Freedom of Speech Is Dead

[SamSpade]

Democrats are like little mentally ill children. They can't stop screaming and interrupting and tantruming. They do this in every encounter - scream and shout down anything they disagree with, no matter how ridiculous they're being. They have a come apart when it's anyone else's turn to speak.

And I know you agree with me - but it is exactly the behavior you get with extreme fundamentalist religion, where they hold the truth, everyone else is heathen, and they cannot allow departure from the faith. They do not have to tolerate different views - they must in fact, destroy them because they pose a danger to the faith.

This is what happens, when your religion is based on something as flimsy as politics.

 

[GURPS]

Biden’s social media manipulation is exactly what the Framers feared​

In reality, however, the Biden administration, has lost no right of its own to communicate with the American public. It has — for now, anyway — just lost the opportunity to impose its messaging through social media third parties, which, sadly, have been too eager to act as information stooges for the government.

Big government already has at its disposal the most powerful avenues of influence in the world. The combined messaging apparatus of the White House and federal agencies is plenty sufficient to reach all citizens. If the citizens don’t believe their own government’s proclamations about COVID, the economy, elections or family laptops, then the administration should work on building its own credibility, rather than to compromise private social media companies to restrict the flow of information and shut people up.

Misinformation, indeed, is a weed in America today. But justifying a broad government coordination with social media outlets to stop supposed misinformation also does potential harm. The First Amendment protects rumors, conspiracy theories, half-truths and even falsehoods. That’s because, as constitutional framer James Madison well knew, sometimes the government-approved points of view turn out to be misguided, and the so-called falsehoods have nuggets of truth in them. Further, there are ways to address potential misinformation with counter-messaging, rather than by stifling voices.

Ultimately, the potential harm of misinformation has little to do with this controversy. Incorrect notions floating around a society can potentially be dangerous, but it is also dangerous for the free speech sphere to be altered by high-handed government actors who assume they not only know everything but can dictate content to the citizenry. That sort of despotism is the trademark of self-interested governments that manipulate rather than serve their people.

 

[GURPS]

 

[SamSpade]

Misinformation, indeed, is a weed in America today.

I am mostly FOR the free and liberal use of misinformation, as opposed to what government proposes - shutting it down. And you can't grant government incremental control to do it - government eventually takes all of it.

I get that now that everyone on the planet has the ability to freely express opinions in the cyberspace of ideas, there's going to be a lot of bullchit. That's always true. However, it has also been true in the past, when publishing was largely restricted to newspapers, books, magazines and television, there were limits to how much crap you could put out there - you can't maliciously lie about people unless you want to go to court.

The Internet changed all that, but - it changed all that thirty years ago. Kind of disingenuous to make the case that "misinformation" is so deadly to our world when it's been flourishing for decades.

So what changed? Simple - social media is in the hands of a very few people, and they talk to the government. And social media sadly, is where about half the people get their news. Government can manipulate a GREAT DEAL of what is out there, by talking to just a few compliant actors. Get the word out that Trump is orange-ish because he's a shape-shifting alien from Skrullos, and some people will believe it.

It's just that, shutting down information that government deems dangerous to society is EXACTLY WHAT AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENTS DO.

For the same reason.

 

[vraiblonde]

And I know you agree with me - but it is exactly the behavior you get with extreme fundamentalist religion, where they hold the truth, everyone else is heathen, and they cannot allow departure from the faith. They do not have to tolerate different views - they must in fact, destroy them because they pose a danger to the faith.

This is what happens, when your religion is based on something as flimsy as politics.

It's classic cult behavior.

But then I don't tolerate or give respect to their harebrained garbage ideas that are emotion-based, destructive, and not part of any reality. When someone tries to tell me that a man is a woman, I don't respect that or give it any consideration. When they tell me that children - even very young ones - should be surgically altered and have body parts cut off to change their sex, I see that for the psychopathy it is and am not open to discussion on it. Late term and post-partum abortion - I don't want to hear that sh*t.

The difference is that my beliefs don't infringe on them or anyone else, unless one thinks that not allowing them to sexually abuse and murder children is infringing on their rights. And they do think that: me not allowing them to infringe on my or someone else's rights is infringing on their rights. "Let me carve up and murder my child, you fascist!"

 

[Hijinx]

I am starting to believe that all of this tripe being shoved down our throats about Homo's and Trannies and it's acceptance and even it's acceptance that is being fed into our children and the Democrat stance on abortion is a plan to lower the population>

Homo's don't breed unless its a turkey baster , and trannies are sterile.

