Free Speech and Her Enemies

Her Friends, Too

Kathy Shaidle:

"You're too stupid to tell me what to think."

The Smallest Minority – The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand; from 2003:

"A British Lord travels to the Frontier West, America in the 1800's. His horse throws a shoe on the trail, so at the first little frontier town he comes to, he finds a blacksmith's shop to have the shoe replaced. As he rides up, he sees a large, sweaty, filthy man hammering on a piece of red-hot iron. The Lord sits on his horse, waiting to be served, but the blacksmith doesn't pay him any attention and continues to work his iron. Finally, the Lord, outraged to have been ignored this way by an obvious servant, dismounts, approaches the 'smith, and taps the man on the shoulder with his riding crop.

"You, man!" he barks, "Who is your Master! I wish to have a word with him!"

The blacksmith turns, looks at the Englishman, spits a stream of tobacco juice on the point of the Lord's boot and says,

"That sumbitch ain't been born.""

New Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal: “Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment… focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed."--Disclose.tv, November 29, 2021

JUST IN: Just One Day After New CEO Announcement, Twitter Bans Sharing Images Or Videos of "Private Individuals" Without Their Consent - Including Memes and Videos of a Crime (thegatewaypundit.com) translation: "We will censor your posts of Hunter Biden smoking crack with children and ANTIFA Blackshirts committing arson by calling them "dissidents". But we'll define real dissidents on the Right out of any such protections."

SpeechNazis.

"I spurn it—as every Man, who regards that liberty, & reveres that Justice for which we contend, undoubtedly must—for if Men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind; reason is of no use to us—the freedom of Speech may be taken away—and, dumb & silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter."--Gen. George Washington to Officers of the Army, March 15, 1783

Tucker:

"There’s nobody protecting dissident voices. I can’t get past it. I’m focused on it. I don’t really know what the answer is, but I’m just struck by it. It makes me very upset with the institutions that purport to be conservative in our country and consume hundreds of millions--billions, over time--in contributions, and they’re doing nothing to protect these people. In fact, they’re the first to abandon them. They’re like, oh someone liked a tweet by someone who said something naughty five years ago, therefore we have to distance ourselves. No, you’re cowards, you will be judged, and you are selling out people who actually believed in you. You’re horrible. That’s how I feel about it. Conservatives, the institutions, have found themselves in this position where they’re like trustees in a prison, where they’re carrying out the orders of the warden. The warden in this case is like the institutional left. Why are we doing this? Why are we playing along? It’s especially, it’s almost like the left is trying to see how ludicrous they can make it. You send out a tweet saying ‘men can menstruate too.’ Anyone who laughs is punished. When that happens, they’re challenging us. They’re basically saying ‘we can make you,’ this is 1984, this is Winston Smith, ‘we can make you say this. And then we can make you believe it. Watch us.’ ‘Repeat after me: Men can menstruate too.’ Then after a while you’re like ‘yeah, men can menstruate too, for sure.’ That’s when you’re a zombie. That’s when your soul is gone. That’s when they’re fully in charge of you. You’re just hunk of flesh, and you’re like a ventriloquist dummy at that point. That’s what happens. It’s not sustainable. You have a hyper partisan left, a supine conservative establishment, and an increasingly frustrated conservative and sincere left base--you know, just like normal people--this can’t continue.”.......

Hear it all.

UNSAVORYAGENTS – THE RIGHT KIND OF REBELS…

Ace has questions: 

"They love publishing pieces like, "The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage." They love publishing pieces like, "Two Cheers for George Soros." It makes them feel "intellectually rebellious." It makes them feel like they're not just hacks and talking points robots, but curious and free-minded thinkers willing to give almost any position -- no matter how contrary to core conservative beliefs -- at least a public airing. Okay, fine.

But…[they're]  completely unwilling to publish any articles or white papers supporting anti-trust investigations into Google? Why is the one thing you're never allowed argue for in Conservative, Inc. -- the one unforgivable heresy -- the same thing that Google and the other tech monopolies are paying protection money for? Why is this the only issue not up for debate? You can argue for Transgender Strippers doing "story hour" for kids in taxpayer supported libraries, and your fellow members of Conservative, Inc. will slap you on the back and call you "brave" for taking on small-minded bigotries.

But none of these bravehearts apparently feel as if suggesting we simply enforce on the-books laws against trusts and anticompetitive behavior and improper coordination between monopolists is worthy." …….

Everything our Framers did--the Bill of Rights, a free press, devolving, decentralizing, layering and compartmentalizing power in checks and balances was meant to do one thing: thwart the impulse of fallen man to tyrannize his fellow citizens. Heritage knows this better than most. After all, that IS our heritage.

But when it comes to Big Tech tyranny, they have a blind spot a mile wide. And not just because Zuck paid their dry-cleaning bill. 

