Free Speech Under Attack from All Angles
Worldwide, tyrants are tightening their grip
It’s been a couple months since Canada’s been in the news, but over the weekend the “Rolling Thunder” convoy…..…ummm……rolled into downtown Ottawa to protest the continuing vaccine mandates still required to leave the country. It was all very Canadian:
(In case you missed the original protest saga, you can catch the first half in provided links, then read the remaining stories right here until you’re all done. The main highlight for today is that the government of Canada froze bank accounts of protestors.)
In what may be dangerous evidence that Tyrantosaurus Rex is capable of learning and adapting, Trudeau immediately called in the big guns. To keep peace, you know.
The city soon declared that “people can protest, not vehicles”, creating a ‘motor vehicle exclusion zone’ just outside Parliament.
This gives me a wonderful excuse to post this snippet of the best article I’ve ever read about why money is speech:
Of course, money is not "speech." Money is money, a car is a car, and a ribbon is a ribbon. These are objects, not speech. But all of these objects, and many more besides, can be used to facilitate free speech. Consider a car. The government can lawfully impose all sorts of restrictions on how, when and where we can drive a car, and no one would argue that those restrictions implicate the First Amendment.
But suppose a city enacts a law prohibiting any person to drive a car in order to get to a political demonstration. Such a law would clearly implicate the First Amendment, not because a car is speech, but because the law restricts the use of a car for speech purposes.
Similarly, a ribbon is a ribbon. A ribbon is not speech. But a law that prohibits anyone to wear a pink ribbon for expressive purposes would clearly implicate the First Amendment, because it restricts the use of a ribbon for speech purposes.
Like a car or a ribbon, money is not speech. But when government regulates the use of money for speech purposes, it implicates the First Amendment. Suppose, for example, an individual at an Occupy protest burns a dollar bill to convey her disdain for corporate America. A dollar bill is not speech, fire is not speech, but a government law prohibiting any person to burn money as a symbolic expression of opposition to corporate America would surely implicate the First Amendment.
The point is simple. Even though an object may not itself be speech, if the government regulates it because it is being used to enable free speech it necessarily raises a First Amendment issue.
Luckily for Trudeau, he doesn’t have to deal with pesky things like the First Amendment. Neither does the European Union, which has always waded in the waters of censorship but now looks to be ready to dive in face-first.
If you want a glimpse of what this would look like in practice, just look to Ukraine, where the government passed ‘anti-collaboration’ laws before arresting citizens for speech.
The middle-aged man came to the attention of Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, after what authorities said were his social media posts praising Russian President Vladimir Putin for “fighting with the Nazis,” calling for regions to secede and labeling the national flag “a symbol of death.”
“Yes, I supported (the Russian invasion of Ukraine) a lot. I’m sorry. … I have already changed my mind,” said Viktor, his trembling voice showing clear signs of duress in the presence of the Ukrainian security officers.
“Get your things and get dressed,” an officer said before escorting him out of the apartment. The SBU did not reveal Viktor’s last name, citing their investigation.
Viktor was one of nearly 400 people in the Kharkiv region alone who have been detained under anti-collaboration laws enacted quickly by Ukraine’s parliament and signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
See how easy it is? Declare some forms of speech illegal and you can arrest whoever’s a giant pain in your ass that day! Why go through all the work of banning people off social media when you can just send them to the gulag where there’s no internet access at all?
Speaking of Ukraine, Rep. Adam Kinzinger introduced legislation allowing US intervention in Ukraine if Russia uses chemical or biological weapons — which I believe is called the “How To False Flag Your Way Into World War Three” Act. These people simply can’t wait for an excuse to get involved and kick off the nuclear lightshow.
In another attempt to ratchet up the tension, Biden and the Gang are gung-ho about stealing stuff from Russians, and they want you to know it.
Why do they want you to know it? Because although the DGB has stated it won’t target Americans, we’re talking about a government agency here — and one tasked with election disinformation. (Remember when the USA PATRIOT Act wasn’t supposed to target Americans either?)
How long will it be before the DGB is telling Paypal who to ban, or telling DHS who is a ‘domestic terrorist’? After the success of Canada shutting down protestors and the increase in vaccine uptake after the mandates, government has decided that threatening your ability to feed your family is a viable (and efficient!) compliance tool. This is the logical next step of the fascist takeover of the country. Agencies with the guns will simply point to the DGB ‘proof’ as they steal your stuff and deplatform you, or worse.
That’s why my rule for banks is the same as the golden rule of crypto:
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Free speech is only tolerated by competent people, and we're breeding competence out of our population. Speech is already being attacked on the new "truth" social. Deace sent his first post today (what will they call them?) that trans is demonic. It was immediately "flagged" as unacceptable. Maybe Trump copied his algos from twit, or maybe he's just still hiring disloyal sabateurs. But people everywhere are being trained to avoid speech they dislike. Even on substack we have pussies banning posters that disagree with them. All the banners are probably arranging their neutering. It's a global epidemic of safe space fetishers.