Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel (center) speaks with President Donald Trump during the G7 summit in Quebec, Canada on June 9. (From left, front row: White House National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and White House national security adviser John Bolton.) | Jesco Denzel/German Federal Government via AP

A German ranting and gyrating behind a podium about limiting rights never comes across well.

Angela Merkel, the current Chancellor of Germany, decided to go on a bonkers rant about limiting the rights of her citizens, including curtailing free speech because of its supposed dangers. This happened in an address to the Bundestag, which is Germany’s federal parliament.

Here’s the video and then some excerpts via Townhall.

Watch till the end. Angela Merkel says: we have to take away your freedom of speech, or else society won’t be free. pic.twitter.com/Y3qROvDQXg

— Ezra Levant 🍁 (@ezralevant) November 28, 2019

“We have freedom of expression in our country,” Merkel argued. “For all those who claim that they can no longer express their opinion, I say to them: If you express a pronounced opinion, you must live with the fact that you will be contradicted. Expressing an opinion does not come at zero cost.”

In 2018, Germany enacted a strict ban on certain speech that elites of the day consider “hateful.” Under the new law, sites can be fined up to 50 million euros, around $55 million, for not promptly removing so-called “hate speech” from their platform.

“But freedom of expression has its limits,” Merkel warned. “Those limits begin where hatred is spread. They begin where the dignity of other people is violated. This house will and must oppose extreme speech. Otherwise, our society will no longer be the free society that it was.”

“Hate speech” as a legal standard is essentially a blank check for tyrannical governments to outlaw whatever expression they dislike.

The most ironic part of this, though, is Merkel proclaiming that “society will no longer be the free society that it was” if she doesn’t strip people of their right to freely express themselves. Makes sense, right? These people are nuts. They can’t grasp the fact that such crackdowns on the rights of citizens only leads to far worse outcomes than someone having their feelings hurt.

Of course, this is all really just about curtailing criticism of Merkel’s open border immigration policies. The German people have had to deal with the aftermath of absorbing a million people from the Middle East, many of whom have no desire to assimilate and carry with them dangerous ideological views. This has caused a backlash and a situation where the government seeks to stop any questioning of the wisdom of such a move.

Merkel was once hilariously described as the “leader of the free world” by several mainstream outlets shortly after Donald Trump was elected (because orange man bad). Now, she’s on her way out of power and ranting about taking the right of free speech away for the “good” of society. The American press really know how to pick their heroes, don’t they?

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