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Excessive free speech is a breeding ground for more Trumps
The Globe and Mail ^ | March 21, 2024 | LAWRENCE MARTIN

Posted on 03/21/2024 7:46:10 AM PDT by packagingguy

There was a bit of good news about the future of public discourse this week. The United States Supreme Court, even though stacked with right-wingers, sounded like it was ready to give the Biden administration the go-ahead to try to persuade social-media platforms not to put out content promoting nonsense about the presidential election, conspiracy theories about the pandemic and other assorted bilge and crackpottery...

When other communications revolutions like the printing press, radio, and television came along, they were still largely controlled by the elites. But when the internet came along, regulatory bodies like Canada’s CRTC backed off. It was open season for anything that anyone wanted to put out. No license needed. No identity verification.

What a far cry from the days when the masses had no outlets save things like “man-on-the-street” interviews or letters to the editor or protest placards. We moved from one extreme to the other.

The masses were finally weaponized – not with arms, but with a communications instrument that empowered them against establishment forces like they had never been empowered before. The change represented one of history’s significant power shifts...

The internet undermined the established newspaper business model, greatly reducing the number of papers and coverage and creating a void for Mr. Trump and the like-minded to fill. His cries of fake news had the impact – it’s charted well in former Washington Post editor Martin Barron’s book, Collision of Power – of compartmentalizing the media landscape into left-right silos, which helped bring on the extremes of polarization.

The way to reverse the trend is with rigid regulation, but the free speech lobby in the United States is as fierce as the gun lobby.

(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Political Humor/Cartoons; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; banglist; canada; canadianfascist; collisionofpower; dinomedia; dissent; districtofcolumbia; enemieslist; enemyofamerica; eurotrash; fascistjournalist; freespeech; globeandmail; humanrightsviolation; jeffbezos; lawrencemartin; martinbarron; nra; secondamendment; trump; unitedkingdom; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost
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To: packagingguy

Free speech is OK as long as its not excessive. 🙄


61 posted on 03/21/2024 8:51:12 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: packagingguy

“The way to reverse the trend is with rigid regulation, but the free speech lobby in the United States is as fierce as the gun lobby.”

F@#$ that. Don’t reverse it. Accelerate it.


62 posted on 03/21/2024 8:56:26 AM PDT by Eleutheria5 (Every Goliath has his David. Child in need of a CGM system. https://gofund.me/6452dbf1. )
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To: packagingguy
...the free speech lobby in the United States is as fierce as the gun lobby...

Count on it.
63 posted on 03/21/2024 8:58:40 AM PDT by ComputerGuy (Heavily-medicated for your protection)
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To: packagingguy

ahh the left now going full out against the 1st amendment!


64 posted on 03/21/2024 8:59:00 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009
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To: packagingguy
A guy who claims that people have too many rights is one who thinks his own are sacrosanct. It doesn't work that way.

William L. Shirer documented what it was like to work under Nazi censorship in his Berlin Diary and Nightmare Years. Had he not cut his sources' names out of the former they would have been arrested, tortured, and either shot or sent to the camps. But at least they wouldn't have suffered from "excessive freedom."

65 posted on 03/21/2024 9:05:19 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: BrexitBen

“Excessive free speech”... Not only Chairman Xi, but Soviet dictator Vladimir Putin himself, couldn’t have said it better.


66 posted on 03/21/2024 9:08:05 AM PDT by Thunder90 (All posts soley represent my own opinions)
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To: packagingguy

The Dems continue to both criticize Russia, then they go ahead and try to emulate it here.


67 posted on 03/21/2024 9:09:35 AM PDT by Thunder90 (All posts soley represent my own opinions)
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To: Billthedrill

“A guy who claims that people have too many rights is one who thinks his own are sacrosanct.”

The Vanguard of the revolution always think they will live in luxury and total freedom while stomping on the masses.

Eventually they find out that they are destined to be just another fool—a “non person” at the Gulag.


68 posted on 03/21/2024 9:11:24 AM PDT by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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IOW, he's bucking for a job in the Biden administration.

69 posted on 03/21/2024 9:17:48 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

used to be, neighbors would call the cops...


70 posted on 03/21/2024 9:19:01 AM PDT by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: Chode

Yeah, but now government has to protect the squatter’s rights. If they can’t sleep in my house, they might die of COVID.


71 posted on 03/21/2024 9:31:15 AM PDT by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas (Re-imagine the media!)
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To: packagingguy

Oh how I long for the day when the peasants knew their place.


72 posted on 03/21/2024 10:10:22 AM PDT by lastchance (Cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius.)
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To: packagingguy

Eccl 10:20


73 posted on 03/21/2024 10:16:25 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: abb

Martin Luther is a Hero of The Faith!


74 posted on 03/21/2024 10:46:39 AM PDT by Big Red Badger (ALL Things Will be Revealed !)
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To: packagingguy

Yay Fascism! Maybe the Biden regime will be able to get away with censoring its political opponents after all!

Hopefully SCOTUS will actually make the ruling that is obviously in line with the first amendment and rule that no, the government absolutely may not lean on tech platforms to censor its opponents from telling truths the administration and the globalists find inconvenient.


75 posted on 03/21/2024 11:39:49 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: wildcard_redneck

Yuppers
and Now that they have Absolute Power
They won’t go Easily.


76 posted on 03/21/2024 1:29:54 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (ALL Things Will be Revealed !)
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To: packagingguy
...content promoting nonsense about the presidential election...

This bothers them.

77 posted on 03/21/2024 2:56:19 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: packagingguy

THE SKY IS FALLING!!!! THEY MAY NOT BE ABLE TO SHUT DOWN SPEECH!!!!

I read the first paragraph and knew he was a complete lunatic crackpot.


78 posted on 03/21/2024 4:11:51 PM PDT by spacewarp (Want freedom? Reject Dems.)
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To: packagingguy

This is a Canadian publication that is kept afloat by Trudeau-Bucks. What they say is the official government line.


79 posted on 03/21/2024 4:15:19 PM PDT by Antoninus (Republicans are all honorable men.)
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To: griswold3

It was Canada. They’ve already surrendered all their rights to their tyrant.


80 posted on 03/21/2024 4:48:48 PM PDT by spacewarp (Want freedom? Reject Dems.)
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