The Slow Death of Free Speech - by Mark Steyn at the Spectator - The 4 Freedoms Library2024-03-28T16:27:15Zhttp://4freedoms.com/forum/topics/the-slow-death-of-free-speech-by-mark-steyn-at-the-spectator?groupUrl=freespeech&commentId=3766518%3AComment%3A197271&xg_source=activity&groupId=3766518%3AGroup%3A108934&feed=yes&xn_auth=noFrance: More Terrorism, More…tag:4freedoms.com,2020-10-04:3766518:Comment:2116952020-10-04T14:57:11.577ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<div id="print_content"><h1>France: More Terrorism, More Silence</h1>
<div class="byline"><p class="sans-serif"><b>by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Giulio+Meotti"><span>Giulio Meotti</span></a><br></br>September 27, 2020 at 5:00 am</b></p>
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<li><p>This brand of extremism has also managed to transform many European citizens into prisoners, people hiding in their own countries, sentenced to death and…</p>
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<div id="print_content"><h1>France: More Terrorism, More Silence</h1>
<div class="byline"><p class="sans-serif"><b>by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Giulio+Meotti"><span>Giulio Meotti</span></a><br/>September 27, 2020 at 5:00 am</b></p>
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<li><p>This brand of extremism has also managed to transform many European citizens into prisoners, people hiding in their own countries, sentenced to death and forced to live in houses unknown even to their friends and families. And we got used to it!</p>
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<li><p>"[T]his lack of courage to follow in <i>Charlie</i>'s footsteps comes at a price, we are losing freedom of speech and an insidious form of self-censorship is gaining ground." — Flemming Rose, <i>Le Point</i>, September 2, 2020.</p>
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<li><p>"To put it simply, freedom of speech is in bad shape around the world. Including in Denmark, France and throughout the West. These are troubled times; people prefer order and security to freedom." — Flemming Rose, <i>Le Point</i>, August 15, 2020.</p>
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<tbody><tr><td><img src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/878.jpg" border="0"/><p>On September 25, in Paris, two people were stabbed and seriously wounded outside the former offices of <i>Charlie Hebdo</i>, where 12 of the satirical magazine's editors and cartoonists were murdered in 2015. Pictured: Firefighters and paramedics evacuate a wounded victim from the site of the attack. (Photo by Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images)</p>
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<p>On September 25, in Paris, two people were <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54296638" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stabbed</a> and seriously wounded outside the former offices of <i>Charlie Hebdo</i>, where 12 of the satirical magazine's editors and cartoonists were murdered by extremist Muslims in 2015. The suspect, in police custody, is being <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/paris-wounded-knife-attack-charlie-hebdo-site-73235882" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigated for terrorism</a>.</p>
<p>The accused murderers in the 2015 attacks are currently on <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/09/02/charlie-hebdo-14-trial-2015-paris-attacks/5689227002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trial</a> in Paris.</p>
<p>Shortly before the knifing attack, on September 22, <i>Charlie Hebdo</i>'s director of human resources, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54251389" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marika Bret</a>, did not come home. In fact, she no longer has a home. She was evicted after serious and concrete death threats from extremist Muslims. She decided to make her "<a href="https://www.bfmtv.com/police-justice/c-est-tres-violent-la-drh-de-charlie-hebdo-exfiltree-de-son-domicile-apres-des-menaces_AD-202009220009.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exfiltration</a>" public for French intelligence to alert the public to the threat of extremism in France.</p>
<p>"I have lived under police protection for almost five years", she <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/politique/la-drh-de-charlie-hebdo-exfiltree-de-son-domicile-21-09-2020-2392887_20.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the weekly <i>Le Point</i>.</p>
<blockquote><p>"My security agents received specific and detailed threats. I had ten minutes to pack and leave the house. Ten minutes to give up a part of one's life is a bit short and it was very violent. I will not go home. I am losing my home to outbursts of hatred, the hatred that always begins with the threat of instilling fear. We know how it can end".</p>
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<p>Bret also claimed that the French Left abandoned the "<a href="https://www.europe1.fr/societe/pour-marika-bret-drh-de-charlie-hebdo-exfittree-la-gauche-a-abandonne-le-combat-de-la-laicite-3993454" target="_blank" rel="noopener">battle for secularism</a>".</p>
