{"id":9623,"date":"2015-09-01T09:43:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T13:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=9623"},"modified":"2015-09-24T09:44:36","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T13:44:36","slug":"sheep-led-to-the-slaughter-the-muzzling-of-free-speech-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/sheep-led-to-the-slaughter-the-muzzling-of-free-speech-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheep Led to the Slaughter: The Muzzling of Free Speech in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf the freedom of speech be taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led<\/a>, like sheep to the slaughter.\u201d\u2014George Washington<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The architects of the American police state must think we\u2019re idiots.<\/p>\n

With every passing day, we\u2019re being moved further down the road towards a totalitarian society characterized by government censorship, violence, corruption, hypocrisy and intolerance, all packaged for our supposed benefit in the Orwellian doublespeak of national security, tolerance and so-called \u201cgovernment speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long gone are the days when advocates of free speech could prevail in a case such as Tinker v. Des Moines<\/em>. Indeed, it\u2019s been 50 years since 13-year-old Mary Beth Tinker was suspended for wearing a black armband to school<\/a> in protest of the Vietnam War. In taking up her case, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that students do not \u201cshed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were Tinker <\/em>to make its way through the courts today, it would have to overcome the many hurdles being placed in the path of those attempting to voice sentiments that may be construed as unpopular, offensive, conspiratorial, violent, threatening or anti-government.<\/p>\n

Consider, if you will, that the U.S. Supreme Court, historically a champion of the First Amendment, has declared that citizens can exercise their right to free speech everywhere it\u2019s lawful\u2014online, in social media, on a public sidewalk, etc.\u2014as long as they don\u2019t do so in front of the Court itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is the rationale for upholding this ban<\/a> on expressive activity on the Supreme Court plaza?<\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing demonstrations directed at the Court, on the Court\u2019s own front terrace, would tend to yield the\u2026impression\u2026of a Court engaged with \u2014 and potentially vulnerable to \u2014 outside entreaties by the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translation: The appellate court that issued that particular ruling in Hodge v. Talkin<\/em><\/a> actually wants us to believe that the Court is so impressionable that the justices could be swayed by the sight of a single man, civil rights activist Harold Hodge<\/a>, standing alone and silent in the snow in a 20,000 square-foot space in front of the Supreme Court building wearing a small sign protesting the toll the police state is taking on the lives of black and Hispanic Americans.<\/p>\n

My friends, we\u2019re being played for fools.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court is not going to be swayed by you or me or Harold Hodge.<\/p>\n

For that matter, the justices\u2014all of whom hale from one of two Ivy League schools<\/a> (Harvard or Yale) and most of whom are now millionaires<\/a> and enjoy such rarefied privileges as lifetime employment, security details, ample vacations and travel perks\u2014are anything but impartial.<\/p>\n

If they are partial, it is to those with whom they are on intimate terms: with Corporate America and the governmental elite who answer to them<\/a>, and they show their favor by investing in their businesses, socializing at their events, and generally marching in lockstep with their values and desires in and out of the courtroom.<\/p>\n

To suggest that Harold Hodge, standing in front of the Supreme Court building on a day when the Court was not in session hearing arguments or issuing rulings, is a threat to the Court\u2019s neutrality, while their dalliances with Corporate America is not, is utter hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

Making matters worse, the Supreme Court has the effrontery to suggest that the government can discriminate freely against First Amendment activity that takes place within a government forum. Justifying such discrimination as \u201cgovernment speech<\/a>,\u201d the Court ruled that the Texas Dept. of Motor Vehicles could refuse to issue specialty license plate designs featuring a Confederate battle flag because it was offensive.<\/p>\n

If it were just the courts suppressing free speech, that would be one thing to worry about, but First Amendment activities are being pummeled, punched, kicked, choked, chained and generally gagged all across the country.<\/p>\n

The reasons for such censorship vary widely from political correctness, safety concerns and bullying to national security and hate crimes but the end result remains the same: the complete eradication of what Benjamin Franklin referred to as the \u201cprincipal pillar of a free government<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials at the University of Tennessee, for instance, recently introduced an Orwellian policy that would prohibit students from using gender specific pronouns and be more inclusive by using gender \u201cneutral\u201d pronouns such as ze, hir, zir, xe, xem and xyr<\/a>, rather than he, she, him or her.<\/p>\n

On many college campuses, declaring that \u201cAmerica is the land of opportunity\u201d or asking someone \u201cWhere were you born?\u201d are now considered microaggressions<\/a>, \u201csmall actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless.\u201d \u00a0Trigger warnings<\/a> are also being used to alert students to any material or ideas they might read, see or hear that might upset them.<\/p>\n

