The Left’s Assault on Free Speech
Who would ever have imagined that free speech would be at risk in America, and that by, among others, members of the Media? Have journalists forgotten that it has been practitioners of their art who have so often been the target of tyrants? The freedom to speak one’s mind is so obviously good, to hate it is like hating babies! Oh, right! Leftists hate babies, too. There are few things more frightening than to know you could be punished or imprisoned for saying the wrong thing! We have indeed fallen behind the looking glass! What a bizarre twist on things that a liberty which multitudes have sacrificed their lives to obtain is now considered evil by the Left and members of the Media!
Speech necessarily follows thinking; thus, it is not surprising that the Left has attacked independent thinking as well. By controlling much of academia, media, and cultural forums like Hollywood, the Left has been quite effective in controlling the public conversation of the nation, and therefore largely determining what millions of Americans think about.
Someone has said, “thinking is the hardest work there is, and that’s why so few do!” So, on top of our natural resistance to the hard work of serious thought, the Left punishes those who think for themselves. It is no wonder that young people miseducated at the feet of these radicals are incapable of critical thinking or providing an argument for their political or cultural assertions. Consider what happens to those who question the “group think” of Leftism. Have you noticed how quickly they cannibalize any of their own if they go astray?
The situation we are facing, where questioning the orthodoxy of Leftism brings an instant backlash, is akin to being seated as a juror in a trial where you are told the defendant is guilty beforehand. He has no attorney, is allowed no defense, and if you, as a juror, raise a question you are accused of abetting the defendant in his crime. Would we not all be shocked by such a trial and see that the defendant was doomed? Would you want to be the defendant in such a trial? Such is the situation when speech is not free.
It should not go unnoticed that our cultural leaders, the majority of whom are Left leaning, go to great lengths to eliminate educational options for the average American while sending their own children to high quality or elite schools. Young people with critical thinking skills are a serious threat to those in power, thus, every effort is made to discourage their education.
The Left has a thousand excuses for covering the ears of young people. They are “protecting them” from you name it: hate speech, bigotry, or whatever. But, if they truly seek an end to such evils, the best way to accomplish that goal is to allow an open debate where the “sunlight” of truth exposes error. And they would also inculcate in those students a passion for truth! That is the rub, of course. Leftists hate truth (because it exposes their perfidy) and claim it does not exist, even as they demand we believe what they say (as if it were truth). Very interesting. So, they seek to keep everyone in darkness. Well, As Abraham Lincoln said, “you can fool some of the people all the time; and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
We’re not fooled!
Ironic, is it not, that the Washington Post carries the slogan on its masthead, “Democracy dies in darkness.” Yet they and their co-conspirators are the purveyors of darkness!
Free speech is messy. Some people say nasty things and promote horrible ideas. But it is a tragic reality of history that the good, the ideal, the wonderful ideas have often been hated by the powers that be and never saw the light of day because speech was not free. Squelching of speech has always been the tool of tyrants.
In order to control speech, one must control thinking; and to control people’s thoughts one must be coercive. This is where the hideous ideas of “reeducation” and “expunge” come into play, ideas now being bantered about by Leftists and our Media elite to be applied to those who disagree with them. For the first time in my life, I am hearing Americans say that they are “terrified” of their leaders!
Restricting free speech may bring about a small good, but it does infinite harm by protecting wicked people and inhibiting good ideas that, if accepted, might benefit everyone. If the restrictions now being put in place by Leftists and big tech were in place in the US in the Eighteen Hundreds, slavery might have survived a hundred years longer in the South.
While there is an appearance of merit to the notion that someone ought to control what people hear, and thus what they think, it is ill conceived and dangerous. Only those who wish us harm promote such things. As someone has rightly said, “the best antidote to bad free speech is more free speech!” This is desirable to all except the purveyor of bad speech! Good people seek free and open dialogue!
And the flip is also true, only people with evil intentions will oppose it!
