Below is my column in the Hill on truly celebrating St. Patrick on this holiday. Despite our shared history and values, the United States and Ireland are moving further apart on free speech. Ireland has followed the European Union in embracing speech regulation and censorship. If we truly want to honor the legacy of St. Patrick, we can start by honoring free speech. We need to chase the censors from Ireland.
Here is the column:
With the arrival of Saint Patrick’s Day, our nation’s close affinity to Ireland was on full display in the White House as President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance hosted Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin.
We are two countries joined by blood and tradition. Of course, there are tensions over trade conflicts with the European Union and Ireland, which quickly came to the surface in the meeting. In the end, however, we are likely to resolve those trade problems. The fact is that we need each other, both economically and culturally.
Yet, there is one chasm between the two countries that not only remains wide but is widening: the gap between how each country handles free speech. And Martin would much prefer to talk about Irish socks than Irish censorship.
Ironically, before he became associated with green beer and leprechauns, Saint Patrick was a symbol of freedom of speech. Although there is no evidence beyond pious legend that he chased snakes out of Ireland (there likely never were snakes in Ireland), he did chase slavery and human sacrifice out of the country, despite the initial unpopularity of his reforms. A former slave himself, St. Patrick’s public statements against slavery, paganism and longstanding traditions were viewed as harmful to social tranquility and harmony.
Does that sound familiar?
Today, Ireland, like many of our European allies, is shredding free speech with laws criminalizing viewpoints and regulating speech by its content. “Irish eyes [may be] smiling,” but Irish tongues are increasingly silent in the face of government investigations and prosecutions. The growing conflict between the U.S. and the Irish could not be more telling.
Irish immigrants, including some of my relatives, came to this country to live freely, and many soon became lawyers fighting for individual rights. Just before Martin’s arrival in Washington, his government was hammering Elon Musk and conservative sites in the latest crackdown on free speech. The most recent flashpoint was a small pro-life platform called Gript, a rallying point for many in his Catholic country who oppose abortion. The government demanded that X turn over Gript’s data on sources and users.
An Irish court on June 13, 2024, sought the data on private accounts as well as IP addresses and messages linked to Gript coverage of the April protests against Ireland’s housing of documented migrants. The violence in those protests gave the Irish government another justification to curtail free speech.
In yet another defining moment for Musk on free speech, he not only resisted but informed Irish citizens what the government was doing. That transparency and opposition sent the Irish government into a full-on rage.
After the arrest of 34 people and extensive property damage in the anti-immigration protests, the government moved to expand on its already draconian anti-free-speech laws. A new bill was introduced criminalizing “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 included crimes relating to “xenophobia” and can be committed merely by the “public dissemination or distribution of tracts, pictures or other material.”
Then-Prime Minister Leo Varadkar declared his intent to “modernize laws against hatred” by criminalizing speech that his government decides is “incitement.” He stated an intention to not only stop those engaged in violence but those who say things that might arouse their anger.
The powerful Irish Green Party was all-in with censorship and speech prosecutions. As Green Party Sen. Pauline O’Reilly admitted, “We are restricting freedom, but we’re doing it for the common good.”
It is a familiar pattern. In my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss how “rage rhetoric” is often exploited by governments as an excuse for “state rage.” Citing false claims made in the protests, the government declared a new round of crackdowns on viewpoints it considers harmful or misleading.
Ireland’s national police, known as the Garda Síochána, ordered X to produce extensive data linked to Gript Media’s official X account, @griptmedia. It wanted to see not just information identifying users but also private messages and addresses that would have revealed the media outlet’s confidential sources and communications.
Ireland reflects the free fall of free speech across Europe. Germany, France and the United Kingdom have followed the same path of the ever-expanding regulation and criminalization of free speech, including statements deemed by the government to be “disinformation.”
This week, I will be speaking at the World Forum in Berlin, Germany, on the anti-free speech movement, led in no small part by the European Union. Anti-free speech groups and figures are also gathering, particularly after Vance’s historic speech recently in Munich criticizing our allies for their abandonment of free speech.
After years of largely unimpeded growth, the anti-free speech movement is facing its first serious impediments following Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the new American defense of free speech.
Musk has borne the brunt of the counter campaign. By breaking away from the other social media companies, Musk’s X defied the EU and its censor. He was threatened not only with financial ruin but also with actual arrest unless he restored the censorship system.
