From “Jes suis Charlie” to “Charlie est raciste”; how did we get here?

Written by John (the other John).

On 7 January 2015, the world was stunned when a group of devout Muslims entered the Paris Office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and murdered 12 people and injured 11 others. The crime of these journalists was free speech and humour; hardly worth a death sentence when applying Western standards, but most certainly worthy of a death sentence when applying the Koran. In response to this horrific act of murder and suppressing free speech, every significant world leader flew into Paris to march on 11 January 2015 promoting the right to free speech, along with 2 million more people in Paris, and 3.7 million people in the remainder of France. In support of the journalists’ right to free speech began the chant of “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie). (But noticeably, there was one significant world leader who refused to attend this march: Balack Hussein Osama; was this a mere scheduling conflict, or was there something more nefarious). With these events, the effect of the murder of these brave journalists was the re-validation of the right to free speech, regardless how offensive it may be to some people. After all, there is no right to not be offended, but there is a right to free speech; this march proved that this human right is inviolable. Or isn’t it?

Turn the clock ahead to the very same year in 2015 when Donald Trump decided to run for U.S. President; a man who spoke truthfully and honestly, counter to the dogma of the enlightened Socialist Left. It was subtle at first, but a movement began to shun speech that was “deemed” to be offensive (whatever those standards may be) if the opinion was adverse to that of the establishments’. But over time, it slowly turned to committing violence and property damage to those whose opinions are adverse to that of the establishment. Today, there is the “cancel culture” and causing economic harm to those with counter opinions.

But how did we get here? How did we go from “Je suis Charlie” and promoting free-speech regardless of content, to shutting down opposing speech? How did we go from freedom to tyranny? I do not know exactly how, but what I witness is a sense of entitlement of certain people to control government, academia, and thought, and once a powerful independent thinker/speaker came to light (and later U.S. President) with adverse opinions, then the true tyrants were exposed for what they are because these so-called Liberals are actually not true Liberals; they are tyrants with a tantrum (perhaps psychologically disturbed people; likely bipolar disorder).

So I must ask, if the Charlie Hebdo shootings had not occurred in 2015, but instead in 2019, would there be marches saying “Je suis Charlie”, or would it be “Charlie est raciste”? I suspect the latter. So I ask again, why did Obama not attend the free-speech rally on 11 January 2015?

Image: © Luz, property of Charlie Hebdo.