Top Three Takeaways – January 12th, 2021
- Don’t take the bait. I’ve taken on countless controversial issues over the past twenty plus years but none more concerning than this one. At the point in which freedom of expression is controversial, what our country was founded upon, as reflected in the First Amendment to the Constitution...what’s left? While disturbed that the incoming Biden administration officials, along with the soon-to-be Democrat controlled Congress, are seemingly supportive of selective censorship – I'm not surprised. What does surprise me is the level of support for censorship. In the 60’s liberals at Berkeley led the argument for freedom of expression to not be repressed. Today freedom of expression isn’t even allowed at Berkeley. In recent years we’ve watched as many colleges stifled voices they didn’t agree with on campus. It shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s now reached all aspects of society. To all who are supportive of suppressing speech. What’s wrong with you? And what happens when someone you disagree with assumes power and decides to suppress your speech and others who agree with you. Seriously, it’s time to wake up. I’ll say again. Don’t take the bait. Freedom of expression can’t be a controversial concept in the United States or else we really do risk losing all our rights.
- Freedom anyone? Remember, 80% of the world’s population isn’t truly free. That starts with not having access to free speech. At the time of the founding of this country, England repressed access to speech and they still do to this day. Freedom of expression, provided we don’t use that speech to impede another’s rights, is the most fundamental principal in our society. There is a false premise advanced regarding the censorship of Parler and the implications if this farce to censor them were to work.
- False reporting. The narrative that Parler is a “conservative” or like platform is demonstrably false. Parler accepts anyone who wants to sign up and simply doesn’t censor or throttle users the way Facebook, Twitter and other platforms have increasingly done over the years. As a user of Parler, I can attest to discussions with those of differencing political viewpoints. You never hear news media refer to Facebook and Twitter as leftist or even left-leaning platforms. It’s intellectually inconsistent and flat out wrong to suggest Parler is ideological based on the political preferences of many of its users, without doing the same with Facebook and Twitter. For example, a 2019 Pew Research study found far more Democrats/liberals on Twitter than independents or Republicans/conservatives. What’s going on with the reporting is simply an excuse for censorship. It’s also the latest insight into the deplorable state of news reporting. Any reporters who’ve characterized the platform as such didn't access it prior to accepting a false premise and reporting it. Either that or they did and they’re just deliberately engaged in false reporting. It would be accurate to say it had become a platform preferred by many conservatives, it’s demonstrably false to call it a conservative platform. As always, there are two sides to stories and one side to facts. I’ll continue to share the facts with you as they’re in ever shorter supply in news reporting these days and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Here’s the irony of the news media using its constitutional protections, to aid in the erosion of those protections for others. It’s no more complicated than the question I keep coming back to. If you don’t stand for freedom of expression, what do you stand for?
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