Admittedly hard, but we should try to free ourselves from US debates. They are not necessarily relevant to us and moreover tend to cloud the issues because of polarisation. The free speech debate is a good example. Vance is a douchebag and a hypocrite but that should not blind us to the fact that Europe does have a free speech issue. People got raided by the German police for instance for calling a politician “weak-minded”. US racial politics are another US intellectual plague, as they are based on a very American conception of “race” that is, not to put too fine a point on it, totally ridiculous. Ursula von der Leyen did her best to present doubts about her questionable choices during covid as misinformation. I actually think that liberals should have the courage to replace freedom of speech front and center and critically analyse costs and benefits from regulations that limited free speech. My view: it was a mistake, and even the vilest hate speech is less damaging.
Admittedly hard, but we should try to free ourselves from US debates. They are not necessarily relevant to us and moreover tend to cloud the issues because of polarisation. The free speech debate is a good example. Vance is a douchebag and a hypocrite but that should not blind us to the fact that Europe does have a free speech issue. People got raided by the German police for instance for calling a politician “weak-minded”. US racial politics are another US intellectual plague, as they are based on a very American conception of “race” that is, not to put too fine a point on it, totally ridiculous. Ursula von der Leyen did her best to present doubts about her questionable choices during covid as misinformation. I actually think that liberals should have the courage to replace freedom of speech front and center and critically analyse costs and benefits from regulations that limited free speech. My view: it was a mistake, and even the vilest hate speech is less damaging.