In “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I write about how censorship often becomes an insatiable appetite once countries go down the road of speech regulation. There is no better example than the Dutch and their recent ban on public ads for meat and fossil fuels. Activists have imposed similar limitations on advertising for products in the United States, from alcohol to tobacco. However, the Dutch law reflects how this tendency can metastasize into shielding citizens from unhealthy choices or influences.
It appears that Dutch painters such as Pieter Aertsen (with his work A Meat Stall with the Holy Family Giving Alms, above) were promoting harmful imagery in their work. As for Rembrandt’s “Slaughtered Ox,” the Dutch master is now little more than a climate change denier.
Starting on May 1, the ban on such images became part of Amsterdam’s push to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. While purportedly neutral on carbon, it is manifestly negative on free speech.
As with other anti-free speech measures in Europe, this push again came from the left. The GreenLeft Party’s Anneke Veenhoff explained “I mean, if you want to be leading in climate policies and you rent out your walls to exactly the opposite, then what are you doing?”
The answer is engaging in free speech.
This is, of course, commercial speech, which is often subject to a lower level of protection. However, this shows the danger of using the differential standard to target products or industries viewed as unhealthy or ill-advised for consumers.
In Amsterdam, the ban will cover industries such as airlines, including KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, one of the largest employers and revenue generators in the country.
Notably, activists compare this to cigarette advertising bans, confirming the very slippery slope danger that those companies raised when they were targeted.
Hannah Prins, a paralegal at Advocates for the Future, is quoted as saying, “I don’t think it’s normal to see murdered animals on billboards. So I think it’s very good that that’s going to change.”
Other Dutch cities are now following suit, including Haarlem, Utrecht, and Nijmegen.
Of course, prostitutes still advertise live in Amsterdam and marijuana is a major industry for tourists. If you want drugs, there are ample choices. However, if you want a steak, you will have to rely on word-of-mouth directions.
The industry could form an NGO via anonymous donations and sponsor anti-meat billboard ads:
First ad: A scene showing a great looking steak, with a hot chick and a cowboy, bordered with a red circle and slashout. The caption reads, ‘Just say no to meat. Boycott Swen’s Grocery Store and its €20.00 kg tenderloin steaks.”
Amsterdam is a fascinating city, but the last time we were there it was just dirty—everywhere we went. Maybe they have bigger issues, but politicians always pick the low hanging fruit.
Jonathan, your “free speech” argument is understandable. Although I would not concur completely with it as the Dutch are taking on a very formattable opponent within Their own Government. Imagine taking on U.S. Oil here to mandate social policy away from Oil to Alternate Energy fuels (no more car Ads for Gasoline Powered Automobiles). That’s what the Dutch have undertaken.
Shell Oil PLC (Royal Dutch Shell), Shell is the second largest investor-owned oil and gas company in the world by revenue (after ExxonMobil). Shell was formed in April 1907 through the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company of the Netherlands and The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company of the United Kingdom, with 60 percent of stock ownership under Royal Dutch.
When a consociational state (the Netherlands) decides to mandate policies that transforms the basis of their Socio-Economics, it goes through a calculus (mechanism) to reach the mandated solution. I applaud Them, it is/was a very difficult process to find and implement to mandated changes, albeit at the expense of Free Speech. This was no small undertaking. Perhaps the size of the Netherlands enabled the successful consensus of the mandate, that would be much more difficult to accomplish here in the sizably larger U.S..
Re.: A.I. ( How does a consociational state mandate policies )
Key mechanisms of consociational policy mandates include:
Grand Coalitions: Elites from all major groups govern together, ensuring a broad consensus on decisions rather than a majority ruling over a minority.
Mutual Vetoes: Any group can veto legislation deemed detrimental to its vital interests, ensuring no major policy is passed without broad consensus.
Proportionality: Political representation, civil service positions, and public funds are distributed proportionally to each segment’s population size.
Segmental Autonomy: Individual segments are given the power to govern themselves on internal issues, such as education, culture, and religious affairs.
Ref.:
Consociationalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consociationalism
Shell PLC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_plc
Because without ads people will quit eating meat and using fossil fuels? LOL
People must accept and adapt to the outcomes of freedom.
The outcomes of freedom do not adapt to people.
Dictatorship does.
