Loser
Posted on 09/24/2001 3:10:00 AM PDT by Ada Coddington
Unfree Republic
by Jeff Elkins
Let the stench of Middle East flesh reach Paradise reassuring them that these filth have gone to hell permanently."
The quote above is representative of many posted on the FreeRepublic.com site in the wake of the WTC attack, and unfortunately its like is not uncommon elsewhere. Americans are angry, predictably and rightly so, but just as predictable are the side effects. As always, that righteous anger will be accepted as a beloved gift by the state and molded into tools of oppression.
It’s funny how that works. Every single state-sponsored war the US has become embroiled in has resulted in an inexorable increase in the power of the state.
It’s also funny that it’s always assumed that human behavior in the past has no relation to how we behave today. Why those people were old-fashioned, we’re modern, educated, etc.
The beginning of this repeating pattern has already become public with the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security. It has an ominous sound, that name, almost Germanic. (I can’t wait to see the uniforms.)
On April 13, 1917, days after our entry into World War One, President Wilson created the Committee on Public Information to promote the war domestically while publicizing American war aims abroad. Bush has replicated that step, with this new cabinet-level department.
Under the leadership of journalistic muckraker George Creel, the CPI was a propaganda apparatus unparalleled at that point in world history. The CPI functioned as a de facto public censor, vetting nearly all published material about the war and helping to draft legislation such as the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. In the months prior to our entry into the war and especially after our entry when they were nearly criminal, antiwar viewpoints were rarely heard.
The same pattern emerges now: Penn. Gov. Tom Ridge will be President Bush’s George Creel, and just as in those dim days of yesteryear, he’ll have plenty of willing civilian accomplices. And after all, there’s so much more to censor -- Ridge will need all the help he can get. In seeking warriors for the front line of Internet censorship, Ridge needs look no farther than FreeRepublic.com. The atmosphere there is now poisonous.
Again, look back to Wilson's CPI. It encouraged businesses to spy on their employees, parents to spy on their children, children to spy on their parents, neighbors to spy on neighbors, and above all to report "disloyal," pro-German sentiments. State authorities banned the teaching of German in schools and changed German street names. As the madness mounted, those regarded as pro-German were hounded from their jobs, pressured to change their German names, beaten, and in a few cases lynched. Almost all cases of violence, while incited by the state, were carried out by "civilians" in the grip of war hysteria.
Along with this anti-German hysteria, Congress passed several measures designed to rigidly suppress criticism of the war. In particular, the Espionage Act, passed in June 1917, specified a fine of $10,000 or twenty years in prison for "whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag."
The Espionage Act was very popular in its day. It was cheered on by mindless lemmings under the influence of state propaganda. Their great grandchildren now inhabit FreeRepublic.com, viciously attacking anyone who questions the wisdom of the state.
Our Congress is considering similar measures under the rubric of "anti-terrorism," and as it was at the beginning of the 20th Century, the FreeRepublic lemmings of the 21st are cheering the morally corrupt politicians along.
It’s not just message posters on the site. The management of FreeRepublic has instituted a "loose lips sink ships" campaign, with new moderators patrolling the forum to delete posts that in their opinion are detrimental to the "war effort."
The FreeRepublic mission statement claims "We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America."
Sanctimonious hogwash. Everything old is new again – the keyboard warriors of FreeRepublic would be right at home in 1917 shilling for Wilson.
September 24, 2001
Jeff Elkins is a freelance consultant and writer living in North Central Florida. His personal website is located at www.elkins.org.
I really don't know how you can say that.
Yes I did.
Have you read the thread:
"Jane's Report on Osama and the Qaeda?"
Wish I could do links, but it's here if you do a search.
It is a frighteninly complete, albeit dated assesment of the magnitude of the problem, and the reality of what we're facing.
. . . i.e., an unemployed panhandler who sleeps in the public library.
This statement indicates that you are probably experiencing severe ocular distortions, most likely caused by an extended cranio-rectal inversion.
Sheesh. Talk about an America-hating ideologue! Lysander Spooner was the wacko-anarchist, wasn't he?
Elkins, if I remember correctly, referred to this site as "Free Empire." I will say now what I said then: he calls himself a "freelance writer and consultant" -- there is no one that is reading these words that is unqualified for that job.
I'd say this Jeff Elkins fella isn't spending much time here and really reading.
You got it. Elkins is no different than the usual enemies of FR that search for the worst representative posts on FR and try to characterize all of us by them. Fortunately, unlike Salon, Democrats.com, and dorks like David Brock, Elkins -- and for that matter, Rockwell -- are irrelevant -- almost as irrelevant as American Politics Journal (ha ha). They can slam us all they like, as far as I am concerned. They are alone in the forest, and are writing to us that they heard a tree fall.
