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 can see the likes of Hillary, Feinswein, Schumer, et. al. licking their collective chops in anticipation of using these newly granted powers of the govnernment on us "extremists" who believe that the intent of the Second was to intimidate the Government into respecting the restrictions the Constitution places on it.
Be very careful what you let out of Pandora's box.
Back that up, mister.
Agreed, but unfortunately they are not aware of who they are.
I would say it's mostly those who love to hear themselves talk, and live their lives as if crises and emergencies can be resolved by talking them to death.
Or by intellectualizing themselves into eternal inactivity.
All for the sake of "Moral Superiority", or presumably also for humanity and "For the Children".
It's called spin darlin, keep saying it and people believe it!
Please elaborate.
For the life of me, I can't imagine that any informed adult in the U.S. would seriously question that as a fact.
How did it become "spin"?
Agreed. WW II, however was another matter.
Even if our government DID trick us into getting into it. We would have eventually anyway.
Ok, I'll let you run with that assumption.
Now what about when Hillary wins in 2008, and the cards are still in place?
Here is just one example:
Here's another:
I actually have stated that I think that it might be wiser to abolish child-porn laws.
Do you need more examples?
Sorry, not buying it, you have been here for a real long time, you know all the lingo and you have been banned in the past I'm sure. You show up again under a new name two days after the disaster in order to spew hate. Very few here agree with you but there are always a few dogs to throw raw meat to.
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.
This tells me that you were banned for sure, I remember a person who was kicked out of the libertarian party or ignored and ridiculed out of the party because he wasn't a libertarian but merely a malcontent who was ignored where ever he was a hanger on previously.
I'm guessing you are CZAZ, but it could be one of the other losers. You were so forgettable that the screenname quickly faded away.
It's only a matter of time before you are booted again.
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