Today I have the pleasure of speaking on free speech and my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” in Prague at the Pražská křižovatka (St. Anne’s Church) (The cultural centre founded by Václav Havel). I have been meeting with the extraordinary free speech community in the Czech Republic, including members of Institute H21 who have been instrumental in focusing attention on the issues surrounding free speech. Europe is now ground zero in the fight for free speech as the European Union ramps up its censorship laws, including the Digital Services Act. Free speech is in a free fall in Europe and these conferences have never been more important.
The speech obviously took on an ominous and bitter quality with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I will be addressing his murder today, but I have been speaking with reporters and academics about its implications. I will also be writing again about it tomorrow in my Saturday column in The Hill.
We have clearly entered the most dangerous stage of an “age of rage” with two attempted assassinations of President Trump, the assassination of Democratic politicians in Minnesota, and now the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The death of Charlie, who I knew and respected, was unnerving given his effort to create debates in higher education and to challenge the intolerance for opposing views.
Some in the anti-free speech community are already using the Kirk assassination to call for additional controls over what they consider hate speech and disinformation. It is a crushing irony to use the murder of a free speech advocate to justify greater censorship.
Charlie spent his life fighting against speech controls and orthodoxy on college campuses. To use him as an excuse for additional limits on free speech is the ultimate dishonoring of his life and his legacy.
I look forward to today’s event and the opportunity to interact with this esteemed group of academics, journalists, and advocates in Prague.
Why were they closing in on Goebbels just because of the media that he put out?
Why did they drive him to suicide just become of some posters and newsreels that he produced?
Why weren’t these considered forms of protected speech?
Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble!
Why did Goebbels kill himself?
Take your meds!
Goebbels and his wife killed themselves and all of their children because the Red Army was closing in on the bunker they shared with Hitler and Eva Braun. The Red Army was not known to be nice to anyone much less actual enemies. It was probably wise to take cyanide rather than Soviet mercies. Eva also took cyanide but Hitler shot himself after giving cyanide to his dog to test it.
I had a friend, a PhD, who killed herself with cyanide and it is pretty fast.
Chemists have sometimes made cyanide in a flask, sniffed it out of curiosity, became unconscious and dropped the flask shattering it, and then fallen into the cyanide and died.
Caught my attention because I had my own lab as a kid and would have been tempted but likely would have spurned the temptation. I did make nitrogen dioxide, a rusty, evil looking gas that is heavier than air and is poisonous. Just a little sniff can’t hurt, can it? I almost did but stopped. Later I learned it numbs your nose membranes so you sniff more and it rots your nasal passages.
The Leftists are killing Americans because they are losing on all fronts. Democrat District Judges are the new terrorists
Federal appeals court rules Trump admin can block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding
The appeals court reversed U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s ruling in Boston in July that it was likely unconstitutional to specifically target Planned Parenthood’s health centers for punishment for providing abortions
Planned Parenthood said the stay means that 1.1 million patients can no longer use Medicaid to cover their abortions or other services it provides and makes 200 clinics at risk of closure, the Associated Press reported.
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/federal-appeals-court-rules-trump-admin-can-block-planned-parenthood
Abortion by Planned Parenthood is homicide, which is deliberate murder; human life begins after 24 hrs. of fertilization.
Medicaid is unconstitutional and cannot be taxed for or funded by Congress (i.e. Article 1, Section 8), as its 18.7% of the population as beneficiaries does not constitute “general Welfare.”
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
The ladies had better put on their hijabs and tents and travel in groups. Throw away those revealing costumes.
Back on planet earth no one ever, ever talked about anyone’s derriere. It is so bizarre.
These are instinctual behaviors without restraint. This is the animal. The animal is a beast.
Msm is noise based on all vices. It has to be turned off. It’s the source. It’s the Pandora’s box. The Greeks were amazing.
Why are you bothered by freedom of inquiry about Goebbels?
If you really believe in freedom, why not let it be?
Free speech requires that people are allowed to rebut other people – especiailly when they are stupid
there is a right to speak , There is no right to squash disagreement.
Your thinking is incredibly shallow and stupid.
Free speech rests upon the moral decisions of the speaker and writer. A self governing people, a person uses self restraint and impulse control and morality. How about video games that deduct points for killing! Lost points for theft! Lost points for curse words!
You’ve lost it.
Long over due
F***
Joe BidenGeorge SorosRapid Response
@RapidResponse47
@POTUS “We’re going to look into Soros because I think it’s a RICO case against him and other people because this is more than protests. This is real agitation; this is riots on the street — and we’re going to look into that.”
https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1966480468934561857
Rabble:
Jesus, must be payday for the obfuscators. The amount of this “highly regarded” anonymous posting is nothing but lies, misinformation, and obfuscation meant to take away from their most recent radicalized killer being, as everyone suspected, a radicalized furry trans-supporting leftist freak.
