MICHAEL BARONE

When the Irish comedian Graham Linehan arrived at London Heathrow Airport this past weekend, he was greeted by five armed British police officers who arrested him for — get this — three rude tweets.

Or, as Linehan wrote on his Substack, “I was arrested at an airport like a terrorist, locked in a cell like a criminal, taken to hospital because the stress nearly killed me, and banned from speaking online — all because I made jokes that upset some psychotic crossdressers.”

Whether or not you find his words offensive, it’s hard to disagree with Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, who tweeted, “This is totalitarianism. Utterly deplorable.”

Surely, many Americans reading this must be thinking this was some terrible mistake. A one-off, as the British might say.

Actually not. It

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