Markus “Count Dankula” Meechan has just been convicted of “grossly offensive” hate speech, for the crime of teaching his girlfriend’s dog to respond excitedly to “gas the jews,” and to attempt a little roman salute in response to “seig heil.”

Sargon of Akkad already did a comprehensive video of about the details of the case and the fallout for Britain. I encourage everyone to watch it.

But Sargon was concerned primarily about the United Kingdom. What many Americans do not know is that the path has already been laid for a similar state of affairs in the United States, something I have been following and writing about (at Universities in particular) since 2012.

Meechan’s video begins with the following statement:

“My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute and adorable her wee dog is, and so I thought I would turn him into the least cute thing that I could think of, which is a Nazi.”

If that weren’t enough, Meechan’s tattoos indicate that he is unlikely to be a far-right agitator.

That this video could be deemed to be “grossly offensive” hate speech, on grounds of anti-semitism, is akin to saying that Orwell’s 1984 advocated totalitarianism, or that Swift’s Modest Proposal was a work of pro-cannibalism literature. Even at 22, I understood the lunacy of granting judges the right to determine the “real” intent and meaning of literature, but that is precisely where we are going, and it is what public schools and universities have been teaching students for the last two to three decades.

Think the first amendment protects Americans from this kind of thing?

How has the fourth amendment held up against NSA mass-surveillance?

Pay attention and be ready to take whatever action you can to reverse, stop, or at least slow down the erosion of free speech, while you still have the right to make noise about it. There isn’t a whole lot of time left before we’re in Britain’s position. And once we are, the imprisoning of comedians will be the least of our concerns.