by Robert M. Traxler
It is despicable to stand in Dearborn, Michigan, while shouting and chanting “Death to America, Death to Israel, they are Nazis, From the River to the Sea, Genocide Joe has got to go” and Free Palestine” during a celebration of the founding of the International Al-Quds Force Day.
The Al-Quds force is a branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Force that is close to our Central Intelligence Agency and Special Operations Forces in one. The celebration of a military unit that was behind the recent deaths of three Americans in Syria is sickening. However, our Constitution protects their right to be wrong and their free speech, as it should in a free nation with our Constitution in force.
The” cancel culture” did not condemn the protest as it was politically correct. Ask yourself: if it is not part and parcel of the cancel culture that they ban “hate speech,” we must wonder whether calling you and I Nazis is hate speech?
Is calling for our deaths hate speech, is calling for the deaths of Jews hate speech? Of course it is, but under the First Amendment they have the right to say it. However, a conservative does not have the right under cancel culture rules to say President Trump was not a paid Russian agent or Robert Hunter Biden’s laptop computer was real, without our government telling social media to cancel/censor them. Under cancel culture we could not say the Covid vaccine did not prevent contracting the disease, because it was incorrect speech. Go figure.
Like the Iranians or not, and I do not, they do follow their Constitution that requires them to support all Islamic revolutions in an effort to see any other religion other than Shia Islam replaced with Shia.
It is difficult to figure out why this administration wants to see them with a nuclear arsenal. Two nuclear weapons on two of their 300,000 ballistic missiles, launched from a ship at sea or from a neutral nation used as a Electromagnetic Pulse weapon, detonated 40 to 100 miles over the United States, would result in the deaths of 90% of our population after one year. This, according to a 2001 congressional study called the “Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack.”
History proves that religious-based nations, those that do not tolerate religions other than their own or ban religion all together, are among the most brutal of all.
This presidential election will be a test of our constitution. Will social media and traditional media uphold the constitutional right of free speech, or will they cancel/ban/censor free speech again, requested to do so by our government, all in the name of banning perceived incorrect or hate speech?
Do we have free speech or only politically correct speech? We need to ask, whatever happened to the liberals of old who championed free speech? They have been shouted down and condemned by the progressive movement and politically correct speech gods. My opinion.
You need only look at the current criticism of NPR for falling for Adam Schiff’s BS. No credible evidence of collusion with Russia, period. The weakest of “evidence” sourced from someone with close ties to his opponent, promoted within the Government, against a sitting president.
Trump wasn’t helping Russia ever while he was President, he hurt them daily as oil and gas exploration and transportation exploded in North America. Biden’s energy policies may be good for the planet, but they contribute to higher oil prices which contribute to Russia’s ability to finance a war against Ukraine.
Like Trump (I really don’t) or hate him, if Biden were credibly accused of collusion with a potential enemy on such flimsy evidence it would be a crisis like no other.
Lots of people on the left don’t like the subject, but it’s a fact. They would rather eliminate anyone that dares to utter anything that they say isn’t the “truth” as they define it. See how they respond with near hostility when the subject of vaccine injuries comes up, or that the source of COVID-19 logically looks like a lab in China doing research with funding in part from a grant issued to a research NGO by our Govenment.
On target and right conclusion. The Democrats are going bonkers with dementia Joe and unpopular Kamala. They must limit speech contrary to theirs.
Maybe another Chinese Covid scare would help as the illegal alien invasion and college debt forgiveness doesn’t seem to gain them much. Maybe allowing more Chinese and Russian illegals to create havoc??
November can’t come soon enough!
“Under cancel culture we could not say the Covid vaccine did not prevent contracting the disease, because it was incorrect speech.”
A pretty good example of the lies perpetrated by too many people today in the form of absolutes when carping about what they don’t like.
Mr. Traxler, were you present during the Covid crisis of 2020-2021? The same one for which I was present? I heard and read lots of people claiming that the Covid vaccine did not prevent contracting the disease. They had a right to speak out erroneously, and they did! If memory serves, our then president was peddling that very idea, at a time when we were using refrigerated trucks to hold all the corpses of dead Covid victims! And although saying that the very vaccine to which you refer was horrible mis- and dis-information, at least from my seat in Chandler, AZ, lots of people were exercising their right and publicly making that claim.
I have to again take issue with the broad-brush claims you make in your column. I am a “lefty” as some like to address me in a derogatory manner, though I am not a Progressive. Still, it bothers me that you like to claim all Progressives think alike and deserve your derision. My guess is that you don’t like to be lumped in with those “righties” who felt it was acceptable to attempt hoodwinking an election or, worse, storming the Capital crying death to the vice-president.
