Wiping out free speech? Who–me?
“Freedom” has never been popular among big-shot ruling classes. Sometimes it isn’t even popular among the poor plebs who are ruled.
Great efforts have been made to transform Germany into a free country. When that’s accomplished, the next project is to turn lead into gold.
In those few countries where freedom of speech is actually protected by law–our law, the Constitution, forbids the state to take away that freedom–the government has to find cats’-paws in Big Tech and the corporate world to do their dirty work for them. Somehow Herod never fails to find men to carry out his crimes.
Free speech is at greater risk than it has ever been. It’s scary to watch.
It’s insulting, too–like we can’t figure out Big Tech is just doing the government’s dirty work for them?
It’s a real problem, because the “public square” is now privately owned, and there are forces in the government just dying to regulate it. I’m not optimistic.
There are forces pushing in various directions. If someone posts something on Twitter that is patently false, and damaging, does Twitter bear any responsibility? I would say no, but not everyone sees it that way.
In an environment of free speech, the listener has to apply discernment. I know that some of what I read and hear is not accurate or worthwhile and it falls to me to evaluate for myself. As soon as some external party begins to try to decide what is true and what is not, the risk of corrupting the process goes off scale.
One of the responsibilities of freedom is that we all have to recognize that even those with opposing views and opinions are free to hold their views. For example, my freedom to practice religion means that others are free to practice religion as they see fit. I may vehemently disagree with some of the beliefs that others may adopt, but compelling a certain set of beliefs isn’t going to work. Practicing a religion under compulsion is meaningless, but choosing one’s beliefs freely has significant meaning. In order for my choices to have meaning, they have to have been made freely, which means that, by default, I have to support the rights of others, even if I disagree with their choices.
This scales out to every area of life. The problem comes when someone harms other due to their beliefs, whether these be spiritual, or political. Civil law should be adequate protection for such matters, but sometimes civil law is unevenly applied. So, for example, if someone in my neighborhood doesn’t agree with Christianity, that it their legal right, and I actually support that right, even if I don’t support their conclusions. But if that person burns down one of the churches in the neighborhood, that is another matter completely. Such lessons were an important part of what I learned in grade school, but civics is no longer taught, in many places.
Is civics taught anymore, anywhere at all?
The founding fathers saw free speech as the freedom to criticize the government without recourse. They didn’t see it as the right to publish pornography and send it through the mail, airwaves and the Internet. America is the only country I know of that has the right to free speech, so if we lose it Reagan will be right when he predicted 1000 years of darkness if America ever falls.
There is ALWAYS someone out there looking to take away our freedom.