The left in the U.S. and Europe targeted his companies and his revenue. Recently, Tesla dealerships and charging stations have been vandalized and even set on fire.
In Ireland, Martin denounced Musk and objected to “the degree to which, under the cover of free speech, it essentially is allowing … unacceptable material in terms of hate, bile and attacks, and so on.” Again raising the Dublin riots, he said changes have to be made to protect “democracy and society.” In other words, free speech is endangering society.
This has been the siren’s call of censorship throughout history.
Despite this history, there is reason to be optimistic. The Irish government was forced to withdraw its draconian legislation due to a groundswell of opposition from young voters, including within Martin’s party.
Free Speech Ireland celebrated the defeat by the two main parties, which “miscalculated in what they think young people want.” It turns out that it is still difficult to get a free people to give up freedom.
The defeat of the Irish legislation was perhaps only a temporary victory. But for the free speech community, it was a rare, positive moment in dark times. It raised the possibility, on this Saint Patrick’s Day, that we just might be able to chase censorship, like slavery, from the Emerald Isle.
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.”
Symbolic snakes like these should driven out from anyplace they dwell, too.
https://youtu.be/4VeRO2eE1iU
Prairie Rose—-good point! And good to “see” you.
Your kids must be in college by now! 🙂
Thank you, Cindy!
Only my eldest, so far.
Can Hillary Clinton be charged under the Sedition Act of 1798 (part of the Alien and Sedition Act 1798) and deported to Tecoluca, El Salvador’s CECOT (Terrorism Confinement Center) Prison? They can catch her at the Airport when she returns from Berlin Germany where obviously, she met with her Foreign Counterparts to plan seditious acts and increased disruptions of the Trump Presidency. Bill’s love of El Salvador and all things Central American will make a nice permanent home for her. How soon can it be arranged?
Someone is hellbent in wiping the Irish off the earth and resettling it and it’ll be same sex apparently.
Old joke: if you put 50 men and 50 women on a beautiful, productive island and come back in 100 years you’re likely to find a thriving community. If you start with 50 men and 50 transwomen 100 male skeletons is all you’ll find.
So-called free speech in the EU is pathetic mess.
People’s vulnerability to suicidal tribal virtue signalling is a sickness
The Bee is reporting that the ghost of St. Patrick has returned to drive Rosie O’Donnell out of Ireland.
In other free speech news that the authoritarian MAGA party ignores… Trump says news organizations he doesn’t like such as MSNBC, CNN and 60 Minutes are illegal. I guess Trump is jealous of Putin who has crushed and silenced all oppositional speech. Just watch… the Trumptards will reply by rationalizing Trump’s effed up views.
Trump says news organizations he doesn’t like such as MSNBC, CNN and 60 Minutes are illegal.
He has never said any such thing. You’re a liar. Then again, all of today’s leftism is based on lies, so you’re a rather typical leftist.
Oldmanfromkansas
In a speech at the Department of Justice (DOJ), during which Trump railed against people and entities that he claims have targeted him, said he views CNN and MSNBC as corrupt.
“I believe that CNN and MS-DNC, who literally write 97.6 percent bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party and in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what do they do is illegal,” Trump said.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5195881-trump-media-illegal/
We’ll leave it to Professor Turley to decide whether an off-hand remark like that is such a threat to free speech, on a par with Biden’s vast censorship network run by the federal government, and with European governments arresting people for silent prayers and for insulting a politician, that it deserves a column.
I find it humorous, too, that Democrats have been shouting for 15 years that Citizens United was wrongly decided, because (they say) corporations do not have 1st Amendment free-speech rights. But then they turn around and publicly clutch their pearls about an off-hand remark that Trump makes about two huge corporations.
MSNBC, CNN and 60 Minutes programming is one of the reasons why Trump got re-elected.
Wow, Trump does not like the MSM, who would have thought it.
ATS your a genius.
Let’s hope for more “positive moments in dark times”.
“Erin go bragh”!
(or, for you old hippie ladies: “Erin go bragh-less”)
It is frightening how coordinated the systematic attack on free speech appears to be across Europe. One country after another has fallen to censorship, and laws that imprison people for making statements on social media that are not approved by government.
Europe has given its governments the right to decide what speech is criminal, and to imprison people for their speech.
