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Too many Americans and other Westerners have lost confidence in their own beliefs and opinions and are increasingly letting — even demanding — the government and its proxies decide what they’re allowed to say, think, read, and hear.
Two recent court cases in Europe illustrate the continent’s increasing rejection of free speech while polling in the United States shows that a majority of young Americans reject First Amendment protections.
This idea that some speech is unacceptable and that the government should protect people from speech that offends or is “wrong” has been percolating in Western countries for some time, but it became increasingly accepted when the COVID pandemic started in 2020.
In Germany, for example, a political satirist and playwright named Chris Hopkins is undergoing what he claims is persecution by the German government for his words about COVID restrictions and his rejection of tyrannical impulses.
Hopkins first called out what he described as totalitarian actions by the German government and other Western entities during COVID. His tweets and later his book entitled “The Rise of the New Normal Reich” led the German government to target him.
Two years ago, Hopkins wrote on Twitter,
“The masks are ideological-conformity symbols. That’s all they are. That’s what they have always been. Stop pretending that they were ever anything else or get used to wearing them.”
Because Hopkins compared the current German regime to Nazi Germany, government prosecutors criminally charged him, citing, in particular, the cover of his book which features a swastika on a mask.
His book has been banned in Germany, though he notes that other publications have used swastikas in images and have not faced bans or prosecution.
A court acquitted Hopkins of the charges in January, but the government has since appealed his case to the Superior Court. In Germany, there is no double jeopardy, so the government has the right to appeal criminal convictions and ask for another trial.
Hopkins claims this is how the government silences critics: by leading them into a constant court battle until they get a conviction or until the financial strain leads the accused to plead guilty.
He says that once the Superior Court overturns the acquittal, the lower court will convict based on the Superior Court’s ruling.
He writes that this time the government is enacting anti-terrorism protocols at his trial, meaning only 35 people may attend the trial after going through body scans, metal detectors, and other measures. He claims that no one, including the press, is allowed to bring any personal items into the trial, including recording devices or writing instruments.
“My case is just one of countless examples. My columns and my books of essay collections since 2016 are my attempt to document what I view as a transition to a more authoritarian (or totalitarian) version of global capitalism, which is the system we all live under in the EU, the UK, the USA, Russia, China, etc. This transition has been underway for 30 years or so, since the end of the Cold War. I have written extensively about it.”
He adds that “the criminalization of dissent is a worldwide phenomenon. … Most of us can’t see it, or we can’t connect the dots because we’re looking at the world through a 20th-century lens. That is not the world we live in anymore. We need to view the world through a much, much broader lens. A world-wide lens. A global lens.”
Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, pro-lifer Claire Brennan is facing a trial and possible jail time for praying near an abortion clinic in violation of a censorship zone law.
In October 2023, Brennan and David Hall were praying outside Causeway hospital. Brennan was holding a sign that read, “Pray to End Abortion”.
Brennan, who is Catholic, quietly prayed the Lord’s Prayer. She also said the Hail Mary 10 times, the Apostles Creed, and the Divine Mercy.
Two police officers approached her and said she would have to leave the zone.
“Officer, you have a duty to uphold the law, and I have duty to uphold God’s law. This is where we pray,” she allegedly stated. “We are not committing any offenses.
“In the eye of the law you are” the officer retorted.
“The law of the land stops me from upholding the law of God… We pray for the babies who will be imminently killed in this hospital,” she responded.
After telling the officer that she had a “moral duty” to remain there and pray, the officer stated, “You are being ignorant now. You are breaking the law.”
If Brennan is declared guilty, she could be required to pay fines and could be incarcerated for six months.
At her hearing, she stated,
“It is a deeply disturbing law which tells free citizens that they will be arrested if they pray.
The expansion of abortion services in Northern Ireland in recent years has been appalling. Our laws, beliefs and culture on upholding and protecting life in this country have been trampled on.
We need urgent change to roll back what has happened in this country and to uphold God’s law not man’s law. The unborn are the most vulnerable and at risk in our society and we have forgotten our moral duty to do everything we can to protect their lives and to provide vulnerable mothers with alternatives to abortion.
The legislation discriminates against Christian beliefs and their expression. If we are not free to express prayer against abortion outside of a clinic without being criminalised, then none of us are free.”
Although this may seem to be a European problem, our own government is working hard to make the case against free speech and it seems to be working.
Several recent polls show that Americans are ready to give up their own freedoms to keep from hearing words they find hateful or offensive.
A Knight Foundation-Ipsos survey of college students taken in the spring of 2024, for example, found that 70 percent of respondents said that some types of speech can be as damaging as physical violence.
Only 54 percent of students said that colleges should expose students to all types of speech rather than protect them from speech that may offend them.
64 percent of students said they favored introducing safe spaces “designed to be free from threatening actions, ideas, or conversations.”
To the survey question of whether “hate speech,” which attacks people based on their race, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation, should be legally protected, 52 percent said it should not.
Similarly, the National Speech Index survey, sponsored by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), found that 53 percent of respondents agreed that the First Amendment goes too far in protecting free speech rights.
At a time when the government and powerful companies are growing increasingly bold in their efforts to censor speech, citizens are losing their appreciation for the right to speak.
No longer do Westerners believe the famous phrase: “I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Instead, they believe “I detest what you say and I will demand that the government silence you.”
Don’t forget that it was only weeks ago that the Supreme Court essentially granted approval for the federal government to censor its own citizens in a widespread and sophisticated operation which a lower court judge had described as “the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.”
He also ruled that “the evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.”
Despite overwhelming evidence that the government has engaged in efforts to intimidate social media companies to censor Americans, the Court ruled that no evidence of harm had been demonstrated.
It is important to remember that the government wasn’t censoring something dangerous, it was censoring true information.
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once stated, “Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime.”
It is clear that too many Americans have lost confidence in their own beliefs and opinions and is increasingly allowing — even asking — the government and its proxies to decide what they’re allowed to say, think, read, and hear.
If this continues, America will become an authoritarian state, for without the right — or even the inclination — to engage in free speech and thought, all other freedoms will soon disappear, including the right to freely worship.
Americans must regain their confidence by turning back to God as the only source of what’s true and right and then by studying and remembering how our forefathers and those who followed were willing to risk and sacrifice everything so today’s generations could live in freedom.
Our freedoms are a gift from God. We must not stand for this insidious attempt to take away our right to speak in the name of “tolerance.” And the only way to push back is to follow the lead of those like Brennan and Hopkins and refuse to stay silent.
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