Now, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants the world to know that she is not, as widely claimed, anti-free speech … so she is allegedly cracking down on free speech until people change their minds. It appears that, while the liberal Scholz government may be near collapse, irony is still thriving in Germany.
Faeser’s approach may seem like a variation on a Captain ordering that “the beatings will continue until morale improves.” However, in Germany’s anti-free speech politics, it makes perfect sense. Faeser recently tried and failed to shut down a right-wing publication.
Conservative journalist David Bendels, editor-in-chief of the AfD-aligned DeutschlandKurier, lampooned Faeser by showing a meme of her holding a sign reading, “I hate free speech.” Deutschland-Kurier is aligned with the opposition conservative AfD party.
As if to prove her point, Faeser allegedly unleashed her office on Bendels and threatened him with a criminal prosecution for lampooning her views. The court has already imposed a fine, but according to some reports, jail time is possible.
There is little coverage of the story beyond a few conservative websites. It is, therefore, hard to confirm some key facts given the absence of coverage in the mainstream media. If true, this would seem a major story in using criminal laws to police parodies. I waited for days in the hopes of learning more about this controversy. Yet, there remains virtually no coverage.
The controversy offers an interesting context to explore how we address the problem of fake images and photos on the Internet. There are indeed good-faith concerns on both sides of such parodies.
If the accounts are accurate, the question is how politicians should respond to photo “fakes.” I understand Faeser’s objection if the picture is not marked as a fake or parody image. Ironically, it would be unthinkable for other politicians to hold such a sign. Yet, given Faeser’s history, some could easily conclude she would hold up such a sign with pride. It is “believable” for some familiar with the anti-free speech history of the German left and Faeser in particular.
The minister has an interest in responding to such pictures. The key issue is whether the photo or context makes clear that it is a spoof or satire. That can be difficult with a meme. It is certainly true that, as a public official, she has the ability to use the “bully pulpit” to respond to such parodies in the media. Nevertheless, there must be a recourse for even public officials to address faked images that create a false or damaging impression.
Some are claiming that the “I hate free speech” spoof is being prosecuted ironically as hate speech. That would be a dangerous approach since parody and humor are key areas of political speech.
While the accounts suggest an excessive response, the controversy does show how difficult such questions can be in drawing a line that protects free speech while also allowing for redress for defamation or false light violations.
In the United States, such cases are routinely addressed as civil matters. However, in many other countries, defamation is both a criminal and civil matter. I have long opposed the criminalization of defamation in countries like Italy.
In Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46 (1988), the Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s judgment for intentional infliction of emotional distress against Hustler for a parody of Jerry Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority and Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The magazine marked a faux Campari ad (from a series on “My First Time) as an “ad parody — not to be taken seriously.” It also listed the ad on the table of contents as “Fiction; Ad and Personality Parody.” Nevertheless, it was a deeply offensive ad that portrayed Falwell talking about his “first time” having sex with his mother in an outhouse.
While Falwell won on the infliction of emotional distress claim at trial, he notably lost on the defamation claim because the Hustler parody could not “reasonably be understood as describing actual facts about [Falwell] or actual events in which [he] participated.” The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed that verdict.
Writing for a unanimous Court, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist reversed and rejected the notion that the outrageous character of the depiction could be a basis for liability. He noted that
“‘[o]utrageousness’ in the area of political and social discourse has an inherent subjectiveness about it which would allow a jury to impose liability on the basis of the jurors’ tastes or views, or … their dislike of a particular expression. An ‘outrageousness’ standard thus runs afoul of our long-standing refusal to allow damages to be awarded because the speech in question may have an adverse emotional impact on the audience.”
The Court noted the importance of satire in political discourse.
Again, context was key in Falwell, and it is unclear what the context of the German photo was in conveying the photo as a satire or parody. A meme has less capacity for “context” or content disclaimers. However, if the reports of a criminal prosecution are accurate, the impact could be considerable on the diminishing residue of free speech in Germany.
We discussed how Germany is extending its criminalization of speech to the Internet. Germany imposed a legal regime that would allow fining social networks such as Facebook up to 500,000 euros ($522,000) for each day the platform leaves a “fake news” story up without deleting it. The country fined YouTube in an effort to force the company to remove views that the government considers disinformation on COVID-19.