It’s certainly your right to proclaim your opinions. That is not what I object to. It is your manner in doing so.
I am left feeling glad that just as there are folks who won’t read my columns, there are others who choose to ignore yours.
Ms. Mandaville,
Welcome back, hope you and yours are well in AZ. Thank you for your comment.
Your words “I heard and read lots of people claiming that the COVID vaccine did not prevent contracting the disease.” The initial party line was that it PREVENTED the COVID-19 virus. After two weeks it was changed to the vaccine is very effective in reducing the severity of the infection.
Per Dr. Rochelle Walensky of the CDC the books on COVID were cooked the debate is how badly they were exaggerated but not if the numbers were over counted.
As for being a free speech champion, please remember being one of the first to call for canceling a commentator you disagreed with in the Town Broadcast? Canceling free speech in my opinion, is a Progressive practice and not a liberal one.
Thanks again for the comment.
Robert,
Ouch, go easy on AZ………Careful with reminding people of those pesky opinions they spewed in the past. They really only want it one way, their way.
Very well written article by the way!
Cheers!!
Mr. Traxler,
We’ve been over this. I did not call for the cancellation of What’s His Name because of his opinions. I suggested – and I think that may have been the operative word, or something to that effect – that he be excluded for his bullying and harassment of other commenters/contributors to Townbroadcast.
I have never had the power to “cancel” anyone writing to/for this publication. I did have the right to express my opinion that his was an unwelcome voice until he could comport himself in a more civil manner.
This may be a matter of semantics, but I consider it to be an important one. When free speech becomes abusive it deserves to be called out. Which I did.
Ms. Mandaville,
There was at least one person saying the vaccination would prevent people injected from getting Covid… none other than President Biden!
Of course you can’t blame the village idiot, probably the least intelligent of all presidents. And one afflicted with mental and physical limitations.
The only president in memory falling up steps to Air Force One. But enough of piling on the poor guy… but he brings it upon himself saying he is ready for 2024 election. Then the public views his verbal gaffes, “deer in the headlight” looks, and can’t find his way offstage without help.
Anyone with objective observational sense viewing the president in those instances must be aware he is a shell of a man and looks to be a dementia riddled person.
Ms. Mandaville, please educate me. What is the difference between a Liberal (or “lefty” in your vernacular) and a Progressive?
Ms. Mandaville,
Please define the meaning of Liberal and Progressive and their differences?
I thought they were just Marxists masquerading as Democrats.
Awhile back Army Bob was complaining about free speech on Townbroadcast. He wasn’t happy with something or things the editor wrote or did. At that time I reminded Army Bob that he had tools available to him to start his own online publication that would cater to his points of view. Maybe he decided producing an alternative to Townbroadcast was a lot of work so he’s opted to continue writing about certain groups having more and less free speech.
Army Bob’s opinions are still being disseminated over the worldwide web to anyone who types townbroadcast.com into the search bar in the search engine of their choice. Townbroadcast doesn’t use paywalls. All Army Bob needs to do is get his written opinions to the TownBroadcast editor/owner for publication and they appear weekly. Army Bob doesn’t have to pay a fee to maintain a web domain or webpage. There’s a lot of free in freedom of speech to publicize his opinions.
If anyone doesn’t like Townbroadcast don’t open the site. Don’t like some radio hosts, don’t tune in. Don’t like some cable news or major network news, no one is forcing you watch or listen to their views.
This isn’t 1960 when this area had a weekly newspaper, the Grand Rapids Press for daily news, WKZO and WOOD AM for radio news and Channels 3 and 8 for TV. We have a plethora of choices and if you can’t find outlets that you find acceptable for your political leanings, you aren’t looking very hard.
Army Bob can speak for himself, but I concurr with your analysis.
However, I think both of us love to needle you Marxist Democrats on this rag because you are so easy to provoke into responding with answers clearly showing your idiotic thinking and positions on politics and general stupidity.
We certainly appreciate it – please keep up the great hilarity in defending the undefendable.
Mr. Couchman,
Sir,
Thank you for the comment. It is interesting that this column is concerning free speech and your comment advocated canceling free speech and not publishing both sides of an argument in a news source. As you advocate “If anyone doesn’t like Townbroadcast don’t open the site. Don’t like some radio hosts, don’t tune in. Don’t like some cable news or major network news, no one is forcing you watch or listen to their views.” Please think over your comments advocating for an echo chamber where people only get opinions from Fox News or MSNBC is not a good thing, not very inclusive