I do not know what has happened to the land of the majority of my forebears. To an outsider looking in, it seems the very things they threw rocks, waged guerilla war, and died in the streets against, they have become.

Back in May I posted about their new and improved “hate crime” legislation, then winding its way through their version of a legislature. What they were proposing to codify was terrifying to an American, but to an Irishman, a country that was still soaked in blood from a fight for their own freedom, to even contemplate something as authoritarian and restrictive?

Madness.

…Currently wending its way through the Oireachtas (Oireachtas Éireann, is the bicameral parliament of Ireland) are updates to sections of their Prohibition of Incitment to Hatred Act 1989. As there were no innerwebs or social media in 1989 they felt they needed a new, improved version. They came up with a doozy.

…Genocide
The proposed law will also make it an offence to deny or trivialise genocide. It will define a hate crime as any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim, or any other person, to have been motivated by prejudice.

Such prejudice can be based on a person’s age, disability, race, colour, nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender.

Anyone’s “perception” can make anyone else an accused criminal.

It’s horrifically intrusive. And, for example, the search warrant process: if you’ve hurt someone’s #feelingz they don’t just come for you, according to the proposed legislation. Everyone you know and love – down to the wee babby’s nappies – gets to play with the Gardaí when they bang on your door. Basically a license to toss the house, contents, and residents.

“Upon such evidence being given, and a warrant granted, the guards can enter your home, search every person there, seize every single electronic device in the house, your phones, your laptops, your tablets, those of your partner, children’s phones, they can take anything,… pic.twitter.com/DvH6D02HxU

— Free Speech Ireland (@FreeSpeechIre) July 2, 2023

Much to the chagrin of the European control freaks on the continent and in the media, there has been a bit of a delay in passing and instituting this potential reign of terror.

According to reports, the Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill 2022 will not move to its next stage on the legislative process until September this year. Despite the recent increase in violence against LGBTQ+ people and other minorities, Ireland remains one of the few European countries that does not have an appropriate hate crime law.

First published on October 27 last year, the Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill 2022 faced a recess and then passed its final stage in the Dáil earlier in April. It then moved to the Seanad, where it passed the second stage in June. However, as reported by The Journal, it is understood that the hate crime law won’t move to Committee Stage until September 2023 at the earliest.

If made into law, the bill will introduce “aggravated” versions of existing criminal offences in cases in which such offences are motivated by hatred against a victim’s “protected characteristics”. In addition, it will expand the existing hate speech legislation, making communication or behaviour that is likely to incite hatred a criminal offence, with a penalty of up to five years in prison.

The bill is fully LGBTQ+ inclusive, with the list of protected characteristics including race; colour; nationality; religion; national or ethnic origin; descent; gender (also entailing gender identity); sex characteristics; sexual orientation; and disability.

Oh, good Lord – really? An “appropriate” hate crime law?

With the completely inclusive list of “protected characteristics” (I’m sure all of us fit in one category or another), why did they even bother writing this?

It’s ludicrous in the extreme – everyone will simultaneously become a potential victim and oppressor in the eyes of Irish law, depending on who bitches about who first.

You could go to jail under this law for merely “possessing” an “offensive” meme, even if there was no proof you meant to share it. Not like that hasn’t happened here, so it’s ripe for abuse, no?

Another possible reason for the delay may be potential legal action against the legislation from someone who can afford to fight the system over infringement of basic human rights.

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, will launch a legal challenge against forthcoming anti-hate-speech laws in Ireland, its US billionaire owner Elon Musk has announced.

Having previously slammed the planned legislation as a “massive attack on freedom of speech”, Musk has now declared he is planning a legal challenge to try to torpedo the bill.

“X will be filing legal action to stop this,” he told his social media followers, adding that he “can’t wait for discovery to start”.

The announcement has been welcomed by many in Ireland, with free-speech activists in particular expressing support for legal challenges against the new rules.

…By contrast, Musk’s decision represents more bad news for Ireland’s progressive government, which has been experiencing continued national and international pushback regarding the legislation.

The Progressives running Ireland, as is their way, had hoped to slide this quietly by when people’s attention was occupied elsewhere, and now, dammit – everyone is going to get all in a lather again.

Reminder that the Irish media were silent on hate speech laws, some of the most radical in Europe, until figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump jr. brought attention to it.

Journalists don't fear censorship anymore because they recognise their role as an arm of the regime. https://t.co/zKmkN66glg

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) August 27, 2023

But that’s not the only sword the Irish have allowed to hang over their heads. They have gotten really good at self-abuse of their former freedoms.

In July they passed something called an “Electoral Reform Bill,” which sounds, on its face, like a good start to safer, more secure and transparent (whatever that translates to) elections as it also established an “independent” Electoral Commission.

…This commitment to establish a statutory, independent Electoral Commission for Ireland was honoured when an Electoral Reform Bill was passed on 13 July. But the Bill went further. The bill also promises the regulation of online political advertising with the aim of ensuring ‘transparency during electoral campaigns and… that our elections remain free from hidden influences on how we vote’.

Yeah. That “remain free from HIDDEN INFLUENCES on how we vote” part is what’s got people worried now. Because the independent Electoral Commission doesn’t answer to anyone, and they’ve just set up their own version of a Ministry of Misinformation, with them as determiners of what qualifies as truth and what does not. They will decide what are “hidden influences” and hide them permanently through censorship. The evolution to open and legal state sanctioned censorship almost makes Linda Douglass and her ObamaCare Truth Watch desk look quaint.

The commissioners graciously acknowledge they may have to “become philosophers” to ban information they don’t like say isn’t “true.”

COME ON, MAN Who are they kidding?

Justice Baker mentions the very extensive powers of Ireland's new Electoral Commission not found in many other European countries. Mentions that it will have power to remove or demand correction of things it believes to be untrue. Says they will have to become philosophers of… https://t.co/kXHYitV12G

— Declan Ganley (@declanganley) August 30, 2023

Any of this sound familiar?

“Sounds worrying.” You think?

At least it’s still illegal here.

For the moment.