Elon Musk has pledged to take on George Soros over the right to free speech in a battle of the billionaires.
Soros is using his Open Society Foundations to push a “censorship agenda in Ireland and Scotland that includes police searches of homes, phones and computers,” Irish journalist Ben Scallan wrote in a Tuesday post on the Substack Public.
Under the pretense of combating “hate speech,” Irish politicians are attempting to make it a crime to possess “hateful material” — whatever that is. And Soros’ NGOs are reportedly aiding those efforts.
Now, Musk, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” is entering the fray.
“Politicians & George Soros-funded NGOs say ‘hate incidents’ are rising, but they’re not,” author and journalist Michael Shellenberger posted on X while sharing Scallan’s article.
“The data show the opposite: higher-than-ever and rising levels of tolerance of minorities. The reason they’re spreading hate misinformation is to justify a draconian crackdown on free speech,” Shellenberger concluded.
“Exactly,” Musk concurred.
“X will be filing legal action to stop this. Can’t wait for discovery to start!” he added.
Exactly.
X will be filing legal action to stop this. Can’t wait for discovery to start! https://t.co/ROxXEuO8it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2023
It’s clear that these Irish officials are using verbal and statistical gymnastics to justify the new censorship law.
Last June, Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee said that police in her nation “reported a 29% increase in reported hate crimes in 2022 compared to the previous year,” according to Scallan.
But Scallan pointed out that “an increase in the reporting of hate offenses is different from an actual increase.” He believes the increase is due to more “hate incidents” being reported, not committed.
The journalist also explained that the definition of “hate speech” is broad enough that a bystander could overhear a joke between friends and report it as a “hate incident” to police.
“For police to classify something as a hate offense, which is either a crime or ‘incident,’ which is a hate act that is not criminalized, no actual proof or evidence is required beyond somebody simply calling it that,” he said.
“The police themselves admit that the threshold for perception required for this is ‘very low.’”
Under the proposed law, suspected owners of “hateful material” would be required to turn over passwords to their electronic devices or face jail time and a fine.
“What’s more, the bill reverses the burden of proof under law — if accused of planning to distribute alleged ‘hate’ material, the onus is on the accused person to prove their own innocence,” Scallan added.
This law sounds like a classic tactic of authoritarian regimes, something Soros would surely find worthy of funding.
And that’s where Musk comes in. He is uniquely qualified to stand up to Soros and his globalist ilk who wish to control and oppress the populace.
It doesn’t hurt that Musk also has a deep disdain for Soros, going so far as to say the Hungarian businessman “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization” and “hates humanity.”
The SpaceX billionaire has the strength of his convictions, the deep pockets necessary to engage in a legal fight with a man like Soros, and the courage to put his money where his mouth is.
And we’re here for it when he does.
