Freedom of Speech is dying

R.I.P. First Amendment, 1791-2020?

The “Federalists” are winning their battle to transform the U.S. government into a monarchy.

I first became aware of the continuing attack on the Bill of Rights in 1987. I had washed out of a 12 year Silicon Valley quality assurance career after a lay-off - computer scanning of resumes ruled me out because I had an Associate degree in digital electronics (not a BS). But I found a sales job at a retail computer store on University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto, and early in my tenure a detective from the local PD visited to explain limits on the actions we could take against shoplifting and thievery. For one, we could not pursue and physically harm anyone once they were out the door and off our premises. At first he followed the script, a factual recital of the stores legal rights and restrictions, but soon he launched into a diatribe against the Bill of Rights. Apparently, law enforcement found unreasonable restrictions to their authority and a coddling of criminals in the Fifth Amendment, and of course the Miranda Rights.

In addition to the detective’s attack on Constitutional Amendments protecting the citizenry from broad governmental power, I became aware of a propagandizing effort from clandestine conservative forces. The young salesmen I worked with had elevated their own quest for personal rights into a “me-first” attitude that embraced the worst aspects of sales. The caricature of a lying unethical, SPIF-taking, up-selling, slick talking, red tie wearing, black BMW driving money-grubber was their role model and ideal. I went to dinners and parties with these new “Libertarians” and listened to jokes and negative verbal screeds directed at their object of derision, those they deemed clueless “Liberals.” They even had anti-Liberal joke books: “What’s the definition of a liberal? Someone who’ll give you the shirt off someone else’s back!” They showed me a quasi-official looking document that had adopted the cover colors, size and style of a U.S. military manual that purported to disclose the Carter White House as a source of drug importing and distribution with photos of Carter supposedly illicitly partying with the Allman Brothers when they visited. How the world had changed during my 12 years of head down attention to an engineering career! In essence, “Where had all the flowers gone?”

I suppose I could be criticized for my feckless indifference to changing societal mores but I was sandbagged, appalled by the derision directed toward attitudes of compassion, community and equality. Before long the Iran-Contra scandal hit the popular press and again I was surprised by the great numbers of people who found Oliver North a heroic figure. Ronald Reagan, who greatly exacerbated the homeless problem by closing state mental institutions, and presided over a great recession was now considered a near god. And behind these attitudinal changes there was a relentless program mounted by organizations I couldn’t trace, cut from the same cloth as the John Birch Society, Heritage Society, Cato Institute, Ayn Rand Institute, and scores of others, e.g.: https://71republic.com/2018/09/24/the-15-organizations-every-young-libertarian-should-know/

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

It prohibits the passage of any law which would “abridge” freedom of speech, or freedom of the press. But we now have a president who demonizes the press and encourages derision and mocking of any thought he deems inappropriate. So, while Congress has not passed any laws restricting the press or the exercise of free speech, we are in a new reality! The Republican Party has abandoned Constitutional ideals. In fealty to and fear of reprisal from President Trump, their popular demagogue, acting like spineless lackeys and sycophants under the sway of corporate influence and decades of ultra-conservative erosion of centrist values, they mutely stand by as their strangely electable figurehead fills the digital forum with aspersion and lies, as well as extracting revenge on truth-tellers and excoriating any thoughtful opposition. The current president has established a tone in the country’s discourse befitting of a dictatorship. There are no sedition laws, but the penalties are in place: lose your job, suffer threats to self and family. And the enforcement will come from anyone attitudinally aligned with the current corrupt administration.

Ironically, the birth of the United States of America came in large part from the great embrace of individual freedoms found in the writings of the French Enlightenment. The success of the American revolution and the values espoused by the U.S. Constitution greatly informed the creation of the United Nations charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, where Article 19 states:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

This broader interpretation for freedom of speech can also be construed as a defense for contemporary uses of social media to promote hateful ideas and untruths. But there are differences between opinion and distortion of fact, information versus studied mistruth and the unrestrained promulgation of ideas repugnant to societal morals and ethics. The current administration and body politic in the United States ignores expressions of negativity and evil when it strengthens their position but will denigrate media sources counter to their agenda and will indeed interfere with individuals who bear witness and provide information exposing administrational malice, collusion and criminality.

Further, the flagrant abuses of the Republican President and Senate have created an atmosphere where vigilantism and violence selectively directed at enemies of “conservative” thinking is allowed with a shrug. Holding ideas contrary to the “party line” exposes one to potential ad hoc punishment, as if the thought itself is a crime creating and inciting an inevitable, sometimes violent response.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). From Wikipedia:

“The... ICCPR later amends [Article 19] by stating that the exercise of these rights carries ‘special duties and responsibilities’ and may ‘therefore be subject to certain restrictions’ when necessary ‘[f]or respect of the rights or reputation of others’ or ‘[f]or the protection of national security or of public order (order public), or of public health or morals’.”

Hence libel, flagrant immorality, “hate speech” and the encouragement of dangerous and unhealthy practices may be constrained. But in our topsy turvy world today the President himself exhibits a communication style that approaches libelous, prides sexual conquest and misogyny and reeks of racial intolerance. He has publicly called for brutal action against protestors, which qualifies as disturbing the public order. And his denial of scientific evidence regarding planetary climate disaster and resulting removal of environmental pollution controls qualifies as speech so damaging it affects public health. We’re in an Orwellian world now where good is bad, bad is good. As the poet Rumi said:

“The world is upside down

He who should be hanged in the public square is crowned emperor

People applaud”

Presidential encouragement for vigilante action against those who have different ideas and opinions has the effect of squelching opposition, silencing free speech. His autocratic “you’re fired” leadership style has cowed the formerly honorable GOP into a subservient silent lockstep. Only one man stood up against the party leader to look at the honest truth and vote to remove the divisive fool who hoodwinked the public to gain election for self-elevation rather than the public good. The example set by Donald Trump and the anti-Constitutionalists formerly known as the Republican Party runs against the noble ideals America was founded on. No law was passed, but the current wave of populism has the effect of stifling dialogue and silencing opposition. Though the concept of free speech still exists, it is dying in the U.S. and may well be pronounced dead this coming November!

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights