When does rank illiberalism become “freedom?” When mainstream press outlets need another way to proclaim the orange man bad. The Economist did just that on Sunday morning, releasing a think piece entitled “Europe Is the Actual Land of the Free Now.”
The picture used to head the article? A cartoon of a EU-flagged boat hauling the Statue of Liberty away with a sign reading “gone to Europe” on its empty pedestal. Get it? The United States is no longer a democracy, so our European betters have come and repossessed it, signifying their place as the true providers of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In its own plodding way, the continent has created a place where people are guaranteed rights to what others yearn for: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Illustration: Peter Schrank pic.twitter.com/tKWpScdNs6
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) April 12, 2025
I’ll spare you the boring details, but the author essentially uses the turn of phrase “the thing about Europe is” to start each paragraph, admitting some of its flaws while framing them as preferable to America’s constitutional republic. You see, while there’s no right to free speech in essentially any European nation, what you don’t get is that they have actual free speech. Try to wrap your mind around this argument.
The thing about Europe is that it lacks an absolutist attachment to free speech. See how judges in Romania and France derailed the careers of hard-right politicians, who have convinced themselves (with little evidence) that it was their ideology rather than their lawbreaking that got them in trouble. Yet to many Europeans the idea that free expression is under threat seems odd. Europeans can say almost anything they want, both in theory and in practice. Europe’s universities never became hotbeds of speech-policing by one breed of culture warrior or the other. You can express a controversial view on any European campus (outside Hungary, at least) without fear of losing your tenure or your grant. No detention centres await foreign students who hold the wrong views on Gaza; news outfits are not sued for interviewing opposition politicians. Law firms are not compelled to kow-tow to presidents as penance for having worked for their political foes.
You have to love the cherry-picking and glossing over of the examples given. No one has lost their tenure or a grant simply for expressing a “controversial view.” Rather, some universities have failed to uphold federal law regarding pro-terror activists illegally occupying parts of campuses while screaming for the genocide of others. The same concept applies to Mahmoud Khalil, who is the foreign student mentioned in the above excerpt. He didn’t just “hold the wrong views on Gaza.” He has connections to terrorist groups and was using a green card to provide support for them. That’s a violation of the terms of entry.
Regardless, though, is it true that Europeans can “say almost anything they want, both in theory and in practice? Let’s check in with the Germans to find out.
SEE: ’60 Minutes’ Airs an All-Timer, and the Depths They Sink to Will Blow Your Mind
“Free speech needs boundaries… Without boundaries, a very small group of people can rely on endless freedom to say anything that they want, while everyone else is scared and intimidated,” says Josephine Ballon, CEO of HateAid. https://t.co/YjlBa7YJ3s pic.twitter.com/xqI88oiiO2
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) February 17, 2025
BALLON: Free speech needs boundaries, and in the case of Germany, these boundaries are part of our constitution. Without boundaries, a very small group of people can rely on endless freedom to say anything that they want, while everyone else is scared and intimidated.
INTERVIEWER: And your fear is that if people are freely attacked online that they’ll withdraw from the discussion.
BALLON: This is not only a fear, it is already taking place. Already half of the internet users in Germany are afraid to express their political opinions and they rarely participate in public debates online anymore. Half of the internet users.
lol come on https://t.co/hX9of8O1Ux
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 13, 2025
You can be imprisoned for a meme. https://t.co/9wRfUWOTBo
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 13, 2025
This isn’t just theoretical, either. Take what’s happening in the United Kingdom as an example. Our “closest ally” arrested a 64-year-old woman for silently praying outside an abortion clinic.
A 64-year-old woman was convicted Friday of standing near an abortion clinic in southern England and holding a sign saying “Here to talk, if you want.”
The case provides further evidence of an erosion of freedom of expression in the United Kingdom, which has recently become a diplomatic issue with the United States.
During the 2024 incident that was brought before the court, Livia Tossici-Bolt was standing silently holding the sign and having “consensual conversations” with people passing by, according to her legal team. However, she was within what is called a “buffer zone,” which criminalizes the “influencing” of people within 150 meters (about 500 feet) of an abortion clinic in the U.K.
Isn’t it weird that The Economist didn’t mention that in their article? Or how about the case where two men were arrested for posting negative views about immigration, accused of stirring up “racial-hatred?” Both received over a year in prison. In an unrelated incident, another man was arrested and charged for burning a Quran.
And early this month, Greater Manchester Police arrested a man “on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence” for publicly burning a Quran. An assistant chief constable said police “made a swift arrest at the time and recognise the right people have for freedom of expression, but when this crosses into intimidation to cause harm or distress we will always look to take action when it is reported to us.”
Europe has become obsessed with combatting what they call “Islamophobia” while Islamist migrants create no-go zones and commit heinous crimes. In Sweden, one Iraqi refugee was assinated by Muslims for burning the Quran. What did the Swedish government do? It charged another man who also burned the Quran with “incitement.” No, I’m not kidding.
Outside of the UK, Europe’s restrictions on blasphemy are growing — and show no signs of stopping. Indeed, the Manchester man arrested for burning a Quran did so in response to the Jan. 29 assassination in Sweden of Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, known for his well-publicized and controversial public Quran burnings. Just after Momika’s killing, a Swedish court found Salwan Najem, another Iraqi refugee who burned Qurans with Momika, guilty of incitement against an ethnic group. Momika faced similar charges, which were only dropped upon his death.
The United Nations Human Rights Council encourages these kinds of prosecutions, passing a 2023 resolution advising countries to “address, prevent and prosecute acts and advocacy of religious hatred.” Denmark did so, enacting a law criminalizing desecration of holy texts later that year.
So yeah, I won’t be taking my cues on free speech from the Eurotrash, nor will the United States be relinquishing its earned title as the “land of the free” from them. To make such a suggestion is absolutely ludicrous and relies on a willful ignorance of just how quashed basic rights have been and remain in Europe. America remains the freest nation on earth. Does that mean you get to keep your student visa if you use it to support terrorism? No, but to cite that as proof that Europe is more liberal on free speech is laughable. The Economist should be ashamed.
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