Big Government censorship of Big Tech may not be the answer, but neither is Free Market Economics. These companies rig markets, buy politicians and have abandoned neutral business policies to silence conservatives. Col. Schlichter wrote the book...or at least the article: 

Conservatives Must Regulate Google and All of Silicon Valley Into Submission

"There’s sometimes a moment when a system is unstable because one participant has changed the rules, but the other side hasn't yet reacted – like the period after feminism demanded total female social equality with men, but men still generally picked up the check. That imbalance cannot persist forever; eventually the people on the other side feel like suckers, so they stop playing by the old rules. That’s when the new rules arise. And that's why conservatives now need to savagely regulate companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. We need to use our political power in Congress and red state legislatures to incentivize Silicon Valley to return to a system where its companies embrace political and cultural neutrality, or suffer crippling consequences.

Yeah, I know that heavily regulating private businesses is not “free enterprise,” but I don’t care. See, “free enterprise” is a bargain, and they didn't keep their part of it, and I see no moral obligation for us to be played for saps and forgo using our political power to protect our interests in the face of them using theirs to disembowel us. I liked the old rules better – a free enterprise system confers huge benefits – but it was the left that chose to nuke them." .......

"Bullying people into silence is un-American. They have proven they cannot be trusted. 

But they can be Anti-Trusted."

"There is Freedom of Speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech."--His Excellency, President-for-Life, Field Marshall, Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth, Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular

“As a young Marxist in college during the 1950s heyday of the anti-Communist crusade led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, I had more freedom to express my views in class, without fear of retaliation, than conservative students have on many campuses today.”--Dr. Thomas Sowell

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”–George Orwell

"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason... Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker."--Frederick Douglass

“Ve are flagging problematic posts for Facebook.“--Gin "Vodka" Saki with Comrades Lavrov unt Kerry

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it."--George Orwell, "1984"

"A few weeks later, he's called before a committee of the District Party Secretariat. He tries to explain he was making a joke. Immediately they remove him from his position at the Students Union; then they expel him from the Party, and the university; and shortly thereafter he's sent to work in the mines. As a waggish adolescent, I liked the absurdity of the situation in which Ludvik finds himself. Later, I came to appreciate that Kundera had skewered the touchiness of totalitarianism, and the consequential loss of any sense of proportion. 'The Joke' was the book I read on the flight to Vancouver, when Maclean's magazine and I were hauled before the British Columbia "Human Rights" Tribunal for the crime of "flagrant Islamophobia." In the course of a week-long trial, the best part of a day was devoted to examining, with the aid of "expert witnesses," the "tone" of my jokes. Who would have thought all the old absurdist gags of Eastern Europe circa 1948 would transplant themselves to the heart of the West so effortlessly?"--Mark Steyn

"As co-president of both China and America, I congratulate the US Senate for passing the ban on the phrase "Chy-Na Virus", which I demanded in their recent payoff envelopes. Now the whole world will know
what the US Senate knows: China is not to be criticized. Especially by Americans."

"What the Covid-19 panic has revealed, and continues to reveal, is the managerial elite has no respect for things like the rule of law, individual liberty or any of the other foundation items of consensual government. To protect democracy, they will rig the election process. To keep us free they will strip us of our rights. In the name of inclusion and diversity they will exclude anyone who disagrees. What we are seeing is that the real plague on our society is the ruling class."-- Z-Man

“Why We Have Guns” by Charlton Heston, National Press Club, September 11, 1997

"You, of course, remain zealous in your belief that a free nation must have a free press and free speech to battle injustice, unmask corruption, and provide a voice for those in need of a fair and impartial forum.

I agree--wholeheartedly--a free press is vital to a free society. But I wonder: How many of you will agree with me that the right to keep and bear arms is not just equally vital, but the most vital to protect all the other rights we enjoy?

I say that the Second Amendment is, in order of importance, the first amendment. It is America’s First Freedom, the one right that protects all the others. Among freedom of speech, of the press, of religion, of assembly, of redress of grievances, it is the first among equals. It alone offers the absolute capacity to live without fear. The right to keep and bear arms is the one right that allows ‘rights’ to exist at all.

Now, either you believe that, or you don’t, and you must decide. Because there is no such thing as a free nation where police and military are allowed the force of arms but individual citizens are not. That’s a ‘Big Brother knows best’ theater of the absurd that has never boded well for the peasant class, the working class, or even for reporters.

Yes, our Constitution provides the doorway for your news and commentary to pass through free and unfettered.  But that doorway to freedom is framed by the muskets that stood between a vision of liberty and absolute anarchy at a place called Concord Bridge. Our Revolution began when the British sent Redcoats door to door to confiscate the people’s guns. They didn’t succeed; the muskets went out the back door with their owners.

Emerson said it best:
 

‘By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.’

King George called us ‘rabble-rousers, rabble in arms.’ But with God’s grace, George Washington and many brave men gave us our country. Soon after, God’s grace and a few great men gave us our Constitution. It’s been said that the creation of the United States is the greatest political act in history. I’ll sign that.

