Over two days in November 1923, Adolf Hitler and his followers staged a putsch at the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall in Munich, Bavaria. It was an attempt by the Nazis to overthrow the German Weimar Republic and gain power. The putsch was unsuccessful and ended in a shootout between the Nazis and 130 soldiers.
Hilter was arrested and sentenced to five months in prison. He was released after 9 months and banned from speaking in public for two years.
The Weimar Republic had some of the strictest speech laws, laws that permitted the government to censor press criticism and anything they considered 'advocacy of violence.' Hundreds of Nazi newspapers were shut down over the years and Joseph Goebbels was jailed for antisemitism.
Yet the Nazis still rose to power. They did so not because of free speech but because of censorship.
Having this basic grasp of world history made it simultaneously fascinating and horrifying to watch CBS News and Margaret Brennan bend over backwards to advocate for Weimar Republic-like speech codes, going so far as to praise Germany, where it's illegal to 'insult' someone or 'post lies' online.
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You can always understand the true motivations of the Left by looking at what they hysterically accuse the Right of doing or being.
We were one election away from becoming Germany, where it is a crime to "insult" someone.
— Sadie (@Sadie_NC) February 17, 2025
The people of this nation best understand exactly how close we were.
What does this all mean? Why this renewed fervor for censorship?
The Left is telegraphing what they intend to do if they regain power, because we took that opportunity away from them in November.
We came very close to installing a candidate who was on record as supporting government control of social media. Kamala Harris found it unacceptable that men like Elon Musk were able to speak to millions of people 'without oversight' (gee, sounds familiar, no?).
Her running mate wanted a 'hate speech registry' that would classify support of J.K. Rowling or saying COVID came from a lab as 'hate speech.'
Hillary Clinton lamented that the Left had lost 'total control' over social media and called for criminal charges and civil penalties against Americans who spread 'propaganda.'
John Kerry called the First Amendment a 'major roadblock' for the Left, calling for their version of a 'Ministry of Truth.'
How positively Orwellian, John.
But the only thing that outstrips the Left's hubris and hypocrisy is its historical ignorance.
The Left aren't worried about free speech giving rise to Nazism. History has proven that false. People rise up against perceived tyrannies, even if it means embracing something worse.
The Weimar Republic's strict speech codes and the enforcement thereof created fertile ground in which Nazi ideology grew, in part because it was verboten. Nazis used their suppression as a victim card, and were the original beneficiaries of the Streisand Effect.
Thankfully, we have something Germany doesn't: a First Amendment and a Constitution that enshrines our right to free speech as the most essential of all rights.
We must fight to protect them because the Left won't stop trying to do away with both.
And that's when things get really ugly.
