There’s not a lot of humor to be found in wokeism, or “safeteyism,” or whatever you want to call modern Left-wing ideology. But since it’s Friday, it’s worth acknowledging something everyone knows deep down, which is that there are a few things about it that are, if we’re being honest, pretty funny.
Here’s one of them. Most jurisdictions in this country used to consider it a serious offense to lie and call someone “gay.” If someone was straight, and you started spreading rumors that they’re secretly gay, then until very recently, New York courts would punish you for that without a second thought. They’d call it “defamation per se.”
But in 2021, all that changed. A New York appeals court ruled that, actually, you can call people gay all you want, and it’s not necessarily defamatory. Why? Because according to New York court judges, if you lie and call someone gay, if anything, you’re probably *improving* their reputation in the community, rather than harming it. That’s because being gay has become a status symbol, at least in places like Manhattan. So, suggesting someone is secretly “gay” is like calling someone a multimillionaire. It’s a compliment, whether it’s true or not.
It’s kind of amusing when you think about it. New York is now so woke that gay slurs, at least in some cases, are now acceptable. In that respect, strangely enough, New York is quite different from, say, the United Kingdom, another hotbed of leftism. Over there, they don’t take kindly to unfounded accusations of homosexuality.
We know that because, this week, a team of police officers in Leeds raided the home of a 16-year-old autistic girl suffering from scoliosis. The girl’s crime? She said that one of the officers looked like her lesbian relative. That’s all this girl did. She didn’t even imply it was bad to be a lesbian, in any way. And for that, cops dragged her away. Here’s what that arrest looked like:
This is what the British empire has become. They used to rule the world. Now they scramble half the police department in response to a teenager who says, “hey, you look like my lesbian nana.” It’s quite a fall from grace, especially given that the police officer in question, if we’re being honest, could definitely pass as a lesbian. Whether she’s trying to look that way or not, it’s a convincing display. And, at least in civilized progressive utopias like New York, they celebrate that kind of thing. The UK obviously hasn’t thought this all the way through. By arresting autistic kids who say that women who look like lesbians, look like lesbians, they’re sending the message that looking like a lesbian is a bad thing. A horrendous insult. But that’s the opposite of what the UK intends to do here. Really they’re trying to elevate LGBT people to a special, sacred status, and protect their feelings with the force of law — even if it means dragging a teenage girl to jail, kicking and screaming.
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But the truth is, the United States isn’t far from becoming the U.K, where children are sent to prison for offending the government. What happened to that girl in the U.K. is quickly becoming a hallmark of so-called western democracies. Recently in Canada, for example, a pastor was arrested for the crime of protesting drag queens who were trying to indoctrinate children. Watch this news report carefully, because it’s one of the most incredible clips you’ll ever see:
“There should never be an issue with safety,” says the woman. “Police are questioning if the events are safe,” says the reporter.
Meanwhile, they show footage of the mob throwing the pastor to the ground. The message is pretty clear. By “safety,” they mean: you don’t get to question their views. You don’t get to object when they sexualize children. If you do, you’ll get attacked and thrown in jail. That’s what they mean when they say “safety.” Safety no longer means safety in the traditional sense. For a long time now it has meant something closer to emotional comfort. To be “safe” is to feel good, it is to have nice feelings, and anyone who causes you to have not-nice feelings, and feel not-good, is compromising your safety.
This has been true in Canada for a while. A couple of years ago, a man who was down on his luck went on a rant at the office of his local member of parliament, a woman named Catherine McKenna. Here’s what he said:
So, he yells a few harsh words, including a few that were bleeped out. Makes some valid points as well, we should admit. But he never made any violent threats. For that, Catherine McKenna called for a hate crimes investigation, and authorities opened one. You see, in Canada, no one’s allowed to say mean things to politicians. You can call conservatives “white supremacists” all you want, but don’t you dare attack the people in power. In a free country — which Canada, of course, isn’t — cussing out politicians would be considered a virtuous act. A way to keep our leaders humble and on their toes. But in Canada, it’s a potential hate crime.
We’d like to think these attacks on freedom of speech couldn’t happen here, but the truth is, they’re already happening. They’re just not getting much coverage. Recently in Watertown, Wisconsin, police arrested a young Christian man for simply reading the bible, on the sidewalk, in the vicinity of a “public drag event.” Watch:
US – Where freedom of speech, religion, opinion and thought is now dead.
“Love your neighbour as yourself” as quoted from the bible, is considered hate speech and the young man is arrested.
Read that again. And weep for what you have become 😞
— Bernie's Tweets (@BernieSpofforth) August 1, 2023
He has every right to be out here engaging in speech, the guy holding the camera says. And he’s right. But we don’t live in a country that cares about that sort of thing anymore. Marcus Schroeder, the man who was arrested for reading the bible, later spoke to the city council about what had happened. Watch what he said:
Anyone watching that man speak knows that he’s a far better person to have around children, than men pretending to be women who talk to kids about their sexual fantasies. But Marcus Schroeder was arrested, and the drag queens were able to continue indoctrinating children, as the mothers of these children looked on approvingly. It’s the same thing that happens in Canada. Preach the gospel, go to jail. Preach perversion, and the police protect you.
In many states in this country, this will soon become the norm. A bill that recently passed in the Michigan state house, called HB 4474, would make it a hate crime to cause someone to quote “feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened.” The bill specifies that “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” are protected classes. If you make someone “feel threatened” because of their gender identity, you can go to prison for five years.
What does it mean to make someone “feel threatened” because of their gender identity? You know the answer to that question. Trans activists have been screaming for years, at maximum volume — unless you affirm their delusions, then you’re committing “literal violence.” You’re engaging in genocide. So, yes, this bill means that if you refuse to lie about basic facts of biology in the state of Michigan, then you’ll go to jail, just like that girl in Britain. They’ll haul you out of your home and arrest you for telling the truth — just like they did to that autistic girl in Britain. They will take the fight to you.
If you don’t believe that, consider what happened on Wednesday to an elderly man in Utah named Craig Robertson. Robertson was obese and used a cane to get around. He went to church on Sundays and took care of his blind son. But he also liked to post angry memes and comments on social media, mocking and threatening Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and other random political figures. In response to those memes, before dawn on Wednesday, the FBI went to Robertson’s home. Neighbors report that as many as 50 agents were on the scene. Craig Robertson was shot dead in a hail of bullets.
Why did FBI agents kill Robertson, exactly? We don’t know. The FBI won’t tell us. We asked them yesterday, and they refused to explain. The New York Post reports today that Robertson allegedly pointed a gun at the agents. Maybe he did, we don’t know at this point. But we do know that the neighbors are all confused and disturbed, trying to figure out why the federal government would need to send dozens of armed agents to a disabled, elderly man’s home because of things he posted online. If you saw them swarming his house and didn’t have any context, you’d think they were taking down a drug kingpin. You’d never guess that the guy’s crime was a Facebook meme. So the question that many are asking — especially those in Robertson’s community — is whether this level of response was actually necessary? Did the FBI really consider Robertson a credible threat to the President of the United States? It’s hard to believe.
This isn’t to defend the things that Robertson posted online, obviously. The point is that the most powerful law enforcement organization in the country, which is funded by your tax dollars, is completely unwilling to explain why they killed an American citizen two days ago. They have no justification for why they decided to go after him at 6:00am in the morning. They don’t seem interested in providing a justification. If you’re living in the U.K., or Canada, then it’s quite possible that none of this is particularly shocking to you. You’re used to this kind of thing. But if you thought that the United States could never descend into totalitarianism, as those countries have, then what’s happening in many states across this country should disabuse you of that notion.