A series of tweets from famed free speech campaigner, Michael Shellenberger, which take aim at Justice Minister Helen McEntee’s defence of the government’s hate speech bill, has gone viral, racking up almost 600,000 views in hours on Twitter.
McEntee tweeted that the legislation was about “protecting those most vulnerable to hate crime and hate speech and respecting the very generous Irish tradition of live and let live.”
However, Shellenberger didn’t hold back, saying that “the vulnerable are never, ever protected by censorship. They are empowered by freedom of speech.”
“In seeking to deprive your fellow Irish of the most sacred of rights, you are your colleagues reveal yourselves to be the ones motivated by hatred,” he wrote.
The vulnerable are never, ever protected by censorship. They are empowered by freedom of speech. In seeking to deprive your fellow Irish of the most sacred of rights, you are your colleagues reveal yourselves to be the ones motivated by hatred. https://t.co/OpYo9wR6OJ
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) June 25, 2023
“It is time to speak plainly,” he continued.
“The desire to censor your fellow citizen is pathological. That the people demanding censorship are blind to their own hatred, to their own will-to-repress, is but another symptom of their profound psychological and spiritual sickness,” the best-selling author and commentator said.
“I wish there were a kinder way of saying this. But the hour is late. Ireland, the UK, and the EU are on the verge not only of imposing totalitarianism on themselves, they are trying to impose their totalitarianism on the world through social media platforms,” he continued.
The Justice Minister wrote in The Times that “hostility towards the hate crime bill is misplaced.”
“Debate is the lifeblood of a modern, liberal democracy. But intimidation, persecution and setting people against others simply because of who they are have no place in our society,” she said.
“You will still be able to offend other people or express views that make others uncomfortable. You will still be able to debate and discuss issues regarding protected characteristics,” the Minister argued.
However, the bill has been criticised for failing to define ‘hate’ – and commentators argue that a very low threshold will be required for Gardai to become involved – with only a “perception” of hateful conduct required.
Shellenberger also took the Justice Minister to task for her claim that “the public consultations we have undertaken since 2019 on this legislation… were significantly positive”.
“It’s a lie,” he countered. “The journalist Ben Scallan found 73% of the 3,500 responses to the legislation were negative.”
To compile this data, I literally went through 3500+ responses one-by-one individually and made a note of whether each one was positive, negative, etc.
It was painstaking, but well worth it. https://t.co/LzqGnDMrPu
— Ben Scallan 🇮🇪 (@Ben_Scallan) May 3, 2023
Shellenberger said that citizens “should be afraid and angry of the totalitarian menace emerging from within the European elite.”
“To all, be firm but loving. Many are victims of propaganda claiming that “hate” is increasing society-wide. It’s not. It’s only increasing among elites who are projecting it,”
“Anybody who has been to Ireland or met the Irish knows that they are some of the most tolerant, decent, and loving people in the world, no doubt partly as a result of what they went through for so long. The idea that there is some spontaneous grassroots hatred is ridiculous,” he added.
“This attack on free speech is coming from European elites. They have been in a panic ever since Brexit. They blame the Internet, social media, and free speech for the unpopularity of their agenda. They have gone mad and become dangerous. They must be stopped,” he said.
Shellenberger has described clampdowns on free speech as emanating from a “censorship industrial complex” – and that the measures amount a “war on free speech”.
Controversy around the Irish bill continues to grow, with critics labelling the measure as ‘draconian’ and an unprecedented threat to free speech. A video of Green Senator Pauline O’Reilly saying that ‘we are restricting freedom for the common good’ has attracted global focus.
"We are restricting freedom for the common good": Irish Green Party Senator Pauline O'Reilly says that her government's hate speech bill is about "restricting freedom," and censoring views on gender identity if those views create "discomfort."#gript pic.twitter.com/H7QIT0QHmf
— gript (@griptmedia) June 15, 2023
This week, Gript editor John McGuirk wrote that the bill ‘might just be wobbling’
Senator Lisa Chambers, normally the most loyalist of Fianna Fáil representatives, has called for the bill to be paused. Her colleague, FF Senator Donal O’Donovan, has indicated that he may vote against it. Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty, normally the most mindlessly devoted advocate of anything that might be branded progressive, has expressed concern and shock at the sheer scale of opposition to the bill that she has encountered. Significantly, in almost all of the public debates over the bill, its supporters have noticeably come across second-best.
The Opposition in both houses has been well-organised and coherent. It has drawn together people who would usually differ on many issues – voices like Ronan Mullen, Michael McDowell, Sharon Keogan, and, in the Dáil, even the likes of Paul Murphy. By contrast, supporters of the bill have repeatedly flubbed and made errors – comments about how it is designed to restrict freedom, or ban jokes, for example.