The Left is trying its hardest to follow suit. It was widely successful, until Elon Musk bought Twitter, and now Mark Zuckerberg has taken a step back from censorship on Facebook.
We walk a knife’s edge, where we could easily fall into the same tyranny, where the government tells us what we can, and can’t, say. Canada fell to censorship long ago.
This is one of the reasons why I oppose Trump needling Trudeau about Canada becoming the 51st State. While I strongly approve of his unprecedented, rapid fire pace of wins in office, at blistering speed, I do not at all agree with his rhetoric about having Canada join the US. If Democrats were smart, they would support this move, because Canada is left of the US. They have no free speech. Dr Jordan Petersen had to essentially flee Canada for refusing to use 75 different pronouns for students in compelled speech. Were Canada to join the US, it would bring multiple new states that would immediately be Democrat, which would give Democrats a supermajority, and control of the White House, Legislature, and ultimately Supreme Court picks, in perpetuity. We citizens would promptly lose one Constitutional right after another, starting with Free Speech and the 2nd Amendment. In short order, Americans may one day be jailed for posting on FB in opposition to men saying their women and gaining access to women’s locker rooms and sports divisions.
Karen S: Please. Stop repeating the MAGA slop you believe in, and stop trying to pretend that the MAGA lies you believe in are shared by “we”–MAGA does not represent most us–you MAGA morons are not “We citizens”– you are a cult of personality that believes the lies put out by billionaire-owned media established to get tax breaks and rolling back of environmental and consumer protections by lying to gullible people to get Trump and Republicans elected. Stop your stupid attacks on “The Left”. It’s getting old and tired. You complain about imprisoning people for their speech–what about Trump having pro-Palestinian Mahmoud Khalil arrested and lying about the legality of his status in this country? What ridiculous “rapid fire pace of wins in office at blistering speed” are you talking about? Project 2025 had the Executive Orders drafted and ready for the fat ignoramus’s signature before his lies got him back into our White House–those are not “wins” except to the uninformed MAGAS like you. One court after another is either enjoining or reversing most of these Executive Orders. Where did you get the idea that there is “no free speech” in Canada? And, “we citizens” are promptly losing one Constitutional right after another already–Trump ignores Congress, which is the only government agency that can shut down the Department of Education. The fat one you adore ignores Court Orders, too. Congress and the judiciary are a co-equal branches of government.
And what is your obsession with transgenders–is your son one? Is that why you obsess? Don’t you know that transgender attacks are one of the culture wars tactics that the oligarchs who set up MAGA media use to hook gullible people like you?
you are the only one who has “slop” coming out of your mouth. And you are likely the dark-haired “fat one.”
So “Please. Stop.”
“you are a cult of personality”
Do you mean a cult like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2naSzb1psU
Ain’t that calling the kettle black.
“Where did you get the idea that there is “no free speech” in Canada?”
Perhaps because of what we saw during the truckers’ protest against the vaccine mandates the Canadian government imposed on anyone entering their country.
“And, “we citizens” are promptly losing one Constitutional right after another already”
What Constitutional rights we have lost under Trump that we haven’t already lost under the previous administration?
“Trump ignores Congress, which is the only government agency that can shut down the Department of Education.”
Perhaps you’re right about. That only a congressional act can shut down. But after reading this, perhaps they should.
https://www.public.news/p/us-education-department-contractor
In the meantime, Trump should redirect the funding of the “organization” somewhere else. And ask the Department of Justice to either criminally charge them for defrauding the federal government or sue them for defrauding the federal government.
Gigi,
Trump has not been below 50% since the election. He is now back to 52%.
Even MSM pollsters are saying that Trump is polling higher than any president since 2011 or 2004 – depending on which MSM poll.
Trump’s actions have even more support than Trump himself.
So yes, Gigi – We does represent most americans.
Worse still – While republicans are polling 10pts lower than Trump democrats are polling more than 10pts lower than Republicans – again MSM polls. Trump is TWICE as popular and democrats.
worse still – 49% of democrats think democrats are headed int he wrong direction.
Those of you on the left have destroyed your party.
The democratic party can not figure out what to do – something like 15% of people polled what Democrats to continue the scorched earth nonsense. That is now your base.
And should Democrats actually try to tack to the center – that 15% is going to abandon you, it is becoming increasingly mathematically hard for democrats to win anything.