Whatever.
It’s not just message posters on the site. The management of FreeRepublic has instituted a "loose lips sink ships" campaign, with new moderators patrolling the forum to delete posts that in their opinion are detrimental to the "war effort."
There are some valid points here, but the comments about FReepers are uncalled for. The only threads being yanked are the ones that provide specific information on military preparations not yet published in press reports.
I for one, am quite concerned about the potential for loss of freedom. Talk of national id cards is frightening, not in the short run, but for the future. If, at some point in the future, the country foolishly elects another Clintonesque administration, I have no doubt this power will be used for evil. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
When our legislators have approval from an angry electorate, much damage to our freedom may be done quickly in the name of security.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
—Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the governor, November 11, 1755
God protect us when the gov't decides that our free speech criticism of the gov't is treason, that we are not sufficiently supportive of all their "war" efforts. We can be labeled "terrorists" and there will be none left to defend us.
Jim, apply the same skepticism to Federal Government's Foreign Policy that you have so nobly applied to its domestic policies. Why do you trust them now in time of great danger to protect us, when their main goal is always to protect and extend their power at the cost of our liberty?
Watchman, return to your post on the wall!!!
We can count on this terrorism situation resulting in further erosion of the remnants of the US Constitution and BOR.
The author is right, it's happened in every war. Bad thing is, when the war is over we never get it all back.
If I get bored I will post a link to the "Gramm Rudman Commission.....on something to do with homeland defense" (I lost my bookmark)
Regards
J.R.
It's these kind of statements that are made on LIBERAL and leftist boards that get the libertarians flamed here.
It's these kind of statements that are made on LIBERAL and leftist boards that get the libertarians flamed here.
However some of the folly coming from the libertarian party, of which I used to be a member is just plain old tin foil fodder.
You seem to have arrived (eleven days ago) with your own agenda and the demeanor of someone who has attacked libertarians here before. Care to come clean?
I'd remind all who read this that it was one of histories most notorious socialist tyrants, Adolph Hitler, who correctly declared
"What great luck for rulers that people do not think." </font size=5>
Yes, 9-11-01 was a terrible event and we must find and punish those responsible. And, sadly, there WILL be others.
But we must not punish ourselves and those who come after us by killing the idea that was America and for which idea so many have already paid the ultimate price. Should THAT happen, America the PLACE will no longer be worth saving. What’s to save?
There is now serious talk about the NATIONAL ID CARD some in government have lusted after for decades. IF government at the state level had NOT been so free and easy with, for example, DRIVER’S LICENSES and a number of other “official” documents (which we now know several of the murderers secured from Florida), it’s possible their miserable lives might have been complicated and their plot foiled.
But here’s the more fascinating question: WHY THE HELL WERE SOME OF THESE GUYS EVEN IN THIS COUNTRY? Much to the FBI’s and CIA’s consternation, it’s now coming out that a number of them had long histories of suspicion of complicity in OTHER terror attacks.
It is common knowledge that the INS (ask any of the guys in the field!) had its hands tied in rounding up and deporting hispanics ON ORDERS FROM ON HIGH to “go easy.” I wonder how much of THAT attitude slopped over to ALL aliens, legal and illegal.
And isn’t it interesting that we have heard nothing lately about AMNESTY for illegals?
If the tragic events of 9-11 prompt a long overdue review of our entire immigration policy, the 7,000+ may not have died in vain.
Now the same government that so miserably failed in its prime Constitutional duty to protect America from all enemies, both foreign and domestic by allowing 7,000 of them to be slaughtered like helpless cattle – after we have ALREADY handed over huge chunks of our freedoms – may now be poised to seize the remainder. That that seizure is with the acquiescence of a majority of the citizens here DOES NOT make it acceptable. That is why America was INTENDED to be a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC and NOT the DEMOCRACY the Founding Fathers abhorred.
The strong, self-reliant men who created this place understood the danger of trading freedom for “security.”
"Gentlemen may cry, 'peace, peace'--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! Is life so precious, or peace so dear, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry to the Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania Assembly, Nov. 11, 1755
Let me conclude by reminding you that the Nazi concentration camps and Soviet gulags were some of the most secure places on the planet -- for all BUT the inmates.
Is THAT what YOU want for YOUR kids and grand-kids?
Let's work the problem, people -- starting with thinking it all the way through.
That statement is not very accurate historically, and quite naive. The war in Europe was at a complete standstill, they were dying over yards of land, they couldn't have projected force over the ocean if they wanted to. Besides, it was a fight like so many others, over the reach of Empire. The British, French and Germans had been going at each other for centuries, the only difference in that war was we intervened. Causing a imbalance in powers that may have led directly to the rise of Hitler and his ilk.
Thank God you "arent[sic] running this country".
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