Prosecuting 'Unacceptable Opinions': Europe vs. the United States
by Drieu Godefridi • February 21, 2025 at 7:00 am
On CBS television recently -- in a scene straight out of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police for political repression -- three German prosecutors being interviewed explain that their job is to suppress "unacceptable opinions."
The question, however, clearly is not actually about repressing all false information – just that, it seems, which displeases the so-called "left" as well as many of Europe's newcomers. As one of the three German prosecutors put it, "Freedom of expression is fine, but there are limits." There are, and they are carefully laid out in the 1969 US Supreme Court decision Brandenburg v. Ohio...
The so-called "left", nevertheless, appears to have reinvented itself in a form that rejects everything that is not itself.
Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, a politician from Germany's right-wing political party Alternative für Deutschland... had posted on social media in 2021, questioning the socialist mayor of Hamburg's decision to welcome Afghan refugees, by citing statistics about Afghan men's involvement in gang rapes in Germany. The court ruled that her statements violated the "human dignity" of Afghan refugees as a group.... The court did not contest the validity of the statistics. She was therefore convicted not for peddling "false information," but for telling the truth.
The good news is that the funding of this industry of lies by the US government is over. You can be skeptical of certain practices in Islam without being "phobic" and refuse to allow biological men (xy) to take part in women's (xx) competitions without being "hateful". Let us hope this trend will jump the pond.
A cultural war appears to be brewing between Europe and the United States.
At the Munich Security Conference on February 14, 2025, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance surprised attendees by downplaying external threats to Europe, instead emphasizing what he called "the threat from within" Europe. Vance argued that the greatest danger to European democracy stems from its own leaders' retreat from fundamental values, such as freedom of speech and democratic principles. He lambasted European governments for suppressing free speech, citing examples like Sweden's conviction of a Christian activist for burning a Quran, Germany's crackdowns on anti-feminist online comments, and the UK's restrictions on religious expression near abortion clinics. Vance compared these actions to "Soviet-style" censorship, suggesting Europe is abandoning the liberties it once championed during the Cold War.