Is this all a conspiracy by whomever is guiding this acceptance of the abnormal and perverse?
I sure don't know , but it damned sure looks like it.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Harvard is named WORST school for free speech - scoring BELOW zero - after nine professors and researchers faced calls to be disciplined or fired for voicing 'controversial' opinions​

• The elite university in Massachusetts has been dubbed the single worst academic institution for free speech in the US out of 248 schools
• The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said the school earned 0.00 points on a 100-point scale- but that its true score was even lower
• According to the institution, the treatment of speakers, professors and students with controversial opinions at the school has been particularly bad

 

[GURPS]

Elon Musk’s X sues California over alleged First Amendment violations​

For content in these categories, social media companies will have to explain how their policies address this content, how companies use automatic and human review systems for content, and how they remove content, users or groups that violate the terms of service. Lastly, companies would have to disclose the amount of flagged and actioned content, and the number of times actioned content was viewed and shared. Companies failing to reach any of these requirements could see fines of up to $15,000 per day, in addition to further civil penalties should the California attorney general file suit.

X’s lawsuit contends the point of AB 587 is to “pressure social media companies to eliminate or minimize content that the government has deemed objectionable.” In its lawsuit, X cites a letter California Attorney General Rob Bontas sent to X Corp. and other leading social media companies two months after AB 587’s passage about their “responsibility” to combat “dissemination of disinformation that interferes with our electoral system” and that his Department of Justice would “not hesitate” to enforce AB 587.

In its suit, X also claims, “Because the Terms of Service Report forces disclosures about content moderation to cover the controversial topics that the State has defined, social media companies like X Corp. will feel pressure to indicate that they take steps to regulate such content, rather than be subject to a pronouncement that, for example, they do not regulate “hate speech” or “racism” at all.”

AB 587’s lead author, Assembly member Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) wrote the bill is an “important first step” in ensuring “social media companies moderate or remove hateful or incendiary content on their platforms,” and that he hopes the bill will “pressure them” to “eliminate hate speech and disinformation.”

The California Department of Justice told Reuters it will respond to the lawsuit in court.

X filed a lawsuit in August against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which claims hate speech has increased under Musk’s tenure. X’s suit against the organization claims the center made “inflammatory, outrageous, and false or misleading assertions about Twitter” and suggested it conspired “to drive advertisers off Twitter by smearing the company and its owner.”

 

[GURPS]

U.K. Parliament Demands Rumble Demonetize Russell Brand; Rumble Responds​

Video streaming platform Rumble went public on Wednesday with a statement, revealing that they had received a letter from the U.K.’s Parliament demanding they demonetize Russell Brand over recent accusations of sexual misconduct — and they had refused to comply.

Rumble published a copy of the letter from Parliament — calling the governing body’s attempt to interfere with free expression on the internet “deeply inappropriate and dangerous” — along with a copy of their response via X.














“Rumble stands for very different values. We have devoted ourselves to the vital cause of defending a free internet — meaning an internet where no one arbitrarily dictates which ideas can or cannot be heard, or which citizens may or may not be entitled to a platform,” the statement continued.

“We regard it as deeply inappropriate and dangerous that the UK Parliament would attempt to control who is allowed to speak on our platform or to earn a living from doing so,” the statement said, adding that Parliament’s demands were “even more disturbing” because the accusations against Brand had no relation to the content on Rumble. “We don’t agree with the behavior of many Rumble creators, but we refuse to penalize them for actions that have nothing to do with our platform.”

“Although it may be politically and socially easier for Rumble to join a cancel culture mob, doing so would be a violation of our company’s values and mission. We emphatically reject the UK parliament’s demands,” the statement concluded.

 

[GURPS]

 

[stgislander]

Some keep forgetting that the UK has a completely different view on free speech and rights in general.

 

[Kyle]

 

[GURPS]

Some keep forgetting that the UK has a completely different view on free speech and rights in general.

you may go to jail for wrong think posting on twitter or other sm

 

[GURPS]

On May 15, 1970, the New York Times published an article by esteemed Russia scholar Albert Parry detailing how Soviet dissident intellectuals were covertly passing forbidden ideas around to each other on handcrafted, typewritten documents called samizdat. Here is the beginning of that seminal story:

Censorship existed even before literature, say the Russians. And, we may add, censorship being older, literature has to be craftier. Hence, the new and remarkably viable underground press in the Soviet Union called samizdat.
Samizdat – translates as: “We publish ourselves” – that is, not the state, but we, the people.
Unlike the underground of Czarist times, today’s samizdat has no printing presses (with rare exceptions): The K.G.B., the secret police, is too efficient. It is the typewriter, each page produced with four to eight carbon copies, that does the job. By the thousands and tens of thousands of frail, smudged onionskin sheets, samizdat spreads across the land a mass of protests and petitions, secret court minutes, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s banned novels, George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984,” Nicholas Berdyayev’s philosophical essays, all sorts of sharp political discourses and angry poetry.

