Goodness is there a bigger hypocrite out there than Tánaiste Simon Harris? He has been crying a river over the fact that Annabelle and Horatio from Donnybrook might not be able to wait tables in Newport, Rhode Island, US of A for the summer if their social media feeds are not to the taste of President Trump.
You see, the same man who tried to ram through some ridiculous hate speech law on the Irish people, has now found his membership to the Free Speech Union and thinks it would be a dreadful thing if undergraduates in Ireland didn’t get to the land of the free on the usual J1 visa this summer.
The Journal:
“Students should not be “deprived” of a J1 visa for expressing their views on “horrific issues that are happening around the world”, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said.
It comes after the US Embassy in Dublin announced last month that students applying for J1s will now undergo “enhanced social media vetting.” A US State Department official said consular officers will conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting of all student and exchange visitor applicants.”
All applicants are now required to list all of their social media profiles and set them to public to allow screening for anti-American content, with anyone failing to do this running the risk of having their application rejected.”
First some disclaimers. My eldest daughter is called Annabelle, I went to UCD and some of my best friends are from Donnybrook. I did the J1 visa thing. Yes, I waited tables in Newport Rhode Island and had the summer of my life. I will not disclose any further details, they will go with me to my grave and the grave of my two friends who went with me. Things were easier back in my day, I can tell you. We certainly did not have to disclose our views to the officials at the American Embassy. However as I was born conservative I doubt I would have had any problems getting through.
But best wishes to the woke students who dominate the universities in Ireland. They’d want to get cleaning up that anti – Trump Facebook page pronto. I’m just sorry I won’t be in the room when they are explaining what they meant by Donald Trump is a Fascist, and how President Harris was the last hope for democracy. As for the ‘from the river to the sea’ crowd, good luck. You’ll need it.
First, getting a J1 visa or a visa of any kind to the United States is a privilege not a right, but try explaining that to the privileged scions of D4. However, I’m not onboard with all this social media vetting although I do feel sorry for the sad saps at the American Embassy who are now going to have to go through the inane thoughts and unoriginal beliefs of a second year arts undergraduate student. God, the inhumanity of it all.
But I am broadly pro free speech, whereas our great leader Simon Harris who seems intent on taking the place of Aodhán Ó Ríordáin as the most annoying man in Irish politics, is only a free speech warrior when it suits him. When Donald Trump does something anti – free speech like, it’s a very bad thing but when the Irish government does it, that’s absolutely fine.
And here is the kicker. The Americans are only policing the speech of a group of foreign students. Whereas the Irish government wants to police the speech of its own citizens, be that through the anti-free speech industrial NGO complex or the less subtle use of legislation.
Harris said, “I was making the point that we live in a country where young people have very, very strong views – as do I, by the way – on a lot of what’s going on in the world and they have every right to express those views.
Freedom of speech matters and being able to freely express yourself – online, offline, through protest – is an important part of our democracy, and I know President Trump is somebody who, I’d imagine in his own country, would champion free speech.”
You want to write that second part down. My sense is that we will need it when they try, Lazarus like, to resurrect their stinking anti-free speech Hate speech laws.
Here is the problem. If you agree with Harris, then it’s all free speech this and free speech that. If you disagree with him or his government, then suddenly you are guilty of hate speech.
For example, some might think it is a matter of free speech to say that men should not be able to deem themselves to be women and access female spaces (as is the law in Ireland right now) and others – our government and the entire MSM – will say that’s hate speech.
Others might say, Palestine should be free from the River to the Sea, and some other person down the road will say that’s a call to ethnically cleanse the Jews as you once you get out the map and understand that the river part means the River Jordan and the sea part means the Med, then there wouldn’t be any space left for the Jews, that this River to the Sea slogan is hate speech too. Are you understanding me? It’s complicated, is it not?
What is not complicated however is the fact that Simon Harris is a raging hypocrite on the issue of free speech. Unfortunately, I cannot think of any word that rhymes with hypocrite so I can’t end this piece on some clever slogan. Maybe the readers can provide me with one, in the comments section.