by Robert M. Traxler
This column will anger the good folks on both ends of the political spectrum, however, I feel strongly about its need to be said.
Liberals value free speech; leftists and socialists do not. Every left/socialist government has banned free speech to a great extent. I use the word “every” with great care, as normally it is always wrong, but in this case, I feel confident about its use.
Socialism is not liberalism, and is what the leftists are doing, hijacking a movement from liberals to the leftists, from progressive to socialist. The leftists calling for banning free speech on social media are not liberals.
Big tech corporations have been highly intelligent (no one is saying they are dumb); they are now courting the liberals, indeed using liberals to destroy free speech, and to open markets to China in the name of the Democratic Party. The leftists the big tech billionaires and multi-millionaires are using the Democrats, and unknowing liberals, to ban competition, to monopolize social media and ban free speech in the name of social justice and socialism.
CNN, MSNBC, Facebook and Google, along with many other corporations and others, are using big tech’s enormous power to freeze out political opposition, Fox News and other competitors. Indeed, they have asked service providers to ban Fox News from the airwaves.
Amazon has de-platformed Parler, a conservative alternative to Facebook. True liberals, if aware of the way they are being used by the big tech billionaires pursuing a monopoly worldwide, would be outraged, I am sure. Being used to remove controls and tariffs on China, those currently producing blue collar manufacturing jobs for Americans blue collar workers, would never be tolerated by liberals.
Big tech becoming even bigger would also never be tolerated by liberals, who pride themselves in being trustbusters of old. It was progressives under President Theodore Roosevelt who broke up the rail, steel and oil monopolies. The same progressives are being used by the leftists to foster political correctness, monopolies, and socially correct billionaires.
The left sees no problem using the FBI and the CIA domestically against political opponents; leftists/socialists welcome such actions. Big tech has endeared itself to the leftists coming out against dairy, french fries, internal combustion engines, red meat, fossil fuels and an entire list of other items to include banning certain words like father and mother; this is the ultimate censorship.
The left will rationalize its support for censorship, monopolies and unfair trade practices with China, citing stopping social injustice; it is my opinion they are ignorant, unknowing pawns in the movement from liberal/progressive to leftist/socialists.
Relinquishing freedoms to the government is not liberal; surrendering free speech to the socialist media corporations is not liberal; eliminating unfair trade practices with China is not liberal; corporate monopolies controlling information is not liberal; but they are 100% in line with leftists and socialists.
The government spying on political opponents and using the FBI and the CIA is something that would outrage liberals, but it is something that is a normal thing to do for a leftists and socialist government. It is time for the American liberal/progressive movement to open up and see that they are being used by the leftists and the socialists; it is time for American liberals to sit down and re-evaluate their core values.
Liberals fought to allow the National Socialist Party of America to march in Skokie, Ill., in the 1970s, then joined the march against them. Liberals were the champions of free speech who prided themselves on being trust busters; today they the pawns of the leftists/socialists. Banning free speech, enabling monopolies, and opening American markets to unfair Chinese trade practices are not liberal actions; taking billions from corporations in political contributions and out-spending Republicans three to one are not liberal actions, they are leftist/socialist practices. The mantra ‘the end justifies the means’ and rationalizing thought, speech and even verb usage is not liberal, but leftist/socialist.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Wall Street Journal, to their great credit, came out against the leftists/socialists using Big Tech to ban free speech, with the ACLU even calling the sainted Mark Zuckerberg “ill-advised.” We will see if the cancel culture is unleashed on them.
The editor of this esteemed publication wrote that corporations are not liberal. It pains me to say it, but I now must agree with him (can we still use him?); corporations can be and indeed are leftist/socialist but not liberal. My opinion.
No one is banning anything, but you are. No one but Trumpy is banned any place, this is crap. We have to ban the criminals and this crap.
I agree Mr. Jones. The Democrats are criminals and should be banned!
Good call.
Army Bob
It is hard for the liberal left to except that a communist/socialist form of government is being widely accepted by so many whom call themselves Democrats. Hate for one person or party can do that to rational people.
Now if we analyze the Republicans, they too have become “disjointed.” One could put all the blame on the left with all their ideologies tending to be socialist in nature. The Republicans, for whatever reason, decided to support a “non politician “(a ruthless businessman who always got his way) to run for president.
The voters, as in the previous election, had to choose between the lesser of two evils. The “non politician” won, and unlike a true politician he could not be “handled.”
Gaining support and favor in trying to make his campaign promises come true, a very large blindly loyal following developed. The unbelievable hatred of the left also helped fuel this loyalty… a monster was now created.
It is my opinion most countries in the world feared what the President of the United States might do if totally angered.
Communist China came to the rescue. They let Covid-19 escape. Our “head strong” President failed to grasp quickly what was transpiring (which than became his downfall).
Many understand both parties have been infiltrated with radical groups. Which in turn led to the “storming” of the capital. Yes, the President will be blamed for his inflammatory remarks. Once again he, not realizing the inserted groups ready to discredit the Republican party to achieve what the very radical left (communist/socialist form of government) wants for our future.
Only those who have read and reread the novel “1984” will come to see what is happening today was scoffed at in years past.
It is very possible we have passed the point of no return.
Mr. Jones,
Sir,
I do not understand your kind of ignorance but I do admire your devotion to it.
