82 words / 79:43
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Greg Johnson talks to Patrick Le Brun about the players in the upcoming French presidential elections, the factors that might influence the outcome, and things that you can do to help meme Marine Le Pen into power.
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The guy running galliawatch.blogspot.com is also doing a great job of translating French news articles and bridging the gap between the Anglo-sphere and Franco-phone worlds.
Hoorah! The Greg and Pat Show is back! Excuse me everybody, gotta listen.
I’m glad to see Le Brun is merging metapolitics with real world political activism, something we need more of to influence events in a positive direction (while I’m no big fan of Le Pen, Orban, Trump, Wilders, etc. I’m cognizant of the historical trend for revolutions to happen not when repression is greatest but when that repression is suddenly relaxed*). Also interesting was the description of the highway attack on FN supporters, once again emphasizing the need for greater security protection on the right.
I have questions for Le Brun: does Le Pen, or any other figure on the French “Far-Right,” or, insofar as you know, any nationalist figure in Europe, speak out about the free speech question? Does anyone propose repealing national and EU-wide “hate speech” laws? Will Le Pen in power take steps to create a more open “marketplace of ideas” where people can speak their mind without being fined or jailed? Or do Europeans take for granted that their opinions should be policed? Do any of these nationalists understand that, e.g., fighting demographic displacement will be difficult if speaking out forcefully on the topic is illegal?
*I think one reason the Left is doubling down on their repressive tactics since Trump’s election is that they realize this rule of history. If they let right-wing populist civic nationalism, with an implicitly White edge, be fully normalized, then eventually the other shoe will drop – “the Nazi next time.”
People like Alain Soral, Hervé Ryssen or Vincent Reynouard do speak out against these ‘hate speech’ laws in very explicit terms, and have been prosecuted for it. Many intellectuals (even left-wing ones) find these laws counter-productive. But it is a very slippery slope. Marine le Pen will not go near this terrain any time soon, even if she wins the election. Something you will hear very often as an answer to any defense of free speech regarding race or the JQ is ‘racism/antisemitism is not an opinion but a felony’ (‘le racisme n’est pas une opinion mais un délit’). This supremely orwellian phrase has almost become a proverb in the last 30 years or so.
I cannot have a high opinion of any nationalist politician who doesn’t defend the free speech rights of themselves and their followers. Forget about principle, it’s pragmatic: how can you fight for X,Y,Z when a vigorous public advocacy of X,Y,Z is illegal?
I remember having correspondence with a member of Vlaams Blok 15 or so years ago on this issue, with him airily dismissing these concerns as “an American thing” and that “free speech just isn’t a priority for us Europeans.” Very good. How did that work out for them?
Every meme you thought about making for Trump but didn’t you can now make for Marine.
Any chance of opening a Soundcloud account so that listeners may set-up RSS feeds?
No, I don’t like Soundcloud.