Free-ish Speech

Always Under Assault

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Some people speak of the First Amendment as guaranteeing freedom of speech, but it doesn't stop there. Obviously freedom of speech and the press could be seen as the same right, but I think they were right to make them distinct lest someone say it only applies to newspapers.

Note that it says Congress can make no law regarding establishing religion, meaning no state religions, but that is often used to prohibit the free exercise thereof.

We've all noticed the attacks on the freedom of speech, and we've now reached the point where the freedom of the press is used to attack freedom of speech. Everywhere the press has a uniform point of view, indicating that somehow it is not free. You would think that with the massive numbers of people working in the press that there would be some variation in opinion, at least if they engaged in free speech, but it's almost Stalinist in it's nature. No doubt much of the problem comes from there being very few but very large news organizations, partly at least the result of regulations tending to choke out the small fry. (“Help us please, Big Government! We need you to protect us from Big Business!” “No problem, we'll just put in more rules to control them, that will choke out the small businesses, and we can easily control the few remaining.” But I digress.)

"Without Freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech." ~ Benjamin Franklin

Though the First Amendment is of first importance, it could simply be done away with by edict. Popular among 2A supporters is the idea of the four boxes. The idea is that the protections to liberty contained in the Bill of Rights consist of the ballot box, the jury box, the soap box and the cartridge box. Upon inspection one notices that only the last consists of a real, physical impediment. A tyrannical government may simply do away with voting, corrupt the court system and eliminate freedom of speech. They would no doubt declare the private possession of arms to be illegal, but collecting them would be a monumental task.

https://drp314.substack.com/p/the-four-box

"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." ~ Robert A. Heinlein

"It's very difficult for a black man to get out of South-Central Los Angeles, and get out civilized....The only men I know who have escaped, all began reading Robert Heinlein at age ten." ~ Larry Niven

(Yes, I began reading Heinlein around age ten, but I was not in Los Angeles.)

Of course, it's really not so much about controlling opinions as about who controls whom, and these globalists really seem to be among those who want to control others.

There seems to be a globalist effort against free speech, globalist in the sense that your freedom of speech will be gone no matter where you live, and it will be quashed by foreign agents.

Elon Musk has been targeted by both England and Brazil. Apparently interviewing a presidential candidate without their approval is going too far, even though he offered to interview the opposing candidate. (I don't expect her to accept.) Improving free speech on Twitter/X was just too much, I suppose It's easy to say that Musk is just in it for the money, but he is South African, and he must know where these things can lead.

We've all been a bit amused at the British police saying that they would extradite Americans who post anything online that meet's with Britain's disapproval. After all we have a First Amendment, and though the powerful don't like it much better than they like the Second, it's still there. I think that the globalists, of which Britain is a card carrying member, want to create a world in which freedom of speech is sharply curtailed, and you could indeed be whisked away from your home country if you don't watch your tongue. It might be in the process of being implemented even now, under the radar of course, as are many of their nefarious machinations.

"The censor is always quick to justify his function in terms that are protective of society. But the First Amendment, written in terms that are absolute, deprives the States of any power to pass on the value, the propriety, or the morality of a particular expression." ~ William O. Douglas

China has been known to set up police stations here in the U.S. so as to enforce behavior on Chinese here, possibly even if the Chinese person is a U.S. citizen. Suppose, perhaps, that the British government does the same thing. They could arrest Americans here and ship them overseas, and they could claim that all Americans are still British subjects by positing that the American Revolution was illegal. After all, it's only because we have the physical power to prevent it that they are not still here running our country. Ridiculous, of course, but what's to stop them? We would expect the FBI to stop them, and our President and other government leaders to raise a bit of a fuss, but would that still be the case if our government is run by globalists? (Note the word subject, not citizen.)

It looks like the globalists are getting in on the speech control act. They want the power to prosecute anyone in the world for saying things they don't like.

"This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths." ~ Simon Heffer

"Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." ~ Robert A. Heinlein

Stay Brave. Stay Free