A free society, a society that recognizes and defends human rights, cannot survive without free speech. That includes the right to be deliberately offensive, the right to express unpopular opinions, and even the right to politick for unpopular causes. The right to swing one's fist ends at another's nose, and as Thomas Jefferson is reputed to have noted, if any speech "neither picks my pocket nor breaks my arm," I'm not concerned.
Europe, or at least Western Europe, used to pay at least lip service to free speech. No longer. A piece on Monday in the UK's Daily Sceptic by author C.J. Strachan presents that story in horrible detail.
Pro-Hamas protesters desecrate the Union Flag at Manchester Piccadilly this weekend. In front of police officers. Apparently their freedom of expression is protected in another example of two-tier policing.
This weekend, the pro-Palestinian protesters were out in force once again, obviously deaf to the disgraceful scenes we saw last week during the return of a murdered Israeli family. In Manchester, they decided to destroy some Union Flags. (Not that this was covered by most of the the mainstream media.) Obviously the irony of destroying the flag of a nation where you enjoy the freedom to do so is lost on them. But then, rational thought doesn’t seem high on their agenda at the best of times.
At a hate march the Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, the tea towel idiots ripped up Union flags right in front of @gmpolice officers who did nothing.
— Chris Rose (@ArchRose90) February 23, 2025
Isn’t this ‘inciting hate’ of the country they live in?
The officers would move if someone was ripping apart or burning a Quran. pic.twitter.com/hc7Fq4Wc7v
As long as they are not inciting violence — that's questionable in this case — free speech, truly free and unfettered speech, would have covered ripping up that flag, odious and offensive as that is. Like it or not, free speech includes the right to be offensive. But in the case of Britain — and much of Europe — it's the double standards that are becoming increasingly obvious and truly worrisome. Here's why:
So if the Koran burning was a public order offence which could incite a reaction, then what was the desecration of our national flag in a political protest? Why wasn’t that a public order offence? It offended millions and it creates a very real risk of violent reaction or reaction in kind.
This is the heart of the problem. You either have freedom of speech or you don’t. You either have blasphemy laws or you don’t. What’s happening here is that senior plod at GMP are subjectively deciding, off their own bat, what is acceptable and what is not. As these officers have been thoroughly brainwashed in the equality, diversity and inclusion training, where our institutions have decided to introduce Critical Race Theory and radical gender politics into their employee’s training (often at odds with their own internal policies on these issues and making unlawful assertions), it is entirely predictable that they see a Koran burning as heinous and the desecration of our national flag as not.
Vice President JD Vance — a rising star in American politics — at the Munich Security Conference, called the nations of Europe out. The gauntlet hit the ground with an audible slap. There have even been acts of resistance from Europeans.
See Related: MUST-SEE: JD Vance Triggers Munich Security Conference, Rips European Hypocrites to Their Faces
U.K. Bans Danish Anti-Islam Politician Rasmus Paludan Over Threat to Publicly Burn Koran
This is one of those times when it's hard to see Europe climbing back out of this grave that they have dug for themselves. There's a reason that freedom of speech is contained in the very first amendment in our Bill of Rights; because it's that important. It even comes ahead of the amendment that guarantees the right that guarantees the other, the Second Amendment. It's fundamental to a free society. There can be no other rights without free speech. If the government can censor the citizens, if they can pick and choose who is allowed to speak and what they are allowed to say, there is no liberty.
Many in Europe and, alarmingly, some here in the United States attempt this censorship under the guise of "hate speech" laws. Forget the term “hate speech.” It’s a canard. What these proposals are attempting to control isn't speech, it’s thought. Wrongthink is the crime proposed, and the crime itself will involve no more than offending someone’s sensibilities; this will leave you at the mercy of the most hypersensitive, most prickly, most easily offended group extant.
In conclusion, I can say only this: I live in a free-speech zone. It's called the United States of America. I'll speak as I damn well please, I will express whatever opinions I so choose, and I will do so privately and publicly within no bounds other than good manners. I will never stop doing this. Deny me a platform, and I'll haunt the dark corners of the internet. Deny me the internet, and I'll hand-write letters to the editors and politicians as I see fit. Deny me the mails, and I'll stand on a street corner and shout. I'm an American. I will never give that up, nor will I ever give up the liberty that is guaranteed to me by the Constitution that I took an oath to protect and defend — an oath that, as far as I'm concerned, still applies.