<p>From the start of the trial of the men accused of committing the murders at <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> in 2015 -- and especially since the renewed publication of Mohammed cartoons -- <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> has received threats of all kinds -- including from <a href="https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20200911-al-qaida-issues-threat-to-charlie-hebdo-over-caricatures-says-monitoring-website-paris-terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">al Qaeda</a>. Security today at the satirical magazine is massive. "The address of our headquarters is secret, there are security gates everywhere, armored doors and windows, armed security agents, we can hardly get anyone in", Bret <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/politique/la-drh-de-charlie-hebdo-exfiltree-de-son-domicile-21-09-2020-2392887_20.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.</p>
<p>Today, there are <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/l-equipe-de-charlie-hebdo-protegee-par-85-policiers-on-est-des-cibles-des-gibiers-raconte-l-un-d-eux-25-09-2020-8391348.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">85 policemen</a> protecting <i>Charlie</i>'s journalists.</p>
<p>Bret has become another example of the clandestine nature of freedom of expression in France, the country of Voltaire. The first was Robert Redeker, a professor of philosophy. On September 17, 2006, he arose early to write an <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/debats/2006/09/19/01005-20060919ARTFIG90134-face_aux_intimidations_islamistes_que_doit_faire_le_monde_libre_.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> for <i>Le Figaro</i> on Europe's grappling with Islam. Three days later, he was in a safe house and <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/le-professeur-menace-protege-par-la-police-30-09-2006-2007376161.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on the run</a>.</p>
<p>Last January, <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15526/france-blasphemy-censorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mila O.</a>, a 16-year-old French girl, made <a href="https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/07/je-suis-mila/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">insulting comments</a> about Islam during a livestream on Instagram.</p>
<blockquote><p>"During her livestream, a Muslim boy asked her out in the comments, but she turned him down because she is gay. He responded by accusing her of racism and calling her a 'dirty lesbian'. In an angry <a href="https://twitter.com/malak_288_/status/1218536816422334465" target="_blank" rel="noopener">follow-up video</a>, streamed immediately after she was insulted, Mila responded by saying that she 'hates religion'".</p>
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<p>Mila continued, saying among other things:</p>
<blockquote><p>"Are you familiar with freedom of expression? I didn't hesitate to say what I thought. I hate religion. The Koran is a religion of hatred; there is only hatred in it. That's what I think. I say what I think... Islam is sh*t... I'm not a racist at all. One cannot simply be racist against a religion... I say what I want, I say what I think. Your religion is sh*t. I'd stick a finger up your god's a**h*le..."</p>
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<p>After her school's address was posted on social media, she was forced to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51446519" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leave</a>and transfer to a different school, this time kept secret.</p>
<p>The journalist Éric Zemmour was <a href="https://www.rtl.fr/actu/justice-faits-divers/trois-mois-de-prison-avec-sursis-pour-avoir-menace-verbalement-eric-zemmour-7800792221" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attacked</a> several times outside his house; the French-Moroccan journalist Zineb el Rhazoui also found the address of her home <a href="https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/1545915-20150220-charlie-hebdo-zineb-el-rhazoui-mari-menaces-mort-photos-publiees" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> on social media.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, to his credit, French President Emmanuel Macron has been <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/frances-macron-refuses-to-condemn-charlie-hebdo-cartoons-of-prophet-muhammad/a-54788078" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defending</a> <i>Charlie Hebdo</i>'s right to freedom of expression. Blasphemy, he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/12/macron-wades-into-french-girls-anti-islam-row-saying-blasphemy-is-no-crime-mila" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, "is no crime."</p>
<blockquote><p>"The law is clear: we have the right to blaspheme, to criticize, to caricature religions. The republican order is not a moral order... what is outlawed is to incite hatred and attack dignity."</p>
