I’ve waited awhile before commenting on JD’s European speech. I have a friend who thought he did really well. I am less enthusiastic. But he did highlight what I believe are two misconceptions, one held by liberals, and one held by conservatives. In the end, his speech was shocking, and partially, in my opinion, true.
He started by saying that Europe’s greatest threat is internal. Attempts by European governments to restrict speech that may offend others are silly and counter productive. This is a good point. I have always felt that liberals need to understand that especially in the United States, there is no such thing as the right to not be offended. Instead, there is indeed a right to offend. Comedians like Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and Richard Pryor established that a long time ago and I stand by it. Okay, that part is true, but is it really Europe’s BIGGEST threat?
J.D. then goes on the criticize to annulment of the Romanian election. Where their highest court found clear evidence of Russian interference. He states, “But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.” Which seems, to me, to be a very naive view. But perhaps he doesn’t understand the power of misinformation. And, “Now, to many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old, entrenched interests hiding behind ugly, Soviet-era words like “misinformation” and “disinformation,” who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion, or, God forbid, vote a different way, or, even worse, win an election.” Alternative viewpoint, or alternative facts? Those words did come up a lot during the Cold War because RUSSIA LIED A LOT. Duh.
The misconception here is that true free speech also includes the right to lie without consequences. Something conservatives seem to believe these days. Whenever I hear a conservative complain about free speech restrictions, it is “those darn fact checkers” or “Alex Jones sometimes tells the truth, he should be allowed to say anything he wants.” This nonsense started because of social media. This is why Elon Musk has frequently repeated blatant lies on his social media platform and Vance himself goes around claiming Haitian immigrants are eating local pets in Springfield, Ohio. These are lies and they would very much like to make sure you believe them. Most of the people who voted for Trump were deeply uninformed about his plans, a side effect of a reduced press corps and a public focused on bread and circuses. The others, like my friend, focus on the fact that Vance is bringing up a problem they see as a threat, i.e. “political correctness”, while missing the fact that a MUCH bigger issue is Russia’s invasion of a European country. Invasion in Europe, Y’know the cause of the last two World Wars and the Cold War! Not to mention its all out manipulation of two European elections (Belarus and Georgia) as well as high level interference in elections in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Romania and even Germany. Only a fool would ignore such matters and focus on letting anyone say whatever they want. Opinions are one thing, lies are quite another. Thank goodness every major news outlet pointed out that Russia was the one who invaded Ukraine when Trump recently lied and said Ukraine had started the war. No blurring of the truth could support this or his assertion that Zelensky is a dictator and Putin is not. Fact checking must be a priority for an informed and not misled electorate.
Bottom line, Putin is a dictator, murderer, and the greatest threat to European stability.