Shame on the obfuscator. Can someone find where they work and get them fired, like the teachers and game devs that supported the freak’s actions have been?
Did Charlie Kirk’s free speech encourage Russians to kill Ukrainians?
Did Goebbels ever kill anyone by his own hand, or did he just exercise his freedoms of speech and assembly?
The fact that you continue to bring up the Goebbels narrative and try to associate it with Charlie Kirk or Trump or MAGA, when your narrative has been dismantled by OldManFromKS, again and again, only goes to prove how you, the MSM and the DNC are desperate to highjack the obvious: You are the real fascists.
Why are you discouraging freedom of inquiry on a free speech blog?
Why does this seem like something a fascist would do?
I am not “discouraging freedom of inquiry on a free speech blog.” That is your fascist projection. I am just pointing out how OldManFromKS dismantled your Goebbels narrative. By all means do keep it up. With leftists like you the Democrat party is sure to lose voters and elections.
How marvelous.
You are free to enquire as you please – though that is not what you are doing.
You are manufacturing fraudulent hypotheticals where actual reality is available to us.
And you are doing so stupidly ignorant of history and the facts.
Goebbels is guilty because he knowingly fascilitated a war of aggression as well as ACTUAL genocide.
Less than 1/4 of the Jews in Europe survived the war.
Atleast 20 million civilians died in that war.
These are things that Goebbels participated in.
Upstate, it appears George Soros put out another memo to his mindless drones, telling them to bring up Goebbels over and over in nonsensical and idiotic ways.
Didn’t George Soros work for or with the nazis.
You are right.
George Was 9 years old in 1939.
If I remember correctly he was in command of the 5th Panzer Division.
OldManFromKS,
Oh, I am seeing that. The funny part is they are so not so bright to think we dont see that. So, just pointing out the fact you dismantled their narrative with just a few sentences is ever so amusing! And then they double down or triple down on the stupid and crazy, which I point out is the reason why the modern Democrat party is losing voters and elections and with those leftists on the Democrat side will continue to lose, only makes it that much better.
Hey! Democrats!! If you want to keep losing, keep the likes of the annony moron, Gigi, the slow and dumb one, Elvis Bug on your side!! That will only get us another 12 years of MAGA WH! Perhaps House and Senate too!!!
How marvelous!
Rabble:
Goebbels-ing deez nuts.
Makes about as much sense as what you wrote, lol.
Actually, he killed his children before killing himself. The Right to Free Speech is only a product of the US Constitution you idiot. Germany did not then nor do they now follow the US Constitution. What obtuse argument are you trying to dredge?
When you excercise power over others to get them to murder people – you have comitted murder.
But that requires REAL power – not attempts to persuade free people
Goebbels was part of the Nazi Government. His excercise of government power resulted in the murder of innocent people.
A woman is an adult with xx gametes. We progressed to male female back on earth!
How novel ketanji!
Goebbels’ speech advocated or celebrated the killing of the people he disliked or disagreed with.
The rage rhetoric speech of American leftists advocates or celebrates the killing of the people they dislike or disagree with.
Kirk’s speech favored reasoned dialog instead of violence and invited people he disagreed with to speak freely.
Which of these things ^ is not like the others?
OldManFromKS,
Seems obvious to anyone with any degree of common sense, logic, critical thinking and a knowledge of history of Goebbels, the Nazis have much more in common with leftists Democrats of today.
But our lower elevator IQ leftists simply continue to spew their simplistic “Goebbels” narrative as if anyone actually believes them.
They are ever so lame. And that is why the modern Democrat party is losing and will continue to lose. Sane and normal Democrats want you out of their party! Good for them!
Why do you want to control the narrative on a free speech blog like a fascist would?
I do not want to control the narrative of anything. That is just your fascist projection. I am just pointing out how OldManFromKS dismantled your lame narrative.
No one is “controlling the narative – and even if they were short of govenrment censorship that would not violate the first amendment.
Posters here are repeatedly informing you that you claims are shallow false and a historical.
Goebbels speeches are relevant in two ways – Goebbels defines Nazism and fascism – Repeatedly as socialism.
As have ever other open fascist in history.
Next they provide some of the evidence – mostly motive for the ACTUAL crimes that he and other Nazi leaders committed.
The actual crimes were mostly committed in they did, and with respect to the Nazi heirarchy what they ORDERED others to do. Orders that if not obeyed would result in ostracism and possibly death. Many obeyed those orders joyfully – we see that in the modern fascists on the left – We saw that yesterday as millions of left wing nuts were overjoyed at someones murder.
