“Hate Speech” -- The Opening Wedge To Destroy Free Speech
Opinions are not crimes. They are thoughts. Once government attempts to turn opinions into crimes, it opens the door for any thought that they don’t like to become a crime. The best way to counter distasteful opinions is with free speech, so that the truth can shine a light on them. Opinions can change. Opinions are always changing. But allow the idea of “hate speech” and government can make it a crime anytime you open your mouth in opposition to them.
Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today, we have Chris Rossini, our co-host.
Chris, good to have you with us.
It's great to be with you, Dr. Paul.
Very good.
We have some things to talk about.
We're going to help change the world for the better.
We hope.
There's a lot of opportunities.
That's one thing I know, if that is one's gold.
And today we will be talking a little bit more about, you know, hate and what's going on and hate crimes and how government pretends that they can take care of it.
If there's some dishonesty out there, they'll just pass a law and that will take care of it.
Of course, they claim we can do that.
We will never violate the First Amendment.
Well, that's where we'll have a few comments.
So we'll be back there.
Before we do that, I want to, you know, reintroduce and introduce to some the alliance and the partnership we have with Birch Gold, because gold is important.
I've said that since 1971.
And, you know, I was a long-term person looking at gold.
I didn't say, oh, gold, $35, $50 an ounce.
I'm going to start trading gold, buy and sell and profit.
And that would make me too nervous.
Besides, I wouldn't know how to do it.
So I didn't do that.
So I was always looking for the long term, and that was to hold gold because inevitably they would make things worse.
So the Bretton Woods had maintained for a long time, artificially, of course, a ratio of $35 to an ounce of gold.
It ended on August 15th of 1971.
And since then, the prediction by many, even before that happened, Austrian economists predicted that this is leading to trouble.
The Bretton Woods will break down and they cannot maintain the gold standard.
And it all came true.
And since that time, I've been watching it rather carefully and spoke out about it.
And to my surprise, I ended up in Congress talking about it too.
And more people are talking about it.
And if you look at the conditions that we have today, there's quite a few people trying to help people protect themselves against what is coming.
And it's amazing it's still being held together.
But now we're talking about gold over $2,000 an ounce.
And there's no reason to ridicule anybody or say, well, it's doubled quite a few times over these past 50 years.
So what's going to happen?
I think it's going to double or triple until it finally all ends.
But it doesn't mean that anybody knows exactly what will happen on every event.
So today there was a special event of a business announcement that the payroll now numbers were much worse than they anticipated.
They thought there would be 315,000 new jobs and there was 175,000.
And it, you know, in a free market sound money, it probably wouldn't happen, but it wouldn't be nearly as attention getting as it is under these today's conditions because everybody had to react to it.
Gold went up sharply, then it goes down sharply.
And interest rates fluctuate.
Stock markets skyrocket.
What's the Fed going to do?
It's all this anticipation.
And one of the funniest reactions that I saw was one of the pundits on a business station said, well, this is what the Fed wants.
The Fed is saying their policies are working.
And, you know, the slump is coming.
And that's how we treat inflation.
They've been fighting inflation.
So they're trying to ruin the economy.
He was actually excited about, well, this is what they want.
Well, what he's getting mixed up is the market wants it.
Market wants correction.
And if they just allowed it to happen five, 10 years ago, like they did in 1921, the correction comes and the problems are solved if they go back to sound economic policies like balance the budget and quit printing money.
But that doesn't happen.
So this is what exists.
It makes it difficult to figure out what should I do?
Should I buy coins or buy stocks or whatever?
And that's why we partner with Birch Gold, because they offer some advice and they offer an opportunity if you're not involved in gold that they believe in hold that the physical gold should be held.
And that to the best of my knowledge, they don't advise any wild speculation, which I don't.
So this is very important.
And what they have offered is if you text Ron at 98989A, you will be connecting with Birch Gold and they will send you materials to explain how you can invest and protect yourself by holding physical gold.
And it's a little trickier because government does get involved and they get involved in everything.
Just think of the difficulties there was in the early part of the Depression.
There were big problems and immediately Roosevelt took all the gold.
And I don't think we have to anticipate that, but manipulation is always there.
And we have to do our very best to use the facilities that we have to have as many people protected as possible.
And there's a lot of talk which vehicles some use.
But I always add on the one, the most important item that we have to protect is our right of freedom and freedom of speech and this sort of thing, because I think the people would figure it out.
But anyway, if you're interested in getting more information from Birch Gold, you can text Ron 98989A, and they will send you material.
Two Factions Grapple00:15:00
There is no charge.
Very good.
And Chris, we want to talk today a little bit about the marketplaces and what's going on.