Germany has also targeted Elon Musk for threatened prosecution if he does not reestablish censorship systems at X.
None of this, mind you, has put a dent in the ranks of actual fascists and haters. Neo-Nazis are holding massive rallies by adopting new symbols and coded words, while Germany arrested a man on a train because he had a Hitler ringtone on his phone.
The impact of these laws was evident in a recent poll of German citizens. Only 18% of Germans feel free to express their opinions in public. 59% of Germans did not even feel free expressing themselves in private among friends. And just 17% felt free to express themselves on the Internet.
The United States has ample protections against defamation and false light without the dangerous addition of criminal penalties. Moreover, the involvement of the government in monitoring and censoring such speech is chilling and unnecessary.
While this may seem biased in favor of our common law system, the controversy over his meme shows why (in my view) such systems are better suited for resolving such controversies.
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.”
[IF] One considers Religion(s) and the practices made in public & private settings (synagogue mosque church temple etc.) that of Free Speech, Then it stands that by Governmental Authority (State) that this form and practice of Free Speech should be included in the “Anti-Free Speech Reformation”. A ‘Reformation’ not by the People but by the Government (Bureaucratic Rule of the Masses).
The U.S. Democrats and Republicans have been spearheading this effort to wit over the past 12 years, under the guise of; Fake News, Disinformation, and Propaganda (Lies), too inversely claim a mandate-of-protection is necessary for the curtailing (Ban) of Free Speech. So goes the rest of the World.
To Wit:
Did Kamala Harris Loose the Election?
or
Did Donal Trump Win the Election?
Of course we know the outcome of the Election,
but lets look at it from an Network Scientist perspective.
To do this, lets use a model from 500 years ago as an parallel analogy of the present, The Protestant Reformation and the ensuing Counter Reformation.
Ideology of Network vs Network:
Martin Luther (circa 1517) challenges the practices of the Roman Catholic Church via Protestant uprising in the ‘Reformation’ = Democrats (2024) challenge the practices & order of the conservative social norms of the people of United States via the WOKE Reformation via the Internet Social Networks.
Simultaneously:
Papal Rule of the Roman Catholic Church = Republicans (2024) rebuke the effort with a ‘Counter Reformation’ of conservatism and protectionism.
So as in the Time of Martin Luther, the Biden Administration et.al. (Broadcast Media, Academic Institutions, Social Mediums) have pushed forth a ‘Reformation’ of Woke, EDI, … policies. (the Protestant position)
In response to these endeavors the Republican rebuke had become the Counter Reformation (the Catholic Church restoring order it’s position after Martin Luther).
When you analyze the Democrats and Republicans as Networks, you can deduce the migration of Peoples disposition to their relationship to Other-Influences inside their social-sphere. Obviously the gravity wasn’t there for Harris and a migration (defection) to Trump (Trump’s Network) fell in favor in the contest.
So at present We (The People) are left in position of a “Anti-Free Speech Reformation” by the Democrats, post Election.
A strong “Counter Anti-Free Speech Reformation” (Counter Reformation) will be necessary to ‘restore’ Free Speech Rights (In the U.S. albeit the rest of the World).
Should the Anti-Free Speech Reformation continue, what stands to be lost next is Religion (synagogue mosque church temple etc.). When the Government pushes the policy further down the road. We need to stand the line of Separation of Church and State, and Free Speech.
Fight, Fight, Fight, … 🇺🇸
Jimmy Lai’s trial: Rule of law and religious freedom
Catholic entrepreneur and free speech advocate maintains he never sought to influence foreign governments’ China policy.
Jimmy Lai, the Catholic entrepreneur who is being tried in a Hong Kong court on national security charges, said in trial that he never tried to influence the foreign policy of the US and other governments with regard to China.
By: John Burger ~ 11/21/24
https://aleteia.org/2024/11/21/jimmy-lais-trial-rule-of-law-and-religious-freedom
Deus Vult
Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign failed because her dismissive attitude toward religion alienated voters in a nation where faith still plays a crucial role in public life.
By: Michael S. Kochin ~ December 1, 2024
https://amgreatness.com/2024/12/01/deus-vult/
Harris lost the Election by ‘defection’.