More than 50 percent of the nation\u2019s colleges, including Boston University, Harvard University, Columbia University and Georgetown University, subscribe to \u201cred light\u201d speech policies<\/a> that restrict or ban so-called offensive speech, or limit speakers to designated areas on campus. The campus climate has become so hypersensitive that comedians such as Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld refuse to perform stand-up routines to college crowds<\/a> anymore.<\/p>\n

What we are witnessing is an environment in which political correctness has given rise to \u201cvindictive protectiveness<\/a>,\u201d a term coined by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and educational First Amendment activist Greg Lukianoff. It refers to a society in which \u201ceveryone must think twice before speaking up, lest they face charges of insensitivity, aggression or worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is particularly evident in the public schools where students are insulated from anything\u2014words, ideas and images\u2014that might create unease or offense. For instance, the thought police at schools in Charleston, South Carolina, have instituted a ban on displaying the Confederate flag on clothing, jewelry and even cars<\/a> on campus.<\/p>\n

Added to this is a growing list of programs, policies, laws and cultural taboos that defy the First Amendment\u2019s safeguards for expressive speech and activity. Yet as First Amendment scholar Robert Richards points out, \u201cThe categories of speech that fall outside of [the First Amendment\u2019s] protection are obscenity, child pornography, defamation, incitement to violence and true threats of violence<\/a>. Even in those categories, there are tests that have to be met in order for the speech to be illegal. Beyond that, we are free to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technically, Richards is correct. On paper, we are free to speak.<\/p>\n

In reality, however, we are only as free to speak as a government official may allow.<\/p>\n

Free speech zones, bubble zones, trespass zones, anti-bullying legislation, zero tolerance policies, hate crime laws and a host of other legalistic maladies dreamed up by politicians and prosecutors have conspired to corrode our core freedoms.<\/p>\n

As a result, we are no longer a nation of constitutional purists for whom the Bill of Rights serves as the ultimate authority. As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People<\/em><\/a>, we have litigated and legislated our way into a new governmental framework where the dictates of petty bureaucrats carry greater weight than the inalienable rights of the citizenry.<\/p>\n

It may seem trivial to be debating the merits of free speech at a time when unarmed citizens are being shot, stripped, searched, choked, beaten and tasered by police for little more than daring to frown, smile, question, challenge an order, or just breathe.<\/p>\n

However, while the First Amendment provides no tangible protection against a gun wielded by a government agent, nor will it save you from being wrongly arrested or illegally searched, or having your property seized in order to fatten the wallets of government agencies, without the First Amendment, we are utterly helpless.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just about the right to speak freely, or pray freely, or assemble freely, or petition the government for a redress of grievances, or have a free press. The unspoken freedom enshrined in the First Amendment is the right to think freely and openly debate issues without being muzzled or treated like a criminal.<\/p>\n

Just as surveillance has been shown to \u201cstifle and smother dissent, keeping a populace cowed by fear<\/a>,\u201d government censorship gives rise to self-censorship, breeds compliance and makes independent thought all but impossible.<\/p>\n

In the end, censorship and political correctness not only produce people that cannot speak for themselves but also people who cannot think for themselves. And a citizenry that can\u2019t think for itself is a citizenry that will neither rebel against the government\u2019s dictates nor revolt against the government\u2019s tyranny.<\/p>\n

The end result: a nation of sheep who willingly line up for the slaughterhouse.<\/p>\n

The cluttered cultural American landscape today is one in which people are so distracted by the military-surveillance-entertainment complex that critical thinkers are in the minority and frank, unfiltered, uncensored speech is considered uncivil, uncouth and unacceptable.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the point, of course.<\/p>\n

The architects, engineers and lever-pullers who run the American police state want us to remain deaf, dumb and silent. They want our children raised on a vapid diet of utter nonsense, where common sense is in short supply and the only viewpoint that matters is the government\u2019s.<\/p>\n

We are becoming a nation of idiots, encouraged to spout political drivel and little else.<\/p>\n

In so doing, we have adopted the lexicon of Newspeak, the official language of George Orwell\u2019s fictional Oceania, which was \u201cdesigned not to extend but to diminish the range of thought<\/a>.\u201d As Orwell explained in 1984<\/em>, \u201cThe purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc [the state ideology of Oceania], but to make all other modes of thought impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Orwell envisioned the future as a boot stamping on a human face, a fair representation of our present day might well be a muzzle on that same human face.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re to have any hope for the future, it will rest with those ill-mannered, bad-tempered, uncivil, discourteous few who are disenchanted enough with the status quo to tell the government to go to hell using every nonviolent means available.<\/p>\n

However, as Orwell warned, you cannot become conscious until you rebel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WC: 1689<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf the freedom of speech be taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.\u201d\u2014George Washington The architects of the American police state must think we\u2019re idiots. With every passing day, we\u2019re being moved further down the road towards a totalitarian society characterized by government censorship, violence, corruption, hypocrisy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,214,226,212],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9623"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9624,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9623\/revisions\/9624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}