Freedom of opinion

Moralists driven by “social criticism” and anti-historical attitudes are currently arming for battle against achievement, success, performance of social duties, family and nation. Ideas that were intended to help free people from external control and domination have led to a repressive reign of terror against opinions, and to a regulation of speech that covers up problems. “Politically correct speech” is required. Those who would regulate speech evidently fail to see how dangerously close this is to Orwellian “Newspeak” and the infamous book burnings of the Nazi period, and how harmful it is for the free expression of opinion on which our democracy is based.

The demographer Josef Schmid sees these political moralists as a danger to democracy. “They disguise themselves as the conscience of society, and their impact is all the more destructive as a result.”

Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt: Wider die Misstrauensgesellschaft. Streitschrift für eine bessere Zukunft (Against the society of mistrust. An argument for a better future). Piper, 1995, p. 220