Trump maintained a ‘core solidarity’ throughout his Presidential Tenure (2016-Present).
She Lost.
He Won by keeping ‘his base’ together and gaining the Defectors.
Religion played a key role.
Jonathan: Yesterday was Mark Twain’s birthday. He would have been 189 yrs old. So I want to celebrate Twain’s giant contribution to American literature. The principal character (Owen Wilson) in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” tells the Ernest Hemingway character: “You can make the case that all American literature comes from Huckleberry Finn”. No argument there. The real Hemingway said the exact same thing in his 1935 book “Green Hills of Africa” where he commented: “There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since”.
Twain was America’s first critical race theorist who showed that race is simply a “fiction of law and custom”. Two prominent writers say Huckleberry Finn “is a nihilistic satire about systematic racial and gender oppression, a rejection of sanctioned education and religion, and a searing metaphor for the failure of Reconstruction” (Laura Trombley and Ann Ryan in Inside Higher Ed, 10/6/210). This is probably why Huck Finn has been banned from schools in several states–including Kansas and Missouri.
A reminder that Twain is still a potent force in American literature. And, boy, could we use another Twain today when we are facing our first American autocracy under another “spoils system”. Twain would have loved the chance to provide a satirical comment about the present state of our politics. He said “We have the best politicians that money can buy”. Nothing has change since then. And it will only get worse under the reign of DJT this time around!
And, boy, could we use another Twain today when we are facing our first American autocracy under another “spoils system”.
Dennis, you Deep Fake Democrat Pervert, we know with that post you’re channeling Bolshevik Barack and Bribery Biden who should have lived their hate filled lives anonymously in your ideological god Marx’s “upper middle class”.
Except they got into Democrat politics and then into the White House.
Both of whom then left that White House eight years later as multi-millionaires due to the corrupt Democrat spoils system: bribes, influence peddling, money laundering and international IOUs to foreign adversarial nations.
Dennis; do your best. Name one single American president who entered the White House wealthy – and left after his term as president much less wealthy than he was before serving as America’s president.
Otherwise, just go back and hide while you compose the Bull Schiff for your next Daily Deuce.
Funny how Europe gets closer everyday to using Putinish type tactics to suppress any opposition to its “correct thought and acceptable speech” perspectives! An invasion by Russia should be unnecessary in another decade or so! Comedians may want to emigrate since politicians are perfect lampoon targets!
People shouldn’t make decisions that aren’t theirs to make. This is a pretty basic, fundamental idea, on par with “no taxation without representation”, so it makes no sense to me that anyone would attack it as being weak.
I can’t see the connection to a meme of a politician holding a sign saying “I hate free speech” as having any association with what was originally supposed to constitute a “hate crime”.
Just the idea of criminalizing “hate” seems ridiculous. Hate is a feeling. How do you identify and gauge a “feeling” someone is having?
And even supposing that the courts had some instrument capable of detecting and measuring the feeling of “hate” in an person, … I’m having an extremely difficult time determining how they are associating a meme about someone’s political opposition to free speech with “hate”. In fact the only relationship to hate as originally intended for “hate crime laws” that I can find in the publishing of this meme is that it contains the word “hate”.
Does a meme containing the word “hate” automatically equal a hate crime because it said “hate”?
And that’s the problem as I see it with these hate crime laws. Its a law based on a subjective emotion that one person “feels” and that supposedly the court can detect, identify and quantify using some machine or instrument it has not yet revealed to the public.
In other words, seems like the law is set up to make “hate”, … whatever they say it is.
Chris Weber,
“In other words, seems like the law is set up to make “hate”, … whatever they say it is.”
That is the truly terrifying part about this whole thing. Whatever the state deems as “hate” is what they say it is. It is not only very Orwellian, but also very Stalin and Mao. To me, the amazing part is how much they either cannot see it, or how they are choosing to ignore it. The former would suggest a degree of lack of self-awareness. The latter, they just dont care as long as it suits their needs and desire for power.
And we have some within not only MSM but own own government who desire the same thing.
” To me, the amazing part is how much they either cannot see it, or how they are choosing to ignore it.”
Exactly. I don’t get it. I mean the liberals used to be the bastion of free speech in America. They used to make speeches and massive protests for free speech and now they make speeches and take actions against it.
