Although this analysis was written nine years ago it is now just as relevant, if not more so, than when it was in 2001 — Ed.
Jared Taylor, American Renaissance, March 2001
Americans think ofEuropeans as essentially like themselves. They believe Europeansocieties are like their own—rooted in the rule of law, freedom ofreligion, democratic government, market competition, and an unfetteredpress. In recent years, however, Europeans have given up an essentialliberty: freedom of speech. It is true that in the United Statesprevailing orthodoxies on some questions are ruthlessly enforced but itis still legal to say just about anything. Not so in much of Europe. Inthe last decade or so countries we think of as fellowdemocracies—France, Germany, Switzerland and others—have passed lawsthat limit free speech for the same crude ideological reasons thatdrove the brief, unsuccessful vogue of campus speech codes in theUnited States.
Today in Europe there are laws as bad as anything George Orwellcould have imagined. In some countries courts have ruled that the factsare irrelevant, and that certain things must not be said whether theyare true or false. In others, a defendant in court who tries to explainor defend a forbidden view will be charged on the spot with a freshoffense. Even his lawyer can be fined or go to jail for trying to mounta defense. In one case a judge ordered that a bookseller’s entirestock—innocent as well as offending titles—be burned!
Just as Eastern Europe is emerging from it, Western Europe has enteredthe thought-crime era, in a return to the mentality that launched theInquisition and the wars of religion. It is a tyranny of the leftpracticed by the very people who profess shock at the tactics of JosephMcCarthy, an exercise of raw power in the service of pure ideology. Thedesire not merely to debate one’s opponents but to disgrace them,muzzle them, fine them, jail them is utterly contrary to thespirit of civilized discourse. It is profoundly disturbing to find thisugly sentiment codified into law in some of the countries we think ofas pillars of Western Civilization. At the same time, these laws cannothelp but draw attention to the very ideas they forbid. Truth does notgenerally require the help of censors.