A Totalitarian Wind: Not A Matter of When And If

Highly concerning what’s coming out of Europe right now—a continent Canada is determined to emulate in the name of “being a good global citizen.”
I’ll keep this short, but a couple of recent examples stood out.
Beyond the steady erosion of privacy laws (Canada has already opened that door, and the US isn’t far behind), we’re now seeing:
In the UK, a woman was assaulted, then arrested herself after a “friend” reported a private message in which she called her violent attacker a f****t. The actual physical assailant walked free.
This is the same country where police have told citizens to “watch what they say” online, and where people have faced investigation for calling officers “muppets.”

Non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) are still logged by some police forces even when no crime has occurred. Thousands of these are recorded yearly, sometimes based on hurt feelings rather than threats or violence. People have been visited by police, questioned, or even arrested for social-media posts or private messages that were reported as “offensive.” The UK’s Online Safety Act (now in force) requires platforms to proactively remove “harmful” content, with the threat of massive fines or jail time for executives. Ofcom’s definition of harm is extremely broad and includes legal-but-offensive speech. Critics (including some left-leaning civil liberties groups) warn it will lead to mass preemptive censorship.

No good can come of this and many people merely expressing an opinion will have their lives ruined because of it. The unintended consequences are limitless - and foreseeable. 

Meanwhile, in Germany, early-morning police raids over social-media posts are now routine. One citizen had his door kicked in simply for calling politicians “parasites.” God help you if you post a meme.
Britain and Germany have reached roughly the same place: physical assault is often treated more leniently than the “crime” of hurting someone’s feelings with words.
Disclaimer from the authorities: this is all for your protection. For the children.

Luckily, the U.S. has resisted this totalitarian tide thanks to strong free speech protections found in the First Amendment. States have been echoing to enact similar laws in Europe but so far none has taken place.

The pattern across these countries is the same: authorities increasingly treat certain kinds of speech as equivalent to physical violence, and the response is often state force (arrests, raids, criminal records) rather than debate or social consequences. Whether that’s justified “protection” or creeping authoritarianism depends on where you draw the line, but the trend line is unmistakable—and it’s moving fast.

These are not the marks of an enlightened, progressive civilization. They are symptoms of a totalitarian retrenchment sliding into a deeply regressive state.