By Douglas V. Gibbs
I recently watched a video that shook me to my core. An elderly British man — frail, medicated for anxiety and blood pressure—was being arrested by the police. His crime? A comment he made on Facebook that someone found offensive. And this wasn’t an isolated incident. I’ve seen countless videos of citizens across Europe being hauled away for social media posts deemed xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic (or any other make-believe phobia), or simply critical of their government.
This is George Orwell’s 1984 in action. We fought wars in the twentieth century to stop this kind of tyranny. Now, the world is becoming that tyranny willingly. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, a communist Russian leader who rose to power because of his close alliance with Josef Stalin, commented about the ideological battle between communism and the West, saying, “The United States will eventually fly the Communist red flag…The American people will hoist it themselves.” Communism had infiltrated The West, and he believed that The West, particularly the United States, would eventually and gradually adopt socialist principles – not through invasion or revolution, but through internal ideological shifts. He often suggested that capitalism would collapse under its own weight and that socialism would triumph by default.
He said, “No, you won’t accept communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.” Krushchev intended to provoke, warn, and assert the inevitability of socialism’s global rise.
The plan has been working. We wrestle over pronouns, have a segment of the population who believes anything America is racist, sexist, white supremacist, and/or is seeking some kind of theocracy, and to prove it they point angrily at Christian morals, constitutional values, perceived flaws in America’s founding and blonde hair blue eyed girls in American blue jeans who must be in their eyes advertising some kind of secret message about genetics, master races, and totalitarian fascist evil plans. We have developed hate speech legislation, political hostility toward Christians, and the demonization of conservative values have crept into our institutions — especially under the Obama and Biden administrations, and inside the progressive leftist commie culture who hates Donald J. Trump. The weaponization of government and culture against dissenting voices is no longer a conspiracy theory. It’s a reality.
President Trump recently criticized Europe for its war on free speech, and rightly so. The Trump administration, through the State Department, has condemned the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) as “Orwellian” censorship. In a recent post, the department declared:
“In Europe, thousands are being convicted for the crime of criticizing their own governments… Censorship is not freedom.”
The DSA, which went into effect in 2022, empowers EU regulators to pressure social media platforms into removing content they deem “illegal” or “harmful” — terms so vague they can be twisted to silence any dissent. According to a House Judiciary Committee report, the DSA is being used to suppress core political speech, humor, satire, and conservative viewpoints.
Platforms and social media jungles like Meta (Facebook) and X (formerly Twitter) are being coerced (or maybe they do it more than willingly) into applying these censorship standards globally, meaning American citizens are now subject to European speech codes. Have you seen the videos of Americans being arrested at the airport as they step off the plane in a European country because of their posts on social media while back in the good ol’ USA?
At the Munich Security Conference, Vice President J.D. Vance delivered a powerful rebuke of Europe’s censorship regime:
“The threat I worry most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia or China — it’s the threat from within. The retreat from fundamental values shared with the United States.”
He cited examples of British citizens arrested for silent prayer, German police raiding homes over online comments, and EU officials threatening to shut down social media during civil unrest. Vance’s message was clear: if you fear your own voters, you’ve already lost the moral foundation of liberty.
The Trump administration has taken decisive steps to dismantle the censorship apparatus left behind by Biden. Offices like the Global Engagement Center — used to suppress dissent under the guise of countering “disinformation” — have been shuttered. Executive orders now protect AI development from ideological bias and reaffirm our commitment to free speech.
But the battle is far from over.
We must ask: Are we headed the way of Europe? Will we allow bureaucrats and tech overlords to decide what is acceptable thought? Will we surrender our First Amendment rights to globalist institutions and Orwellian dreams of a surveillance state that even reaches into our very thoughts?
As Rush Limbaugh often said, “Words mean things.” And when governments begin to police those words, they are policing thought itself.
The First Amendment doesn’t protect popular speech — it seeks to secure controversial speech. It disallows government to make any law whatsoever regarding your right to criticize your government, your culture, and yes, even your neighbor. The First Amendment is all about keeping government out of your business, out of your thoughts and words, and enabling the people the ability to use their minds and voices to criticize and change that government. That’s what liberty is all about.
We must resist the siren song of “safety” that demands censorship. We must reject the idea that somehow offending someone’s sensibilities is a crime. And we must remember that tyranny doesn’t always come with jackboots — it often arrives with hashtags and Terms of Service. The road to Hell, after all, is paved with good intentions.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. – C.S. Lewis
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
