Pam Bondi, Zohran Mamdani, and the ADL: Censorious Peas in a Pod

Typically, the only four circumstances under which the leadership of the two parties unite together (that sacred “bipartisanship” they like to tout) are:

a.) to hand out more public goodies to their mutual donors, or;

b.) to pimp whatever new war they’ve got cooking, or;

c.) to invent new ways to strip civil liberties from the peasants and hand more power to the police state, or;

d.) all of the above, all at once

On the third score, and maybe on the second also, Attorney General Pam Bondi came out a couple of weeks ago in full-throated support of turning the screws of state on purveyors of “hate speech,” a term which she conspicuously failed to offer any legal definition of as the leading law enforcement official in the country:

“There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society… We will absolutely target you, go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, anything, and that’s across the aisle.”

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Related: MAGA Influencer Accuses AG Pam Bondi of First Amendment Violation on X

As it turns out, ironically, another prominent political leader — a Democrat, with whom Bondi ostensibly has severe ideological disagreement — Zohran Mamdani is also a fan of censoring “hate speech,” such as when he leveraged his public office as a New York assemblyman to try to bully a private venue into cancelling a Charlie Kirk event.

Via the 2023 press release (emphasis added):

“Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, Assembly Members Zohran Mamdani and Jessica González-Rojas, and City Council Members Julie Won and Tiffany Cabán issued the following statement in response to Motif Studios agreeing to host a far-right extremist event on June 17th at Tammany House in Long Island City.

“As elected officials representing western Queens, we are deeply disappointed by the decision by Motif Studios to host an event by the far-right extremist groups Blexit and Turning Point USA at their Triplex LIC/Tammany House venue in Long Island City. Providing a platform for the kind of transphobic, bigoted views held by invited speakers Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk, and others goes directly against the diversity and inclusivity that we hold dear as New Yorkers, and is an insult to every member of our community.

“We call on Motif Studios to follow the lead of the Music Hall of Williamsburg, the original host of this event, who canceled their booking after the community spoke out in opposition to the bigotry of the organizers. Hate has no home in Queens, New York City, or anywhere else, and certainly not here in Long Island City.”

Related: British PM: We Censor Anti-Migrant Protests ‘For the Children’

Curiously, though, Mamdani doesn’t appear to harbor the same passion for censorship of his political opponents when it comes to his allies chanting “globalize the intifada.”

In cases of his comrades exercising “hate speech” (insofar as the term can be said to mean anything), Mamdani exercises discretion, his position being that mayors “shouldn’t police speech.”

Via NBC News (emphasis added):

“Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic nominee in New York City’s mayoral race, on Sunday again sidestepped an opportunity to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” saying that mayors shouldn’t “police speech.”

“That’s not language that I use,” Mamdani said when asked if he condemns the phrase, which is widely viewed by Jewish groups as offensive and antisemitic, on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “The language that I use and the language that I will continue to use to lead the city is that which speaks clearly to my intent, which is an intent grounded in a belief in universal human rights.””

Related: MSNBC News Actor, Race Scholar ‘Confront the First Amendment’s Dark History’

How does Mamdani square that circle?

He doesn’t, he can’t, and no one in corporate legacy media is likely to press him on the issue.

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The unchallenged premier censorship organization in the land, the Anti-Defamation League — a proud partner of the FBI that “works closely with federal, state and local law enforcement to assist them in protecting communities from extremism and hate” — had Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA flagged for years in its “Glossary of Extremism and Hate,” a designation it only scrubbed within the past few days after incurring substantial blowback.

Via Fox News (emphasis added):

“The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) removed its entire “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” on Tuesday after receiving backlash, including from Elon Musk and Republican lawmakers, for listing Turning Point USA (TPUSA) as an extremist group.

The outrage comes nearly three weeks after TPUSA co-founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University while speaking with a crowd on campus.

TPUSA’s backgrounder page on the ADL website falls under the “Center of Extremism” tag and describes the conservative group as having ties to “a range of right-wing extremists and has generated support from anti-Muslim bigots, alt-lite activists and some corners of the white supremacist alt-right.””

The point being: we the peasants are treated regularly to lip service from all corners of the political class about the First Amendment being sacrosanct or whatever — when it’s convenient for them. Whenever free speech runs afoul of their personal or institutional interests, all of those deeply held all-American convictions about inalienable rights seem to evaporate.

For whatever ostensible ideological differences they might have in general, AG Pam Bondi, Zohran Mamdani, the ADL are all cut, in perhaps the way that matters most, from the same cloth.

Benjamin Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile (now available in paperback), is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.

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