Regardless it is universally accepted that Free speech does not permit you to order those you have actual power over to comit crimes.
When a Mafia Don or a drug lord orders the elimination of an enemy – that is not protected speech.
“the Nazis have much more in common with leftists Democrats of today.”
Upstate, your point is exactly on target. Nazism and Fascism grew out of the left. I cannot think of a country now or in the past that provides as much individual freedom as our Constitutional Republic. Almost all the discussions on the blog are between more freedom and less freedom. Those we debate with consistently opt for less freedom.
S. Meyer– I posted earlier about reading Goebbels diaries but it doesn’t seem to have appeared.
In any event reading his diaries makes it clear that the Nazis were socialists. Same, of course, with Fascism.
Hard to believe that a white man in Utah who was able to take apart and put back together his weapon, and was a skilled shooter, is not actually a woke, leftist libtard.
He was radicalized by his single semester of engineering classes at that ultra woke Utah State University where 90% of students are white, and which is rated the 8th most conservative college in the country.
That’s right.
Utah State University (USU) is located in Logan, Utah, and it’s considered among the most conservative nonreligion-affiliated universities in America.
Academically, USU offers degree programs in agriculture, natural resources, family studies, and business, emphasizing traditional values and conservative principles.
https://collegerover.com/campus-library/news/128/most-conservative-colleges-in-us
Talk about woke.
Utah State is right up there with Harvard and Colunbia as far as wokeness is concerned.
We really need to put a stop to this leftist indoctrination in our woke colleges.
Oh yeah, they’re known for their woke engineering program.
One semester and you go from MAGA to Marxist
He was a god fearing Mormon until y’know.
He went to college.
It’s true.
After my first semester in Utah State I turned into a woke trans antifa paid protestor.
Yeah, one semester of engineering at Utah State and you’re dying your hair purple and changing your name to Sheila.
Quit replying to yourself!! LAME!!
USU ets the worst score of any university in Utah from Fire – a 57% – an F. That places it SLIGHTLY above most of the ivies.
It ranks 141st out of 257 in Fire’s rankings.
It has the same score as George Washington University and Geortown.
Anyone claiming this is a conservative friendly college is NUTS.
Utah State is a uni located in Logan Utah. The assassination occurred at Utah Valley U in Orem Utah. You have the wrong school.
No. According to reports, he was radicalized by frequenting ANTIFA sites.
The murderer is a liberal, far-left DEIst (e.g. racist) with progressive, socialist sympathies. #NoJudgment #NoLabels #HateLovesAbortion
Taking apart a bolt action rifle usually requires only pressing one button to remove the bolt, called a bolt stop. It is not like it is a M1, a M14 or even a AR15.
He was not a skilled shooter. He was aiming for the head and shot Kirk in the neck. He did not know about how to compensate for the elevation angle of shooting downward. He may of had some training but was not “skilled.” And his etchings on the bullet cases are all associated with leftists.
NotReallyaFarmer
So apparently you have swallowed the MAGA Koolaid about the etchings on the bullet casings all being associated with the left.
The “Hey fascist! Catch!” next to a series of arrows pointing in various directions is a reference to the shooting video game Helldivers 2, in which pressing this combination of arrow keys on the keyboard generates this message and a 500kg bomb to be used against opponents.
The “O bella ciao” message is also a theme from the Helldivers 2 video game. It is used along with other patriotic songs to satirize military dictatorships. The Helldivers 2 game is a very tongue in cheek satirical game.
“Notices, bulges, OwO what’s this?” is an internet meme meant to insult and troll those in the furry movement.
“If you read this you are gay lmao” is a homophobic internet meme used to insult and troll gay people.
So you see these messages are nothing more than stupid internet meme trolling by a kid who plays video games.
Would it have been OK to assassinate Goebbels?
If so, why?
STFU with this stupid Goebbels sh!t. It only makes you look like an idiot.
Why can’t I look like a genius if I want to?
Why are you discouraging freedom of inquiry in an article about free speech?
To look like a genius at the very least you need to NOT speak like a moron.
You are not engaged in enquiry – though you are free to spout nonsense.
And others are free to call you out for your moronic posts.
Everything is working exactly as John Stuart Mill told us – those who say stupid things are refuted by the free speach of those who are not stupid.
For the same reason that it was acceptable for Pres. Obama to assassinate Al Awari.