In the next two centuries, though, freedom did not flourish.The next Revolution, the French, collapsed in bloody Terror, followed by Napoleon’s tyranny. There’s been no shortage of dictators since, in many countries: Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin, Castro, Pol Pot. All these monsters began by confiscating private arms, then literally soaking the earth with the blood of tens and tens of millions of their people. Ah, the joys of gun control!

Now, I doubt any of you would prefer a rolled up newspaper as a weapon against a dictator or a criminal intruder. Yet, in essence, that is what you have asked our loved ones to do, through the ill-contrived and totally naïve campaign against the Second Amendment.

Besides, how can we entrust to you the Second Amendment when you are so stingy with your own First Amendment?  I say this because of the way, in recent days, you have treated your own—those journalists you consider the least among you. How quick you’ve been to finger the paparazzi with blame and to eye the tabloids with disdain.  How eager you’ve been to draw a line where there is none, to demand some distinction within the First Amendment that sneers, ‘They are not one of us!’  How readily you let your lesser brethren take the fall, as if their rights were not as worthy, and their purpose not as pure, and their freedom not as sacred as yours!

So now, as politicians consider new laws to shackle and gag paparazzi, who among you will speak out?  Who here will stand and defend them? Well, if you won’t, I will. 

Because you do not define the First Amendment; it defines you. And it is bigger than you.  Big enough to embrace all of you, plus all of those you would exclude. That’s how freedom works.

This is their first freedom. If you say it’s outdated, then you haven’t read your own headlines. I want to rescue the Second Amendment from an opportunistic president and from a press that apparently can’t comprehend that attacks on the Second Amendment set the stage for assaults on the First."

“Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage.”― Winston Churchill

“The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free...”― Utah Phillips

“Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.”― Noam Chomsky

“The idea that you have to be protected from any kind of uncomfortable emotion is what I absolutely do not subscribe to.”― John Cleese

"Mmm...mfff...mmmff!"

"There are some people who wish us to enact laws which would seriously damage the right of free speech and which could be used not only against subversive groups but against other groups engaged in political or other activities which were not generally popular. Such measures would not only infringe on the Bill of Rights and the basic liberties of our people; they would also undermine the very internal security they seek to protect.

Laws forbidding dissent do not prevent subversive activities; they merely drive them into more secret and more dangerous channels. Police states are not secure; their history is marked by successive purges, and growing concentration camps, as their governments strike out blindly in fear of violent revolt. Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

We must, therefore, be on our guard against extremists who urge us to adopt police state measures. Such persons advocate breaking down the guarantees of the Bill of Rights in order to get at the [enemy]. They forget that if the Bill of Rights were to be broken down, all groups...would be in danger from the arbitrary power of government."--Actual President Truman, Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States, August 8, 1950

 for for Arnold:

August Landmesser refuses to do the "Sieg Heil" salute during a Nazi rally at the Blohm & Voss shipyard

Hamburg, June 13, 2021 1936.

"I stand up for the things that I have done but I deny most emphatically that my actions were dictated by the desire to subjugate foreign peoples by wars, to murder them, to rob them or to enslave them or to commit atrocities or crimes. The only motive which guided me was my ardent love for my people, its happiness, its freedom and its life. And for this I call on the Almighty and my German people to witness."--Herman Goering, convincing himself that the Gestapo was actually a Civil Rights Movement.

Bruno: It's so simple, too. A couple of fellows meet accidentally, like you and me. No connection between them at all. Never saw each other before. Each of them has somebody he'd like to get rid of, but he can't murder the person he wants to get rid of. He'll get caught. So they swap murders.

Guy: Swap murders?

Bruno: Each fellow does the other fellow's murder. Then there is nothing to connect them. The one who had the motive isn't there. Each fellow murders a total stranger. Like you do my murder and I do yours.

Guy: We're coming into my station.

Bruno: For example, your wife, my father. Criss-cross."--Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers On a Train", 1951

Like Hitchcock's "Strangers", the Occupation Government and Big Tech are swapping crimes. "Criss-cross".

Big Tech does the Political Censorship that is forbidden to the Regime, and the Regime looks the other way while Big Tech engages in monopoly, commits business fraud, spies on Americans and cuddles up to dictatorships--other dictatorships, I mean.

Social Media Monopolies essentially serve as public utilities today, much like telephone and telegraph companies once did. We broke up AT&T and Ma Bell--and they never tried to censor anybody. We trust-busted Standard Oil, but not even John D. Rockefeller kept a file on everybody on the planet like these megalomaniacs do.

They claim to be neutral bulletin boards when it helps them--and a Letters to the Editor-page  when that helps them. Like a bisexual-Backstreet Boy, "They want it both ways." Tell me why.

And, for the record, Benito, this Corporate/State Incest is the very textbook definition of "Fascism".

Grazi, Obama.

"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."--Actual President John F. Kennedy, remarks on the 20th Anniversary of the Voice of America; Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, February 26, 1962

"There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated
under the shield of the law and in the name of justice."
--Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
-- Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin, "Silence Dogood", 1722