<![CDATA[Europe]]><![CDATA[freedom]]><![CDATA[The Economist]]>Featured

The Economist DRAGGED for Claim Europe (Where They Jail You for MEMES) Is Now Land of the Free – Twitchy

April 13, 2025

Usually, a post from The Economist doesn’t get a lot of engagement. That’s understandable because their takes are usually steaming piles of trash and the textbook definition of hypocrisy. Like the time they said stopping trillions in foreign aid actually hurts America, or when they were hand-wringing about the ‘responsible’ use of presidential pardon power.

They’re back, to claim that it’s Europe and not America that’s now ‘the land of the free:’

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

They write:

The thing about Europe, the sneerers say, is that it is over-regulated. Mounds of red tape and punitive taxes mean there are no trillion-dollar entrepreneurial ventures in France or Germany to match Amazon, Google or Tesla. But that is not all Europe is lacking. Also absent from the continent are the broligarchs who sit atop such behemoths, some of whom have a tighter grip on power than on reality. There are thus no European Rasputins pumping untold millions into political campaigns, getting pride of place at leaders’ inaugurations or their own new-minted government departments to run. There are few unicorns in Europe, alas, and too little innovation. That said, there are absolutely no tech executives boasting on social media of spending their weekends feeding bits of the state ‘into the wood chipper.’

…

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.

If I live in Europe, can I publicly state that MENA migrants in Europe are not only a net fiscal drain on EU countries but also struggle to assimilate into European societies without getting arrested or my speech suppressed? pic.twitter.com/VyGD83fPpd

— @evolian 🧬📊 (@gen0m1cs) April 13, 2025

Nope. That’d be a racist hate crime.

I miss the days when the propaganda was a little more subtle. https://t.co/SrMzM4u7zx

— Penny (@pennyelizabeths) April 13, 2025

So do we.

In Germany they arrest people for criticizing their elected officials on social media. https://t.co/IotD8haUnM

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 13, 2025

Just amazing.

You can be imprisoned for a meme. https://t.co/9wRfUWOTBo

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 13, 2025

But it’s FREE!

Because Trump!

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie.

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