Do they not remember their own words from a just over a decade ago?
How can they just pretend to ignore the very core principal they always championed?
Chris Weber,
I am not sure when it started. Could be with Bill Clinton. Could of been with Obama. But I recall reading a transcript of Hillary Clinton speaking at a campaign rally and if it were not the fact I knew she was a Democrat running for president, I would of sworn she was a Republican. At some point, the Democrat party you mention, got taken over by the very people the traditional JFK Democrats were protesting against. I recall that Brandon guy who started the WalkAWay movement when he suddenly saw the light. I watched a video of a young woman who has been active in the Democrat party since her late teens, into college and she attended the last Democrat convention. She cried as she did not feel connected to any of the people there. The speeches given were from the elite and from the elitists perspective. And it is they, the elite, whom seem to be using the woke leftist mind virus to create this age of rage, the constant fear, the threat to democracy narrative. It seems the idea of free speech is an anathema to them and their narrative. The good news, more and more are seeing through it. The bad, like a cornered animal, they just might be even more dangerous in their attempts to hold on to power. I know we should all question polls, but the election results show a real change in America. It may not have been a vote for Trump, but it was a vote against the woke leftist mind virus and the elites of the Democrat party. Other polls show the majority of Americans approve of Trumps actions since the election. While our leftist friends here on the good professor’s blog would try to tell us his cabinet picks are not qualified (cough, cough, Biden picks, dudes in dresses, one who steals luggage, various other failed picks, border czar, DHS, DOT, DoD, DOE), not only are they qualified, but they also have something Biden’s picks did not: A sense of America First purpose. Drain the swamp. Fix what is broken. Can they do it against the Deep State and the swamp? I do not know. I will be supporting them in their efforts.
* The can’t seevit because they think and believe wrong is right and shamelessly, without conscience. They’re functioning on instinct. IMHO
My cousin says it started with Johnson, and that I just didn’t notice it until now.
He makes a convincing argument.
“To me, the amazing part is how much they either cannot see it, or how they are choosing to ignore it. The former would suggest a degree of lack of self-awareness. The latter, they just dont care as long as it suits their needs and desire for power.”
You appear to assume that it isn’t a cynical, deliberately adopted, tactic to increase their power. That is my take on it.
/|\ Number 6 /|\
* There are people who’ve lived such sheltered lives they haven’t any experience with this thing called hate outside of , I hate broccoli and even then it’s I dislike broccoli. Real Ripleys… They’re still trying to get up to speed with the hate thing. The also thought gay men just held hands, theft was a thing of fairy tales and lots of other things….
The EU needs to defenestrate the super state and return to being just a trade group. They were more sensible and their economies did reasonably well. They are still too tribal to work together without having an autocratic superstate superimposed and capable of ruling without true popular consent. If Germany does not correct itself soon then it will drag down the rest of the EU with them or it may cause the EU to fragment as each nation seeks to protect itself from the German Collapse.
GEB: The German people would be better off if the EU did collapse. Just forfeiting the right to print their own currency is huge. And then the added responsibility of having to prop up others? It’s hard for me to fathom how any could be this foolish, a lot of “global” air-headedness, imo. And it’s been a disaster for the German people.
No, they’re not.
I follow German politics pretty closely. It’s a sad situation. The Christian Democrats used to be the center-right party, but like many center-right parties in Europe, they’ve drifted well left of anything resembling a center in response to immigrant voting blocs and the radicalization of young women. I guess those party leaders would call it survival, but I call it a lack of leadership. Churchill would mock them as “boneless wonders.”
Germany’s AfD is to the right of center, but the formerly center-right parties will endorse communists rather than align with the AfD or Le Pen in France. It’s over for Germany, France, and possibly Britain. I don’t see how they get out of this doom spiral.
My advice to Europeans who are sick of the decadence and decline is move to the U.S. That’s all I can suggest. I’m sad for it because I’ve always loved European history and culture.
MAGA is already happening. MEGA never will.
Looking at Italy, whose politics are very similar to UK, France, and Germany, I’d say you are premature to say “it’s over”.
I hope you’re right, but I still think it’s too late.