There are currently 3 democratic senate seats that will be open seats in 2026 – Democrats are going to have to fight like h311 to hold them – give up on retaking the senate – it is not happening. And the swing states that those 3 seats are in – inch a bit redder with each cycle.
Gigi
You do not matter anymore.
You do not speak for a majority of americans. You do not even speak for a consequential minority.
And there is no reason to expect any of this to get better for democrats.
Gigi, you are not winning in court – you are losing step by step. The closest case you have to a final win – is Judge Ali in DC.
And what was the result – Trump and State have canceled all USAID contracts – and Ali admitted – he can do nothing.
He tried to force payment of $2B of completed contracts – but it turned out that $2B was more like 200K.
Regardless the case is pretty much done – and that is your big win ?
Even the DC court of appeals threw out the OSC case – which disappointed Trump – he wanted a SCOTUS ruling to overrule Humpfries estate – but another case is in the works.
Worse you are pissing people off – super majorities of americans want spending cut – super majorities beleive that atleast 25% of government spending is waste – and they want it gone.
And you are engaging in STUPID fights
Did you really think it was a good idea to kill the no men in womens sports bill ?
Do you really think people ae crying over the loss of Trans opera’s in Columbia ?
Do you really think that going to bat for Tren De Aragua is going to make you more popular
Do you really think that people are behind you on Khalil ? Even Truley does not seem to think it is a free speech case (because it isn;t)
Trump owns the news cycle for years to come. It will be fully of the stories of the waste and faud you are fighting to preserve.
Of the criminals that you are trying to keep from getting deported.
Democrats are in a lose-lose position – you say you are winning in court ? ROFL.
But lets just say that you do. All that will do is piss voters off even more.
Trump has chased you into a lose-lose for you and a win-win for him.
And you keep ranting “oproject 2025” as if that is some left wing nut dog whistle.
Trump is doing what he promised. He is following agenda 47 – his platform.
It is why people voted for him and it is what they want.
You can call it project 2025 all you want – hat just makes project 2025 look good.
Regardless, things are different this time arround. In 2017 Trump did not have a deep bench of people to draw on. he had to count on the republican party to staff the executive. And some of those republicans stabbed him in the back. They worked against the policies that won the election. Not this time – Teump has spent the last 4 years finding the right people – his people. He has a deep bench.
These people are installed in the executive and they are following the agenda that got Trump elected – because it is THEIR agenda too.
They do not need Trump to tell them what the should do. They are acting on their own consistent with Trump’s platform.
Most of these people are relatively young. These are the future big shots in the GOP.
Most 2nd term presidents are lame ducks and can get little done.
Trump has gotten more done in 60 days than Biden in 4 years.
And the people working for him are also working for their futures.
We have seen nothing like this ever before in history – the closest we have is FDR – you are looking at fundimental changes to radically reduce the socialist cancer that is afflicting our govenrment and our country.
I do not nknow what you mean by MAGA – but this administration has the support of the majority of people – and its policies have supermajority support.
You are the one that is incredibly unpopular.
” The fact is that we need each other, both economically and culturally.”
Professor Turley, the rest of the world needs us far more than we need them, which will become increasingly evident as time passes.
It is not Trump, though he might be speeding up the inevitable. Many geopoliticians predicted this before Trump presented himself as a candidate.
Our country is self-sustainable, whereas our present allies are not. Nor are our enemies. We have an exceptionally bright future ahead, barring nuclear war and the craziness seen coming from the Democrats.
S. Meyer,
Well said. Perhaps a isolationist America is what the world needs. Our so-called allies would have to fend for themselves. Defend themselves. Learn a degree of not only self-reliance but humility. I get the idea that international trade can limit war, at the same time, as President Trump has pointed out, our so-called allies have taken advantage of it for so, so long. Read an article the other day, France, Germany and Poland were in the best positions to lead the EU in the new, emerging political landscape. Based off of their defense spending, I think Poland might be in the best position. After all, they recently made marksmanship mandatory in high school for both boys and girls. They also seem to be the ones willing to spend the money for defense. IIRC, they bought licenses to domestically produce light and heavy armored vehicles. Aside from Ukrainians, they do not have the immigration problem France and Germany has.
I am not providing my opinion, but will the US want to continue to spend enormous amounts of money keeping the sea lanes open and safe and fulfilling its military commitments? That is a lot of money. The other countries of the Americas will be America’s backyard.
