By: Steve Gruber
ClashDaily Guest Contributor
Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut says the only way to save America is to crack down on social media sights and remove pages that are deemed offensive. It is time to pull the plug he says on the alleged purveyors of fake news or hate speech which will be determined by some secret formula and or team of so-called ‘experts’. Think about that for a long moment, a leading Democrat says the only way to save the country is through arduous comprehensive censorship to be done in secret by some panel of unelected social justice warriors. Really? What happened to the Democrats who railed in favor of Free Speech and demanded transparency at every turn? Well, it seems that is just too old-fashioned these days.
It is truly mindblowing and deeply frightening just how far millions of people on the left are willing to go to make sure voices on the right are silenced. It is all in an effort to promote its failing Socialist, Communist, Marxist ideas and ideologies. Alex Jones is the latest high profile far-right takedown by the social media engineers. Jones and his conspiracy theory websites and videos have been deemed too dangerous or offensive to remain on YouTube or Facebook or a host of other places online. I am not an Alex Jones fan but let me be clear I am a big fan of Madison, Jefferson, and Jay. I subscribe to the foundational principals of America including Voltaire who wrote in part, I may not agree with a single word you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it. The legions of victims on the left have likely never even heard of Voltaire after all his writings are not included alongside the play-doh and fidget spinners in their safe spaces.
I actually believe we are accountable for what we believe. I know it is a crazy notion but I believe people have an obligation to figure out what the truth is for themselves and not gobble up whatever pile of garbage they discover on Facebook or Twitter. Why else would we ever have a saying like ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover? I guess I am just old-fashioned.
I mean why wouldn’t I have the responsibility to figure out what’s true and what’s not for myself? When did that become a thing? I have always taken the responsibility to determine what’s fact and what’s fiction by asking plenty of questions and challenging the accepted version of ‘truth’. I am by nature a skeptic. It serves me well. I don’t think we need to change the world because there are so many gullible or more accurately lazy people wandering around staring at their smartphones and willing to believe all sorts of crazy things they read online.
Hey, you have a supercomputer in your hand use it. If you are accepting on blind faith the things that pop up on your so-called news feed on social media sites then you are the one to blame. We aren’t going to fix stupid by installing censorship Czars. In fact, I would argue that deleting sources from the web will surely lead to more ignorance and not less.
I never had to be told what to believe when reading the glaring tabloid headlines while I was standing in line. The National Enquirer, The Star, and Weekly World News have been peddling fringe conspiracy theories ever since I first wobbled into a checkout lane. I read that Elvis is alive, UFO’s are real and coming to get us, I’ve seen the Kennedy assassination revisited and resolved dozens of times and these headlines are apparently no threat at all. Why not? Why hasn’t Senator Murphy targeted the tabloids to have government monitors sift through their material to make sure it isn’t ‘fake news’?
The Ku Klux Klan and others have been making books, fliers, audiotapes, movies and more to promote their twisted vision of the world since 1871 but I don’t hear the Democrats clamoring to shut down the printing presses. I don’t hear Senator Murphy and his merry band of G-men demanding we get to the bottom of the fake news on the newspaper shelf. Why not?
The answer is simple. The Internet and social media sights have a much larger target rich environment of intellectual sloths that don’t care to do their own research. They are more than happy to digest all sorts of ludicrous propositions and besides it gives Murphy and his censorship squad an enemy to hold up before the voters. “You see it is the Russians!.” There is nothing quite like manufacturing a bogeyman to hold up and turn into a villain.
The left is applying its same flawed logic to the First Amendment that it has already been using on the Second Amendment for decades. I mean how many times have you heard a progressive proclaim that the Founding Fathers ‘could not have imagined the kind of guns we have today’ and therefore we must restrict the right to keep and bear arms. That is no different than the Founding Fathers not being able to ‘imagine’ The World Wide Web, email, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, The Cloud, SnapChat, Instagram, hacking, phishing, spamming, gigabytes, data and therefore liberals must impose censorship to save the nation. There is simply no alternative but a massive amount of government intrusion and control. I mean what could possibly go wrong with that?
I have been telling you for years the First Amendment is under assault in America. I have had many of my liberal friends dismiss the idea out of hand as me being paranoid. I doubt they can use that refrain much longer now that we see Democrats demanding we codify censorship so ‘they’ can save the country from those bastards that dare speak their minds or who don’t get the information they put out approved first.
Who exactly they are trying to save America from anyway?
Make no mistake the First Amendment IS under attack and it is happening in the bright light of day. I am not sure how that will affect the alien baby Hillary Clinton adopted according to The Weekly World News or the startling revelation that Dick Cheney is actually a robot sent to earth. I guess Prince Andrew and the sex slaves that were detailed in The National Enquirer should also not be concerned by all the chaos and neither should bat boy now that he is in FBI custody. I mean fake news is only a problem if you don’t like the headlines it seems. Maybe Senator Murphy is secretly a space robot too sent to steal our freedom. I will keep my eyes peeled in the checkout lane to see if they reveal the truth.
Make no mistake, you have been warned, again!
Steve Gruber is a regionally syndicated talk radio host based in Northern Michigan. Find out more at stevegruber.com.
