By turning its back on Western values, Europe is on a fast track to suicide, to extinction, to rejecting all the values that have evolved over thousands of years to create Western civilization.

The most fundamental right necessary for a free society is freedom of speech — the right to express thoughts, beliefs, and ideas without fear of reprisal.

The listener is then free to either agree or disagree and give his reasons.

But that doesn't apply to today’s European union. Earlier this month European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen likened free speech to a virus.

"Research has shown that pre-bunking is much more successful than debunking," she said.

"Perhaps if you think of information manipulation as a virus: instead of treating an infection once it has taken hold — that is debunking — it is much better to vaccinate so that the body is inoculated. Pre-bunking is the same approach," von der Leyen explained.

So the right to speak freely is a virus, and censorship is the vaccine to prevent free speech.

Free speech and debate was a central element at the beginning of Western civilization in ancient Greece and Rome, under the belief that the best method of arriving at the truth was through open debate.

In von der Leyen's world, however, the people should rely on the government to tell them what to believe and what is false.

And she's put that principle into action by fining Elon Musk's "free speech" social media platform he calls X (formerly Twitter) 120 million euros (more than $141 million) for non-compliance with transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The day before the European commission announced the fine, Vice President JD Vance asked them to reconsider.

"Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship," he wrote. "The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage."

But they either didn't listen or didn't care.

It's not just Europe that's veering away from freedom — the United Nations is also, in particular U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

She repeatedly sides with Hamas terrorists over Israel, and discounts anything coming from the United States.

UN Watch reported in June numerous lies she'd published. She claimed that the United States was "a nation founded upon genocide," the "CIA and Mossad carried out the Paris attack" launched by ISIS terrorists, and that America is "subjugated by the Jewish lobby."

She appealed to the United Nations over the weekend to isolate the United States from the UN.

"The international community is made of 193 states, and this is the time to give the U.S. what it has been looking for — isolation," she said.

Hen Mazzig, senior fellow at The Tel Aviv Institute, posted the video of Albanese's plea and said, "I hope America answers." One part of America did — award-winning conservative feature film actor James Woods.

"If Trump ever does anything in his life, let it be at this moment," he said.

"You want to 'isolate' the United States? Great. Goodbye. Take your out-stretched palms, get the hell out of our country, and GFY. We will happily turn the UN building into a homeless shelter."

Woods closed with "Good riddance."

That sounds like a great idea with but one revision — don't just "turn the UN building into a homeless shelter," turn it into a shelter for homeless veterans.

Ronald Reagan once remarked that he never left the Democratic Party: rather, the Democratic Party left him by becoming too extreme.

We’ve been hearing that a lot lately: Former Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. All former Democrats.

Same with the United Nations in that event: We won't leave them; they'll leave us. And as James Woods says, "good riddance."

But all things considered, it would be far better for Europe to wake up and reconsider the path they’re taking, lest they self-destruct like the Democratic Party is doing here.

It would make for a safer, freer world.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and is a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He's also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.