And it seems like there's a little bit of hatred going on and animosity.
I don't know what you want to call it.
But the hate speech, it shouldn't surprise us, Chris, that they've been talking about this.
And the problem shouldn't surprise us.
Oh, the government has a solution to that.
There's too much hate speech and that's terrible.
And we're going to discipline them.
And that's why we need more laws.
And we don't know how to define hate speech.
You know, I was thinking about this.
What if you took everybody from an early age and you penalized them tremendously, the people who expressed hate?
How many times have you heard a little kid say, I hate you, I hate you?
I think I've heard that every once in a while.
You know, it happens in families, it happens at school and everything else.
But you say, well, that's different.
That's different.
But really, it isn't.
That's what happens now when you get out there and you have one country, I hate you, and we're going to destroy you.
And then both sides do this.
It gets to be a real mess.
And that's where we are today.
And unfortunately, Chris, I think the goal is that if we just pass a law and it's not the Democrats alone that talks about this, matter of fact, Republicans believe in that we have to make sure we get rid of this whole thing about people hating somebody.
But hate is subjective and you can't describe it.
You can't punish it.
And it represents people that might be just immoral, but it's related in some way to Lysander Spooner's argument that The views, views that people have and opinions that people have are not crimes.
Crimes are quite a bit different.
That's when you hurt and kill and this sort of thing.
But he said there's a big difference.
He said a vice is treated elsewhere.
It's a personal, you know, moral shortcoming.
And we have a lot of that.
But if you end up with a society like they do in the total authoritarian society, we take care of all that.
We have all the rules and we're moving in that direction.
You know, the drug war is part of that and the drug war still exists and all these regulations.
So this whole thing is if we don't separate the two, where, you know, opinions are quite a bit different than picking up arms and stealing, or we have to add on to that, asking the government to do our dirty work for us, because that should be just as immoral and wrong.
So we have a lot of problems we have to face.
Chris?
That's right, Dr. Paul.
Yes, as you point out, hate is merely an opinion.
We hate here at the Ron Paul Liberty Report when the government breaks its own laws, the U.S. Constitution.
They do it every day.
We hate that.
Now, that's our opinion.
There's other people that they love it.
They love it when the government breaks the law, especially if they think it'll benefit them.
But opinions are not a crime.
Opinions can't be touched by legislation.
Opinions are thoughts.
Now, of course, there are distasteful opinions, but when there are distasteful opinions, you want those to be out in the open.
You want the truth to come out.
Whoa, that's not true.
Let me explain to you the truth.
So it can be countered when there are distasteful opinions.
Legislation, when you make it a crime, you're basically pretending that that opinion does not exist.
You know, think back at COVID.
They were trying to, oh, don't mention natural immunity, the media.
Don't print it.
Don't talk about it.
Let's try to deny that it even exists.
Now, did natural immunity go anywhere?
Absolutely not.
In fact, natural immunity prevailed despite their attempt to censor the truth.
So, you know, the best way to counter speech that is nasty, distasteful, even immoral is to have more free speech, not try to make opinions, thoughts criminal, because that is the quickest road to tyranny.
You know, sometimes I wonder which one comes first.
Does government become corrupt and practice the things that are immoral?
And then people say, well, the government's doing it so we can do this.
Or do the people become immoral and lackadaisical?
And then they get preached to about democracy and majority.
And we have to do this.
So we send people there to carry out our desires.
Well, either way, it involves some moral choices.
I happen to think that government is a terrible example.
What about all the fighting and the wars and all the terrible things that go on when you manage a welfare state and you punish people for vices rather than having crimes?
The government is totally out of control.
And it's very hard to shift it.
The other thing that is very influential here is the fact when governments mess up the economy with a bunch of lies, which we have been living with, although we still have a lot left, but we're consuming it quickly.
All you have to do is look at our spending.
That when we do this, the people get poorer and poorer and they get angrier and angrier.
And then they shout out and use the government to make sure they get their share.
And then this becomes, you know, he has more than we have.
And that's why you hear, oh, I think it's where I live, it's the labor unions, they cause all the inflation.
Or somebody else will say, no, it's this big company that provides jobs for 10,000 people.
Oh, that's them.
They made profits last year.
We have to stop it.
And Biden, right now, he has to have a wealth tax.
Not only income tax and all this other stuff, he's a wealth tax.
Tax your wealth.
And it's endless as a for a solution to something that they've created.
And the people went along with it with the expectation that they were going to get a lot of benefits from it.
And they may get benefits on the short run, but the poor people right now are getting in big trouble because they have been receiving a lot of things that were unearned.
They didn't earn it.