Thank you for the comment.
A tale of two governors: One tried to save money by having citizens drink river water out of old pipes The other tried to save people by having citizens wear masks and keep their distance. The money saver is going to court. The other is going to the President’s Cabinet.
Wrong, Governor Whitmer is going to committee chairmanship, not Cabinet.
Mr. Lee,
Nobody from the governor’s office “made” Flint do a damn thing about their water. It was an initiative to drop the Detroit water line to save money by the city. As most cities on the east side of the state, they were hovering near or in bankruptcy, so THEY decided to drop the Detroit supplied water and take it from the nearby Flint River. The ph was different and lead was leached from existing lead supply lines because of the acidic river water.
This would be monitored by the Flint Water Department. Evidently they either neglected the water difference or never checked it.
THEN they got the state involved and tried to blame the Snyder administration for their screwup.
And the Flint citizens suffered from their lack of electing qualified city council members and mayor.
More off the deep end opinions from Army Bob.
We get it Army Bob. According to you Donald Trump is a “centrist”. We need to have better foreign relations with Russia. Anyone who disagrees with you is a “leftist” or a socialist (according to your narrow definition) or a Communist. They aren’t fellow Americans whose politics don’t agree with your views. They are enemies of the United States.
Now your pretzel logic arrives at the conclusion Amazon canceling Parler’s contract for use of its cloud services is an attack on free speech. Parler should get a pass for allowing posts ranging from promoting the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse to posters calling for VP Pence to be hanged. That was followed up by the terrorist invasion and vandalism of the US Capital. The site’s posters were promoting a coup to reverse the results of a free election.
The Weimar Republic ended when a sufficient number of German voters were energized by the myth Germany’s leaders failed them by surrendering on 11-11-18 when the German military wanted to keep fighting and victory was possible. Reality was the Germany military was literally starving. Troops were surrendering in the field to get food. The German Navy experienced mutiny situations where crews refused to leave the harbor without adequate fuel and food.
The stolen vote myth now perpetuated by the defeated President Trump and believed by over 70% of people who voted for the President’s re-election played a major part in organizing the rally at The Ellipse. The speakers including President Trump, the President’s then lawyer Giuliani and the President’s sons Donald Junior and Eric who all were talking about the stolen election. It’s the stuff that are building bricks for an overthrow of republics that have free elections.
That’s why Parler’s site is no longer. It was used as a vehicle to overturn a free Federal election. Free speech still occurs. That’s evident opinion pieces that appear on this online publication on a regular basis. However, to date, no one has called for the hanging of a sitting VP either.
Mr. Couchman,
Rationalize censorship all you want and it is still censorship. Free speech includes anti-politically correct speech. In a socialist country the media censored themselves we are seeing that happen, it should concern you, unless you have passed from liberal to leftest?
Mr Couchman,
The statement President Trump was a centrist was based on trade controls on China, conservatives are against tariffs, placing tariffs on China is a centrist act. Please read the column in the future, not one word on a stolen election, but normal for you to misquote and prevaricate, you are becoming an outstanding leftest leaving liberal far behind.
Couchman, do not try to reason with Trumpians. Disagree with AB you are a communist or a far lefty. Stop the steal calling for VP Mike Pence to be hanged because he was he not on Trump’s side. AB served this country to keep us free. Does not look like that any more, just the pension. Just my opinion.
Mr. Longstreet,
Sir,
Your last sentence is in keeping with the leftist cancel culture, attacking those who served our nation to include 6 years deployed as only doing it for the money? I thought you were not that vindictive, perhaps I was wrong.
Best if we stop the personal attacks, you sir do not know what is in my heart and why I served our nation for over two decades, and the sacrifices many of us who served made.
AB, you again accuse me of being a far left Democrat. I do not know what’s in your heart, but you seem to know what’s in my heart. You know nothing about me.
I am not a Dem or a Rep. I would not lower myself to belong to either one. I worked my fn ass off my whole life; no one ever gave me anything. That’s the way I was raised. Does that sound like a far leftie?
As far as personal attacks, you call people ignorant, challenge intelligence but that’s OK. As for the way I feel about veterans, I built the memorial at the VFW Post 7581 mostly by myself.
Look in the mirror: You’re not perfect, nor am I. Thank you for your service to this country.
“Some Americans will never appreciate America, until after they have helped destroy it, and have then begun to suffer the consequences.”
-Thomas Sowell
Donald Trump was a response to the direction this country was headed before he was elected. The entrenched political class in both parties have worked diligently together to place this country back on that track, and now they have succeeded. The “for sale” sign is back out.
Mr MacDougal,
A truer statement was never written. We just fired the most productive and well intentioned president we ever had.
Now we will have a dementia patient as president and Marxist as VP. Let the stealing and handouts begin.
MasDougal,
Outstanding comment, thank you.
It is quite instructive that the far left and their minions like Google, Amazon, Twitter and the like seek to stifle and stamp out freedom of speech. Their fear of dissent is leftist fascism at its worst. Ditto for their contempt of the 2nd Amendment and any suggestion that a 2nd American revolution could result from their polarization of the politics in this country. Leftists seem to trample daily on the Constitution and its values, yet nobody seems to be paying attention. Why is this?