Saying the quiet part out loud.
The New Republic, pre-takeover, was liberal and believed in things like free speech and America.
Post-takeover by a Facebook billionaire and then assorted other leftists, it hates free speech. Literally.
“Why Elon Musk’s Idea of “Free Speech” Will Help Ruin America,” is the hot take headline.
You know this is going to be stunning when the leading argument is…
The pro-Musk arguments are complete nonsense, and there are innumerable historical and modern examples of why social media platforms with nearly unlimited freedom of speech produce horrors. The Supreme Court decided free speech isn’t absolute long ago, when Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes noted that you can’t shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater, for obvious reasons.
The “obvious reason” was a Socialist criticizing the WWI draft. That was the actual case in question.
No one at The New Republic predictably knows this. Certainly, the author, Mr. “Brynn” Tannehill, a RAND analyst and transgender advocate, has any idea that the dumb legal meme long ago joined the dustbin of history alongside segregation and slavery.
Tannehill squeals about “disinformation” while spreading it. The New Republic article is vintage hot take disinformation. Had anyone from the right written it, it would be pointed to as evidence that unfettered free speech spreads misinformation. But the Left doesn’t want a better marketplace of ideas, but a monopoly on bad hot takes and idiotic propaganda.
Any suggestion that the sort of “free speech” they envision can have highly undesirable consequences is met with howls of “Libs hate free speech” or other accusations of fascism. Similarly, warnings that unfettered free speech results in dangerous misinformation spreading are derided with “Sunlight is the best disinfectant” and the libertarian belief that in the marketplace of ideas, the best will always win out.
Only fascists want free speech.
Free speech doesn’t necessarily mean that the right ideas or the best ones, good ones or even decent ones will win out. It’s just the alternative to a totalitarian system in which the worst ones will be mandated by the government.
Fascists and other bad guys, including Communists and assorted leftists do exploit free speech (that’s why the ACLU came into being before it decided that it had enough power to get rid of free speech) and they shut it down in a New York minute when they take power.
The whole point of a marketplace of ideas is not that it rewards good speech, but that it prevents any one group from having a monopoly on speech. And that monopoly is exactly what the Left wants. It claims that only fascists benefit from free speech while defining, Soviet style, anyone who disagrees with it as fascists. That’s what progressive fascists do.
Maneuvering in urban traffic reveals that everyone driving slower is a moron, and everyone driving faster is a maniac.
So, Ugly Sid, does that indicate yeah or nay on free speech?
Oh, I favor liberty to the point of being self destructive.
What struck me was the ubiquitous self service in moral appreciation. How does it become possible that multiple intellects achieve divine infallibility simultaneously? It was like trying to divine the real skinny of the kernal intersection of the several characters in Rashaman.
Its not like they’re confused. They’re confused. It’s like there’s been an outbreak of ergot, and they all buy pumpernickel from the same bakery.
I’d provide a link to Rashaman, but being from the nineteenth century and stranded here in the future with the grandchildren of beautiful people who took many hundred of acid trips, I don’t know how.
Years ago, I think it was Jacques Ellul who said that truly effective propaganda is not possible without a complete monopoly on the flow of information. Thus, the left actively tries to eliminate all conservative media through tactics like advertiser boycotts, accusation of racism or some other ism or “phobia,” accusations of “disinformation,” and de-monetizing and de-platforming. In the last three or four years, most of the conservative websites I frequent have been forced to eliminate their comments sections, put them behind a paywall, or change to a different comment platform. I think Fox News is also under economic pressure, given their extensive promotion of subscription-only Fox Nation.
It is likely that these developments weaken a website’s relationship with its readers, reduce traffic, and therefore create economic stress. I have no doubt whatsoever that many on the left would gladly ban all conservative media if they had the power to do it. The National Review, the former flagship of conservative journalism, has in the Trump era spawned a host of traitors to the conservative cause. To cite just one example, it is hard to believe that today’s Jonah Goldberg is the same man who wrote the excellent “Liberal Fascism” just a few years ago.
You don’t automatically win the argument by citing the “fire” story. One exception does not make the rule. Freedom of speech should be almost absolute in America.
The radical leftist Democrats have gone far beyond shouting “fire” to a whole dictionary of words they don’t think you have the right to say. They are doing everything possible to diminish freedom of speech in America, not to improve it.
Without freedom of speech we cannot have freedom of religion or even political freedom. The fact that the Democrats support the suppression of speech in America tells everyone who the real “fascists” are. China and Russia also suppress speech.
Once again, I have a totally innocuous comment deleted. It was just a comment about leftist efforts to get conservative websites banned or defunded. No profanity or slurs. Nothing problematic as far as I could see.
This is getting weird.
The New Statesman is basically Putin.
Sorry, New Republic. It’s hard to keep track of all the “new” old stuff.
Well, even with his war in the Ukraine, Putin is a statesman compared to Beijing Biden and his equally traitorous handlers.
Free speech creates a comparative context where ideas are measured by the others that surround them. The Left’s ideas are crafted to look like truth, when considered in isolation from competing ideas, but can’t survive objective comparison. The left can only look better after it has done its Procrustean edit of any competing ideas or analysis. Small wonder then that the left has sought a monopoly on education. They have used their control to turned education into systematic amputation of any and all truth.
Marx didn’t hate the Robber Barons because of their power. He hated them because of his envy of their power.
Yeah, governments try to control free speech. I’ve been reading about the case of the Roman Empire, so it goes back a long time. They were already pretty sophisticated about it, back then. Maybe even more sophisticated than modern governments.
Yes, the source of all evil goes way back.
Say that free speech = Socrates. The Left is in the position of claiming that Socrates is just a Sophist and is corrupting the youth of Athens. They would murder him.
And, as usual, projecting their own evil on those who respect truth and morality.
Too bad for the Dirtbagocrats and other lefties that Musk fired Twitter’s head fascist on day one. That lying censor of conservatives, Vijayjay Gadde, was immediately taken out of the building along with the CEO and CFO.
I guess Twitter is no longer part of the Minitru social media.
It’s a shame they didn’t use a gang plank.
OK, George. Time for the hippy dippy newscast.