A few years ago, if you told me that Germany had a police task force whose job it was to monitor what people said to each other, and to confiscate their belongings or arrest them if they step outside the state-approved messaging, I’d have assumed you were teaching a history lesson on WWII.
Sadly, as it turns out, I’d be wrong. Because that’s exactly what is happening in Germany today.
Under the country’s hate-speech laws, citizens can face criminal charges for online comments deemed “insulting” or “inciting hatred.” Prosecutors say they’re protecting democracy, but to many of us, it looks like something else entirely: the slow suffocation of a free society under the guise of security and “kindness”.
A few years ago, a German man was fined thousands of euros for mocking a politician online.
Others have had their phones and computers confiscated—their “weapons of hate”—for reposting jokes that officials decided crossed a line.
Even calling a public figure a crude name can trigger a police visit.
It seems like it would go without saying, but apparently it doesn’t, so I’ll repeat it now:
When speech itself becomes a crime, the state no longer protects the people. It protects its own power.
It’s easy to think, “That could never happen here. We’re Americans! This is the Land of the Free!,” but if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that censorship creeps in quietly and a shocking number of people are actually all for it.
During covid, Americans watched as entire conversations disappeared from social media right before their eyes. People were silenced, not for threats of harm or inciting violence, but for simply asking questions and sharing what they found to be life-saving advice.
(Questions and advice, by the way, that turned out to be right. But I digress…)
Those of us who dared to challenge “the narrative” learned how fragile free expression can be when bureaucrats and billion-dollar tech companies start deciding what we’re allowed to say.
It turns out a lot of people were never taught that freedom isn’t a favor governments grant us. It’s the natural condition of every human soul.
I mean, to be fair, why would their government schools have ever spent any time focusing on teaching that?!
It reminds me of this quote by the great Rose Wilder Lane:
Lane, the daughter of Little House author Laura Ingalls Wilder, spent her life writing about the power of the individual and the danger of collective control. Many historians now believe Rose had a heavy editorial hand in shaping the Little House books, which might explain the strong themes of self-reliance and rugged moral clarity across the series.
Rose understood that liberty isn’t something handed down by kings or congresses; it’s a truth that exists whether rulers recognize it or not. Governments can restrict it, people can surrender it, but no one can erase it because it isn’t theirs to give or take.
In our Tuttle Twins Guide to Courageous Heroes, we tell Rose’s story alongside others who lived that same truth—men and women who spoke up, acted boldly, and refused to bow to the approved opinions of their day. They remind young readers that courage doesn’t always mean defying tyrants on battlefields. Often it just means standing for truth in an age of conformity.
Real freedom isn’t the absence of consequence—it’s the presence of moral courage.
Of course polite society can (and should!) “censor” bad ideas by refusing to entertain them, by shaming cruelty, or by turning away from ignorance, but when the government becomes the arbiter of which words are allowed, freedom becomes conditional.
And conditional freedom isn’t freedom at all.
This season, as you gather with your family and spend time talking about the things that matter most, I hope you’ll take a moment to teach your kids that freedom isn’t a gift from politicians—it’s their birthright.
That’s what our books and resources are here for. To help parents like you raise the next generation to love liberty, think critically, and speak truth with courage.
Our Holiday Sale just went LIVE and that’s great news for you because starting today, you can save up to 60% on all our best resources, including Courageous Heroes.
It’s the perfect time to stock up and share the principles that keep freedom alive for the next generation. I may be biased, but if you ask me, that’s definitely something worth investing in.
Because the moment we forget freedom is a fact, we start acting like it’s a privilege, and by then we’re already ripe for tyranny. And I don’t know about you, but I like my political memes too much to risk losing them because the petty tyrants don’t like to be mocked.
I’d prefer not to go to the gulag for sharing jokes online, so I’ll continue to do all I can to help raise a generation that is too smart and too free to be controlled.
I think we’re going to win.
— Connor
