The First Amendment Is A Gift
The UK’s tyranny reminds Americans of why we should preserve free speech
The British government declared war on right-wing speech following anti-immigration protests last week. Dozens of people are facing arrest simply for praising the demonstrations or even daring to criticize mass migration. Some have even been arrested for posting “misleading” information, a standard that certainly won’t apply to journalists who spread hate hoaxes.
These “dangerous” criminals are receiving pretty lengthy sentences, such as one man getting over three years for what he posted online. British authorities were positively gleeful over their power to imprison those for speech crimes. One police chief even promised to extradite Americans for their social media posts–all while smiling ear to ear.
This dreadful episode highlights the importance of the First Amendment and why the American Right should cherish it. Without it, our views would disappear from the public discourse. Some on the Right argue that we should dispense with a commitment to free speech in the delusional hope that we can suppress the Left. This would only result in the censorship of our own side.
Throughout Europe, those who go against the system face censorship and harassment from the authorities. No one is exempt from this persecution. The random social media user and the nationalist leader both suffer. National Rally’s Marine Le Pen has been taken to court several times for speaking out against Muslim immigration. One lawmaker in the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was sentenced to jail for criticizing migrant rapes. Another one was heavily fined simply for saying “Everything for Germany” (officials deem that a Nazi slogan). Germany’s intelligence service considers the AfD a domestic menace and placed the party under surveillance–merely for being anti-immigration and nationalistic.
Obviously, this hampers Europeans’ ability to challenge their governments’ policies. Yet, many of these parties persevere in the face of official oppression. National Rally was the most popular party in France’s recent elections. The Freedom Party in the Netherlands won the largest share of seats in the country’s parliamentary elections last year. AfD is the third largest party in Germany, despite authorities declaring it a threat to the constitutional order. These forces are able to overcome the censorship and legal threats due to the silent majority that fundamentally agrees with nationalism. The people can’t run away from these problems like they can in America. They’re faced with the Great Replacement on a daily basis. Many of these Europeans still retain an ethno-cultural identity that makes them resist absurd claims that their country is just an idea and a Somali can easily assimilate. All the propaganda and hate speech laws can’t make them accept the BS–but it can hinder their efforts to make their countries great again.
If America had European-style speech laws, Donald Trump would already be in jail. Right-wing media would be restricted to talking about mere economics and hawkish foreign policy. The lively online space that produces the memes and talking points that win over converts for the Right would end. It would be game over for the American Right.
America offers far more opportunities to run away from problems and ignore them entirely. The core population has a much weaker ethno-cultural identity and is more susceptible to regime propaganda. Conservatives try to claim Martin Luther King and the mantle of anti-racism as much as the Democrats. Right-wing media is to the Right of Republican voters. Without it, the GOP would simply become the pro-business wing of the Democrats. There would be no possibility for another Trump to gain power again.
This is why it’s critical to protect free speech. This right gives us the ability to spread views that would otherwise be suppressed and convince Americans of the dangers they face. It’s a privilege Europeans wish they had, and we shouldn’t cast it aside.
But a number of conservatives think we should give up on support for free speech in the delusional hope that we could censor our political opposition. I remember at a VDARE conference an attendee declared in response to a panel on censorship that we should just use state power to silence the Left and not worry about free speech principles. The comment earned a round of applause, despite no one at the conference being in a position to censor liberals. VDARE itself suffers censorship from our rulers’ lack of respect for free speech.
Yet, many on the Right persist in insisting we need to do away with this principle. The most mainstream exponents of this view are “postliberals” such as Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule and blogger Sohrab Ahmari. This group is gaining cachet among conservative intellectuals on the premise they offer a fresher ideology than the stale conservatism of the past. Vermeule and his acolytes believe we need to reorient governance to prioritize the “common good” over individual liberty. This means we would restrict speech that goes against this principle. Vermeule believes it’s imperative to dispense with “the libertarian assumptions central to free-speech law and free-speech ideology.”
We already have an example of this in practice. It’s on full display in Europe. Euros routinely cite some sort of common good for censoring speech, saying it goes against “constitutional principles” or even human rights to say certain things.
We can all imagine our perfect fantasy government that puts an end to our enemies’ idiotic talking points. But fantasies usually don’t become reality. Just because we promise to censor libs when we gain power doesn’t mean we will ever reach that point. Advocating for this right now is pure LARPing. It undermines our support for free speech protections that allow right-wingers to spread our views while providing support for left-wing anti-speech measures. Conservatives just own themselves in the process, as those on the Right are the most threatened by these laws.
It’s why it’s dangerous for the Right to insist on free speech suppression on college campuses to tackle the alleged menace of “anti-Semitism.” Forcing universities to adopt more draconian speech codes would make it even harder for conservatives to have a voice in higher education. The administrators in charge of interpreting these codes would happily use them to crack down on any “offensive” speech.
The Right lacks the power to censor our enemies in the way Eurocrats do to nationalists. Any curb on free expression would empower authorities to censor right-wingers. Liberals have most of the power in western societies. The only thing preventing them from suppressing the Right in America is the First Amendment.
It’s plainly moronic to want to drop our lone protection on behalf of a fantasy. It’s much smarter to commit to free speech principles that give us a fighting chance to save our country.