We are the last refuge for the world’s oppressed. And, as apparently even the left has realized (thus their open invitation to brown folk everywhere), will eventually include much of Western Europe. I blame this on the Obamacats, y’know, because they’re just so jivin’ jazz-groovy, on general air headedness, both sides, on Germany’s post-war collective guilt, on various elements.
“My advice to Europeans who are sick of the decadence and decline is move to the U.S. ”
Given the pronounced and well-documented tendency of people to emigrate from their home jurisdiction because of frustration with government policies, and then manage to expeditiously replicate those very policies in their new home, I have serious reservations about your suggestion.
If we can’t have a litmus test to keep out communists, I might agree with you, but immigration to FL from NY and CA was part of the reason FL turned red. It can be complicated for the host country, as you suggest.
You are condemned to go on being yourselves. Have at it. I don’t care anymore.
Being ourselves? That would be America First, peace, good economy, secure borders, low taxes, Constitutional law etc? Sounds good to me! No one cared what you thought in the first place. That is the brilliance of the 1stA. You have the right to free speech. We have the right to choose to ignore you and walk away.
OT: Kash Patel was a great pick. Now Trump needs to find positions for Ric Grinnel and Mike Davis. The former might be ambassador to Russia or China. The latter might be FBI general counsel.
Daniel,
Agreed!
My guess is that news of Patel arriving to run the FBI after he successfully discovered the many felonies they committed during their “Crossfire Hurricane” criminal fraud is causing more than a few who were either involved or had direct knowledge to do a Dennis McIntyre in their beds.
Grinnel was great at exposing the associated criminality of the CIA working with the FBI to be the Obama/Clinton/Biden/DNC STASI, but he’d be great back in his original ambassadorial role dealing with the ChiComs.
I was going to wait for an appropriate Turley column to raise this question, but you created a good segue, so here goes. Musk and Ramaswamy, in the form of DOGE, are tasked with identifying government inefficiency and waste, and making recommendations for solutions, presumably up to and including disbanding entire Fedgov departments and agencies. Now I’m not picking on Patel, specifically, this could apply to DOE, or any of a large number of other agencies, but since his name was in the news most recently, I’ll use him and the FBI as a theoretical example. He made some statements about making changes at the FBI that some may consider to be radical, but some others (myself included) might think to be far too tame. For the sake of argument, just suppose that the DOGE analysis concludes that >=80% of what the FBI does should not be done at all, and that the remaining, justifiable, jobs could, and should, be absorbed by other government organizations. Do you really think that even an outsider and alleged reformer like Patel would allow that to happen without a knock-down, drag-out fight? I can’t see anyone, no matter how much of an outsider he might be, accepting authority over a huge organization, then allowing himself to be persuaded shortly thereafter that the organization needs to be disbanded. It’s very much contrary to human nature. I really like the concept of DOGE, but I fear that, in the long run, its going to just turn out to be for show. I suspect that in many cases the administration response to their recommendations is going to be something like, “Hmmm, that’s interesting. We’ll need to think about it. Now, run along, and we’ll get back to you if we want to discuss this any further”. Which is the classic executive deflection response to a rational suggestion from an analyst that happens to ruffle the wrong feathers, or otherwise involves internal political risk (as I know quite well). While that may be understandable, unless quite a lot of truly radical slashing of government spending takes place, and soon, the debt and deficit economy issues will not get resolved, or even substantially improved, which could easily make a Democrat Party resurgence in 2026 and 2028 quite likely, and that would make any relief from our selection of Trump over Harris pretty short-lived. I was very happy to see Trump beat Harris, and carry Senate and House majorities with him, but my initial optimism is beginning to be tempered by reality. A lot more than that needs to go right for us to drag ourselves out of the woods.
Meanwhile, in America – Rumble sues California over censorship of parodies!
“Rumble is being represented by The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which filed suit against AB 2655, aka the “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division.
The legislation is Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s response to a deepfake satire video of Kamala Harris that was shared on X by Elon Musk among others.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rumble-sues-california-says-states-war-against-political-speech-censorship
Vote often on Wednesday!
Did Hitler take away the freedom of any Americans?
