Interesting article....."Same Church ~~ Different Pew" category: Here's an abridged interview with Lars Hedgeaard, a Danish Journalist. I'ts worth a read:
http://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2013/03/05/the-left-now-seems-to-have-reverence-for-fanatics-an-interview-with-denmarks-salman-rushdie-n1525930?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 5:51 PM, Travis <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > *How the Communist Left Killed Free Speech in the West* > > Posted By *Paul Gottfried* On March 5, 2013 **** > > Last week a ruling by the Canadian Supreme > Court<http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/27/supreme-court-upholds-canadas-hate-speech-laws-in-case-involving-anti-gay-crusader/>upheld > a very broad hate speech law in the province of Saskatchewan, a law > that exists in even more extreme forms in other Canadian provinces and > perhaps in the most extreme form in the Canadian Human Rights Act, which > makes it a criminal offense to preach something called “hate.” The > Saskatchewan resident who was found guilty of this outrage was a religious > Christian who had distributed pamphlets declaring homosexuality to be a > sin. If this gentleman, William Whatcott, had expressed the same view over > the Internet, he could have been arrested under a federal law prohibiting > “homophobic” speech. In 2008 in the Canadian province of Alberta a > Protestant > minister<http://ezralevant.com/2008/06/what-could-mark-steyns-punishm.html>was > arrested for delivering a sermon that was critical of gay marriage; and > the same fate befell an Evangelical printer in Ontario two years ago who > refused to produce invitations to a gay wedding. In Ontario it is now a > punishable offense to put up a billboard that “discriminates,” a grievous > offense that courts have been left to define and decide.**** > > I could easily multiple such cases of the suppression of politically > incorrect speech in other “liberal democracies” throughout Western and > Central Europe, having already published several books on this depressing > subject. And this problem is particularly disheartening because Freedom > House and other agencies that are supposed to monitor the status of liberty > throughout the world don’t seem to care about these PC assaults on > intellectual and religious freedom in countries they consider to be > democracies. For example, Freedom > House<http://www.ifex.org/international/2012/04/27/press_freedom_2012_report/>ignores > a rigorously enforced French law making “Armenian-genocide denial” > a crime while railing against Turkey for prohibiting the view that > Frenchmen are required to embrace. Moreover, the suppression of free speech > that we notice in Canada is proceeding even more dramatically in France, > Germany, Holland, Belgium, and Sweden. In all these and other European > countries EU requirements and national laws impose strict speech and > writing codes in order to prevent (what else?) unauthorized hate. Needless > to say, Muslim extremists are hardly ever touched by this draconian > legislation and are usually quite free to rage against Christians and Jews. > **** > > The most extreme restrictions seem to be in Germany, which reveals an > especially egregious degree of thought > control.<http://www.buecherquelle.at/Buchshop/Verlag-Ares/Charakterwaesche::2369.html>There > the present problem started in the postwar period with the misguided > reeducation of the Germans undertaken by their Western conquerors. The > reeducation that the Allies, starting in 1945, imposed on the post-Nazism > country stressed antifascism and antinationalism. Unfortunately it totally > neglected other more important values such as free inquiry and the right of > dissent. A war that commenced under the Occupation against such presumed > evils as “Prussianism” and even simple German patriotism goes on today in > an accelerated fashion, and it has contributed to the painfully narrow > limits in Germany concerning what its citizens may say about politics, > morals or history. Those who go outside those limits will be investigated > by special agencies as a threat to Germany’s “democratic constitutional > order.” As an added disincentive for politically incorrect non-conformists, > those who land up on a widely available government list of suspected > anti-democrats are typically dismissed from their professional positions as > “extremists.” The German “center right” > chancellor<http://www.pi-news.net/2010/03/kauder-die-cdu-ist-keine-konservative-partei/>has > openly congratulated her people for not having a rightwing party. The German > political > spectrum<http://academic.research.microsoft.com/Publication/41245547/the-rise-and-fall-of-christian-democracy-in-europe>starts > somewhere on the American left-center and then moves further to the > left than either of our two national parties.**** > > This relates in some ways to a more general European political problem, > which has been the wholesale transfer of communist cadres from sinking or > collapsing communist parties into what used to be the democratic Left. In > Germany, onetime communist dignitaries were treated with remarkable > leniency by the government and by the generally far leftist press after the > fall of the communist state, and even longtime secret police agents, like > the leader of the German Party of the Left (or, what is officially called > the Party of Democratic Socialists) Gregor Gysi, went from being a > Stasi-informer<http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article113510031/Staatsanwaltschaft-ermittelt-gegen-Gregor-Gysi.html>to > one of the German Republic’s rising political stars overnight. Even the > Christian Democratic Chancellor Angela Merkel had been a supporter of the > German communist regime (like her still ardently communist parents) almost > up to the moment of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In Merkel’s continued > praise of Stalin and the Red Army for “liberating the Germans from > fascism<http://politikforen.net/archive/index.php/t-93572.html>,” > one can still easily catch the echoes of her intense communist upbringing > and education.