Free speech is too dangerous to continue?

[Raynine]

John Kerry says First Amendment is the enemy, as elites try to stamp out free speech (nypost.com)

I'm getting close to 80 years old. I don't remember anything in my early schooling about free speech being dangerous. I do recall that in the Former Soviet Union, East Germany, and Mao Tse Tung's China, free speech that criticized the status quo was criminalized and punished severely to discourage wayward thinking that might upset the power structure. The people who instructed me in say, about 1962 when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened, were all survivors of the Great Depression and World War 2. They seemed to go on ad nauseam about how important it was to think and speek freely. A steady drumbeat would leave their lips about how lucky we were to be living in a place where even speech that challenged the government was allowed. These were very different people from what is in control of my home city in New Hampshire today.

My city in New Hampshire has become a very liberal, very woke, place. Those in charge of publishing and editing the local newspaper, the academic rat's nest that leads the centrally located liberal arts college, and the little rodent that hosts the daily morning radio program are public relations for everything those Depression era survivors warned us about all those years ago. You can't say bad things about special people who are trying to do good! That's why free speech that exposes flaws is dangerous! Like the Soviets, East Germans, and the Mao's new China, these people are trying to build a better world! And saying things against it is not only treachery, it's an insurrection!

That's why Donald Trump has to be charged with crimes against the state! The state is good and it is trying to do good things for the people just like the Soviets, East Germans, and Mao's gangs were trying to do! We MAGA fools are apparently too ignorant to grasp the superior thinking taking place today that lays bare the lies we were told when Castro was aiming nuclear warheads at us! Those old teachers in our schools were telling us pack of lies when they told us to protect at all costs the free speech Donald Trump is using! They had to be lying because otherwise Donald Trump could say whatever he wanted and the people could make up their own minds if they wanted to listen! But just like the Soviets, East Germans, and Mao, the government is taking steps to shield us against Donald Trump's dangerous misuse of free speech! See? It's all for our own good!

You know, I have always been leery of people doing things for my own good. The city will go for Harris and walz there is no question about that. The rest of the state? There might be a faint glimmer of hope there.

 

[westwall]

The government's that have controlled speech.....have never been the good guys.

"Friendly speech" doesn't need protection.

 

[shockedcanadian]

John Kerry says First Amendment is the enemy, as elites try to stamp out free speech (nypost.com)

I'm getting close to 80 years old. I don't remember anything in my early schooling about free speech being dangerous. I do recall that in the Former Soviet Union, East Germany, and Mao Tse Tung's China, free speech that criticized the status quo was criminalized and punished severely to discourage wayward thinking that might upset the power structure. The people who instructed me in say, about 1962 when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened, were all survivors of the Great Depression and World War 2. They seemed to go on ad nauseam about how important it was to think and speek freely. A steady drumbeat would leave their lips about how lucky we were to be living in a place where even speech that challenged the government was allowed. These were very different people from what is in control of my home city in New Hampshire today.

My city in New Hampshire has become a very liberal, very woke, place. Those in charge of publishing and editing the local newspaper, the academic rat's nest that leads the centrally located liberal arts college, and the little rodent that hosts the daily morning radio program are public relations for everything those Depression era survivors warned us about all those years ago. You can't say bad things about special people who are trying to do good! That's why free speech that exposes flaws is dangerous! Like the Soviets, East Germans, and the Mao's new China, these people are trying to build a better world! And saying things against it is not only treachery, it's an insurrection!

That's why Donald Trump has to be charged with crimes against the state! The state is good and it is trying to do good things for the people just like the Soviets, East Germans, and Mao's gangs were trying to do! We MAGA fools are apparently too ignorant to grasp the superior thinking taking place today that lays bare the lies we were told when Castro was aiming nuclear warheads at us! Those old teachers in our schools were telling us pack of lies when they told us to protect at all costs the free speech Donald Trump is using! They had to be lying because otherwise Donald Trump could say whatever he wanted and the people could make up their own minds if they wanted to listen! But just like the Soviets, East Germans, and Mao, the government is taking steps to shield us against Donald Trump's dangerous misuse of free speech! See? It's all for our own good!

You know, I have always been leery of people doing things for my own good. The city will go for Harris and walz there is no question about that. The rest of the state? There might be a faint glimmer of hope there.

Americans have taken for granted for years what other nations citizens have never had, or, in a poors mans version. Listen to those leaders who came before who through civics class and wisdom warned you:


“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” - Ronald Reagan

 

[Dogmaphobe]

The left is now nearly the antithesis of liberal.

Until people learn to understand that Woke is actually a top-down fascist movement orchestrated by the elites, we will have little ability to combat it.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

It's constitutional, attempts to prohibit it is dangerous

 

[Marener]

People living in their own little delusional worlds where they only get information from social media that is filled with false information is dangerous to the country.

