I don’t think I’ve seen as many frightening days and as many bad portents on the horizon as I have this past year and now.
One of my greatest concerns is the potential loss of our freedom of speech which, of particular import to me, translates to writing.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
There was a time when, in a playful manner if you will, I perhaps joked a bit about the loss of our freedoms due to various Politically Correct postures taken by venues of the Left. Being “P.C.” in portions of our speech was something of which we poked fun.
No more. Now there are laws extant and laws in the making.
Today, it is no longer anything even remotely resembling a joking matter. It is of such import that there are two current cases of great concern which may change the way we choose, in a so-called “free society,” to deal with so-called “free speech,” and may alter forever the real meaning of “free.”
And in America, mark my words all readers within the periphery of my blog, many of these things are here. Now. In the United States. And coming.
I’ve written numerous time about the Fairness Doctrine and its future when the Demorats may take power in November. Controlling the White House, House and Senate, two things can be guaranteed: taxes up; free speech down. Some of my prior posts on the topic include:
The carrot comes in the form of the manifold benefits of the nanny state that promises to feed, clothe, educate, heal and otherwise take care of everyone from cradle to grave. To get these things you of course have to accept the rise of an increasingly authoritarian social and political system and despite swallowing the bulk of your income, the nanny state has trouble delivering decent results and its bureaucratic arrogance inevitably makes life unpleasant– but the carrot offers benefits in exchange for compliance and complacency.
The stick is censorship. The first tier of censorship is self-censorship, in which a person censors himself and is careful to avoid saying or even thinking what is ‘outside the lines’.
The second tier of censorship is indoctrinational censorship which covers the range of institutions from school to university to the media to the government’s press agencies which set the tone for “acceptable” and “unacceptable ideas. This indoctrination usually involves repeating and promoting a simple concept or idea.
The third tier of censorship is social censorship, the goal of indoctrinational censorship is to create and enforce the social consensus of what the acceptable view is. When indoctrinational censorship is successful, social censorship crystallizes by making it impossible to say certain things out loud.
The fourth tier of censorship is police censorship. Despite social censorship, some people will have contrary opinions. The approach to managing unacceptable opinions is the steel behind the velvet glove, the stick itself, censorship by law enforcement and legal action. Currently British blogger Lionheart has been targeted but he is merely part of a larger situation.
Finally we come full circle to the fifth and the first tier of censorship, self-censorship. The end result of this Orwellian tangle of indoctrinational, social and legal censorship is to induce self-censorship, to keep people from not only speaking out but to prevent them from even thinking about those things. To create an atmosphere of fear and guilt at the very thought of dissent itself.
It is deeply disturbing to me, to see Western Cultures fall prey to the hacking and slashing of their freedoms of speech and thought. And yet it appears that Western Cultures only are subject to this trending and, oddly enough, only Western Cultures once thought to be the firmest bastions and repositories of free speech.
This just isn’t coincidence, ladies and gentlement — and it isn’t piecemeal. It is a concerted, cognizant, deliberate attempt to repress your fundamental God-given rights, and your American rights.
We ignore these trends at our global, national and individual peril.
BZ
BZ, we have a POTUS that sees the Constitution as nothing more than a piece of paper… And a not very important piece of paper…
I knows a couple of your readers think the SOB is some kind of god, little g deliberate, but he’s not, he is evil, he will destroy this nation before his term is done and he has more followers in the house and senate than anyone really wants to know…
And to those I am referring to as his ‘worshipers’, don’t click this link, it goes to MY blog and I don’t want you to have a fit when you see what I had to say about your dumbass hero…
How much trouble is America really in?
I don’t disagree, he is massively disappointing. But it will only get WORSE with the free-speech-eliminating Demorats in the White House. They openly espouse Euro trends and the Euro trends are NOT good.
BZ
Well as far as this “Fairness Doctrine” BUSH is totally responsible. Let me explain:
Bush caught a lot of flak over the Iraq war, HOWEVER: had he took a stronger stance on illegal immigration he may have saved the majority in BOTH houses. HIS lack of nuts dealing with the issues in order to further his “Globalist” agenda cost him and the Repubs BIG TIME!
Now with a Demorat controlled congress, senate we get what we knew we would, a bad economy, and free speech challenges…THEN the Dumb SOB actually challenges the 2nd Amendment, this is the death blow for the “R” IMO.
I don’t want to get involved with the “Bush support crew” I am not getting into the insult for insult te da te but those that support Bush are seeing exactly WHY a lot of us QUIT supporting him.
I have a few reasons why he was better than his opponents in BOTH elections but basically all it did was postpone the inevitable.
We are destined to be governed by the dredges of politics and I fear we will see it in 08.
The case in England is curious. I mean a simple writer who now faces jail for writing about Islam? I don’t think so… fishy fishy this story.
I guess we have to make our opinions loudly heard and not be afraid of punishment.
I would be curious, Jenn: what is it that you find fishy? I checked the links to the original post and found the basis for his claim to have some merit according to the statute as written. I don’t believe there is an update, and have written to “Lionheart” for further information, which I hope to have in a bit.
BZ
Excellent article on ‘thought-crime’ censorship at http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2008/01/shhhh-quiet-censorship-in-progress_09.html
Yes, that’s one of the links I used on THIS very same post, indeed. Check the middle of the post.
BZ
A few years ago we laughed at all this as some kind of joke, and now we are facing socialist creep on every level, and all fronts.
Great post BZ!
Hi BZ, i hope you dont mind but i used one of your pictures.
I have not returned to the UK yet, i am going to be applying for political asylum in the U.S.
Im on the radio tomorrow evening if you want to tune in to hear about my situation.
Thanks for dropping by my blog and thanks for your support.
Me today – You tomorrow
God bless you
Lionheart
Lionheart, I’d love to hear about your little green footballs problem?
What’s the deal with that????
Lionheart: thanks so much for dropping by. I believe you summed it all up in four VERY succinct and frightening words:
“Me today and you tomorrow.”
People, please listen, please be aware. Tune in to Lionheart. Listen to someone who is experiencing things as they are happening.
BZ
Where do we tune in, what time?
You can find details about LH’s interview tomorrow on The Gathering Radio Show at one of my web site. I am one of the co-hosts of the show.
See THIS for the details. You can listen live or later (podcast). If you listen live, you can participate via the chat room.
as for the u.k./u.s. comparison – first they come for our weapons – after that we are an easy take.
GOD help u.s. if a dhimmiwittedcrat comes to power.
what shoprat said – will they have enough prisons to house u.s.? or will they empty them in order to do so?
we are on the threshhold of a different america come next year at this time.
make sure you report all your weapons stolen…oops! did i say that out loud?!?
I just shake my head at all of this. Ten years ago I couldn’t POSSIBLY have seen this coming, not from MY country.
BZ
Dang, BZ! Lionheart visited your blog. Congratulations! He has a lot of people praying for his success. “May the Force be With Him! 🙂