America has all the resources needed and can use trade if desirable, but it will not be essential.
S. Meyer
“Our country is self-sustainable”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Good one!!!
You should try stand-up comedy.
This country may be self-sustainable in food but nothing else.
Why do we have such a huge trade imbalance with the rest of the world.
Because we have out-sourced the production of virtually all consumer products.
Look around your home. All your electronic devices and appliances are imported.
All your clothes are imported.
Go to any department store and try to find something made in the USA.
You will be looking for a very long time.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Drunkard, you are such an idiot there is no need to reply.
You don’t know the difference between essential and non-essential. Why do you think we cannot produce almost everything here? We don’t need to import oil. Your Democrat masters mislead you. My understanding is that in the future some alcohol will remain inexpensive so you don’t have to worry.
Sure !!!
We absolutely COULD produce anything here, but at what price???
Why do you think virtually all consumer goods are imported??
Because it is WAYYYYY cheaper than producing here.
Presumably you would be happy to pay 10 times more for consumer goods made in the USA.
What do you think that would do for the economy ????
TOTAL COLLAPSE.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
You know nothing of economics. Do we need cheap products from China that are used for a few months, thrown out and returned to China as garbage? No. There is a lot of inexpensive labor here in the Americas. I am not taking a position, but one has to realize that things are changing fast. Take note how Trump is quickly bringing industry back to the Americas avoiding high transportation costs that require expensive fuel. Do you think that will excessively increase costs? If costs climb America has a choice to buy anywhere in the world, but a lot of the costs in world trade are paid today with American dollars.
You are completely out of your mind.
If transportation and fuel costs were a significant factor, then goods would already be made here to avoid those costs.
The facts are that even with transportation and fuel costs it is STILL cheaper to import consumer goods.
You ask, do we need cheap products from China.
Apparently the answer is yes.
At least that is what American consumers demand, and American companies supply.
And exactly which industries is Trump bringing back???
Give me some names.
Not just wishy-washy MAGA propaganda.
Even your hero Elmo imports about 25% of parts for Tesla from China and India.
You are living in a MAGA fantasy land, completely disconnected from reality.
You anonymous people aren’t known for your thinking abilities. I said I wasn’t advocating a position but I was discussing opinions from experts on geopolitics. It has nothing to do with MAGA or Trump. The predictions were made years before Trump decided to run the first time and reiterated a decade later.
I think what they predict is credible, and we are seeing their realizations come true under Trump. This likely will continue. The view is long term.
S. Meyer
Please identify the experts whose opinions on geopolitics you are citing.
I presume these experts have names.
I would like to verify your assertions.
In the absence of a response I will assume that the “experts” you are listening to are, in reality, simply the voices you hear in your head.
Why? What have you provided except stupidity? With time you were proven wrong on every major discussion.
What do you know about oil, shale, LNG, gas? What do you know about its distribution system? What do you know about manufacturing? Have you ever done anything worthwhile?
And what exactly does oil, shale, LNG ang gas have to do with a discussion of why this country imports virtually all of our consumer products because it is cheaper.
I guess when you know you are wrong, the only defense you have is to change the subject entirely.
Are the voices in your head now telling you to talk about oil, shale, LNG and oil ??
There is one thing necessary for industry to thrive, energy.
What does the US lack that requires the US to spend huge amounts of money keeping the sea lanes open and funding many of the nations around the world?
What does China lack? What does most of Europe lack?
Why are you babbling incoherently about keeping sea lanes open and funding other countries?
How is that of any relevance to why this country imports most of its consumer goods?
So what if the US has plenty of energy???
You ask what the US lacks.
That is easily answered.
What the US actually lacks is cheap labor, effectively slave labor, available in the third world.
That is why it will always be cheaper to import consumer goods.
Even if the US had an infinite source of energy at absolutely no cost, it would still have no relevance or bearing on the importation of consumer goods.
As long as there is cheap labor available elsewhere, the US will always be reliant on other countries to supply goods that can’t be produced here at a price that consumers are willing to pay.
Your incoherent babbling about energy may indicate that you are having a psychotic episode.
Not surprising for a MAGA cultist.
I discussed a prediction by geopoliticians with which I agree significantly. I am not asking you to agree, but your comment fully displays your ignorance.
