This Article is Illegal in the EU

The European Union is silencing political speech. So much for “Democracy.”

On July 17, Czechia made international news after its president, Petr Pavel, amended the country’s criminal code to criminalize the promotion of communist ideology.

The revised criminal legislation now includes prison sentences of up to five years for anyone who “establishes, supports or promotes Nazi, communist, or other movements which demonstrably aim to suppress human rights and freedoms or incite racial, ethnic, national, religious or class-based hatred.”

Czechia is following in the footsteps of its European counterparts, with many European countries banning certain political imagery, slogans, and even jokes. However, there seems to be a clear imbalance with what political thought is acceptable, and what is considered taboo. While there is practically unanimous consensus in Europe regarding the dangers posed by neo-Nazism and certain other fascist movements, communism is still seen by many—including entire nations—as a permissible political ideology to not only openly express, but also to advocate for, despite the decades of data showing communism to be the deadliest totalitarian ideology in world history.

European Union: Where Censorship Policy is Subjective

The majority of Europe has taken a firm stance against the dissemination of fascist propaganda by heavily regulating or criminalizing fascist symbols. Countries like Germany have established online police forces which monitor online activity to determine whether citizens are sharing prohibited fascist-based content or posts. This type of state-run surveillance has recently been codified within the EU’s Digital Services Act which, among other things, is intended to monitor the online activity of EU citizens which could reflect support for certain banned political ideologies and ‘distasteful’ opinions.

The EU has attempted to calm public apprehension over the recent increase in internet regulation and communication surveillance. Henna Virkkunen, the current Executive Vice President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, stated that “[m]any Europeans have living memories of censorship and persecution during the Cold War under communist regimes.” Yet, Virkkunen and countless other EU bureaucrats, are now trying their hardest to replicate the same Iron Curtain tactics they claim to be fighting against.

It’s not as if they don’t have their supporters. There is a growing subset of Western society that not only thinks this sort of censorship is good, but that it will actually bring about a healthier, more peaceful, and tolerant society… eventually.

Support Communist Policies, Suffer Communist Consequences

While scores of college students, out-of-touch academics, and keyboard warriors call for a return to Marxism through these expansive and intrusive censorship policies, it would behoove the citizens of western, free democracies to study the real-world consequences of readily handing over one’s privacy to the State.

It is estimated that the communist ideology, in its variety of forms and practices, has murdered approximately 100 million people globally, which is almost as much as the total number of deaths from World War I and World War II—combined. From Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge massacres in Cambodia, to Che Guevara’s mass killings of women and minorities, the Marxist ideology has remained consistent in one thing: gain total control, no matter what.

And if you weren’t killed, you were followed.

Under the socialist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in Romania, citizens had to wait in breadlines for daily rations. Citizens took care not to speak ill of their leader, or risk receiving an impromptu visit from the Securitate, the secret police force which carefully monitored citizens’ lives and public interactions (sound familiar, UK?). Dissenters were summarily arrested, jailed, and often shipped off to “reeducation” camps, places of torture and abuse where people were stripped of their identities, religion, and personalities in order to create the ideal communist citizen.

The effects of communism are felt even today, with former Soviet satellite states suffering from systematic corruption, bureaucratic bloat, and widespread government inefficiency. The vacuum created by mass killings, intentional starvation, and the creation of multiple cults of personality have left the victims of communism with bitter memories of a very recent totalitarian past.

Unfortunately for them, under the EU’s growing regulatory scheme, we are starting to see a resurgence in Cold War-style surveillance methods in the attempt to monitor, track, and record everything we do on the internet and in real life—and it doesn’t look like it will let up anytime soon.

Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant

We are seeing a global shift towards collectivist policies which gift governments with incredible amounts of power, while the average citizen is left with practically nothing. While countries and international bodies claim that censoring speech, banning political symbols and slogans, and monitoring our every move will make the world a ‘safer place,’ all we get are larger, stronger regulatory machines hell-bent on total control over utterly dependent populations.

While it would be great to live in a world where neither fascism nor communism exists, that just simply is not the case. If we want to successfully combat bad ideas, the solution is not to shut people up, track their every move, and arrest them if they disobey (again, I’m looking at you, UK). If anything, that would only force them down a rabbit hole, and make it impossible to ever get them back out.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. People should reasonably be allowed to discuss, post, share, and joke about whatever they like. Do you know what’s not reasonable? Handing out jail sentences and fining peaceful citizens for speech considered ‘problematic’ by the current bureaucratic rotation. If we’re trying to prevent dictators, it’s best we don’t become them in the process.