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<p>A 2007 legal case <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/12/macron-wades-into-french-girls-anti-islam-row-saying-blasphemy-is-no-crime-mila" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled</a> that "In France it is possible to insult a religion, its figures and its symbols ... however, insulting those who follow a religion is outlawed."</p>
<p>The courageous words of the French authorities, however, seem harmless, pale and dull, compared to the strength of extremist violence and intimidation.</p>
<p>Islamic fundamentalism has already managed to displace not only thousands of persecuted Christians -- such as Asia Bibi, forced to flee for her life from Pakistan to Canada after she was <i>acquitted</i> of committing blasphemy. This brand of extremism has also managed to transform many European citizens into prisoners, people hiding in their own countries, sentenced to death and forced to live in houses unknown even to their friends and families. And we got used to it!</p>
<p>On the day of Iran's death sentence against Salman Rushdie for his novel, <i>The Satanic Verses</i>, he and his wife, Marianne Wiggins, were taken from their home in North London by the British secret service, to the first of more than fifty "<a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-08-21-me-823-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">safe houses</a>" in which the writer lived for the next ten years.</p>
<p>The Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders -- whose name, as the next to be murdered, was found on a sheet of paper knifed into the murdered filmmaker, Theo van Gogh -- has been living in safe houses since 2004. "I am in jail," he <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4968/geert-wilders-was-right" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a>, "and they are walking around free."</p>
<p>Ten years ago, a <i>Seattle Weekly</i> reporter, Molly Norris, in solidarity with the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/man-who-encouraged-murder-south-161209" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endangered makers</a> of the television cartoon "South Park," also drew a caricature of Mohammed. The last newspaper article that talked about her <a href="https://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/17/draw-mohammed-cartoonist-goes-into-hiding-paper-says/comment-page-4/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>"You may have noticed that the Molly Norris strip is not included in this week's issue. That's because there is no more Molly... on the advice of FBI security specialists, she will be moving and changing her name..."</p>
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<p>The Danish newspaper <i>Jyllands Posten,</i> which first printed cartoons of Mohammed in 2005, gave up. The paper <a href="https://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm?blog_id=69992" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declined</a> to republish the caricatures of the Prophet of Islam when <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> printed them again on its front page. The editor who published the cartoons at <i>Jyllands Posten</i>, Flemming Rose, is still escorted by bodyguards. "I really admire <i>Charlie</i>'s courage," he <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/debats/caricatures-de-mahomet-il-existe-en-europe-une-loi-non-ecrite-sur-le-blaspheme-02-09-2020-2390150_2.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>"Heroes who have not succumbed to threats or violence. Unfortunately, they received limited support. No publication in France or Europe behaves like Charlie. That is why I believe that in Europe there is an unwritten law against blasphemy. I am not criticizing the journalists and editors who make this choice. We cannot blame people who, unlike <i>Charlie</i>, do not put their lives in danger. But let us not be fooled: this lack of courage to follow in <i>Charlie</i>'s footsteps comes at a price, we are losing freedom of speech and an insidious form of self-censorship is gaining ground".</p>
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<p>In recent days, the new editor of <i>Jyllands Posten</i>, Jacob Nybroe, <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/caricatures-le-danemark-veut-tourner-la-page-15-08-2020-2387803_24.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">repeated:</a></p>
<blockquote><p>"We will not publish them anymore. I confirmed this editorial line when I arrived and received a lot of applause. I may look like a coward, but we cannot do it".</p>
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<p>The names of Danish cartoonists appeared on the same "<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/stephane-charbonnie-was-al-qaeda-hit-list-circulated-social-media-297800" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hit list</a>" that Al Qaeda published with the name of <i>Charlie Hebdo's</i> editor-in chief, Stéphane Charbonnier, murdered in the 2015 massacre. The Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard is alive only because during a terror assault on his home, he <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/01/02/denmark.cartoonist/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hid</a>.</p>
