In America, being able to speak your mind without fear of being arrested or losing everything is the norm. However, in Britain this is not so. While there are laws that allow “free” speech, it comes with restrictions.
Protests against said restrictions have had an increasingly larger uptick since Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour party had taken power a year ago. British patriots protesting mass illegal migrations of uneducated and unskilled third worlders into their country are being labeled as far right extremists and being arrested by their government. What is a democracy that doesn’t allow its people to speak against how the government handles things?
That’s not a democracy, that’s a dictatorship. Starmer has claimed that he’s an advocate of free speech, whilst also censoring “hate speech”. But who’s to decide what is hate speech? That’s an extremely slippery slope. A law in Britain, the Online Safety Act gives the government authority over a very broad and vague definition of explicit content. The biggest “explicit” content that’s been condemned are posts labeled as offensive or hate speech. These laws should not be in place due to the fact that it’s up to them to decide what’s hate speech, offensive, or “wrong”.
In a democratic society, the government should NOT be able to decide what is wrong or right, that power lies with the people. There’s been cases where common people, the average person, had criticized their local government over the handling of a court case or showcasing the more extreme ideologies were arrested. Just for being themselves, not killing anyone, not stealing, just speaking, or maybe wearing an “offensive” t-shirt.
Now you might be thinking why am I defending extremists? Well it’s not that, that’s for sure. See, Britain’s labour party is left wing, and they’re arresting right wingers for their opinions. I, as a Republican myself, feel fear that if I were to travel to Britain, which I someday want to, I would be arrested just for saying something that a classic Republican might say, like limiting immigration. Again, arresting people based on their speech is a slippery slope. What if policies like these one day came to America? What would happen?
In our modern political climate if one side were to be as actively oppressed out in the open, America would most likely have another civil war on their hands. Except this war would be far, far more scary than the one before. Almost everybody in America is already divided due to self put up barriers, whether political or cultural, to have that hate increased along with modern weapons, and half of the criminals in cities having switches on their pistols making them shoot like an automatic rifle, would surely result in a literal dystopian style country like in media, with the sad tan background, abandoned cities, tribes of people, fueled by disdain and desperation to prosper again.
While it may be hard to imagine America as a dystopian world, think about how polarized we as a society are already. With the assassination of Charlie Kirk, political violence is in our front yard already. I’m friends with multiple Democrats/Liberals and the thought about making them my enemy or having to hurt them in a battle sends shivers down my spine. The worst part? I have to hide or lie about my real opinions in front of them just because of how extreme we as a people are in our beliefs. I lie and say that I’m pretty neutral politically because I know that if I speak my own truths, I’ll be shunned by the people I’ve spent years building close bonds with.
The fact that four words could absolutely shatter many of my friendships is harrowing and says a lot about society. We as a people need to change how we think about others and the value of human life.
