The Irish governments drive to pass Orwellian thought crime legislation, against the wishes of the majority of the Irish public, is garnering yet more media attention internationally as Irish media, for the most part, remains relatively silent on the matter.
The new “hate speech” laws are in keeping with a dictate for such speech controls as decreed by the unelected European Commission.
The new “Criminal Justice Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill” will create new laws to prosecute so-called “hate crimes” and expand the protected classes of people who will be given special privileges under the law, something critics claim is repugnant to constitution which guarantees equality to all people regardless of race, sex etc.
Support for the Free Speech Ireland movement on twitter has been expressed by the likes of Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr and Professor Jordan Peterson among many others.
As the U.S National Review reported a person would not even have to offend anyone to be guilty of “hate” under the new legislation and you can be convicted before uttering or publishing the speech.
These protected classes will include those with gender identity issues among other minorities and ‘migration status’ may also be included as a category of protected class of people under the new bill, Minister for Justice Simon Harris suggested earlier this year.
Denying or “trivialising” genocide will also become a criminal offence, which has led to some speculation as to which genocides will become unquestionable and which will not, while perhaps most disturbingly, a “hate crime” can be determined according to the alleged victim’s perception of the incident in question.
This new bill may seem to come directly from the pages of George Orwell’s 1984 but it enjoys the support of all government parties and the so-called opposition parties of Sinn Fein, Labour and the Social Democrats.
It does appear to be deeply unpopular among the citizenry of Ireland however, and it is hoped with public pressure in form of contacting representatives and protests this bill can still be defeated.
To this end, those who value freedom of speech and thought are urged to gather at the Customs House on May 13th at 2pm to make their voices heard, as it may be one of the last times they can legally do so should resistance to this Draconian curtailment of basic liberties fail.
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