On Monday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan came to the global capitol of liberty, Austin, Texas, to give a sermon at SXSW about the horrors of free speech. And the congregation shouted “hallelujah!” Yes. Sadiq, the anti-American super freak, was cheered by the crowd at an American music, film, and media conference for assailing and threatening free speech across the globe. Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a major Western metropolis, read a series of social media posts calling for his assassination (statements which are already a criminal act throughout the West) and then declared, “that big tech has further to go in making the internet free of hate speech."
He continued by querying the audience to ask themselves: “what happens when young boys and girls from minority backgrounds see this kind of thing on their timelines or experience it themselves? Or someone thinking about becoming a politician? And what about young girls and women who are being driven from these platforms, reversing our long fight for gender equality?" He implored the audience to recognize the importance of a world devoid of criticisms and hurt feelings. Let me translate from the King’s English to American: “because some people committed a crime, the internet needs to be totally free of criticism because someone may get their feelings hurt.” I especially love his shout out to young aspiring politicians who he feels need to be protected from any and all online hater-ade. We certainly can’t let them grow up thinking strident ideological debate is a key component of a free, democratic society. And they must most certainly not be told that they might be wrong about anything. Self doubt is soooo yesteryear.
This thinly veiled double speak is framed as an assault on internet trolls and victimizers but, in reality, the ill-intentioned Mayor’s machination is to stifle any and all criticism of the slow creep of Middle Eastern sharia-like thought police who aim to prevent any criticism of his faith or its adherents. It is noteworthy that he has never directed his vitriol at the barbaric sexism and toxic rhetoric of the Middle East’s radicalized Muslim majority nations. He has only chided Londoners with “there is no reason to be alarmed” in the wake of terror attack after terror attack that killed and injured scores of his citizenry. Because stopping Johnny from telling Jane she is an ugly heifer on Facebook is far, far more important than calling out Iran for demanding genocide against the Jewish State and jailing women for refusing to wear head scarves (the Ayatollah and Mayor Khan share a religion and an abject antagonism to free speech. I wonder what else they have in common?) or decrying the horrors of the global Islamic extremist terror network.
The overarching goal, according to the hip, happening Sadiqy-Diq, is that “social-media platforms can live up to their promises to connect, unify, and democratize the sharing of information and be places where everyone feels welcomed and valued." Accordingly, he wants information to be shared as long as its homogenized. The mighty mayor does not want anyone to be allowed to articulate anything that may make someone question their sense of self. In a world of participation trophies, Sadiq seemingly seeks to create a bubble boy experience for everyone online. But his true goals are far more nefarious than merely protecting the public at large from ugly words. He seeks to silence those who decry the hateful march against the Western World by those who seek to rob us of our freedoms.
Do you wonder how the Khan intends to achieve his goals? In the same manner Iran robs its citizens of almost all of their freedoms: with big, oppressive government. He commanded, “it must ultimately fall to government, working with tech businesses and leaders, to ensure that this revolution is not detrimental to our long-term progress. There's been a dereliction of duty on the part of politicians and policymakers to ensure that the rapid growth in technology is utilized and steered in a direction that benefits us all." He hides his evil intentions in a cloak of social justice warrior platitudes and the sheep roared their approval. What I find the most shocking is that these lemmings have assembled to celebrate free expression, but quickly abandoned that to rejoice in a foreign mayor seditiously lecturing them about the idiocy of our very First Amendment to our Bill of Rights.
London’s chief executive used the example of a law enacted in Germany last year to strong-arm social media platforms into abandoning free speech. The statute gives the German government the ability to fine social networks up to 50 million Euros (approximately $62 million US) for failing to police and remove hateful content within 24 hours of posting. Again, let me translate his rhetoric to Americanese: “silence all political dissidence or else!”
How was this blatant attack on one of America’s foundational principles so easily digested by the liberal SXSW crowd of young artist and journalists? A recent article in the New York Times deconstructing a disheartening 2018 Gallup poll of American college students provides the shocking answer: “When forced to choose, a small majority of college students say inclusivity is more important than free speech.” We are now serving the Kool Aid across our Nation’s college campuses. Young adults are being brainwashed by academia to believe inclusivity is paramount to liberty. Being nice and tolerant should be the goal for all those treading water in the sauna bath of the melting pot of American freedoms. But this admirable ideal does not supersede our fundamental freedom to criticize, to shout, to disagree. And, frankly, there are some evil people not deserving of niceties and who should not be tolerated by a moral and just society.
If we do not protect ugly speech we disagree with, we protect no speech at all. Khan constructed a transparent straw man argument using examples of illegal demands for violence to transform the debate about freedom of speech online to an iron-fisted demand that our new media platforms that have given a voice to all individuals kowtow to his thought police or else government is coming to seize their profits. His speech should have terrified everyone in the room. But he delivered his threats with a smile, jokes about boots and barbecue, and bangs so the women and men swooned and Monday was the day the music actually died. Bye bye, Ms. American Pie.