Many people are warning these days that the jaw-droppingly corrupt weapon of partisan vengeance known as the “Justice” Department, with its indictment of Donald Trump after steadfastly ignoring the crimes of Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden, is taking the nation down the road to dictatorship. And while that is a very real concern, some of the hysteria is overblown, not because the Biden regime actually respects loyal opposition and free discourse, but because the freedom of speech is already so severely eroded. The Boston Red Sox just showed that anew in their treatment of a pitcher who dared to utter unapproved ideas.

Yeah, in America we have the First Amendment that supposedly protects the freedom of speech, but just try saying something publicly that goes against what the Leftist elites want you to believe. The New York Post reported Friday that the Red Sox “are doing damage control in the wake of past homophobic tweets from pitcher Matt Dermody, who started Boston’s game Thursday against the Guardians.” Oh, horror of horrors.

Now, I’m certainly old-fashioned. I was under the impression that the Boston Red Sox were a baseball team, not an LGBTQWTF organization or a Leftist advocacy group. If the Post had told me that the Red Sox were doing damage control in the wake of bringing a 32-year-old pitcher who had won a grand total of two games in the major leagues to start a game and that said pitcher had given up three runs in four innings and lost the game, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. But no, the Red Sox had to do damage control not because Dermody was an old (for baseball) retread who got hit hard, but because he has dared to depart from our insane society’s wholehearted worship of sexual deviance.

Dermody didn’t even enunciate his heresy as a member of the Red Sox. The Post tells us that he “posted a tweet in June 2021 — when he was a member of the Saitama Seibu Lions in Japan — denouncing homosexuality as a sin in the name of his Christian faith.” But in our enlightened, post-Christian age, a man’s sins follow him around. Dermody, you see, never should have gotten another shot (he appeared in 30 games for the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs from 2016 through 2022, before his Red Sox game) at the major leagues at all. Apparently, to be an effective pitcher in today’s major leagues, you have to love the entire Pride extravaganza that is forced upon us everywhere during the month of June (and all other months as well).

Dermody tweeted: “#PrideMonth. Homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God. They will go to hell. That is not my opinion, but the #Truth. Read 1 Corinthians 6:9. May we all examine our hearts, ask Jesus to forgive us, and repent for our sins. I love you all in Christ Jesus!” The Post apparently thinks that this statement, which millions of Christians throughout history have believed, is so egregious that the Red Sox never even should have looked at this guy, much less given him a start. But the wily Christian outfoxed them: “Dermody later deleted the tweet, which is why the Red Sox are claiming they didn’t see it prior to the team signing him in January.”

The Bosox missed it, but the self-appointed guardians of acceptable opinion didn’t, and they wasted no time in calling the Crimson Hose on the carpet. Red Sox team president Chaim Bloom did his best to defuse the situation, saying, “It’s important to us that he had taken the tweet down and important why he had done it. I talked to him personally about that and what he told me was that it really came down to two things. One, he didn’t realize that his words would be hurtful and he didn’t want to hurt anybody and when he realized that they were, he took (the post) down.”

Bloom hastened to assure the world that the Red Sox held traditional morality in utter contempt. He added that Dermody “also understood that it’s not the right use of his platform. He knows he made a mistake tweeting that. That’s why he took it down. Obviously, that doesn’t mean that we endorse anything he said or anything he believes.” Obviously! Then Bloom cannily used the Left’s language against the Left-fascists: “But the fact of the matter is, if we’re committed to creating an (inclusive) environment, it’s not right for us to police what people believe.”

After the Team Formerly Known as the Cleveland Indians knocked him around, Dermody faced the media and did his best to deflect the accusations without going all Anthony Bass on us and compromising his convictions: “I do regret the tweet in the sense that it came out hurtful and it hurt a lot of people. That’s the last thing I want to do is hurt people. A lot of people think that I’m against a certain group of people or whatnot. But I’m for everybody making it to heaven.”

The Red Sox also noted that Dermody had completed his required stint in reeducation camp: “Matt, along with all our minor leaguers, went through our mandatory anti-discrimination and harassment prevention training in March. We cannot dictate the religious beliefs or political views of our players and employees, but we do require they treat people in our organization and ballpark with respect and professionalism.”

Everyone knew all along that would not be enough for the woke fascists, and so the Red Sox cut Dermody loose after the game. They can find other pitchers to give up three runs in four innings without offending the Thought Police. Hey, notice how no one says, “It’s a free country” anymore?