Category: Free Speech

of makes you wonder, eh?

come down to SOTUS cases!

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case with far-reaching consequences for online free speech and content moderation. The issue is social media’s kowtowing to the federal government’s efforts to combat “misinformation” about COVID-19, the government’s response to the pandemic, and the vaccines developed to fight it. 

It is a freedom of speech issue: Did the government unconstitutionally constrain free speech by coercing and basically acting through social media companies?

When it comes to the First Amendment, “line drawing” is a fraught proposition. Social media companies are, after all, private concerns. If they want to censor someone for any reason, it’s hard to see how the court could disagree with that fundamental right.

But social media companies were being pressured by the United States government to stifle opinions in the name of squashing “misinformation.” As the Supreme Court will hear, much of the information that was eventually censored turned out to be not only true but helpful.

Here’s what those companies were faced with: “Nice social media company, ya got there. Be a shame if sumpin’ happened to it.”

As I see it, social media companies were, in fact, acting as quasi-governmental agents. They allowed the government some plausible deniability–they can say, “I didn’t do it, my little toady friend did!”

Yet the government put BIG pressure on the toadies to conform or be regulated out of business. And it wasn’t a hard sell, as the toadies also wanted to curtail free speech!

allowing more free speech on Twitter goes WAY beyond his own platform. Because of his commitment to openness, other sites are going to have to loosen up just a bit–or become an open (as opposed to covert, as they have been) shill for the Left. It puts them in a bind and rips off their mask of impartiality.

So it’s not just that Twitter is more free. It’s that ALL platforms now have to at least grudgingly give a little ground to free speech. I mean, do you think they won’t hear, “What’s the big deal? I can bring this subject up on Twitter!” Any squelching of free speech will now show in high relief.

People who chafe under the draconian Speech Stalinism™ of other platforms will flee to the freedom of Twitter. And now that there has been some freedom, the toothpaste of falsehood and tyranny is out of the tube–it can’t be jammed back in. Ask the former USSR.

In other words, it forces those others to drop the mask and changes the culture. A bit.

how free speech has turned into a conservative value.

But it has. It is Lefties who refuse to debate (even here on this site!). It is Lefties who just can’t tolerate an opposing position. It is Lefties who are violent when faced with views other than their own. It is Lefties who run away rather than stand for what they believe. It is Lefties who literally know nothing about the world unless they suck it off the teat of the great Lefty mama of the fever swamps.

And it is Lefties who will shout a speaker down rather than let the speaker say something they disagree with. It just reeks of weakness, of fear! The plain fact of the matter is that FREE speech is anathema to Leftists.

THAT is why they hate comedy of all stripes. Of course, Leftists are famously NOT funny people. The world’s smallest book may be,”The Complete Collection of Great German and Russian Humor.”

believe in Free Speech for those with whom you disagree, you don’t actually believe in free speech…