<p>Today <i>Jyllands Posten</i>'s headquarters has bulletproof windows, metal bars and slabs, barbed wire and video cameras. It sits opposite the port of Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark, and is under surveillance day and night. Each automatic door, each elevator, requires a badge and a code. You enter it as if it were a bank vault. One door opens and after it closes, the next door opens. The journalists who work there enter one at a time. "To put it simply, freedom of speech is in bad shape around the world. Including in Denmark, France and throughout the West," Rose <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/caricatures-le-danemark-veut-tourner-la-page-15-08-2020-2387803_24.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, "These are troubled times; people prefer order and security to freedom."</p>
<p>If all of us do not defend our freedoms, soon we will not have them anymore.</p>
<blockquote><p><i>Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for</i> Il Foglio, <i>is an Italian journalist and author.</i></p>
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</div> Ron Paul Institute director's…tag:4freedoms.com,2018-08-07:3766518:Comment:1972712018-08-07T14:33:24.504ZAntonyhttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Antony
<p>Ron Paul Institute director's Twitter account shut down ; <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-07/crackdown-continues-twitter-suspends-libertarian-accounts-including-ron-paul" target="_blank">https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-07/crackdown-continues-twitter-suspends-libertarian-accounts-including-ron-paul</a></p>
<p>Ron Paul Institute director's Twitter account shut down ; <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-07/crackdown-continues-twitter-suspends-libertarian-accounts-including-ron-paul" target="_blank">https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-07/crackdown-continues-twitter-suspends-libertarian-accounts-including-ron-paul</a></p> Here's a comment on the David…tag:4freedoms.com,2018-08-07:3766518:Comment:1974652018-08-07T13:43:01.274ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>Here's a comment on the David Knight removal:</p>
<blockquote><div class="stream-item-header"><div class="ProfileTweet-action ProfileTweet-action--more js-more-ProfileTweet-actions"><div class="dropdown"><div class="IconContainer js-tooltip" title="More">Caitlin Johnstone Retweeted Chris Murphy</div>
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<div class="js-tweet-text-container"><p class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--normal js-tweet-text tweet-text" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Here's a sitting US Senator assuring us…</p>
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<p>Here's a comment on the David Knight removal:</p>
<blockquote><div class="stream-item-header"><div class="ProfileTweet-action ProfileTweet-action--more js-more-ProfileTweet-actions"><div class="dropdown"><div class="IconContainer js-tooltip" title="More">Caitlin Johnstone Retweeted Chris Murphy</div>
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<div class="js-tweet-text-container"><p class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--normal js-tweet-text tweet-text" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Here's a sitting US Senator assuring us that the censorship of Infowars is just the beginning.</p>
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<div class="QuoteTweet u-block js-tweet-details-fixer"><div class="QuoteTweet-container"><a class="QuoteTweet-link js-nav" href="https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1026580187784404994"></a><div class="QuoteTweet-innerContainer u-cf js-permalink js-media-container"><div class="tweet-content"><div class="QuoteTweet-authorAndText u-alignTop"><div class="QuoteTweet-originalAuthor u-cf u-textTruncate stream-item-header account-group js-user-profile-link"><b class="QuoteTweet-fullname u-linkComplex-target">Chris Murphy</b><span class="UserBadges"><span class="Icon Icon--verified"><span class="u-hiddenVisually">Verified account</span></span></span><span class="UserNameBreak"> </span><span class="username u-dir u-textTruncate" dir="ltr">@<b>ChrisMurphyCT</b></span></div>
<div class="QuoteTweet-text tweet-text u-dir" lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Infowars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate and lies that uses sites like Facebook and YouTube to tear our nation apart. These companies must do more than take down one website. The survival of our democracy depends on it.</div>
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<p>Now there's an interesting concept: the survival of democracy, according to that shit-head US senator, depends on the removal of free speech. Even George Orwell couldn't make this stuff up.</p>
