Free Republic

Once a left-wing fetish, the heckler’s veto has gained conservative adherents. It's a given that if one party to a disagreement keeps breaking the rules in order to harm opponents, the other participants will eventually sink to the challenge and adopt—or escalate—out-of-bounds tactics themselves. That's bad enough in any conflict, but it can be disastrous for a free and open society if the rules being broken by all parties are fundamental free speech norms. For years, we've seen left-leaning students and faculty on college campuses shout down and sometimes assault speakers with whom they disagree. Now right-leaning students have joined...

At London’s huge “Unite the Kingdom” anti-immigration rally organized by Tommy Robinson, Elon Musk addressed over 100,000 protesters via video, calling for regime change in the UK and warning that “violence is coming” if mass migration continues. Musk blamed Britain’s political left for “slow destruction” of the nation, denounced the “woke mind virus,” and said those in the “reasonable middle” must act before violence reaches them. He invoked the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in the US, accusing the left of celebrating “murder,” and slammed the government for failing to protect citizens—calling for the “dissolution of Parliament” and fresh...

Attorney General Pamela Bondi issued a memorandum to all United States Attorneys highlighting the Department of Justice’s policy to prevent and act upon violations of parental rights and First Amendment liberties in educational settings. Bondi directed United States Attorneys to work with federal, state, and local partners to identify and respond to credible threats against parents whose federal rights have been violated. 20250908-AG-Bondi-Memo by scott.mcclallen "The First Amendment guarantees the right of every citizen to speak freely, assemble peaceably, and petition the government for redress of grievances-including at public school board meetings," the memo said. "These rights do not yield...

Elon Musk has now appeared via video at the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march led by Tommy Robinson, telling the crowd that ‘the left are the party of murder’ in a reference to the killing of Charlie Kirk. The X owner said that there was something ‘beautiful’ about being British, adding: ‘There is so much violence on the left, with our friend Kirk getting murdered in cold blood this week and people on the left celebrating it openly. ‘The left is the party of murder and celebrating murder. I mean, let that sink in for a minute, that’s who we’re dealing...

On Friday's episode of "Real Time," Host Bill Maher urged Americans to unconditionally support free speech to avoid becoming like Britain which has increased its crackdown on speech violations in recent years.

Massive 'take back our country - free speech' rally in London. Tommy Robinson and other speakers from many countries to speak on free speech. Also honoring Charlie Kirk.

College Republicans across the country issued a warning to their universities that enough is enough of trying to silence them following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. After Kirk was murdered on Wednesday by an assassin's bullet while he was speaking with college kids at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, many have said that attempts to silence his message have failed, because now those who embraced Kirk's views and defense of open exchange of ideas with those who disagree are only going to get louder. [snip] Here's part of what the letter shared: At BU, conservative...

A top aide and confidante to former Obama official Lois Lerner who targeted conservatives and conservative groups was fired by the Internal Revenue Service, Fox News Digital has learned. Sources told Fox News Digital that Holly Paz, who served as the IRS Commissioner of Large Business and International Division, was terminated Monday. Paz was placed on administrative leave last month and was subsequently fired following an internal review, sources say.

In Britain, mocking transgender ideology online, waving the British flag, or reading the Bible on a street corner is now enough to land you in prison – even as the British judicial system lets child rapists out of prison early and ignores a growing wave of violent migrant crime. A recent viral story of an Irish comedian who was arrested earlier this month provides the latest shocking evidence of just how dystopian Britain has become – and how it may not even be safe for Americans to travel there anymore. Graham Linehan was arriving at London’s Heathrow airport on September...

Megyn Kelly is joined by Graham Linehan, comedy writer and co-creator of Father Ted, to discuss the backsliding in the culture of free speech, the details surrounding his arrest, his decision to sue the police over the arrest, and more.

Director of the National Institutes of Health Jay Bhattacharya yesterday claimed that the First Amendment is a “dead letter”. Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington DC, the former Stanford professor warned that America’s constitutional protections for free expression dissolved during the Covid pandemic and remain unenforceable even today. “The First Amendment still doesn’t apply in practice,” he said. “Free speech rights exist right now only because the administration has chosen to allow them, not because the First Amendment is protecting us.” Bhattacharya, best known for co-authoring the 2020 Great Barrington Declaration, said his own experience during the pandemic...

