Posted on 08/12/2026 12:45:08 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
During Henry’s Kissinger’s famous “Year of Europe” speech in 1973, the then Assistant for National Security affairs observed that, “our values, our goals, and our basic interests are most closely identified with those of Europe.” Indeed, while perhaps Kissinger’s remarks were accurate when taken in the context of Soviet repression and a shared continental commitment to containing the threat, the transatlantic consensus he described has since frayed. Have some East Asian countries moved to take Europe’s place as free speech protectors?
Last September, five armed British police officers stood in London’s Heathrow airport, waiting for the arrival of Graham Linehan’s flight from Arizona with strict orders to arrest the Irish comedian upon his entry into the United Kingdom. Linehan’s offense? Three posts on X, written months earlier from his home in the United States. He was searched, interrogated, and hospitalized from the stress of the ordeal before being released on bail. He was barred from posting again until his case was resolved. On July 9th, 2026, the Metropolitan Police seemingly recognized the absurdity of Linehan’s arrest, compensated him £25,000, albeit still refusing to acknowledge any unlawfulness with the arrest. Instead, the police apologized on account of “shortcomings in both the investigation, arrest and imposition of bail conditions.”
In 2023, over 12,000 people were arrested in the UK under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988. This amounts to just over thirty arrests per day across 37 separate police forces - a 58 percent increase relative to pre-pandemic arrests in 2019.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearbooks.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Let me just add, I think Robert Habeck is a complete idiot.
Half the Democrat party favors restricting right wing speech in the same way Germany does. They would restrict hate speech like Alex Jones. They would restrict racist speech such as all anti-immigrant speech. They equate Capitalism and equality for the billionaires as racist and would restrict the speech of the money of billionaires.
Free Speech is dangerous. What if somebody says something against the government?
isn’t it your patriotic duty to insult some politicians?
There are certain things that are “all or nothing.”
There are certain ideas, where you basically have to accept the bad for the greater good in the long run.
When it comes to issues that address (((ALL))) the first ten amendments, out of a matter of principal, because of scope creep and the dark fallen nature of human beings, you (((DO NOT))) touch these no matter how “reasonable” the Patriot Act after 9-11 and the masses calling for action sound.
Europistan don’t have a first amendment. Or any. Govt will let you know what they’ll allow or not allow.
Yet we never hear about it (other than what is being posted on X).
I agree. Although a lot of folks supposedly on our side have no problem advocating for the arrest of people for saying things they don’t because they are “treason”.
Trump should announce that the UK is no longer a free nation but a tool for radical Islamics and the extreme left wing.
As such, the US should not grant the UK any ‘special status’, and absolutely not share military info with the UK.
A quote from the Germans about their alliance with Austria in World War One is strangely appropriate.
Austria was so weak and unreliable that a German minister said that Germany’s alliance with Austria was like “… BEING SHACKLED TO A CORPSE …”.
The Communists Marxists WEF Davos globalists know they must shut down free speech, as they are advancing their now openly stated plans ever since the dementia carcass installation, where they didn’t believe their anti-Christ evil would be attempted to be rolled back by the USA. We are the last nation standing up to resist them.
They also know the educated Middle Class are the ones most likely to resist their evil. The pimped DSA garbage is nothing more than Hegelian gamesmanship on their part to make their own look more sane to uneducated voters.
They will go after both targets with a vengeance when they get back into full power in the USA.
Telling the truth about politicians is usually hate speech.
Lol.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.