The predictions were based on needs and trends made years before Trump announced his presidential candidacy. The nation is moving toward isolationism. You can see that on this blog and in some of President Trump’s policies today. Though I agree with the direction, I am not judging.
Even if we become isolationists, that does not mean we will not interact with the rest of the world. You foolishly worry about manpower, but we are a prosperous nation where much of the world wants to immigrate. That solves your manpower problem.
The cost to the US of maintaining its deep involvement is astounding. We will stay out of wars, reduce our commitments to keep the sea lanes open and reduce the funding for other nations. It will not be all or none but something in between.
The US has the finest geography in the world. You probably don’t know or even recognize how the Mississippi River and Intracoastal Waterway played a significant part in the nation’s development and how that helped build it into what it is today.
We are a bi-coastal nation separated from much of the world by two oceans. (Do you know what that means and its significance?) We have the most valuable resource, energy and almost everything else to make the nation self-sustaining. Why do we have to be involved in the petty wars of other countries and support the economies of the world?
Ignorance is a blessing, and you have enough for the entire blog. Ignorant people like you don’t need to think and can spend their days watching TV shows like Jerry Springer. You have all the negative characteristics to appear on the Jerry Springer show, where your intelligence permits you to be a premier guest.
“quickly bringing industry back to America”? WTF are you talking about? You cite no sources. According to the AP: “The president does have a case to make to the public on employment. As the U.S. economy has healed from the coronavirus pandemic, hiring has surged at factories. Manufacturing jobs have climbed to their highest totals in nearly 15 years. This is the first time since the 1970s that manufacturing employment has fully recovered from a recession, expanding by 789,000 jobs since Biden took office.”
“WTF are you talking about? You cite no sources. “
Some of us read more than headlines in the MSM news. That is what separates the dumb from the better educated.
S. Meyer – you are right. Anonymous is a low-quality, juvenile commenter as reflected in his blatant exaggerations and his juvenile use of all-caps. If we did not rely on international trade, we would adjust and be able to produce everything we need domestically. We have nearly 350,000,000 people, and vast natural resources, including energy resources. Our industrial might was proven ten-times over during WWII. Consumer goods might be a little more expensive, it is true, but we would easily adjust by being more frugal. Also, our national debt would go down, and thus, the use of taxpayer dollars to pay interest on the debt to foreign creditors would also go down. That would make up for the extra we would pay in certain limited sectors of the economy due to the absence of international trade.
IMO we are heading in that direction with our unsustainable national debt of $37T and rising. That cannot continue much longer. At some point in the not-too-distant future, we are going to have to make adjustments along the lines of what you suggest. It is inevitable.
Thanks Oldman. Engaging with individuals who are uninformed and have not invested in reading can be tedious. Their lack of knowledge and limited contributions over their lifetimes often leave them heavily reliant on what others produced.
As we saw the other day with the anonymous commenter who, never having received any training or education in theology, religion, or philosophy, spouted forth about how God doesn’t exist and the entire field of theology is bunk. I am still waiting for someone with a little bit of sophistication to come on this comment board from the left. I’ve been waiting a long time.
“Training” in religion is equivalent to “training” in astrology.
Both are delusional fantasies with no basis in reality.
“Training” in these fields is nothing more than indoctrination in an absurd belief system with no verifiable or testable factual elements
The religious indoctrination of children should be classified as child abuse.
Jesus would be so proud of you !!!
As I said the other day, he has no education, he is a complete ignoramus. He is like someone telling an astrophysicist that there is no more to his field than “twinkle twinkle little star.” Anyone with even a modicum of knowledge knows there is much more to it than that. Only a very ignorant person would say that kind of thing.
So, someone must be educated in a field to have a valid opinion or view.
And such education somehow confers legitimacy to the field, no matter how delusional it may be.
So if someone is “educated” in astrology or religion, that legitimizes the field of astrology or religion.
Interesting logic.
You wax eloquently and extensively on legal matters, economic matters and other diverse matters.
Do you have “training” in these fields ??
Are you an attorney ??
Are you an economist ??
If you don’t have “training” or “education” in these fields, then by YOUR logic we can safely ignore anything that you have to say.
A person who has never studied in a particular field (for which there are hundreds of university departments, scholarly journals, and famous scholars down through the ages), and proclaims the whole field is bunk, is by definition an uneducated, ignorant pompous ass.
