What do you do if you belong to a tyrannical elite that has misgoverned an entire continent for decades, radically transforming its demography and outlawing free speech, when all the dire consequences your opponents warned about are fulfilled in two bloody massacres? No problem: you simply hijack the protests and pose as the champions of free speech.
The “I am Charlie” buffoonery sweeping France is an impressive demonstration of the establishment’s continuing ability to manipulate the public, with the assistance of the useful idiots in the Twittersphere and the organised Left. Invent an inane slogan and use it as a lightning conductor for public anger and fear. Having caused the crisis, the European elites have now assumed leadership of the potential backlash. It is beyond caricature.
The so-called “march for unity” in Paris was an affirmation by the European elite that, no matter how many people are murdered by jihadists, so far as the imposition of multiculturalism and immigration are concerned it is business as usual. We may be confident that throughout last week’s traumatic events the rubber stamps continued pounding on admission documents for legal immigrants and that more illegals penetrated porous frontiers. This was a march for a specific kind of unity: imams were invited, but not Marine Le Pen, leader of the largest political party in France.
By assembling more than 40 world “leaders” on the Paris streets, the European establishment handed the jihadists a massive propaganda victory. In Germany, Angela Merkel, with astonishing impudence even for a legacy politician, used the Paris atrocities to reaffirm multiculturalism and attempt to demonise the Pegida protesters whose concerns had been vindicated, while choosing to march with Muslims.
“Freedom of speech” has suddenly become the rallying cry of those who have suppressed free expression for years. The hypocrisy is epitomised by the adoption of Charlie Hebdo as an icon of free speech. The brutal murder of its journalists should not blind us to the true character of the magazine. Charlie Hebdo is a far-left publication promoting authoritarian repression of politically incorrect views. Just 18 months ago it published a petition to President Francois Hollande demanding the compulsory dissolution of the Front National. It had already run a similar petition in 1996.
“We ask you to dissolve the Front National, this league whose political aim is to bring about the end of the Republic,” said the Charlie Hebdo petition. So, a party that came first in the recent European elections in France, with 4.7 million votes and 24 seats in the European parliament, and whose leader received 6.4 million votes in the 2012 presidential election and is ahead of Francois Hollande in polls for the next contest, should be forcibly dissolved, in the view of freedom-loving Charlie Hebdo.
Its 24 MEPs and more than 2,000 councillors, elected by the public, should be expelled from their seats and millions of voters disfranchised because Charlie Hebdo disapproves of their policies. No wonder the European political establishment is keen to hold up that kind of “freedom” as a template.
The hypocrisy is not limited to France. This week Nick Clegg said on LBC radio: “At the end of the day, in a free society people have to be free to offend each other.” Qué? That is a new gurgle from Baby Clegg. The Liberal Democrats believe in the right to offend? Since when? The sole defeat suffered by those relentlessly extending “hate speech” laws to gag the British public was in 2009 when the House of Lords refused to withdraw the Waddington Amendment exempting verbal criticism of homosexuality from prosecution and the Commons had to give in, after four attempts to reverse it.
In the final division on 9 November 2009, when 342 of the swarming pathogens on the slime-green benches voted against freedom of speech, they included 50 of the 62 Liberal Democrat MPs then in Parliament. Will Clegg now move to repeal the notorious Thought Crime laws? Don’t hold your breath.
Dave is at it as well. While trying to exploit the Paris murders to push through totalitarian legislation empowering the government to monitor its citizens’ communications, he too is banging the Freedom of Speech drum. Hearken to the latest classic effusion of Daveguff: “I stand with the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression. It’s very important in our countries that we have a freedom – you are allowed to offend people.” Very good, Dave. So, you will be repealing the “hate speech” laws, will you? Uh-huh. Just checking.
If the liberal political establishment is not removed from power it will destroy us – is already half-way to doing so. The shamelessness with which it has hijacked the incipient backlash against the deadly consequences of its misrule shows the degree of dissimulation it will employ in attempting to cling to power. It will not succeed. For the moment, what is most important is to see through its blatant deception and reject all its hypocrisies. We are not the Charlies our rulers think we are.
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