from the bunch-o’-hypocrites dept
Rep. Clay Higgins wants to use his government power to ban Americans from the internet for life if they say unkind things about Charlie Kirk’s death. Yes, the same Clay Higgins who just two years ago co-sponsored the “Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act“—a performative bill that did literally nothing except restate that government actors cannot engage in censorship.
Back then, he sanctimoniously declared:
“The American people have the right to speak their truths, and federal bureaucrats should not be dictating what is or isn’t true. We must continue to uphold the First Amendment as our founding fathers intended.”
The snarky thing to say here is that he’s had a change of heart. The more accurate thing to say is that Clay Higgins is a huge hypocrite. In the wake of the unfortunate killing of Charlie Kirk, Higgins suddenly thinks that the First Amendment no longer applies to him, and he can use his government power to force private companies to ban people for life over First Amendment protected speech:
In case you can’t see that, he says the following:
I’m going to use Congressional authority and every influence with big tech platforms to mandate immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk. If they ran their mouth with their smartass hatred celebrating the heinous murder of that beautiful young man who dedicated his whole life to delivering respectful conservative truth into the hearts of liberal enclave universities, armed only with a Bible and a microphone and a Constitution… those profiles must come down.
So, I’m going to lean forward in this fight, demanding that big tech have zero tolerance for violent political hate content, the user to be banned from ALL PLATFORMS FOREVER. I’m also going after their business licenses and permitting, their businesses will be blacklisted aggressively, they should be kicked from every school, and their drivers licenses should be revoked. I’m basically going to cancel with extreme prejudice these evil, sick animals who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
I’m starting that today.
That is all.
That is a US government official saying that he’s going to use state power to silence voices “for life” for protected speech, such as “belittling” Kirk’s death. He claims he’s going to directly seek to assert state power (removing licenses and permits, something that Congress has no actual authority to do).
That does not appear to be “upholding the First Amendment as our founding fathers intended.” It sure seems to be the opposite of that.
And, of course, you know that Higgins is an even bigger hypocrite than that. He has, somewhat famously, belittled others in similar situations. When Nancy Pelosi’s husband was subject to a violent politically motivated attack he absolutely belittled Pelosi, spreading a blatantly false conspiracy theory about who the attacker was.
By Higgins’ own standard, he should be “banned from ALL PLATFORMS FOREVER” for that tweet. But of course, rules are only for the other team.
Indeed, we know he would freak out if sites actually banned him for something like that, because this is the same Rep. Clay Higgins that once told Twitter execs that he was going to have the FBI arrest them and have them sent to jail because they made the editorial choice to (very briefly) block the sharing of a NY Post article (a story that is widely misunderstood due to misleading conspiracy theories):
“You, ladies and gentlemen, interfered with the United States of America 2020 presidential election, knowingly and willingly,” Higgins said. “That’s the bad news, it’s gonna get worse because this is the investigation part. Later comes the arrest part. Your attorneys are familiar with that.”
Not surprisingly, when the Elon Musk-owned X was way, way, way more aggressive in blocking a story with hacked materials about JD Vance, I don’t recall Higgins threatening him with investigations and arrests.
This perfectly encapsulates the entire MAGA approach to “free speech”: it’s not a principle, it’s a weapon. Free speech is sacred when they want to spread lies about election fraud or attack their enemies. But the moment someone says something they don’t like, suddenly these self-proclaimed First Amendment champions are demanding government censorship that would make Xi Jinping proud.
Higgins’ threat isn’t just hypocritical—it’s genuinely dangerous. A sitting member of Congress is promising to use federal power to punish constitutionally protected speech. The founders he claims to revere would have been appalled by such authoritarian overreach.
But, as I keep asking, where are all those people who falsely claimed that any effort to encourage social media companies to change their moderation practices was the worst attack on free speech in the history of the country? Where are Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, and Michael Shellenberger, the three most vocal spouters of that lie? All three are attacking the responses… of Democrats. Not a one appears to have said anything about Higgins’ direct attack on speech.
The silence is deafening and revealing. These supposed free speech warriors are nowhere to be found when actual government censorship is being threatened by their political allies.
Incredibly, Shellenberger, who testified multiple times before Congress, including saying “one’s commitment to free speech means nothing if it does not extend to your political enemies” was whining on his Substack about how some amorphous group of NGOs are trying to censor him, while simultaneously retweeting Pennsylvania’s Senator Dave McCormick calling for UPenn to apparently punish Michael Mann for saying that the “the white on white violence has gotten out of hand,” which is a clear satirical reference to racist claims regarding crime.
But also, Mann’s literally saying the violence has gotten out of hand. How is that something worth punishing? And how is Michael Shellenberger, who claims that any effort by any government official to pressure private entities to punish people for their speech is a huge attack on free speech, suddenly now in favor of government official Dave McCormick ordering punishment for Michael Mann’s protected speech? And how is Michael Shellenberger, who testified before Congress about the importance of standing up for the free speech of your political enemies, suddenly silent on Higgins?
It’s hypocrites all the way down.
The performative bullshit about “censorship” from these clowns was always garbage. We’re just able to show it more clearly now.
Filed Under: bari weiss, charlie kirk, clay higgins, free speech, hypocracy, maga, matt taibbi, michael shellenberger, social media
