Germans like to tell people what they can and can’t say. They want to tell everybody how to live their lives. As you may recall, a while back we had a bit of a disagreement with them about that whole attitude. It didn’t turn out too well for them. But did they learn their lesson? Nein, das haben sie nicht.

David Shimer, NYT:

In a coordinated campaign across 14 states, the German police on Tuesday raided the homes of 36 people accused of hateful postings over social media, including threats, coercion and incitement to racism…

“The still high incidence of punishable hate posting shows a need for police action,” Holger Münch, president of the Federal Criminal Police Office, said in a statement. “Our free society must not allow a climate of fear, threat, criminal violence and violence either on the street or on the internet.”

In other words: “Ve vill haff ORDER!!!”

Nobody likes trolls. They’re mean and they say things just to hurt people’s feelings. But that’s the price of living in a free society. More and more, places like Germany and the UK aren’t interested in being free societies. That’s why they spout Orwellian nonsense while locking people up for being dicks online.

Hate speech is just speech that someone else hates. Jailing somebody for offending somebody else is fascism. You can’t control what anybody thinks, no matter how stupid and repulsive you find their thoughts.

But hey, equating people who say mean things online with people who commit murder for political reasons should really work out well for our pals overseas. Jolly good show, old chaps. Gut gemacht, Freunde.

(Hat tip: the other Stephen Miller)