**** > > Communists<http://ucp-bv-srv1.uchicago.edu/BV.book.epl?ISBN=9780826215970>who > wanted to stay in politics once their formerly powerful parties in > France, Italy and Germany lost their working class base and especially > after the Soviet Empire imploded, had to make adjustments. Reinvented > communists continued to represent “antifascism” and to call for punishing > their traditional “fascist” foes. But the enemy went from being the > capitalist owners of productive forces to those who expressed reactionary > attitudes. One of the first steps in this transformation was getting out > ahead of the crowd in tightening up or pushing through Holocaust denial > prohibitions in France, Italy and other European countries. The communists > or former communists invariably took the lead here, as in the Loi Gayssot, > passed > in France in July 1990 <http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loi_Gayssot>, which > made it a criminal offense to deny any part of the Nuremberg Court’s > judgment concerning Nazi crimes, which was handed down in 1947. This, quite > conveniently for the law’s sponsors, had the stamp of approval of Stalin’s > judges, who had been involved in the trials of Nazi war criminals, and was > based on evidence and testimonies that would merit historical > reexamination, even from non-Holocaust-deniers.**** > > The French Jewish scholar Elisabeth > Levy<http://www.causeur.fr/author/elevy>(who at considerable social and > financial cost has sustained the crusade > against governmentally enforced PC in her country, mostly through her > website Causeur) and before her, the genuinely disillusioned former > communist and historian of the French Communist Party, Annie > Kriegel<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Kriegel>, > warned against criminalizing assumed Holocaust deniers. Such critics > interpreted this move as the first step for French communists and their > socialist allies in a campaign against free speech in France. After the > criminalization of Holocaust-denial, the French Left demanded other > restrictions on unacceptable speech, for example, making the denial of the > “Armenian genocide” into a criminal > offense<http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/23/world/europe/turkey-france-genocide-bill-q-and-a/>, > and then pressing (quite successfully) to punish other forms of “fascist” > self-expression. (Antifascism in Europe is the equivalent of antiracism or > anti-homophobia in the US or Canada.)**** > > Lest I forget, I should mention another elephant that landed up in the > European parlor and continues to cause havoc there: the Sixty-Eighters who > turned into middle-aged European politicians without losing their taste for > intimidating the bourgeois. Not only are most Western European governments > full of these types but they have also ominously gone into the European > media and European education. In Germany these antifascist activists have > not kept the same major enemy over the decades, despite their continued > disinclination for liberty for anyone but themselves. They turned their > fury first against the Americans and the anti-communist side in the Cold > War and then just as ferociously against their own country.**** > > Indeed they have turned national masochism into a German state religion. > German politicians in the Green and Socialist parties are perpetually > expressing the wish that the area between France and Poland would cease to > exist as a state. The new head of the Green Party, Jürgen > Trittin<http://fakten-fiktionen.net/2011/08/jurgen-trittins-tiefrote-vergangenheit-und-seine-antideutsche-rundumschlage/>, > a onetime violent socialist revolutionary, expresses impatience that > Germany has taken so long to disappear, given its evil past. Personally I > have no idea why Germans vote for such creeps but remarkably enough > millions do. Their strength lies primarily in the support of a public > sector class that is much larger than ours.**** > > German-hating, aging Sixty-Eighters do bring up periodically the Holocaust > as a national disgrace, and indeed the former Socialist Foreign Minister > and another, onetime murderous revolutionary, Joschka > Fischer<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joschka_Fischer>, > who was involved in assassinations before his conversion to a quieter march > through the institutions, averred in 1999 that “Auschwitz is [he meant, > should be] the founding myth of the German > Republic<http://www.welt.de/print-wams/article120531/Auschwitz-taugt-nicht-als-Gruendungsmythos-der-Republik.html>.” > But state-supported remorse for Hitler’s crimes against the Jews was only a > brief stopping point on the journey on which Fischer and his fellow > Sixty-Eighters would take their country, and they would do so unfortunately > with a democratic mandate. The imperative never to forget Auschwitz has led > the all-powerful German Left in a number of dubious directions, including > banning more and more politically incorrect speech, whitewashing communist > crimes against their own people and against other nations, and favoring the > creation of a “parallel society” for Muslims who are busily occupying > German inner cities.**** > > One might also note that the banning of “rightwing” hate speech in every > form has allowed communists and their sympathizer to remove from public > discussion any mention of communist mass murder. In France, Germany and > Italy any awkward attempt to bring up this matter, particularly after the > publication of the Black Book of > Communism<http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Book-Communism-Repression/dp/0674076087>in > 1997 detailing the grisly killings committed by communist governments, > elicits charges from the entire left, and not just communists, about > diverting attention from pressing fascist threats. In November 1997 French > Socialist Premier Lionel Jospin rose in the French Assembly to commit a > legally > permissible > genocide-denial<http://encyclo.voila.fr/wiki/Le_livre_noir_du_communisme>. > Jospin attacked those who would dare suggest “equivalence” between Hitler’s > and Stalin’s crime. As a man of the left, the premier regarded Stalin as a > true “antifascist ally in the war against Nazism,” and he refused to allow > right-wingers to insult his communist coalition partners.