“Steven Crowder Obtains Leaked Utah County Sheriff’s Office Internal Docs About Suspected Charlie Kirk Assassin Tyler Robinson”
by Cassandra MacDonald Sep. 12, 2025 12:20 pm
Excerpts:
“Conservative podcaster Steven Crowder has obtained leaked internal documents from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office regarding suspected Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson.”
“The latest leak comes one day after Crowder announced that his company has been subpoenaed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) over another leak about the case.”
“On Thursday, Crowder announced that the ATF had subpoenaed his company after he received a leaked document from within the agency claiming that a weapon found near the site of Charlie Kirk’s assassination was equipped with cartridges etched with symbols and phrases tied to transgender and Antifa ideology.”
“The original post stated, “This morning my team received an e-mail from officer at ATF. The email included a screen shot from what appears to be an internal message describing a weapon and cartridges located by an ATF and other law enforcement near the scene of the Charlie Kirk shooting at Utah Valley State University.”
“The document describes the cartridges as bearing etched symbols, including the transgender flag colors and phrases such as “Trans Rights Are Human Rights,” hinting at a premeditated act driven by radical beliefs.”
“Crowder was the first person to obtain the leaked manifesto written by Nashville Covenant School shooter Aiden Hale.”
Nothing says leftist like scribbling 5th grade meme slogans on bullet casings, while using socialist media for advertising your transgendermandering flag, proudly squeaking trans rights are human rights.
Their hero.
—————————————
–Oddball
“Take it easy Big Joe, some of these people got sensitive feelings.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/steven-crowder-obtains-leaked-utah-county-sheriffs-office/
I just saw some commentary by Andrew Klavan, who was brilliant as always. He pointed out how things in this world don’t make sense if our view is limited to materialism and devoid of God, as it is with socialism. But if we understand the truth of Scriptures, there is a God who makes sense of even the evil in this world, and will one day punish it. I realize books could be written (and have been) on that topic, so I’m not trying to give a thorough explanation. But I liked how Klavan signed off, with a timely quoting of Psalm 11. Below, the word translated “Lord” is the tetragrammaton, God’s name as revealed to Moses (YHVH).
In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?
For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily [secretly] shoot at the upright in heart.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.
The Lord trieth [tests] the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
It’s a beautiful prayer from Tehillim. Did Andrew Klavan quote the words, or just write ‘Psalm 11’ when he signed off? The translation looks like the King James Version.
“Charlie spent his life fighting against speech controls and orthodoxy on college campuses. To use him as an excuse for additional limits on free speech is the ultimate dishonoring of his life and his legacy.”
Bravo, Professor Turley!
As we now learn more about the shooter and his family who turned him in, his father, it is becoming evident that the “radical leftist” label doesn’t fit. This is why the rumors and wild speculation and the right’s hysteria fed by the President and other MAGA idiots online made things worse and why it’s important to wait until the facts come out and not take the assumptions and speculation as truth.
You said that before, but it’s false. His writings on the shell casings is consistent with radical leftism. Not saying it’s conclusive, only that you’re wrong to say it “doesn’t fit.” See John Say’s further explanation here:
https://jonathanturley.org/2025/09/12/turley-speaks-in-prague-on-free-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-2552658
Makes sense you didn’t graduate high school, Ms. “IF NOT TODAY; WHEN?”
If it can be argued that Joseph Goebbels helped to cause the deaths of Jews simply by his free expressions, then it can be argued that Charlie Kirk has helped to cause the deaths of Ukrainians simply by HIS free expressions.
🎱
To Margaret Brennan, who has shown up here to give us more of her stupidity (hey there Margaret, why are you using an anonymous screen name?). You were proved wrong on this very claim. Your premise that the Nazis believed in free speech is so stupid it’s laughable. Why not relive your conversation with Secretary Rubio who rightly called you out on your stupidity. Here’s the transcript:
https://www.state.gov/secretary-marco-rubio-with-margaret-brennan-of-cbss-face-the-nation
Ukrainians were killed by the far-left regime in Kiev and aligned axis interests with Obama/Biden/Clinton’s ethnic Springs.
Sophistry, anon
An encouraging message to ALL:
Just coming home from “shopping” with a friend and we were listening to an “oldies” station on the radio. It played a real oldie- something about “you say over and over and over again my friend, we’re on the eve of destruction.”
Apparently a big hit?
Anyway, well, here we are, -what, 50 years later,? —-and we still have not been destructed!!!!!!
So I’m confident we will all get past this polemic hump in the road and unite in the face of any real crisis!
I have no doubt that if we saw one another lying injured roadside, or after an obvious attack, we would help each other.
….(Yet, some things still bother me… Why do Hostess Twinkies taste different than they used to? Why do blue and yellow make green? Why does commenter George faithfully appear here every day when he so much dislikes what the good professor has to say? Does he need an Eve of Distraction? dunno.