A more relevant question is, did Hitler ever kill any Jews? Or anybody else for that matter. Actually, Hitler never killed anybody that I know of. Think about it, and I think you will come to agree with me, and when you do, you can be afraid. You can be very afraid.
Your continued and failed attempts to compare WWII to the current situation shows your lack in knowledge of history.
How marvelous!
When you attack what I say, it’s because its rightness is a threat to you.
How is it a threat to me? You want to promote death, dying, destruction. I am promoting to end the war. I am promoting peace. The right thing to do, would be for Zelensky to tell Biden, the neocons to bugger off, call for a truce, meet at the peace table and hammer out a peace deal.
Just like the one in the spring of 2022 in Istanbul that Biden squashed.
The borders have already been established. Should words on paper mean anything to anyone? If you don’t think so, then you’re in the wrong, because they should.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Border_of_Ukraine
Having to resort to wikipedia . . . lame. And losing.
” The right thing to do, would be for Zelensky to tell Biden, the neocons to bugger off, call for a truce, meet at the peace table and hammer out a peace deal.”
Instead of doing that, he has apparently floated a proposal that Ukraine might be willing to concede some territory to Russia, in exchange for Ukraine admission to NATO, which he knows very well is totally unacceptable to Putin and Russia. Unless Biden does manage to trigger a nuclear exchange before January 5, I don’t see this mess getting resolved as long as that clown Zelenskyy remains in power.
And don’t try to justify your attacks on me by saying I’m lying and deflecting yet again.
With a liberal license, the beatings will stop when the authorities hand tires, or elect to abort the little “burdens” that are deemed unworthy of life. There is precedent… precedents, notably in the modern family in Germany.
“When in Rome [Germany], do as the Romans [Germans] do…” has morphed into “When in Rome [Germany], beware your humorous tongue ”
Professor Turley points out that “The Court noted the importance of satire in political discourse.” True, Rehnquist’s words could not ring more true.
I am so proud to live in a country that has remained independent of such controlling dictates. Let’s make sure it stays that way….
BRAVO the old Mad Magazine and the newer Babylon Bee! Stupidly funny.
Where in the Consitution does it state that UpchuckFarmer gets to decide when and where the miltary is deployed? He is making illegal decisions and should be arrested.
-As Upstate would say, “is that all you’ve got?”
Lin,
Well said!
When have I ever decided or gave orders to when and where the military is deployed? I have no command authority. I am but a former vet and current civilian. I am merely pointing out this is a war no one but Biden the butcher, the neocons and people with no skin in the game, like you, want this war. And you are gladly willing to commit others to do the fighting and dying you wont do.
Your arguments are getting weaker and weaker.
For a continuing update about the insanity of German Woke policies and their nutjob politicians, subscribe to the substack of eugyppius, who is an academic living in Germany. This guy studies German politics and writes biting and entertaining articles. The Left are a group of privileged, egocentric, and immature children whose mommies and daddies never said “No!” to them. Their arrogance and hypocrisy would be more hilarious if it wasn’t so dangerous.
Jonathan: Since he bought Twitter Elon Musk has been in fights with governments around the world. He doesn’t understand that as a guest in another country the rules of the road apply to everyone. X does not get an exemption. Musk found that out in his fight with Brazilian authorities.
Now Musk is fighting with German authorities over rules that prohibit the dissemination of neo-Nazi and other fascist ideology on-line. With Germany’s dark period between 1933 and 1945 successive German governments have tried to prevent the revival of Nazi ideology. Musk thinks he is entitled to spread neo-Nazi propaganda on his platform. It’s all just “free speech”. Just as he found out in Brazil Musk will come out the loser in Germany as well.
One of Musk’s fights you don’t mention in your column is the one he is having with the Brits. MP Chi Onwurah, Chair of the Parliament science, innovation and technology committee, asked Musk to testify re the role of X in spreading racist disinformation about the Southport knife attack and the ensuing racist riots this past summer. Musk spread false information that the attacker was a Muslim. Nigel Farage, an extreme right-wing leader in GB, also spread the same false information on X that led to the racist riots. Farage was also asked to appear before Parliament but refused.