P.S. I am a licensed attorney and I have studied economics at the university level and in law school as part of a concentration in a field called law and economics (you can look it up). Also, it would never occur to me in a million years to declare that some other field, which I had never studied, is all bunk.
That’s where you go wrong. It’s not that you make theological arguments without theological training, which I could still engage with because not everyone has the means and the time to engage in formal study. No, where you go wrong is in saying that theology is “delusional” when you have never studied it. If you did ever study it, you’d find out that it is a very deep and rich discipline, just like philosophy, with its own nuanced and fascinating history. But you are a know-nothing mainly because you trivialize and dismiss an entire field of study you know nothing about.
OMFK
Astrologists say exactly the same things about their beliefs, but that does not validate what they believe.
Just because something is “studied” does not confer validation.
You seem to think that belief and “training” somehow confers validation.
That is absurd logic.
By the way, are these universities you mention the same ones that are the hotbeds of leftist, anarchist, secular indoctrination?
Are these the same universities that need to be shut down because they are subverting our society with their false doctrines ?
Are these the same universities that YOU have endlessly criticized because they are indoctrinating our youth with secular, communist ideology ?
At least make some sort of attempt at a consistent, logical argument.
You can’t have it both ways.
You can’t excoriate universities and then cite them in support of your ridiculous position.
“. . . we would adjust and be able to produce everything we need domestically.”
Like coffee and chocolate? (Just to name two.)
Sam, are you intending to join the juveniles in their comments? Many things made abroad taste better than what is at home. We don’t see them in everyday grocery stores if they are super expensive to transport and sell here.
However, coffee and cocoa are grown in Hawaii and can be grown in Florida. If that is not sufficient, greenhouses can produce the same. Is the finest coffee in the world worth the United States going to war, funding the world and keeping the sea lanes open for the benefit of other nations?
Sam, I should have thanked you for your comment. You know better than those idiots, and your comment helped prove my contention. You picked difficult things to grow, but we have the land and climate to do so. The US is situated in the best latitude for growing crops and extends from the tropics to the Arctic tundra, from marshlands to high mountains. Your choice of hard foods to grow proved my point because they are already grown within the US.
Trump is a Russian asset.
@Anonymous
No, Anonymous is an idiot. And we all know it. Such very, very tired boosheet. Who in the name of Zeus is till paying you people?
Anonymous knows he’s typing in garbage. He’s trying to stir the pot and get a reaction.
So are you
Anonymoron is a Russian asset. And, an a$$. It’s comments are self-evident in that.
Ireland (Ireland, not Northern Ireland, which is basically Britain) has been one of the very last to fall to all of this nonsense, but the tourists at the Guinness brewery will never know; I’m glad some people stood against it, but I fear that Western Europe is just largely lost. They have reverted back to what they were in the prewar days, and they would likely, at least in terms of their governments, side with a Hitler or a Khrushchev or a Mao in 2025. These countries creep ever closer to having more of a resemblance to communist China (or the former Soviet Union) than the free world, which narrows every day thanks to the unelected, supremely wealthy, and utterly elitist globalists, and it is sad.
This only illustrates how precious our freedoms are, and why we must continue to protect them. We are not done, and we continue to be unique in our system, without a global exception. Hold the line through the midterms and beyond. We are not done.
James,
It is odd how Western Europe does not seem to remember history and are in support of some policies the Nazis had. The good news is the progressive left has lost here in America. Will the rest of the world, namely Western Europe follow? Watching how people are voting for more conservatives and how some courts are doing everything they can to keep conservatives off ballots is telling.
In other good news, two polls show the Democrat party is at record lows. 29% in a CNN poll and 27% in a NBC poll.
@Upstate
Time will tell. I hope so.
I’m going to take a new tack on this topic.
–It is that I believe much of censorship is grounded in fear. Fear of the mobs, the masses, the “perceived” have-nots.
Ireland, Britain, and Germany (all of which have high immigrant populations, -markedly changing their traditional national complexions, no pun intended) all have realized severe financial strain in providing for persons who don’t/can’t carry their own weight, –mostly foreigners/immigrants. See, e.g, https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/more-than-one-million-foreigners-claiming-benefits/ar-AA1B3rVI?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=537d726049574c55873f37b26f19aa77&ei=18 (“Three nationalities – Congolese, Iraqis and Afghans – are claiming benefits at four times the rate of British people.”)
