Ireland's war on free speech — and the outlet that's fighting back
Tonight on the Ezra Levant Show, a long-form interview with Irish political correspondent, Ben Scallan.
Ezra expresses his opinion on the Irish government cracking down on speech it deems undesirable. "I can't think of anything more un-Irish than that," said Ezra.
Ezra also introduces his newfound interest in an Irish news source, GRIPT, which covers the war on free speech in Ireland, drawing parallels with Rebel News in Canada. He interviews Ben Scallan from GRIPT who is currently in Dublin.
"There's been a lot of laws that have been drafted and either passed or presented for imminent passage by the government in the last couple of years in relation to censorship, beards, stamping out so-called misinformation and disinformation or so-called hate speech," said Scallan.
Scallan added:
And there's really no evidence been provided by the government that there's any public outcry for this. In fact, quite the opposite. All of the polling and public consultations, I think you guys might call it a comment period in North America. All of the evidence we have available shows that the public are overwhelmingly opposed to this stuff, and yet they're driving ahead with it anyway.
So it's very inexplicable, at least insofar as what you would expect a politician to do, which is to pursue. You know, one of the interesting things, as people always say, 'politicians, they're only in it for the votes. They only do what makes them popular.'
It seems like the Irish government is determined to do everything that makes it unpopular and do the exact opposite of what the general public is actually asking it to do.
Ezra draws a comparison between New Zealand and Ireland, highlighting similarities despite their geographical distance and differences in culture. He notes that both countries have similar population sizes and have been led by leaders like Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand and Leo Varadkar in Ireland, who are both associated with the World Economic Forum.
Ezra also expresses a sense of skepticism about these leaders' motives, suggesting they perceive a shared agenda of censorship for ideological reasons. He said there is no widespread demand for censorship in Canada, Ireland, or New Zealand, and he questions the leaders' motivations for implementing such measures.
For more please watch the full show!
GUEST: Ben Scallan from GRIPT!