Conor McGregor has found himself in hot water again, and this time, it’s not about fighting titles.
The notorious MMA fighter has drawn the attention of the government of the most censorious country on earth, his homeland of Ireland. McGregor kicked off his tirade in response to an Algerian immigrant stabbing several Irish citizens, including children, on November 22, when he said, “Do not let any irish [sic] property be took [sic] over. Evaporate said property. It’s a war.”
His lambasting continued on November 23, when he scorched the chief of the Irish police, who said the rioting over the stabbings was prompted by a “hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology.”
McGregor reasonably pointed out that actually, people were rather understandably upset about the stabbings, which included three children. His tirade went on for several days, and it’s clear that he deeply cares about the political state of Ireland and is following it very closely.
Unfortunately, his civic awareness and brash outspokenness have drawn negative attention from the Irish police. Ireland has several draconian speech laws already on the books; however, following the riots and violence which has taken place over the past several weeks, the Irish government has set out to create a new set of standards that would give police the authority to conduct sweeping investigations into private citizens exercising their free speech.
The law criminalizes “hatred against a person or a group of persons in the State or elsewhere on account of their protected characteristics or any one of those characteristics,” essentially shielding the government from criticism or critique, an essential component of self-governance.
The main issue with this proposed rule is its incredible vagueness, which seems to be the point. The text of the bill allows for an individual to be imprisoned if they “prepare or possess” material deemed “likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of their protected characteristics or any of those characteristics with a view to the material being communicated to the public or a section of the public, whether by himself or herself or another person.” This law would apply even if incitement of violence was not intended.
McGregor also lambasted the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar for his response to the release of a child hostage by “evil terrorist organization” Hamas, as well as engaging in a heated battle of ideologies with the Irish deputy prime minister.
McGregor is doing what every responsible citizen should do: use their available platforms to speak out forcefully whenever they see fit. Hopefully, this ludicrously heavy-handed authoritarian targeting of free expression will wake the Irish population up to the danger they have voted themselves into.