I'm not saying what the answer should be, but the problem with misinformation is clearly there.

We used to think that with enough speech, the truth will win out. That's just not the case in this day and age.

 

[22lcidw]

People living in their own little delusional worlds where they only get information from social media that is filled with false information is dangerous to the country.

I'm not saying what the answer should be, but the problem with misinformation is clearly there.

We used to think that with enough speech, the truth will win out. That's just not the case in this day and age.

200 Radio Stations with conservative hosts are to be purchased from foreign interests. Soros son is involved. And the FCC approved it without the correct process. Sell outs. Traitors. The surveillance culture is expanding. Many citizens help it along as they abuse the mechanisms of it themselves. In the process people are destroyed. And this occurs in many things of living. Revenge is the prescription for some. We must stop this. And it will not be easy.

 

[Marener]

200 Radio Stations with conservative hosts are to be purchased from foreign interests. Soros son is involved. And the FCC approved it without the correct process. Sell outs. Traitors. The surveillance culture is expanding. Many citizens help it along as they abuse the mechanisms of it themselves. In the process people are destroyed. And this occurs in many things of living. Revenge is the prescription for some. We must stop this. And it will not be easy.

Okay. What are you going to do?

Edit to add:
You are going on with the exact type of disinformation that I'm talking about. Your post is nonsense.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/30/business/audacy-bankruptcy-soros-gop/index.html

Oh, and George Soros is a US citizen.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

People living in their own little delusional worlds where they only get information from social media that is filled with false information is dangerous to the country.

I'm not saying what the answer should be, but the problem with misinformation is clearly there.

We used to think that with enough speech, the truth will win out. That's just not the case in this day and age.

The real problem lies in uneducated and unquestioning people such as yourself.

 

[Concerned American]

People living in their own little delusional worlds where they only get information from social media that is filled with false information is dangerous to the country.

I'm not saying what the answer should be, but the problem with misinformation is clearly there.

We used to think that with enough speech, the truth will win out. That's just not the case in this day and age.

Disinformation has been around forever. The difference is we were taught to learn to discern the difference between that and truth. Now libs want to convince everyone they have a corner on truth because "they said so."

 

[IM2]

People need to stop conflating opposition to disinformation with opposition to free speech.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

People need to stop conflating opposition to disinformation with opposition to free speech.

That's stupid. Free speech is free speech.

 

[Marener]

The real problem lies in uneducated and unquestioning people such as yourself.

Conservatives love talking about “questioning” but then they see a third hand rumor on Facebook about Haitians stealing cats to eat and they treat it as fact.

How do you explain that?

 

[IM2]

Disinformation has been around forever. The difference is we were taught to learn to discern the difference between that and truth. Now libs want to convince everyone they have a corner on truth because "they said so."

This is not about what libs do, this is about proven sources of disnfomation primrily utilized by the right. This is not bout "they said so", its about the production of facts supporting things said instead of hyperbole and inflammatory rhetoric that is spoken or printed that is fact free.

 

[Marener]

Disinformation has been around forever. The difference is we were taught to learn to discern the difference between that and truth. Now libs want to convince everyone they have a corner on truth because "they said so."

The difference is social media algorithms pigeonhole people into information bubbles in the name of engagement.

Combine that with an opportunistic political environment where some unscrupulous people capitalize on the effects of this disinformation by creating stories.

Some people are taught media literacy, but it’s usually college educated people. Boomers never got it and they are some of the easiest to deceive.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

The difference is social media algorithms pigeonhole people into information bubbles in the name of engagement.

Combine that with an opportunistic political environment where some unscrupulous people capitalize on the effects of this disinformation by creating stories.

Some people are taught media literacy, but it’s usually college educated people. Boomers never got it and they are some of the easiest to deceive.

Is that Kamala Word Salad 101?

 

[IM2]

That's stupid. Free speech is free speech.

Incorrect. Free speech has imits. That is why people can get sued for libel and slander. You can't yell fire in a theatre when there is no fire, but according to those like you , that would be OK because it's free speech.

 

[IM2]

The difference is social media algorithms pigeonhole people into information bubbles in the name of engagement.

Combine that with an opportunistic political environment where some unscrupulous people capitalize on the effects of this disinformation by creating stories.

Some people are taught media literacy, but it’s usually college educated people. Boomers never got it and they are some of the easiest to deceive.

Some boomers get it.

 

[Marener]

Is that Kamala Word Salad 101?

I can try to explain it to you in simpler terms.

Social media is a huge problem with disinformation. Algorithms keep you locked into one narrative without any competing outside information.

 

[IM2]

Is that Kamala Word Salad 101?

Your opinion of Harris and word salads is based on the very disinformation we are discussing.