of coming over to the platform and ruining it after he and other Hollywood stars announced they had left Elon Musk’s X for the platform after Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris, the Wrap reported.
“This platform is vile, racist and evil,” Reiner wrote. “It did not take long for MAGA scum to come spread their lies.”
“I have made the decision to take the next few days to check into a facility for peace and relaxation,” he added in a second post a short time later. “No phones, social media , no trolls, just calmness to heal my pain.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/rob-reiner-says-hes-checking-into-facility-to-find-peace-after-leaving-x-for-bluesky
Explained well in this video:
They’re literally insane. This whole election for these nuts was a personality contest. Nothing more to them. They don’t like Trumps personality so no matter what he does they won’t give him one iota of a break.
He could literally cure cancer, end all war and crap gold dandelions for the poor on the White House lawn and they’d still call him the antichrist.
They don’t even see real issues like the war in the Ukraine or 6 dollar a dozen eggs, ….they don’t see any of it all they see is a guy they don’t like, a guy they see as a bully.
Seriously Trump could wax a little Truman-esque here and tell them, …. “I never gave you hell, I gave you heaven and you just thought it was hell”.
He’s telling the truth about the war, the censorship and the economy and to them its hell.
@Chris
Very much agreed. Clinical. Reacting to shadows of their own imaginations. Absolute and total madness. *Clinical*. That anyone thinks that what Britain is doing is ‘normal’ is perfect justification to reopen asylums. Madness. Nothing else can be said.
Love Flash’s work. First went to him for entertainment, and now I’m sure his takes brought me to sites like Turley’s, and other sources.
The part he played in “All In The Family”, Meathead, was no caricature of himself.
Why are people mad at Elon Musk? I’ve been watching this hate campaign from the left for a year now, smearing and slandering him about everything, like this troll just did.
Yet I’ve looked at everything he’s done and said that I can find online and from what I can tell the ONLY thing the left has against him is he restored FREE SPEECH to Twitter.
How entirely brainwashed does a person on the left have to be to be fired up enough to constantly attack someone who’s doing WONDERS for our countries space program and industry, … simply because he’s in favor of the age old American Cornerstone Principle, of FREE SPEECH.
How does the left brainwash their followers so much, that they actually are out arguing AGAINST Free Speech?
You said, “from what I can tell the ONLY thing the left has against him is he restored FREE SPEECH to Twitter.”
Well, when you live in a bubble, that is the most horrible thing that a person can do to you – pop the bubble. Just like with Rob Reiner, above. When people can talk back to you, and tell you what an idiot you are, and explain why you are wrong – that hurts. The American Left/Democrats have been living in a fantasy land for decades, and they were insulated by the main stream press, and other folks. When Free Speech is restored, that is like letting the sunlight into a room full of vampires.
…well they better buy some sunscreen then cuz here it comes.
This seems like a case of a solution looking for a problem, so that some can justify their positions.
M + Elon + head = Melon Head
How many hours and days did it take to come up with that one?
All government institutions devolve into “Mission Creep”.
For example, after you create anti-terrorism agencies. What happens if you run out of real terrorists?
Agencies rarely downsize to meet the original mission. If agencies are going to keep growing, those investigators have to investigate somebody – creating mission creep.
If they don’t downsize, they need new targets!
“All government institutions devolve into “Mission Creep”. ”
All too often, even the original, stated, mission is neither justified, nor Constitutional. NTM that even on the (imo rare) occasion that the justification/constitutional part of the stated mission is OK, what we are told is the mission is a lie. Governments just love to stack turtles interminably (I suspect there is an awful pun in there, somewhere, but I currently haven’t the energy to isolate it).
This is a dystopian nightmare. Orwell’s “thought police” a reality. Police in the UK are investigating children for, well, being children. Meanwhile, innocent people are being stabbed on the streets by maniacs.
Who would have thought that in less than a century, the people who fought Nazi’s and Fascists would become those very things?
By what moral authority does the British government — or any western government — have to tell the people what they can and cannot say? These are the same governments who easily tolerate, and fund and arm, the genocide in Gaza and Lebanon, who allow the israelis to starve and bomb innocent civilians, and who refuse to allow Ukraine to negotiate a peace agreement despite the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers in an unnecessary war. There is no western government without blood on its hands. Censoring speech at home is simply population control by the most immoral governments in history.
GioCon,
It is not by moral authority, it is by power, power wielded by the insane. They will not stop until they are afraid or dead. Good old-fashioned tribal warfare where tribes are defined by mental viruses instead of geography and geneology.
Get lost, nazi liar.
Really? Now they are picking on school children? I guess the Brits have forgotten the old adage “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names shall never hurt me.”
In no time at all each new born Briton will be hermetically sealed in his own bubble, never to interact with another thing so as to insure that no one is ever offended.
They already banned sticks and stones.
Oh, lookie! Great Britain summons Elon Musk to answer for his promotion of disinformation:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/elon-musk-responds-british-government-summons-him-disinformation-hearing
Meanwhile, over here in the Colonies, we just let a hate-crime hoaxer get off the hook:
he can get a politically motivated reprieve, but the majority of us know exactly what he is; just like oprah, whoopie and the rest of the whining racists on the left.
Smollette simply was fined. He paid it. Plea deal. He paid 10 thou to Fox to drop it.
I thought I read an article yesterday (don’t currently have the link handy) claiming that charges against Pussy! Smell-it! were dismissed because of an error on the part of the prosecutor.
Little boy who cried wolf
Turley– “Yet, Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement: “I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”
++
So UK judges have adopted Nazi values.