(p.s. We bought a 10-pak box of Hostess Ding Dongs. We ate half on the way home. That’s why I’m thinking about Twinkies.)
I wear that as a badge, because they were really good (although we got a lot of crumbs in the car).
Lin,
I am going to go with, back in the day, Twinkies were such a treat, only to be had once in awhile, through the childhood lens they seem better. Today I would not even touch one. Then again, now I love broccoli. Hated it as a kid. Same with peas, but they got to be either fresh or frozen. Not canned.
As for the slow and dumb one, better to just scroll past. Not worth reading.
Ha! Upstate, wish some of us lived closer, we would have so much fun–and engage in REAL debate around a good campfire, without killing each other!
I was a skinny little blondie, apparently borderline anemic at times, and the doctors told parents to give me some “organ meat?” LIVER! YECCHHT! They thought I ate it and washed it down with milk, Ha! ….until they pulled out the center of the dining table to expand it for Thanksgiving guests, and a few petrified chunks of dried-out hard matter fell out!
Lin,
Right? A few glasses of good vino with a equally good meal, good music and good conversation around a fire!
Ahhh, sorry Lin, that is where we may not agree i.e. I like chicken liver and make a great chicken liver pate! The fact is has a 1/4 cup of brandy in it, might have something to do with it! I also like Rumaki, but I use honey locally made vs brown sugar and with a touch of bourbon.
What crime did Goebbels commit?
He just printed some flyers.
Is it a crime to print some flyers?
I don’t think he committed any crimes.
Prove me wrong.
(1) Goebbels had a Ministry of Truth.* Its purpose was to support the government’s narrative, and suppress competing narratives. President Joe Biden had a ministry of truth with the same mission. It was one part of the government-corporate censorship complex that worked effectively in 2020 to suppress, e.g., the Hunter Laptop story, which in turn was a factor leading to Biden’s electoral win. So if you want to compare Goebbels to someone in modern American life, it would be Biden and the left-wing henchmen that ran his campaign and administration.
(2) When someone on our team engages in discussion and says “prove me wrong,” your team murders that person. Can you give me a reason why the same should not happen to you?
*Called officially the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
OldManFromKS,
What a great comment and response to the annony moron!! Well done!
What made Joseph Goebbel’s worse than Charlie Kirk?
In what way was Joseph Goebbels any worse than you?
Goebbel’s just exercised his free speech. I’m sure Turley would have come to his defense.
^ That’s a comment from either a pot-stirrer, or an incredibly ignorant person who knows nothing about history.
There’s no comparison of what Charlie provided for on a platform for open discussion with the propaganda ministry of the Third Reich. Do you suppose a Jew could stand in open discussion with Goebbles and speak freely about his beliefs without being assaulted or killed?
Should Joseph Goebbel’s free speech have been protected?
If not, then why should Charlie Kirk’s?
REALLY…. Are you that stupid.
Dustoff – she’s both dumb and mean – a depressing combination. But all too frequent among the leftist commenters on this blog.
Our curse is not that we lack worthy allies, we have many of those, it’s that we lack worthy adversaries. A few years ago there was one liberal commenter with whom you could actually have a reasonable conversation. He was anonymous but often signed his comments “A.N.D.” when in a back-and-forth with me. Sadly, he doesn’t comment any more and the lefties we do get are without exception unreasonable and absurd, as evidenced quite emphatically by the mocking comments over Charlie Kirk’s death during the last three days. I’ve yet to see a liberal commenter on here admit that maybe it was a bad thing that the husband and father of two was brutally murdered. I mean that would be the first, most basic step to showing you’re an actual human being. But no, I have not seen a single comment like that.
What can I say. Have a great weekend.
Thanks Dustoff, you too!
“ Should Joseph Goebbel’s free speech have been protected?
If not, then why should Charlie Kirk’s?”
Very interesting question. It’s a valid point.
If Joseph Goebbel was alive today should he have been free to advocate his beliefs? I believe Professor Turley would say yes. Would it still be considered hate speech? Based on the present make up of the Trump administration he (Goebbels) wouldn’t be out of place.
Goebbles was a German Nazi in 1930’s Germany. I don’t think they adhere to America’s Constitution anywhere other than America, especially in pre WW2 Germany.
You really need to get some help.
Valid question.
Goebbels practiced state propaganda speech, whereas Charlie practiced, well… open debate. Not even at a state level. A private citizen challenging lefties in public. I watched his debates a few times on YT and I was appalled by ignorance of his adversaries. “I don’t like the Orange Man”. “Why exactly?” “I don’t know”. — Time and again.