𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐆𝐈𝐔𝐌 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐕𝐀𝐍 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐇𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐄𝐂𝐇 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐀 𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄

 

Belgium just convicted Dries Van Langenhove of 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘤𝘩 for connecting mass migration to crime and social decline during a university lecture using government statistics and peer-reviewed sources.

 

The terrifying part is what the judge said in the ruling. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐕𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐞. The conviction was for the framing.

Read that sentence twice. The Belgian state has now formally established that 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 if the government decides your interpretation of those statements is 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦. The hard standard is not truth. The hard standard is conformity.

 

Van Langenhove has already spent over €𝟒𝟐𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 fighting overlapping speech cases in Belgian courts. He says more prosecutions are being prepared. The strategy is not to win on the merits but to bankrupt the defendant through serial process.

 

This is the European model the American left openly wants to import. Hate-speech statutes that criminalize truthful speech the regulator does not like. Civil suits that bankrupt dissidents through legal fees. Long-arc deplatforming through banking sanctions, employer pressure, social-media bans, and university blacklists.

  

The First Amendment is the thin layer of fabric that prevents this exact outcome from being the standard American operating procedure. The British have already lost it. The Belgians never had it. The Germans gave it up in 1968 in the name of antifascism. 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬.

𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬, 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞.

M.A. Rothman