The British Telegraph reported yesterday that Onwurah has received sexist and racist death threats on X from Musk supporters. In defiance and in an attempt to bully Onwurah, Musk says UK MPs “will be summoned to the United States of American to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens”. According to the Telegraph “Mr. Musk has been highly critical of the Labour Government, and this week backed a petition demanding a general election saying ‘the people of Britain have had enough of a tyrannical police state”. Musk is a citizen of South Africa, Canada and the US–but not of Great Britain. How does he think a non-citizen of Britain can signed a petition demanding new elections?
Musk is going to find that MP Onwurah is not easily intimidated. She is sending a formal letter to Musk, Meta and Google to testify before Parliament. She has also joined a group of other MPs who have left Twitter for BlueSky. That’s probably what really angers Elon!
The other Q is by what authority Musk thinks he can “summon” Onwurah to the US to testify? Maybe Elon thinks that now that he is part of the DJT plutocracy and co-chair of the unofficial DODGE committee he can command foreign leaders to come to the US. As an unelected “official” in the new DJT administration Musk will find he is not Clark Kent!
Yawn.
More predictions from Dennis McInliar, who is a great big donut hole for his last 100.
Top Harris Aide Admits Democrats Are ‘Losing The Culture War’
https://slaynews.com/news/top-kamala-harris-campaign-official-admits-democrats-losing-culture-war/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-newsletter
Former House Democrat: ‘We Need A Rebranding … Our Brand Is Toxic’
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5016064-former-democratic-lawmaker-says-party-needs-rebrand-post-trump-win/
Dems Say Harris’ Frantic Post-Election Fundraising ‘Erodes Trust’
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/30/harris-campaign-fundraising-democrats-trust-00191919
Jonathan: Since he bought Twitter Elon Musk has been in fights with governments around the world.
Dennis: you’re back for another day of self sexual gratification by insulting and lying to your host and us!
You want to lie about Musk picking fights by defending himself against police state fascist governments around the world?
Why not go off topic to discuss the wars President Daddy-Daughter Inappropriate Incest Showers has started around the world since first becoming Vice President?
@Dennis McIntyre. This is your answer to understand what Elon Mosk’s problem is with the British Government. Educate yourself before talking nonsense.
Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to “Kill Musk’s Twitter”
England, not Russia, is the culprit in a real foreign election interference story, as the leaked Stateside plans of an advisory group with close ties to Prime Minister Keir Starmer show.
The documents obtained by The DisInformation Chronicle and Racket show CCDH’s hyperfocus on Musk — “Kill Musk’s Twitter” is the first item in the template of its monthly agenda notes dating back to the early months of this year.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate is the anti-disinformation activist ally of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, and a messaging vehicle for Labour’s neoliberal think tank, Labour Together. Both the CCDH and Labour Together were founded by Morgan McSweeney, a Svengali credited with piloting Starmer’s rise to Downing Street, much as Karl Rove is credited with guiding George W. Bush to the White House.
The CCDH documents carry particular importance because McSweeney’s Labour Together political operatives have been teaching election strategy to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, leading Politico to call Labour and the Democrats “sister parties.” CCDH’s focus on “Kill Musk’s Twitter” also adds to legal questions about the nonprofit’s tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) organization.
https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/election-exclusive-british-advisors
For you everything that is Right is Far Right, like all the European leftist liberals.
No, Nigel Farage is not far right
No, Giorgia Meloni is not far right
If you were reading and were not a Troll, you would have seen Professor Turley’s earlier post on “Great Britain Cracks Down on “Non-Crime Hate” Speech, Including Playground Taunts”
“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.”
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/11/22/great-britain-cracks-down-on-non-crime-hate-speech-including-playground-taunts/
Know that ordinary Germans and Italians ARE SICK of bearing guilt that no longer belongs to them, They are SICK of Muslim migrants trying to impose their own Islamic rules just like in the UK! If that is being FAR RIGHT, then we accept it.
Did you know that in Germany you cannot raise your right hand even to explain an economic growth curve? You could go to jail if you do it in public.
The fact that this lady wants to retaliate for a meme, which says that she hates freedom of speech, is demonstrated by the same fact.
While the accounts suggest an excessive response, the controversy does show how difficult such questions can be in drawing a line that protects free speech
Difficult, Professor? Seriously? You’re writing about Germany and what a government minister there MIGHT do. At the same time, HERE in the USA your friend Merrick Garland sent a man to prison for seven months for a political meme on Twitter.
