I wrote earlier how mixed martial arts legend UFC champion Conor McGregor took to X to criticize how Irish authorities were dealing with illegal immigration.
What happened to him for calling out the Irish government? His comments are now reportedly being looked into by the police for online "hate speech."
This is exactly why we have a Constitution in the U.S.: When you go against the government, the government can strike back and term anything you say against the law if there are no protections.
Ireland is now pushing for a law that would make it easier for them to go after you.
Ireland's PM Leo Varadkar vows to crack down on free speech in response to the outrage over a migrant stabbing attack
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 25, 2023
CJ Bill (22) will make it a criminal offense in Ireland to possess "hate speech" on your phone or computer pic.twitter.com/zartVqsSwX
It criminalizes the mere possession of materials that are "likely to incite violence or hatred" — books, videos, or even memes on your phone. It sounds like a free pass to go after anyone for any reason, a frightening move. Anyone who values freedom should be against this.
But as I noted in my McGregor story, what's disturbing on top of the law is the look into the leftist mind. They're so far along the road to this now that a Green Party senator made clear their intentions, and she's not even hiding it here, as they normally might. She said this about the "hate speech" law in question earlier this year.
NEW - Ireland's Green Party Senator O'Reilly: "We are restricting freedom for the common good."pic.twitter.com/hOxNBYQNqF
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 27, 2023
Can we say she just said the quiet part out loud? But they're so far along now in Ireland they think they can say something like this and pass it. Take away your freedoms. For the common good. Yay, Communism! We've seen so many countries fall before to such moves. They want to put you in jail now for disagreeing with them politically.
So instead of dealing with the effects of illegal immigration and why people might be disturbed, they're going to try to shut down discussion of it and try to go after people for what they say. Unfortunately for the government, historically cracking down on people's freedoms often has the opposite effect. You can see that in McGregor's response and the response to his call to deal with the issue. It's galvanizing people for change.
But in a broader sense beyond that particular issue, the proposed law is the government controlling speech. Elon Musk, who has become an advocate for free speech since he bought the social media platform X, blasted the move.
And the government will define “hate speech”. The people of Ireland should not stand for this!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2023
Language being proposed as law in Ireland means this could literally happen to you for having a meme on your phone https://t.co/qz9sKyjw62
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2023
The Irish even discussed adding "migration status" as a protected class at one point. Which means that if the proposed law wasn't bad enough, it could even involve going after you if you say something someone finds offensive about someone's "migration status." At that point, pack it in, free speech is done.
"That's the difference between freedom and slavery," Tucker Carlson said last week. "The right to say what you actually think."
We're not quite at Ireland's stage, but the effort against free speech is on the march around the world. We've seen efforts to control our speech here, including during the COVID years, and revealed in things like the Twitter Files. We saw how the powers that be marshaled things before the 2020 election to suppress the laptop because it could hurt the Biden candidacy. We see how the left is constantly trying to craft the acceptable narrative from which you cannot deviate. Most recently we saw a report about the Biden team being upset that the American people weren't buying into the fiction that Biden had done marvelous things for the economy with Bidenomics. So they were looking to "counter misinformation" on social media. Not a good look.
The bottom line is if you have Americans talking about "countering misinformation" and "restricting freedoms," you just may need a refresher on the Constitution. And the end goal for the left is always the control.
Just like Mao.
— John Rich🇺🇸 (@johnrich) November 27, 2023
They just want to restrict a few of your freedoms for the greater good, yo. It would be racist and xenophobic to disagree. We should all be willing to give up a few pesky freedoms to make others feel safe.
— The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) November 27, 2023
You can’t make this stuff up. We’re watching 1984 in real time. https://t.co/PtEicT7C9M