It was the government and they've spent their time and energy working in politics.
How am I going to get my guy in there?
But big government, big corporations, that's what they spend a huge amount of their income because they can make even more once they can control the system as well as the monetary system and the spending in government.
So there's a lot of cleaning up that has to be done if we ever expect to change it.
But we have to get people to understand exactly what the role of government should be and what it is now.
And what can we do to reverse some of those trends?
Press.
Yes, Dr. Paul.
Once opinions are turned into crimes, boy, does that open the door for every nasty thing you could imagine.
You know, and it's so disappointing watching Republican Congress, you know, with this anti-Semitism bill that so many people are saying this is the craziest thing that has ever been passed by the House of Representatives because it opens a door.
If this were to become law, you know, if the left gets into power, they could turn anything into hate speech.
Anything that they don't like, anything that comes out of Republicans' mouth can be deemed hate speech.
That's the door that you're opening.
And in case you didn't notice, the left is very good at gaining power and holding on to power.
That's their specialty.
They're not good at creating their utopias.
They never do that.
But when it comes to gaining power and holding on to it, you know, is this who you want to define what hate speech is?
You won't be able to suppose you have a problem with an election and you want to go out and protest.
Too bad you're a Nazi who hates our democracy.
Hate speech.
Clear them out.
Is that what Republicans want?
They better really think before they open this Pandora's box because it will be used against them so hard that their head will spin.
You know, one thing that happens under a system like this with moral and financial bankruptcy is that the people do get poorer and middle class and the poor people get hit the hardest.
And they and the poorer they get, the more angry they get.
And they do have to find scapegoats.
It's never the individual saying, you know, I think I'm going to participate in this because, you know, I've really never had to have a job.
I've been able to get help.
And isn't it wonderful that I've been able to help and they've helped me raise enough money to feed my kids and, you know, all these things.
And where would our schools come from?
And they don't understand this.
Yet as the country gets poorer and all the benefits that seem to be forever get, you know, there's less and less of them, the people get angrier and angrier.
And that's where they are right now.
And that's why they're demanding, you know, more control.
And the big corporations realize this.
So the corporations now for decades have decided to nuzzle up to the government.
And even Eisenhower back then said, watch out for the military industrial complex.
And it's been growing and growing and growing.
And because of the apparent power and control over the reserve currency, which will end, but right now it's still very powerful that we can finance our empire and we can go about, but then that, you know, that brings on hostility, international hostility.
And then the hatred, it just thinks about it.
You know, right now we have two factions.
If you deal with, if you deal with the Middle East, we have Israel and the Palestinians.
And I think, you know, each side have to say, have expressed themselves pretty well.
But both sides think, you know, the other sides are the evil people.
And I think both sides, if I'm not mistaken, it looks like both sides are guilty of the same thing.
Both sides hate the other side.
And I see that as a manipulation of way too much outside interference in that area of the world, you know, whether it was World War I or what happened after World War II and United Nations and NATO and all these things going on.
And they instigate these fights.
And that's why, you know, I put a lot of blame at our complacency and allowing our governments to grow and try to manipulate us internationally as well as domestically.
And then there are these combinations built where big business, big banks, big medicine, they get together and they do quite well at the expense of the average person.
And that's why, you know, danger lies ahead.
And people have to say, well, what really is wrong with the system?
And that's where I think they come up short.
They know there's something wrong.
Who's going to get blame?
Because you can't use the Constitution.
That's way, way, way too old-fashioned.
When I suggested that once in a committee in Washington, Ron, you don't talk about that.
That's anachronistic.
We don't use that anymore.
And I was so shocked.
I didn't know why.
He believes it.
I mean, he was sincere.
He was a chairman of a committee.
And I thought, well, maybe, maybe that's where the problem is because you have to have some source of conviction.
And if you run out of trust in the government, you can use natural law.
Drift toward the principle and understanding what natural law is all about, which the founders had a lot of respect for.
And they tried to protect that in the Constitution.
But right now, there's very little respect for natural law.
And I think that is one thing more people should look at and find out.
Maybe we could support something like that that is natural.
Because I think it emphasizes things should be voluntary.
There's no perfection.
People are always going to have disputes and there'll be property and rights.
But everything should be voluntary.
That if you're going to have association, social, financial or whatever, international, make sure the two sides are always voluntary rather than one side saying, I'm the boss and you're going to do this.
And if not, we hate you so bad, we're going to destroy your whole society.
And then when you get two people saying that, guess what?
It spreads.
And that's what the biggest concern for our world today should be is the spreading all this hostility and hatred that goes on justifying foreign policy activities as well as social policy.