Of course, Merrick Garland and your fellow lawyers at the Eastern District Of New York prosecutor’s office ensured he got a fair trial before his peers: the same New York jurors that Trump got at his trials. Took your friend Merrick almost six years to hunt this Twitter guy down after the 2016 election, managing to find and indict him after Trump announced his intention to run for office again, but they finally got him!
Very instructive in how they’re following our lead in foreign countries like Canada and Germany; we could get distracted by discussions of how this guy ended up in jail, while memes in the same election about Trump got a pass from Merrick Garland and OUR DoJ that he’s running.
Or perhaps instead, whoever is the unelected éminence grise acting as Biden that’s been running the White House and the country for the last few years with almost two months to go. No rational American who isn’t deliberately wearing beer goggles believes Biden is doing the day to day work and making the day to day decisions to run the country. So who is?
DOJ: Social Media Influencer Douglass Mackey Sentenced after Conviction for Election Interference in 2016 Presidential Race
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/social-media-influencer-douglass-mackey-sentenced-after-conviction-election
The defendant tweeted an image depicting an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign. The ad stated: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” and “Vote for Hillary and be a part of history.” The fine print at the bottom of the deceptive image stated: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by Hillary For President 2016.”
Man Sent to Prison Over Hillary Clinton Meme Finally Sees Some Light at End of Tunnel
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/man-sent-to-prison-over-hillary-clinton-meme-finally-sees-some-light-at-end-of-tunnel/ar-AA1l3pF3
Patrick Casey, writer and host of “Restoring Order,” posted “Had Douglas Mackey burned down a building for BLM instead of posting memes he wouldn’t be facing seven months in prison.” Casey’s post was accompanied by a post from The New York Times indicating two individuals who burned an Atlanta Wendy’s in a BLM riot and were subject to only a $500 fine and no jail time.
I would like the leftists on this site to give us one example of the right shutting down the left’s speech. It doesn’t happen on campuses, it doesn’t happen in the media, it doesn’t happen on social media and it doesn’t happen in entertainment. (DO NOT SAY THAT BANNING BOOKS THAT INCLUDE HEAVY SEXUAL CONTENT FROM SCHOOL LIBRARIES BECAUSE THAT IS JUST MORONIC).
The left wants to shut down X because X doesn’t censor. The damn hypocrisy is maddening. The left considers actual free speech to be the enemy of the state while they get to decide what is to be allowed to be published or even discussed.
I will say once again that we were Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin away from becoming Europe. The left/Democrats wanted to end the filibuster (when they had the slight majority), pack the Court with 5 “liberal” Justices and add two new liberal states. Once the Court had a liberal majority free speech would have been gone.
It used to be that liberals would fight for free speech. See the Nazi Skokie case for proof. But today’s radical/liberals no longer defend free speech. Imagine 5 extra Justices with the “legal” mindset of Sotomayer and Katanji Brown Jackson. Have Sotomayer and Jackson ever once not voted for the furthest leftward side of a legal issue? NO THEY HAVEN’T. with 8 of these “progressives” on the Court they just say that the 1St Amendment doesn’t apply to (their version of) hate speech and guess what???? We no longer have anywhere to go to shut down the censors and it is all over.
As much as I dislike Manchin for voting for the odious “Inflation Reduction Act” which did no such thing, I will never forget what he did on the filibuster.
Why does the right pay lip service against the dictators of yesterday (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc.), while licking their lips over the bulge in Putin’s pants?
‘Why does the right pay lip service against the dictators of yesterday (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc.)’
Why do commie police state fascists emulate all their fellow Marxist dictators. Followed by accusing “the far right” of being the party that gave Putin his big red reset button, allowed him into the Middle East, and then promised to give him space to invade Ukraine?
Deplorable commies just gotta commie!
Conservatives do no such thing. As the good professor points out in today’s column, it is clearly progressives who wished they had the power of Hitler, Stalin, Mao and now Putin. Progressives are the party of anti-free speech, just as those dictators were. Progressives are losing all over the world and their desperation is evident as the attempt to make moves to keep opponents off ballots, or even attempt to ban an entire party. Progressives have much more in common with Putin.