Freedom of speech hasn’t exactly been appreciated in other parts of the world the way us folks in the United States endorse it, but things have gotten even more absurd. Anastasia Lin, a beauty pageant queen and Miss Canada 2015, has been silenced by the organizers of the Miss World pageant after she criticized the manner in which China has handled her comments regarding their communist nature. (RELATED: See more news about censorship at Censorship.news)

Maura Judkis of The Washington Post reports, “Miss Canada has found herself at odds with Miss World organizers, in a conflict stretching back more than a year regarding her advocacy work against human rights abuses in China — historically, a major sponsor and booster of the pageant.” Judkis writes that Lin was supposed to represent Canada during the 2015 pageant, but “Chinese authorities denied her a visa because of her political activity and support of Falun Gong, the Buddhist-inflected spiritual movement that has been banned by the government since 1999.”

It is no surprise that the Chinese government is trying to silence those who are willing to criticize the corruption that takes place behind closed doors. However, it is much more distressing that pageant organizers are willing to bow down to China and prevent Lin from expressing her opinion on the current state of affairs in the country. Especially as someone who has dealt with the negativity of China directly, she should be championed for standing up to the country — not silenced by the idiots on the left who are afraid of causing offense.

This kind of behavior is dangerous and extremely hypocritical. Members of the Regressive Left talk incessantly about giving voices to minorities and “oppressed peoples,” but when a minority decides to speak out against a value that they hold near and dear to their heart — like communism — they do everything in their power to shut them up.

It goes to show that they only want to support minorities whenever they can exploit them. The second a black, Asian or Hispanic comes out in support of conservative or libertarian ideals, they throw around terms like “internalized racism” in order to pass their opinions off as unintelligible and bigoted. It is completely ridiculous and should not stand.

Yet, this mindset continues to become more and more common. What has happened to Anastasia Lin is not unheard of — not in the slightest — but that doesn’t mean that we have to sit around and let it happen. It’s time to join the culture war, folks. It’s time to put an end to this before it is too late.

Update: Miss Lin was eventually allowed to speak with reporters after several weeks of tension.  She did not lay blame on the pageant organization, and instead acknowledged them for allowing her to come forward. Her primary focus is to bring much needed attention to the persecution of Falun Gong, as well as other human rights abuses in her native country of China.  

Sources:

NYTimes.com

WashingtonPost.com

Breitbart.com

NYTimes.com