US President Donald Trump has criticised the UK's laws around online speech, saying "strange things are happening" there and that it was "not a good thing". The remarks were in response to a reporter's question during a White House dinner hosting prominent tech leaders.

We’ve known for a very long time in this country that if you said the wrong thing about the trans issue, you could be canceled. But now, finally, there are people — heretofore on the Left — who are acknowledging that the threat of cancellation has been real. This is just one of the beautiful flowering fruits of the Trump administration: people are now free to say things they weren’t allowed to say before. It’s not clear whether people are deciding that they want to say what is currently more popular or if they genuinely repent having been bullied into...

The Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan was once known for his charming, sometimes surreal sitcoms—Father Ted, Black Books, The IT Crowd—on British TV. These days, however, he is better known for his online crusade against transgender activism. His X feed takes the same approach as Libs of TikTok, cherry-picking videos of criminals and fetishists in a full-scale assault on “gender ideology.” He is obsessive and offensive. But is he a criminal? The British police seem to think so. Linehan was arrested by five armed officers today on his return from the United States, where he has been working on a...

Britain, once the freest, most democratic country in the world, is descending into anarcho-tyranny. Bereft of a moral compass, contemptuous of public opinion, uninterested in our glorious history of ordered freedom, the British state’s nomenklatura are presiding over an intolerable mix of chaos and authoritarianism, failing to tackle genuine criminality while persecuting respectable citizens for their thoughts and speech. The contradictions, double-standards and selective enforcement are a national scandal. They threaten to turn us into a pariah state, shunned or even sanctioned by true believers in liberty. Nigel Farage was in Washington, explaining to shocked Anglophile congressmen just how far...

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage warned the U.S. Congress that censorship laws in Britain will have a stifling effect on free speech throughout the West and urged the American government to pressure London to adhere to its values of liberty. Appearing before the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Brexit boss Nigel Farage likened his native country of Britain to “North Korea” with its increasingly censorious stance towards online speech.

Graham Linehan is the creator of Father Ted, a truly beloved sitcom from the UK's Channel Four. But, because he is opposed to the notion that women have penises, he was forced out of TV comedy (as ruthlessly homogeneous a world as can be found) and then out of Britain itself. He returned from exile this morning only for the purposes of attending his trial, starting at Westminster Magistrates' Court this Thursday, following his previous arrest by Big Tranny's ideological enforcers at Scotland Yard. So naturally, on landing at Heathrow this morning, he was immediately arrested all over again by...

’ve sat and followed what is happening with the media in the UK with interest. One of the reasons I started Politically Inclined was due to the erosion of journalistic integrity in the main stream media. It started off with small things – politicians not being fact checked (well, let’s face it, only certain politicians), certain words being dropped (fascism, genocide, right-wing, racist) while use of other words increased (trans predators, woke, Asian grooming gangs). At the same time that legacy media started to bend the knee to what they perceived the be the rise of the right wing (and...

The co-creator of the U.K. sitcom "Father Ted" was arrested at London Heathrow Airport on Monday allegedly over several social media posts criticizing transgender activists. Graham Linehan recounted the ordeal on his Substack, saying there were signs of something strange happening before he landed in London. According to the former comedy writer, a gate agent in the U.S. said he did not have a seat on his flight back home and needed to be issued a new ticket – something he didn’t think much of at the time. However, since the arrest, Linehan wrote on Substack that he believes he...

Will British-style online age verification for social media sites crash through America’s First Amendment?As social media companies begin to navigate the patchwork of age verification laws in parts of the United States, people in Great Britain are dealing with the frustrating reality of those diktats.The Online Safety Act (OSA) requires all websites to ensure that users are over the age of 18. The sites have to use facial recognition, ID scans, digital identity wallets, or bank documents to confirm someone’s identity, instead of the usual box-ticking exercises that Americans check when they visit certain sites.Kids Online Safety Act …...