The grapevine is a perfectly workable communication method. People will ‘make do.’ What they really should do is make their leaders stretch hemp but hey, that’s a tough line to define.
News flash: People ate meat and used fossil foods long before advertising was invented.
Ahh the Dutch, famous for windmills and wooden shoes. Their theme song should be Glory Day.
People must adapt to freedom.
Freedom does not adapt to people.
Dictatorship does.
GreenLeft Party’s Anneke Veenhoff and her fellow travelers don’t understand the basics of economics. If cost, quality information is hidden from consumers, then the market is very inefficient resulting in higher costs for consumers. But instead of thinking about meeting the needs and desires of consumers, the puritanical GreenLeft party is clearly wanting purify the souls of their wayward neighbors thinking that banning any mention of these sinful goods will eliminate their consumption. They must then have the belief that there is no consumer need except that expressed by advertising. I expect a new wave of euphemisms for the forbidden fruit to appear in popular local usages. It will be interesting.
If the Dutch Amsterdam has outlawed advertised meat products and “advertising that promotes lifestyles linked to high carbon emissions, which is a driver of climate change. It’s a first for a world capital,” -per NYT,- (think McDonald’s, everything in your life containing plastic, fertilizer, cosmetics, even pharmaceuticals), –then the Netherlands may find itself part of the Neverlands.
Meh.
Give it another few years and see how they are doing with their green policies and take note of what not to do.
Kinda like what Mumdani is doing for NYC, and Wilson for Seattle.
@Upstate @lin
Yup. And that is before we get to the health consequences. I can actually admire someone for sacrificing for principle, but no joke – virtually every long-term vegan eater I know is at the least, anemic, at worst, has brain issues, and before anyone rushes to judgement; I am big on nutrition and did it the ‘right’ way for a year and a half. I got tired of being tired and befuddles all the time, it was cured instant;y by reintroducing animal products into my diet.
Naturally we a re talking about very ignorant (and often too young to know better) people that fail to realize bovines used to wander the countryside in massive herds, and they farted just as much back then, or that they will ever age themselves. I would actually point the finger in places like the CA Central Valley at unethical, polluting, and destructive farming methods (read: that means growing fruits and vegetables, not cows), not cattle raising. And this is before we get to clearing old growth trees and plants to install equally destructive solar or wind farms. Do not believe their lies about opposing data centers (and I do) – the left simply wishes they were the ones in charge.
Barbara Grimmway and Linda Resnick are billionaires of the veggie variety; look them up if you are unfamiliar. We are dealing with kids that do not know their a$$es from a hole in the ground, some can’t tie a shoe or use a stapler (I know because my wife teaches them, in those places), but for some inexplicable reason in many places both here and abroad, they have been gifted with power over others.
This must not be allowed to continue, and yes, it means some of us have to work harder for longer than we expected, but to me, that is perfectly fine if it means we skirt oblivion, which is where we are headed under the modern left, no longer a question. They are represent nothing but nihilism, they are at the point they would be happy to simply kill anyone older and wiser for simply existing and remembering history (Mao and Pol Pot smile on them), and that is just that.
The saddest thing is, at root, it is largely just the temper tantrum on the part of people that were raised very badly, very privileged, and very stupidly, and with very serious consequences for everyone else. The fact that every legacy socialist or communist government is a dead heap of ashes is no match for their hubris.
Sorry for the typos, not unlike the Professor, I guess, we have to post in less than ideal situations at times. But we cannot cease in the dialogue. No way. And hopefully by now, regular readers know that other ‘James’ is a fake. Always appreciate your time and your insight, even when we disagree.
I am both puzzled and amused by conservative attacks against vegans. Why do you care? I am not vegan, but for health reasons I eat very little meat protein. It’s not that I don’t like meat or that I find some superior morality in this: I simply like being healthy and I would like to extend my life. Would exposing myself to heart disease and kidney failure restore my man-card?
Conservatives don’t care if people are vegans, conservative don’t believe in you mandating your views on them. Obviously you are to stupid or ignorant to see the difference.
@Upstate
That’s the thing: they don’t care, and don’t have the cognizance to care. The strongest proponents of this nonsense have never had to fend for themselves, and for many, likely never will. It’s like trying to explain water to a fish. 🤷🏻♂️
Putin will have reached the Atlantic Ocean by then and be ruling Europe so those laws will have already been repealed.