Further, I’ve noticed in the last few weeks the increased frequency of references to “billionaires,” including, just now, https://www.gq.com/story/inside-the-new-private-mountain-clubs-where-billionaires-ski?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us,
including the subtitle, “The next frontier of exclusive, members-club culture?” I first noticed it following the Luis Mangione story referring to “CEO billionaire Brian Thompson of UnitedHealthCare.” -Just like the use of trigger words MAGA, and Musk, and Fascist work on the perceptions of populations, so too might there be new disdain for the latest culprits, billionaires?
Is “censorship” in these countries less about free speech and more about placating the masses against uprising against the perceived status quo stability? methinks someone’s fixin’ for a fight.
@lin
It isn’t any different than any other time we’ve seen it in history; control the masses, control everything. Same old elitist crap, but in countries that do not have our Constitution or separation of powers, and where we are at the point that people think that’s normal or OK ‘over there’. Even in Ireland, they think ‘hate speech’ is something that exists. Western Europe, at least for now, is lost.
And no, this does not bespeak of a ‘far right’ solution. Just people using their brains again instead of being fed like baby birds, mouth to mouth, and the modern left embody this with everything they can muster.
James,
Well said. I would add in keeping up the fight we need to keep repeating that MAGA is not ‘far right.’ It is a return to America first, common sense, logic and decency. Meanwhile, the ‘far left’ that has hijacked the Democrat party is being called out as toxic by sane, normal, traditional and moderate Democrats. They allow these far leftists to continue to double down on their far left policies, the Democrat party will cease to exist and turn into something even uglier then what it is today. As noted yesterday, aside from crying their usual racist, sexist, whatever-ist, Hitler, Nazis, they keep spewing which, lets face it, aside from them, no one else is listening or believing them, they offer no solutions. “We hate Trump!” is not a solution nor is it going to be a good election campaign slogan.
Reading that CNN poll yesterday, AOC was Democrats top rated in who do they think represents their values at 10%. If AOC is the best they can come up with by the next presidential election, say hello to President Vance in 2028.
“[The Left’s] frequency of references to ‘billionaires,’ . . .”
Noticed the same trend.
Their current epithets fell flat (“dictator,” “threat to democracy”). So the Left’s recycling one from a century ago: Marxist class conflict.
Historically speaking, the people in society promoting censorship have never been the good guys.
I have not traveled outside the US in many years for various reasons. Until the globalists, those neo-Malthusian, eugenecist, sadistic, self-righteous, vicious killers really got going with their Coudenhove-Kalergi, Cloward-Piven garbage I had a mostly positive outlook about foreign countries.
I always took pleasure in the thought that I could go to England and enjoy it as I had in the past, that I could go to Germany and enjoy again the fresh beer, hearty food, and Christmas markets. It seemed wonderful that I might, someday, go to Italy, Greece, France, Poland, Russia, to meet people from those distinct cultures and enjoy a taste of another country.
Here I am now, with the time and means to travel and the posteriorifices in education and politics in almost every nation have screwed up the world. Their mass migration policies are destroying cultures and making once amazing cities unsafe and unappealing. I’m sure the cultures that I imagine are still there but in much the same way as I detest the filth on the streets in SF, I have no desire to see hijabs in Paris or London.
Is this destruction of Western cultures any different than clear-cutting a rainforest, polluting the Everglades, or flushing out the population of Gaza?
So merry ole England is gone, beer drinking krauts are all gone ….
Destruction of western culture? By whom? Americans no less.
Rainforest, Gaza, Everglades, all the same? You sorry old man.
That clearly went over your head …… stick to coloring-books.
OldFish – excellent observations all around. Plus, I love the way you phrase things.
-OMFK
Very well said, and your descriptions give an honest overview of the damage the left has done to the world.
From Slave to Saint, God’s hand as guidance!
The British Empire is collapsing; they seem to never have learned that Church or State cannot usurp Natural Rights without causing some form of rebellion. Just one example of past are the Penal Laws of the seventeenth century, Edmund Burke wrote “For I must do it justice; it was a complete system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested and well composed in all its parts. It was a machine of wise and deliberate contrivance, as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment and degradation of a people, and the debasement of human nature itself, as ever preceded from the perverted ingenuity of man.”