Free Speech—Sayonara?

By Lee Duigon

November 23, 2023

In a forum which I visit regularly, yesterday a commenter exulted, “The days of unfettered free speech are coming to an end!”

So who’s going to wear those fetters, champ; and who’s going to put them on? Oh, wait, I know! Everybody on your side, Far Left Crazy, is going to clap on the cuffs; and everybody who’s not you is going to wear them. Have I got that right? I think I do.

Yeahbut, yeahbut! All the wrong people are using it! Why should people who are not you be allowed to dish out misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and online hate? Why should we be free to speak as we please? Shouldn’t there be some kind of authority—you, for instance– to decide who gets to say what?

Meanwhile, the governor of New York has announced what amounts to a regular jihad against non-leftist speech. Gov. Kathy Hochul says she wants a Domestic Terrorism Prevention Unit Threat Assessment Management team on every single college campus in New York. She’s also asking for $3 million to set up a regime that would cover all children in grades K-12—get ‘em while they’re young. Honk if you can still think of defensible reasons to send any children to public school.

Oh! But it’s not going to be oppressive or anything! Heck no. According to Hochul, even with her Ministry of Truth in place, you plebs will still be allowed “sunset posts” (whatever they are) and “tweets about your favorite football team.” It’s only “hate” that’ll be forbidden. Although if you “hate” some leftids’ favorite football team… watch out. Crikey, she’s almost a libertarian—eh? Except when it comes to conspiracy theories. Only the Far Left’s conspiracy theories will be permitted: because those are all true, don’tcha know.

Higher up the ladder, we’ve got a senile dishrag of a “president” who thinks everyone who didn’t vote for him is a White Supremacist from whom “Our Democracy” needs to be rescued.

Notice how finicky these characters are about what constitutes “hate.” It’s never hate when they do it. It isn’t even hate when Hamas does it. Riots are “mostly peaceful protests”: our Free and Independent Democrat Nooze Media say so.

The questions float to the surface. Are they serious about forging fetters for free speech? Who will decide what’s permitted and what’s not? (Well, they will, of course! That’s an easy one.) What kind of enforcement apparatus will they set up to make sure everyone’s mind is right—and punish you if it isn’t? And above all… do they really, truly, want this? Really?

The historian Plutarch, going on 2,000 years ago, said that tyranny is a grand and lofty perch—but that there’s no safe way down from it. How many of Lenin’s friends and followers did Stalin have shot? Those victims thought they’d be the ones to decide who got shot. More fool them.

Obviously there is tons of “misinformation” on the Internet. Being misinformed, or just plain being wrong, is not against the law. It’s part of life. “I don’t eat strawberries because I saw a video of a guy saying it gives you shingles.” Who’s going to bother to censor that? No—they’re after you if they don’t like your politics. Unless you’re a Democrat, they want to prosecute you for suggesting that the 2020 presidential election was something less than honest. You have to understand the nuance: “Trump won by cheating” is permitted; “Biden cheated” is not. I’m glad I’ve cleared that up for you.

I have discussed these and other topics throughout the week on my blog, http://www.leeduigon.com/ . Click the link and visit… while it’s still allowed. My articles can also be found at www.chalcedon.edu/ .

E-Mail Lee Duigon: leeduigon@verizon.net