Liberal governments might want to be less revealing about the sort of America they envision after they have smashed the Trump administration and overwhelmed the Republican electorate with illegal alien voters. A basic value like free speech (Item #1 in the Constitution) is troublesome to leftists and is already under attack.
Democrat 2020 candidate Joe Biden recently demanded that TV networks stop booking Rudy Giuliani which gives a hint about what sort of president he would be regarding the First Amendment.
Similarly, D-candidate Kamala Harris has called for Twitter to suspend the president’s account because of his tweets against the mysterious unnamed “whistleblower” who has accused him of impeachable acts.
These Democrats are picky about the sort of speech they would permit.
On Monday, Tucker Carlson discussed the decision of New York City to ban certain words and phrases—one being “illegal alien” which is the correct legal term. Badthink persons who utter the truth about foreign invaders will be punished severely with a quarter-million-dollar fine.
As Tucker observed, “This is how it begins”—fascism, that is.
TUCKER CARLSON: New York City is a sanctuary city and that means federal immigration law is ignored there, so the officials do their best to protect illegal aliens, even the criminals from deportation.
New York has created its own category of immigration laws that target not people who are here illegally, but people who are born here like you.
For example, a new decree from the New York Human Rights Commission says that ordinary people can be fined up to a quarter of a million dollars if they use language that illegal immigrants don’t like.
Some of the banned words include asking employees to speak English, threatening to call ICE on illegal building tenants or even using the phrase “illegal alien” which is an official U.S. government phrase, by the way, in a quote, “derogatory way.”
Seth Barron is Associate Editor at City Journal. He joins us tonight.
Seth, the First Amendment, I think it’s right in there in the Bill of Rights. But it’s not operative in the biggest city in the country now?
EDITOR SETH BARRON: Well, it’s still there. But you know, they’re working on it, Tucker. They are working on it.
As you know, the left, they want to control language, because if you can control language, you can control thought, you can control behavior. Now, technically speaking, the new guidance that the Human Rights Commission put out really pertains mostly to, you know, housing, employment and public accommodations. But that’s not how they’ve put it out there.
They have put it out, as you said that using the word “illegal alien”, in a very broad context, is illegal and could get you fined.
CARLSON: But I don’t understand. I mean, how can — I mean, the First Amendment has been interpreted repeatedly by the Supreme Court and definitively in 1967 to protect all speech, except imminent calls to violence. So how in the world does New York get around that?
BARRON: Well, they would say that this is implicit discrimination. So if you’re an employer, and you want to, you know, make sure that your employees or applicants are truly citizens, or truly have work authorization that that would be a kind of a disparate impact.
It’s a wide ranging assault, I will agree with you there.
CARLSON: It’s fascism. So what if I take the train up to New York tomorrow and just stand in Times Square with a bullhorn using the phrase “illegal alien”?
BARRON: That would probably actually get you in trouble because part of the law does cover — I can’t remember exactly what the term, it is like threatening intent or something, basically, discriminatory intent. So yes, if you’re posing any kind — if someone could interpret that as a threat to their safety or a threat of violence, then you could get in trouble.
CARLSON: Right. So this is how it begins. The left conflating speech with violence. I don’t agree with what you’re saying, therefore, I feel threatened, therefore, you’re not allowed to exercise your First Amendment right. I mean, that’s authoritarian.
BARRON: You’ve heard the Drop the I Word campaign. I mean, this has been going on for a while and they have been pushing it. They want the word “illegal alien” stricken from vocabulary, even though as you pointed out, it’s part of the Federal Code.
CARLSON: We should fight this and I don’t care if every HR department in every big company in America signs onto this, which of course they will, we should fight back. Because what’s at stake here is the most basic of all freedoms, which is the freedom to think what you want.
BARRON: Agreed.
CARLSON: Yes. Agreed. Seth, great to see you tonight. Thank you.