<p>But lets get the bigger picture. This is all about ensuring that Trump fails in the 2020 elections. As is the Muller 'investigation', and the constant attempt to tarnish him with a Russia conspiracy theory (which was very conveniently demonstrated in the last House of Cards series, in case anyone doesn't quite get it).</p> Like I put in a status messag…tag:4freedoms.com,2018-08-07:3766518:Comment:1972692018-08-07T13:37:58.219ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>Like I put in a status message before, we should all be moving to Bitchute for political videos. I have moved there completely. The only political videos I watch on ScrewYouTube are with Victor Davis Hansen and Mark Steyn, because they aren't replicated on Bitchute and I don't want to disconnect from them.</p>
<p>Bitchute is just about completely there now. They've got my beloved WatchLater list now. The only thing they are missing is the ability to create Playlists, which is Youtube…</p>
<p>Like I put in a status message before, we should all be moving to Bitchute for political videos. I have moved there completely. The only political videos I watch on ScrewYouTube are with Victor Davis Hansen and Mark Steyn, because they aren't replicated on Bitchute and I don't want to disconnect from them.</p>
<p>Bitchute is just about completely there now. They've got my beloved WatchLater list now. The only thing they are missing is the ability to create Playlists, which is Youtube parlance for lists of favourite videos in particular categories.</p> I predicted years ago that we…tag:4freedoms.com,2018-08-07:3766518:Comment:1975522018-08-07T10:52:39.037ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p>I predicted years ago that we Thought Criminals would become un-persons.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/alex-jones-responds-to-his-ban-from-facebook-apple-youtube-and-spotify/news-story/bc4498ffc7e184d738815179ce047cc7" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/alex-jones-respond...</a></p>
<p>A classic fascist alliance between anti-democratic governments and big business to destroy free speech and…</p>
<p>I predicted years ago that we Thought Criminals would become un-persons.</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/alex-jones-responds-to-his-ban-from-facebook-apple-youtube-and-spotify/news-story/bc4498ffc7e184d738815179ce047cc7" target="_blank">https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/alex-jones-respond...</a></p>
<p>A classic fascist alliance between anti-democratic governments and big business to destroy free speech and dissent.</p>
<p>Once they've removed Jones from Twitter, then that will be all major outlets closed to him and Infowars. This is all about trying to help the self-styled "Democratic Party" to greater success at the forthcoming elections.</p>
<p>They are also silencing those associated with Alex Jones. </p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/libertytarian" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/libertytarian</a></p>
<p>How long before Paul Joseph Watson is silenced? </p> I wonder how many Muslims wil…tag:4freedoms.com,2017-03-18:3766518:Comment:1862352017-03-18T01:17:34.181ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
I wonder how many Muslims will be employed in that blasphemy censorship section? Of course, Larry Page and Sergey Brin know they can trust Muslim staff to act in an impartial and objective way, and they will ask them precisely that question. Dumb kuffar.
I wonder how many Muslims will be employed in that blasphemy censorship section? Of course, Larry Page and Sergey Brin know they can trust Muslim staff to act in an impartial and objective way, and they will ask them precisely that question. Dumb kuffar. Google is going to hide web p…tag:4freedoms.com,2017-03-17:3766518:Comment:1861542017-03-17T16:53:21.682ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p>Google is going to hide web pages which people report as offensive. Telling the truth about Islam will be one of the reasons why pages will get hidden.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.infowars.com/google-to-target-criticism-of-islam-in-new-censorship-purge/" target="_blank">https://www.infowars.com/google-to-target-criticism-of-islam-in-new-censorship-purge/</a></p>
<p>I predicted years ago that the internet would come under censorship. I said that books would be the last things to get…</p>
<p>Google is going to hide web pages which people report as offensive. Telling the truth about Islam will be one of the reasons why pages will get hidden.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.infowars.com/google-to-target-criticism-of-islam-in-new-censorship-purge/" target="_blank">https://www.infowars.com/google-to-target-criticism-of-islam-in-new-censorship-purge/</a></p>
<p>I predicted years ago that the internet would come under censorship. I said that books would be the last things to get censored. Although, in a sense, books were also the first things to be censored (I was just reading yesterday how much-published philosopher David Selbourne found in 2004 that none of the publishing houses who had done his previous books would touch his book on Islam - and from the summaries and topics of the book [large emphasis on separating out Islam from Islamism] it didn't look like his book was remotely controversial).</p> Comment from Joe:
