Michigan state House passes censorship bill to make free speech a felony based on the feelings of someone hearing or reading it

American Thinker ^ | 06/26/2023 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

Democrats run the state government of Michigan, with majorities in the House and Senate of the state Legislature and Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer with the ability to sign bills into law.  That's why a bill already passed by the state Legislature's House and assigned to committee in the state Senate is so dangerous.  Can you believe five years in prison for speech based on someone's feelings about it?  H.B. 4474 (official summary of text here, revised language of the bill here) has a good chance of becoming law, despite its obvious unconstitutionality.

Michigan State Capitol in Lansing.

Wade Vellky of the Michigan Review (a student-run publication at the University of Michigan) writes:

Michigan HB 4474 states that a person may be charged with a felony and sentenced to up to five years in prison if they "intimidate[] or harass[] another individual," use "force or violence, or cause "severe mental anguish" based on two new additions of "perceived characteristics": gender identity or sexual orientation. How can we define intimidation, harassment, and violence? Well, if the person feels like they've been intimidated or harassed, then, of course, they've been harassed according to this bill. It's also important to mention that no one on the left can even define what violence means. Up until a couple of years ago, effectively everyone understood that violence was related to some form of physical harm. Unfortunately, a wide majority of Democrats no longer define violence that way. So, how do we define violence? According to Democrats, words are violence, and in particular, words that they disagree with are, obviously, violence.

[SeekAndFind]

Briana Oser, writing in the Washington Examiner, puts it this way:

The problematic language about "feelings" can be found in the bill's definition of "intimidation" as "willful course of conduct, involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened." (snip)

"Hate speech" accusations are designed with one outcome in mind: censorship. "Hate speech" is usually not hateful speech. What often constitutes "hate speech" is any language that opposes popular narrative. This label is causing damage to our nation. We find frequent examples of its effects in how it muffles free speech on college campuses.

In a May exclusive with Fox News, Alex Morey of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said that many college students are adopting a "victim mentality" and thus approve of censorship to combat their perceived persecutors. FIRE deals with legally ensuring that each student is able to use his or her voice.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Making America the new Third Reich. The Communists aren’t into free speech either. Especially the Red Chinese. They execute you if you say something THEY don’t like. Coming to Amerika! “Say anything you like. Just don’t say anything you don’t like.”

[jonascord]

Someone is going to the USSC and wind up owning the state of Michigan.

I'd say go for it.

[pgyanke]

There’s no need for the First Amendment in a society where only approved and comfortable speech is heard. The freedom of speech endowed by our creator and enshrined in law is the right to offend.

[pgyanke]

Another note… the devil knows he can’t win when Christians are free to express their faith. That’s why proselytizing is outlawed in Muslim and communist countries. That’s also why orthodox voices are being silenced in the Church. It’s the same spirit of evil with the same restrictions due to the same insecurities.

[KC_Conspirator]

Exactly.

[Bob434]

[[The freedom of speech endowed by our creator and enshrined in law is the right to offend.]]

Exactly- but the feckless left try to skirt around that fact by claiming that some speech is ‘hate speech’ and falsely claim that hate speech is a crime-

[drypowder]

Natural law allows for one to be verbally offended as it also allows for one to verbally offend. Social law supposedly dictates the kind of response that is allowed by the offender. What ever happened to the belief of the old “sticks and stones”?

[cookcounty]

Only upside is……..
…………….Dems will lose Michigan in 2024.
….Except that Whackmere’s term runs until 2026.

[Organic Panic]

Republicans, Christians, and conservatives need to slam this law right in the democrats disgusting child grooming faces. Sue every democrat. Sue that horrid Whitmer. Sue anyone who posts anything disparaging online about Christians. Play by their rules. .

[equaviator]

With so many mentally ill people, drug addicts and alcoholics out there, I predict a tsunami of cases of those people claiming to have heard something said by someone else that wasn’t intended to mean what the “victim” thinks it did. Also, you’d have people lying through their teeth in “he said-she said” domestic allegations and conflicts between neighbors...It is a piss-poor quality of meaning that they derive from life itself and this bill would force all good men and women to come to the aid of their country. This bill should be quarantined and be held up as a prime example of how failure is a requirement of the (D)- party progressive wokesters nationwide, if not worldwide.

[ronnie raygun]

I do believe they are purposely backing Americans into a corner to create a violent backlash situation to which they have reason to crack down hard.

[USCG SimTech]

Hearing about or reading this bill hurts my feelings.

Arrest the entire state legislature that votes for it.

[Mouton]

I’d say anyone who voted for that bill needs be removed from the republic.

[CodeToad]

Let’s just ban politicians.

[SunkenCiv]

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[joe fonebone]

And who here thinks that if the bush league chamber of commerce worshiping republiCAN’Ts that used to run this state win the next election, that they will immediately overturn this and other bad laws?

I got a bridge to sell you

[Vaduz]

Making America the new 3rd grade

Teacher Billy is looking at me again.................

[Gritty]

In Michigan the trannies will really be able to go after their enemies!

That would be "everybody with a shred of moral decency".

[GOPJ]

My feelings are hurt every time I hear someone say the name ‘Biden’...