Excessive free speech is a breeding ground for more Trumps

The Globe and Mail ^ | March 21, 2024 | LAWRENCE MARTIN

[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.

[yuleeyahoo]

“Unless we each conform, unless we obey orders, unless we follow our leaders blindly, there is no possible way we can remain free.”

-Maj. Frank Burns

[CIB-173RDABN]

The Second Amendment is to protect not speech we agree with but speech we disagree with, especially political speech.

I view the Second Amendment as a safety valve like you would find on a pressure cooker. If you disabled the safety valve on a pressure cooker you can expect it to explode. If you restrict or punish free speech you can expect an explosion.

[No name given]

He sure is.

[BradyLS]

First, the politicians told us there was “too much consumin’ goin’ on out there!”

Now that they have problem licked, the politicians tell us we have “too much free speech.”

Too much travel is also under attack as the politicians try to have us give up ICE’s for EVs on the path to no personal vehicles and the “15-minute city.”