Freedom Of Speech
POST 1105
From the First Amendment:
“Congress shall make no law . . . abridging freedom of speech . . .”
To be clear, that has nothing to do with whether the owners of social media sites or newspapers can keep us from speaking on their platforms. They can. That has everything to do with whether the government can muzzle us, keeping us from speaking truth to power. It can’t.
So, Trump can bray his idiocies and judgements, like claiming that Biden is the worst president in history. The government can do nothing to stop that. But he is still subject to the laws regarding defamation, a concept that even his massively expensive losses to E. Jean Carroll don’t seem to have gotten through to him. Just think about all the people he’s defamed and who could file actions against him, like his lies about Haitians eating dogs, cats and geese and his various claims about sexual improprieties, like those aimed at Kamala Harris and other successful women. Those are abhorrent, but it would be far worse if he or any of us were prohibited from speaking truth to power.
From Professor Timothy Snyder’s post of September 19, following his meeting with Volodymyr Zelens’kyi:
The notion of “free speech” has become very inflated, used all too often just to mean the right to offend someone or cause disruption by knowingly telling lies, often from a place of power and wealth.The reason why we care about freedom of speech, though, is that we want to protect the dignity of the individual and protect the individual from the powers that be. Freedom of speech is protected so that we can speak our truths to power, not so that power can force its lies on us. It must be a right, in other words, because truth is risky.
- – Prof. Timothy Snyder
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Satire of the Week
Link through to Andy Borowitz’s explainer,
Trump Says He Will Be Too Senile to Debate in Late October
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You will instantly understand everything and you’ll thank your lucky stars for the free speech that gives Borowitz the right to speak his satire about a would-be dictator.
Many thanks to JN for directing me to Borowitz’s piece.
Melania
In 2018 First Lady Melania Trump visited a detention center for children who had been ripped from their parents’ arms by Melania’s husband. She wore a trench coat on which had been written in bold white paint, “I Really Don’t Care. Do U?”
She was about to see infants and children crying in cages and she wore that coat with that message. Most of us were stunned seeing that, but now Melania claims the message was aimed at Ivanka. Right. Sure. Truth be told, I really don’t care about her claim. Do U?
This is the same Melania who, unlike most first ladies for a long time, championed nothing for we common folk. When we did see her it was clear that the only thing that was important to her was to be seen as glamorous.
She is the same Melania who couldn’t be bothered to attend the ceremonies on 9/11. Instead her husband was accompanied at Ground Zero by his new hate monger, 9/11 denier and current bimbo, Laura Loomer. I use that term “bimbo” because it’s his word for Stephanie Ruhle and so many other women. Melania was nowhere to be seen at the ceremonies. I guess she’s right: she really doesn’t care.
So, tell me why we should care about her new book, other than wondering if parts were plagiarized from Michelle Obama, like she did in her speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention. She’s promoting the book now and has the same right of free speech as the rest of us. I won’t be buying a copy, though, because, hey, I don’t care about Melania. Do U?
Quote of the Week
From Jimmy Kimmel:
“Sorry to break your cold little heart, Donald, but I endorsed Kamala Harris for president.”
I like Jimmy Kimmel and heartily approve his endorsement, but he got one thing wrong. Trump doesn’t have a heart.
Okay, that’s just a little fun, but there is a serious issue embedded in all of this. It’s about how we will exercise our freedom of speech, how we will make our voices heard. We must make them heard because, as Professor Snyder cautions us, “truth is risky” and we have to take that risk if we are to keep our freedom of speech.
One of the risks is that if we were to fail to exercise our freedom of speech by telling the truth, we could lose our right of freedom of speech entirely. Some strongman would come along and snuff it out, like a candle going dark – or a democracy going dark.
Look at the countdown timer below and you’ll see that we don’t have much time left to do what we can do, what must be done.
You can write letters to the editor, if you still have a newspaper.
You can post your comments – your speech – to these Disambiguations.
You can connect with a voter call operation – find one at www.JoinTheUnion.us
You can meet some nice people while canvasing for Democratic candidates in swing states.
You can write postcards to voters in swing states.
You can post a yard sign in front of your house.
You can attend rallies and cheer for what you know is right.
You can talk to your neighbor Bubba and ask why he plans to vote for Trump, when Trump would rather see his daughter die than get the help she needs for her rape-caused pregnancy. Okay, maybe that’s too in-his-face.
You can kick in a few bucks to help a Democrat win election in a swing state.
You can vote – and bring some neighbors with you to the polls – see below in RED.
All of these are exercising your freedom of speech, specifically to protect and defend our democracy so that your children and grandchildren will have that same sweet wine. And U care deeply about that.
While you’re deciding which actions you’ll take, watch this post from Steve Schmidt.
Voting and getting out the vote reduce the risk of unwanted presidencies!
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It’s not the vibes and it’s not the polls: it’s the votes.
Are you registered to vote? Check it out on any of these websites:
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https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/
https://www.usa.gov/confirm-voter-registration
https://www.rockthevote.org/how-to-vote/am-i-registered-to-vote/
“Friends do not let friends vote forcon artists.”
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– Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), 2016
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Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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