Free speech prevents violence. Unfortunately, that is one reason that leftists hate it.
A currently used college textbook on media law lists the core values of free speech that US courts have historically considered while ruling on free speech related issues. One of these core values is free speech as a Safety Valve. Free speech allows people to express problems and grievances before they escalate into violence. Also, free speech is a mechanism for ‘letting off steam” and helping to balance “social stability and change, compromise and conflict, tolerance and hate” (Trager et al 61).
Further, free speech is a right that we are all supposed to have under the Constitution. Leftists accuse anyone who criticizes what they say as being against free speech (Flynn 8). Yet, they have shown over and over that leftists will go to any extremes to silence ideas that they don’t want you to hear. These are up to and including terrorism.
Leftists know that most reasonable people abhor violence.
Yet leftists need violence to enforce their preferred policies. You generally can’t get people to adopt actions that are against their own interests by using reason. Instead, you must use tactics like trickery or coercion. If that doesn’t work, leftists escalate to intimidation, backed by actual incidents of violence for reinforcement. That’s how the Democratic KKK operated in the Jim Crow era. In fact, it’s a strategy they have used effectively for a long time. If you live in a city where there have been riots, you know what I’m talking about. You or your friends and relatives have lived in an atmosphere of terrorism, subjected to being firebombed while eating out. Meanwhile, your historic landmarks are vandalized as your stores are burned or boarded up. People have been gunned down in the street for the crime of merely existing.
To further deceive, leftists then label counteractions that are peaceful as violent or potentially violent to justify suppressing them. This raises the level of frustration in people who would prefer to act reasonably. If leftists can provoke a few vulnerable individuals who are already stressed to the limit into committing actual violence, those individuals can be made examples. This helps sell the chosen narrative to the rest of the public.
Alternate Reality
The advantage of double standards to an abuser is that they get to live in a world created just for them. They can do anything they want while they place restrictions on you (Bancroft 157). Some people call this “liberal privilege”. Even though leftists talk a lot about equality, it really doesn’t work for them. Clearly, they only want you to have the impression that it’s one of their values. When the left gives something a label, it’s a smart idea to check and make sure that it really doesn’t mean the opposite of what they claim.
As an example of liberal privilege, pro-American displays and sentiments trigger violent thoughts and actions in many leftists. After 9/11, one college professor spoke out in favor of blowing up the Pentagon (Flynn 3). If you search for “Liberals advocating for violence” or something like that on a search engine that doesn’t censor, you will find numerous examples. It’s acceptable at many institutions of learning for teachers and professors to preach politically motivated violence. For example, recently the University Of North Carolina Wilmington retained a professor who advocated for terrorist bomb attacks against Republicans (Edgar).
Yet leftists are quick to advertise their moral superiority and accuse anyone who stands up for America or Freedom as being inherently violent. This is what domestic and other abusers do when they taunt a victim until they act out so they can accuse them of being “crazy” and therefore deserving of harsh treatment.
Consider January 6th
We watched this tactic happen in real time on January 6, 2021 when President Trump advocated for peaceful demonstrations at the US Capitol. Then his Twitter account was erased so that the media could report that he had incited violence. Why else would Twitter not want everyone to see these messages (Trump Twitter Archive)?
“Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!” (Jan 6th 2021 – 2:38:58 PM EST)
“I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!” (Jan 6th 2021 – 3:13:26 PM EST)
The answer is of course that Twitter, Big Tech, Big Media and robber-baron corporations want regimes in power that are more friendly to their needs. Our Constitution is in the way of their plans. We know that preventing violence isn’t their real goal, after all Putin still has a Twitter account and he’s overseeing the invasion of the Ukraine and brutal civilian killings as we speak.
Creating Propaganda
Dehumanizing Constitution supporters as violent gives the left more support to force us into an underclass without rights or power of any kind. No group thinks it’s fair to be judged solely by their extremists, but fairness doesn’t matter to the left. Simply put, the end justifies the means, because in their minds human life has no inherent value. As such, leftists consider themselves entitled to dictate who enjoys rights and privileges.
Of course, it isn’t only the United States under attack. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has been called out for using tactics that public broadcasting and Big Media organizations have made all too familiar as they attempted to discredit and disenfranchise the recent Freedom Convoy in Canada, in collusion with financial and Big Tech organizations (Gunter, Slapinski).
Values Lost
With free speech and other individual rights opposed so much now in corporate and media culture, how did the core values of free speech end up in a college textbook used in the present day? There was a time when leftists fervently advocated for free speech, known as ‘The McCarthy era.’ For a time, McCarthyism caused educators to react protectively to freedom of thought and speech in academia. Once the fear of McCarthy was gone, the educational system no longer saw a need to protect free speech and thought as vigorously (Bloom 324-325).
More recently, leftists again advocated for free speech during the Gulf War when they didn’t want to be boycotted for openly rooting for our country’s enemies. Of course, they wanted to keep that lucrative liberal privilege while doing so. For example, George Clooney directed a movie called “Good Night and Good Luck” to help make the case for free speech to help protect himself and his Hollywood cohorts from being “cancelled” for their anti-American activism.
One reason that the Constitution framers spelled out free speech along with other certain rights in our constitution is because the former colonists had recent memories from Britain of having to purchase a license to run a printing press (Davis). Who would have thought we’d live in an era where Big Tech is close to completely enforcing a social credit system, where we must surrender our constitutional rights to conduct any business at all that uses technology? That is in effect a license to own a printing press. We are rapidly headed back to the 1600s, being downgraded to the status of serfs from citizens, and this trend is labeled for public consumption as “progressive”.
Sources:
Bancroft, Lundy. Why Does He Do That? Inside The Minds of Angry and Controlling Men. Berkeley Books. 2002.
Bloom, Allan. The Closing of the American Mind. Simon and Schuster. 1987.
Davis, Kevin R. “Printing Ordinance of 1643 (1643).” Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, 2009, mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1033/printing-ordinance-of-1643. Accessed 11 March 2022.
Edgar, Liam. “‘Blow Up Republicans’ University Of North Carolina Wilmington Professor Calls For Violence On Social Media,” 2021, https://www.tampafp.com/blow-up-republicans-university-of-north-carolina-wilmington-professor-calls-for-violence-on-social-media/. Accessed 14 March 2022.
Far Left Watch. “Far-left extremists are raising money on Patreon to ‘inspire insurrection’.” 2018, Accessed 14 March 2022.
Flynn, Daniel J. Why the Left Hates America. Forum, 2002.
Gunter, Lorne. “GUNTER: More falsehoods about the convoy are now being retracted.” Toronto Sun, 2022, torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/gunter-more-falsehoods-about-the-convoy-are-now-being-retracted. Accessed 14 March 2022.
President of Russia. https://twitter.com/KremlinRussia_E. Accessed 14 March 2022.
Slapinski, Mark. “CBC admits that it spread disinformation on ‘Freedom Convoy,’ retracts false story”. Toronto 99, 2022, www.toronto99.com/2022/03/11/cbc-admits-that-it-spread-disinformation-on-freedom-convoy-retracts-false-story/. Accessed 14 March 2022.
Trager, Robert Susan Dente Ross and Amy Reynolds. The law of journalism and mass communication. Sixth Edition. SAGE Publications, Inc. 2018.
Trump Twitter Archive. www.thetrumparchive.com/. Accessed 14 March 2022.
Carolyn Hasenfratz
http://www.chasenfratz.com/wp