**** > > Three concluding points may be appropriate here. One, the current war > against politically incorrect speech throughout the Western world is > ultimately far more destructive than the attempts to quiet dissenters that > are pursued under authoritarian governments like China. Authoritarian > states wish to shut up those who seem eager to overthrow their rule. These > governments sometimes behave stupidly and even brutally, but they are > understandably interested in surviving in the face of growing opposition. > What we see in Western countries is an organized totalitarian force > attempting through repression and state-supported social engineering to > restructure human nature. And this force moves along and conquers less > violently than those overt dictatorships that may be sitting on a volcano > of discontent. Those warnings about the cumulative effects of “soft > despotism,” which extend from the social and political critic > Tocqueville<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_tocqueville>in the 1830s > down to Robert > Nisbet <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Nisbet> in the 1950s and > 1960s, apply fully to the aberrant course now being pursued by Western > governments.**** > > Two, almost all political attacks on intellectual and religious freedom > that I’ve recorded are directed against what is perceived as the “far > right.” There is no other presumed threat that the government and leftist > establishments in Canada and Europe are interested in silencing. But more > significantly, this allegedly rightist enemy has come to embrace anyone who > dissents from the left’s program of control or imposed ideology. “Fascists” > now include victims of communist regimes who depict their former captors > unfavorably, those “extremists” who protest Islamicist tirades too loudly, > and those who voice religious objections to the projects of the cultural > left. Although there are similar forms of intolerance that are evident in > our universities and media, the American government, at least for the time > being, had done less than other “liberal democracies” to impose PC with a > jackboot. This of course may change, despite the First Amendment.**** > > Three, there is no one-to-one relation any longer between governments that > permit some degree of economic freedom and those that refrain from > throttling politically insensitive opinion. According to the Index of > Economic Freedom <http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking>, Canada and > Sweden rate higher than the US (Germany is just a bit lower) in their > willingness to practice fiscal discipline and to keep the tax rate for > corporate profits low or non-existent. Some societies with higher ratings > for economic liberty have also, not incidentally, become models or > cesspools of governmentally controlled Political Correctness.**** > > Latvia, Lithuania and Israel, which fall in the low middle of the list, > offer far more intellectual and political freedom than > Singapore<http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Invisible+fist%3a+can+capitalism+and+authoritarianism+work+together%3f-a0187496366>, > which is in second place on the Index. Moreover, Eastern European countries > were left with communist nationalized economies when the Soviet empire > collapsed; and these former satellite countries have had to denationalize > their economies while taking into account a large work force that depended > on inefficiently government-run industries. These countries could not > organize free market economies without having to cope with a bad system > already in place. In any case the economic figures in question should not > be given exaggerated importance, since all Western countries, including our > own, have extensive welfare states. When we talk about economic freedom, we > no longer think about exceedingly low taxes and very limited commercial and > banking regulations of the kinds that obtained in most Western countries a > hundred years ago.**** > > Germans during the Second > Empire<http://www.amazon.com/Wilhelm-II-Christopher-Clark/dp/3421043582>paid > less than a sixth of their present tax load in what was then an > incipient welfare state. Moreover, while the amount of intellectual freedom > under the empire was probably not more than what Germans later enjoyed > under the Weimar Republic, that amount vastly exceeded what is available to > them in what Germans now misleadingly believe is “the freest German > government of all times.” The current amount of permitted freedom is also > far less than what Germans possessed under the Christian Democratic > government that succeeded the Allied Occupation. But that was before the > Sixty-Eighters were joined by retread communists to impose thought control > on Germany’s most recent democracy. And this situation resembles, in a more > advanced form, what is happening in other Western countries. As I began > this essay by pointing out, it would pay for self-appointed guardians of > political freedom to notice what’s going on in their backyards. Allowing > the PC Left to shut up everyone else does not prove the existence of a free > government.**** > > *Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click > here<http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=david+horowitz&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&qid=1316459840&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&sort=daterank> > .***** > ------------------------------ > > Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: *http://frontpagemag.com***** > > URL to article: * > http://frontpagemag.com/2013/paul-gottfried/how-the-communist-left-killed-free-speech-in-the-west/ > ***** > > ** ** > > > > > > > > > -- > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. 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