Though it is hard to hear, the sad fact is that we are living in a time and in a society where there is once again a need for scientists to pass around their ideas secretly to one another so as to avoid censorship, smearing, and defamation by government authorities in the name of science.

I say this from first-hand experience. During the pandemic, the U.S. government violated my free speech rights and those of my scientist colleagues for questioning the federal government’s COVID policies.

American government officials, working in concert with big tech companies, defamed and suppressed me and my colleagues for criticizing official pandemic policies – criticism that has been proven prescient. While this may sound like a conspiracy theory, it is a documented fact, and one recently confirmed by a federal circuit court.

American Pandemic ‘Samizdat’ | The Gateway Pundit | by Guest Contributor

This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire By Jay Bhattacharya Real Clear Wire On May 15, 1970, the New York Times published an article by esteemed Russia scholar Albert Parry detailing how Soviet dissident intellectuals were covertly passing forbidden ideas around to each other on...

www.thegatewaypundit.com

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

U.K. Parliament Demands Rumble Demonetize Russell Brand; Rumble Responds
Video streaming platform Rumble went public on Wednesday with a statement, revealing that they had received a letter from the U.K.’s Parliament demanding they demonetize Russell Brand over recent accusations of sexual misconduct — and they had refused to comply.

Major Brands Pull Ads From Rumble After Platform Refuses To Censor Russell Brand Over Sex Assault Allegations​

Major brands have pulled ads from Rumble, following the video platform’s refusal to censor or demonetize actor and podcast host Russell Brand over decade-old sexual assault allegations published this month in the U.K. media.

Notably, YouTube, to much criticism, has banned Brand from monetization on all of his accounts over the allegations, though Brand has no charges against him and has strongly denied ever engaging in nonconsensual sex. Rumble refused to follow suit.

According to News Movement, Burger King is one of the brands that has paused advertisements on Brand’s Rumble channel. “Burger King has paused all advertising on the channel while investigations into the allegations are ongoing,” the company said.

Meal-kit company HelloFresh has pulled ads from all of Rumble, it seems, telling News Movement when it reached out about the allegations, “Thanks for pointing this out to us. We have manually removed our ads from Rumble.”

 

[GURPS]

Major Brands Pull Ads From Rumble After Platform Refuses To Censor Russell Brand Over Sex Assault Allegations​

 

[GURPS]

Straight to jail! NBC News ran an eye-popping headline yesterday: “Swiss LGBTQ groups praise jail sentence for commentator who called journalist a 'fat lesbian’.” It was personal. The way I talk here on C&C, you better believe when I saw that headline, I immediately whipped out my pocket Constitution and gave that baby a kiss.



Say what you like about body positivity and the virtuousness of eschewing unflattering commentary on others’ physical appearance. Alain Soral did, and before he knew what was happening, on Monday he got sixty days in the slammer for the egregious crimes of “defamation, discrimination and incitement to hatred.”

The target of Alain’s curt, vituperative insult was another Swiss journalist, Catherine Macherel. To be specific, and I hope I don’t offend anyone, I’m just reporting the facts, in addition to calling her a fat lesbian, Alain also uncharitably called Catherine an "unhinged queer activist.” He did it two years ago. In a YouTube interview.

You know me, I had to check and see for myself. There aren’t many pictures of Catherine available online, but I finally found one:



So. I don’t think he should’ve got jail time, but Alain could have been a little more circumspect. He could’ve just said Catherine was an “obese” lesbian, a “plump” lesbian, or a “lesbian shaped like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.” Or even, “a whole lot of lesbian to love.”

Here in the U.S., thanks to the First Amendment, defamation is not a crime. Defamation is also not actionable if the insult is true. But if you do injure somebody with a false statement — injure them in terms of dollars and cents — you can then sue them in civil court for restitution. Hurt feelings don’t support a defamation claim. Generally speaking, you can’t get any money for your hurt feelings, and you sure can’t lock people up.

If it could talk, the Constitution might say, toughen up and insult them back. Remember “sticks and stones” from when you were a kid? Or that old chestnut, “I’m rubber and you’re glue?” There’re lots of ways.

And who knows what the crimes of “incitement to hatred” or “discrimination” might be. It all sounds pretty Orwellian. Thought crimes, and so forth.

Instead, Switzerland’s out-of-control LGBTQ++ crowd has pulled the levers of power in that unfortunate country so hard such that just insulting a gay person can get you thrown in prison. And that’s right where we’d be in this country, you’d better believe it, absent the First Amendment. Just look at what they’re doing to Trump. He didn’t even call a lesbian “fat.”

☕️ BORDER WARS ☙ Wednesday, October 4, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Fat lesbian jails journalist; 5th Cir. expands censorship ban; historic Speaker removal; Pritzger disses Kamala; citizen journalist does media's job; gender bender war news; EU disses Ukraine; more.

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