by Robert M. Traxler
Do we have free speech, will we have free speech, can we have free speech?
The movement to cancel free speech is growing, speech we disagree with as hateful speech, incorrect speech or hurtful speech, misinformation or disinformation, and if we actually think it over and not just parrot the party line, it is a dangerous practice that is a direct threat to our Constitution. Strangely enough, the traditional media is a champion of the anti-first amendment movement.
Our nation was born out of a dearth of free speech. It was against the law of the British Empire to criticize the king and by extension the British government. The British military enforced the law and the penalties were harsh, with little to no legal due practice for the “common man” (OK, we need to say common person).
One of my favorite examples of banning hurtful speech is fat shaming, even to the morbidly obese. During my time in the United States Army, we lived in South Korea for three years and never saw a morbidly obese person. Most of the time was spent in Seoul, a city one and a half times the population of New York City, and we only saw a handful of overweight people.
When I asked my Korean Investigators why, they told me that social concern and family concern led them to encourage family and friends to lose weight: fat shaming by today’s American speech standards.
The latest medical studies tell us that being overweight contributes to cancer, heart disease, and a large number of health problems, but whatever you do, do not bring the subject up with a loved one because you are fat shaming. It may save their lives in the long run, but do not do it.
The standard answer to anyone telling a person to lose weight to save their life is that it could be a medical condition; it indeed could be, but in over 95% of obese people it is not.
During the COVID pandemic we could not say the vaccine did not protect you from the virus, it was misinformation. Suggesting President Joe Biden was less than 100% physically and mentally capable was false news and fake news, until we all witnessed the debate.
The Robert Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian plant, Russian disinformation. Our government pressuring social media to censor content found on the Robert Hunter Biden laptop was denied by those involved, until using subpoena powers, Congressional investigators proved it was real.
The problem is that the progressive movement, in a direct contradiction with the liberal movement, embraces government canceling free speech. The liberals of old who defended the American Nazi Party’s right to march in a mostly Jewish community of Skokie, Illinois, are gone, and the progressive movement that censors speech as hurtful, hateful, incorrect, misinformation, false news and disinformation has been born.
To my conservative friends, do not fall into this trap and use the government to control or deny free speech. Free speech by definition is speech that makes people angry and is objectionable to many. A quote some attribute to Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to death your right to say it,” needs to be our standard. My opinion.
