We should have seen this coming. A mere 25 days after the Inauguration, Vice President JD Vance went to Munich to convey a few key messages. Things that made some in the EU cry. To ensure freedom, Western “democracies” needed to protect free and open public discourse, and the EU is “disappointing” history.
Vance spoke of shared strategic interests, history, how the EU needs to do more to support its own defense, and global threats, the greatest of which was… the EU.
[T]he threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values—values shared with the United States of America.
EU countries had also taken to annuling elections and banning politicians and political parties, while policing speech to which the current ruling regimes objected. Vance offers a litany of embarrassing examples, or they should be, then sticks this landing.
I come here today not just with an observation but with an offer. And just as the Biden administration seemed desperate to silence people for speaking their minds, so the Trump administration will do precisely the opposite, and I hope that we can work together on that.
In Washington, there is a new sheriff in town. And under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree.
It has been a mere fifteen weeks since the Munich speech. Three months give or take. One quarter of one year ago, and those chickens have come home to roost.
To borrow from probable turbo-cancer victim Joe Biden, this is a big f*cking deal. And it is. I’ve more or less forgone the notion of any trip to Europe, even if I could afford it, due to the risk I’d be spending it in prison. The UK, in particular, has been very open about that threat.
I can still go there, but they could snatch me up at the airport, and I’d get a tour of the Tower of London or some modern equivalent because while here my speech if free, there I’ve potentially hurt more feelings than can be counted though they’d most certainly make the effort to do that.
The stupidity of their public officials is also featured on our pages, so there’s not much to like about this blog, and off to the nick I go. Maybe.
Not worth the risk. And I’ve no burning aspiration to see that side of the pond, but I do love the history and the really old stuff that has been there since before the rise of modern Western values, and that appeals. Values that are crumbling alongside the old buildings (not so appealing).
The moratorium seems silly, but it has significant play.
Foreign leaders will be desperate to avoid being put on Rubio’s “list” because it doesn’t just block their access to the United States— it publicly brands them as enemies of American liberty. Being sanctioned under a speech-based visa restriction effectively exiles them from the global stage, cutting off face-to-face diplomacy, high-level trade talks, swanky elite conferences, and media platforms that all flow through Washington, New York, and Silicon Valley.
Worse, becoming a diplomatic persona non grata invites political embarrassment back at home, and emboldens the leaders’ rivals to circle like sharks. For a ruling-class technocrat or regulator whose power depends on international status and institutional access, being blacklisted by the U.S. is career poison. The threat of losing that privilege turns the list into a geopolitical electric cattle prod— and Rubio’s message seems clear: if you target American speech, you could forfeit your seat at America’s table.
This is the first time in U.S. history that foreign officials could face personal diplomatic consequences for participating in the global censorship-industrial complex and collectively violating Americans’ constitutional rights.
And how ironic. The censors ordering paper-pusers to sift your social media in search of offenses will now have to have theirs sifted to ensure they are not aiding and abetting the global industrial Censorship complex. And with good reason. Someone has to be the adult, and while I’m not exactly sure how this will work, the sort of people most likely to pretend to be offended for others are now on the hook for using that as an excuse to censor their political opponents.
That is literally the only reason they care. It’s not about your feelings or good manners or proper culture. The bastards don’t want anyone to whittle away at their stranglehold on power, and free expression will always be a threat to that.
I find it oddly amusing that they are behaving like fascists in the name of preventing fascism. That’s the same excuse democrats use in the US, but it is the Trump Administration that’s pushing back everywhere while leveraging it like tariffs to get a better deal all around for America and Americans.
Democrats would never do that for you. Not ever.
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