Joe on Sept…tag:4freedoms.com,2015-09-20:3766518:Comment:1705922015-09-20T11:56:19.623ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>Comment from Joe:</p>
<p>Joe on September 19, 2015 at 4:00 am said:Between 2001 and 2005, the socialist government of the UK made 3 separate attempts to make it a SERIOUS crime to say something that offended a muslim. Part of this legislation was that if one accidentally said something which led someone else to commit an act of violence against muslims, one would face up to 7 years in jail. These 1st three attempts were introduced on the sly, as addenda to other pieces of…</p>
<p>Comment from Joe:</p>
<p>Joe on September 19, 2015 at 4:00 am said:Between 2001 and 2005, the socialist government of the UK made 3 separate attempts to make it a SERIOUS crime to say something that offended a muslim. Part of this legislation was that if one accidentally said something which led someone else to commit an act of violence against muslims, one would face up to 7 years in jail. These 1st three attempts were introduced on the sly, as addenda to other pieces of legislation.Consider what this means: 7 years in jail for a crime with no mens rea, no intent to cause the outcome.On the 4th attempt, this law as passed in 2005. The worst extremes of this law were only defeated by a single vote. Only that anachronism the House of Lords managed to exert its will, over and over again, that such legislation should have a proviso defending freedom of speech. The totalitarian socialists who run the Labour Party, with their false faces of concern and their sharp suits were quite happy to destroy freedom of speech and the doctrine of mens rea, in order to protect a religion which is predicated on violence.Did the British media, the trade unions, the Church of England, the jewish organisations, “human rights” groups, etc mount a concerted attempt to stop this legislation? Not at all.We have already lost our freedom of speech. I am sure that Anne Marie Waters must watch what she says so assiduously, that it has almost become second nature to her. I know that it has become second nature for me.The cautionary works of Animal Farm and 1984 have come to pass. Despite Orwell’s warnings, those with power have been prepared to give up the very principles which they still hypocritically claim to believe and to uphold.The curtailment of free speech in the West has been extensively documented by Bruce Bawer (“Surrender”) and Mark Steyn (“Lights Out”). I don’t see any point in bemoaning this or trying to win a battle we’ve already lost. Most people don’t care about free speech. If they did, we would never have got to this point.We should move the fight onto areas which people do care about. And we should recognise that having been betrayed by those in power, we are in a post-dialogue world. Consider what that means.</p> Its so ridiculous and childis…tag:4freedoms.com,2014-10-24:3766518:Comment:1573632014-10-24T09:23:58.662ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>Its so ridiculous and childish. Where is the principle? Instead of Cameron bawling "Take your horrid, nasty things down!", it should be the generic application of a principle, like the 4F principle of self-preserving freedom of speech and freedom of election and freedom from religion.</p>
<p>Kids, eh? It will all end in tears.</p>
<p>Its so ridiculous and childish. Where is the principle? Instead of Cameron bawling "Take your horrid, nasty things down!", it should be the generic application of a principle, like the 4F principle of self-preserving freedom of speech and freedom of election and freedom from religion.</p>
<p>Kids, eh? It will all end in tears.</p> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne…tag:4freedoms.com,2014-10-24:3766518:Comment:1575132014-10-24T07:23:14.938ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11184245/Internet-chiefs-told-to-curb-Islamists-online.html" target="_blank">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11184245/Internet-chiefs-told-to-curb-Islamists-online.html</a></p>
<p>Internet companies summoned to Downing St. and told to remove "islamist" propaganda more quickly.</p>
<p>Another attempt to limit free speech. What happens in 5 years time, when this law is applied to those of us warning…</p>
<p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11184245/Internet-chiefs-told-to-curb-Islamists-online.html" target="_blank">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11184245/Internet-chiefs-told-to-curb-Islamists-online.html</a></p>
<p>Internet companies summoned to Downing St. and told to remove "islamist" propaganda more quickly.</p>
<p>Another attempt to limit free speech. What happens in 5 years time, when this law is applied to those of us warning the world of what Mohammed was like? Are our posts and links going to be taken down as "extremist"? On this basis, Churchill would have been banned from warning people about Hitler. Oh, that's right - he was banned from appearing on the BBC throughout the 1930s.</p>