And if that doesn't reverse, and it is going to be a personal thing, it has to be the individual.
Some people say, what are you talking about?
Natural law.
What does that mean?
Governments write laws.
Yeah, poorly.
Yeah, that's right.
We have to look at it.
Yeah, Chris.
Yeah, that's right, Dr. Paul.
I will finish up with my closing thoughts.
Yes, we are in a precarious situation.
We always look for the positive because life requires positive.
Otherwise, we could all just give up and forget it.
But you could always remain positive as long as you have the ability to speak.
That's how you convey your thoughts, convey the truth.
That's how you counter tyranny.
But once that is attacked and suppressed, now you've got bigger problems.
Now you're going head on against tyranny.
And that's what we're up against with sadly to say, both sides.
Both sides want war and both sides want censorship.
So there's really no need to separate them anymore.
And that's why a lot of people are using the word uni party now.
I see it everywhere.
Because what's the difference?
If you both want to censor your opponents and you both want our country to bankrupt itself in war, there really is no difference because you're both leading us to disaster.
So they both want to silence Americans and they both are putting the affairs of other nations in front of our own, whether it be Ukraine or Israel or even China someday.
Both Sides Leading Us To Disaster00:05:05
I'm sure a lot of people are thinking about that.
So there is no America First anywhere, neither on the left or on the right.
And I'm sad to even say that even former President Trump, you know, I saw a message from him.
If it was a true message from his truth social saying, stop the protests now.
I mean, in America, we have the freedom of assembly and protests.
Of course, say stop crimes now, but stop protests now.
That's bad.
And that's really, you know, doesn't show us, you know, much hope if he becomes president again.
So we're upside down on both sides.
We need to be the opposite: free speech and non-intervention in the affairs of other nations.
They are not our business and we are not their business.
But unfortunately, we've drifted so far and we're getting the consequences.
This is what you get.
If you want to go down this road, you're going to now have to deal with tyrants that want to close your mouth and forbid you from ever speaking the truth.
Very good.
And if they took your advice to heart, they would be going in a step of the right direction, which is what we need, because there will be no magic wand.
It's not going to come suddenly.
But ideas are important and ideas whose time have come.
They can't be stopped.
And I think our ideas are growing by leaps and bounds.
And to me, that is good.
But the people who have the bullhorn and they're shouting and controlling the media, it's different.
And then you say, well, we have the internet and we do.
And I saw very early on it'd be a useful tool.
I still do.
But I also know that people have to be discreet in how they use it and how they interpret this.
You know, and one of the goals of our arch enemies, a lot of this is that a lot of the results that we're talking about, I think it comes from ignorance and greed and different things like that.
But there are some people who are organized.
And I think I see it in the immigration problem and even the demonstrations on college campuses that there's people who finance and push this, not because they are mixed up on ideas, but their ideas are rotten and they want chaos because it teaches in radical fascism.
They say, you know, disrupt this community, chaos in the streets.
Then we'll march in.
Then we can offer them the true option for the chaos that we created.
That's what it is.
But that's, I think, a big thing because I think they do deliberately cause the chaos.
And the other thing they use with the chaos is along with it comes the fear.
You have to scare the living daylights out of people where they say, yeah, you may be right under different circumstances, Ron.
I think we could try that.
But right now, we're going to be attacked.
And, you know, and we have riots in the streets and all these things.
And that is true.
But that won't go away easily.
That's why you have to.
organize people's thinking about why you can't depend on the government for all these solutions.
And the one thing that's hardest for people to accept under those conditions is becoming more tolerant.
You know, there are a lot of bad things under our system.
Chris and I have been talking about people, you know, vices and excesses aren't necessarily crimes.
You know, if it's just thinking or their habits and you decide, I'm going to make the world perfect by regulating all that, you're in for a lot of trouble.
So therefore, you say, and I sort of personally ran in into that kind of attitude because early on in my career at Congress, I was preaching that the drug wars backfire because the one thing that impressed me was how dumb prohibition of alcohol was.
We still haven't fully learned that lesson.
But at least back then, it was surprised for anybody to talk about the drug war is worse than the darn drugs.
You know, that's the one that violated our civil liberties and violated our speech and all these things.
So I was, I thought this was, you know, a good opportunity, but people had to say, what would you do?
Would you let people smoke marijuana cigarettes?
Not in my house.
They can't.
But yes, if they have a bad habit, they're going to have to deal with it.
They have to deal with it with their loved ones, their family, friends, neighbors, churches, or whatever, but not the government.
If you do, you have way too much faith in government.
And yet the government has been here for a long time.
It will be here for a long time.
But minimizing the government, we go a long way to solving just about all our problems.
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report.