Censorship, Quiet Citizen! (unless you agree with us)

by Susan Snelling

Freedom of speech is a fundamental right and no nation can remain free without it. The “cancel culture” or censorship in America is dangerous to the Republic. It has a chilling effect and needs to be rooted out from American culture and institutions. Yes, censorship has come to America. People experience it in different ways such as for content they post on social media sites and as a result lose their jobs or business clients because they express views not approved by “progressives.”

The press tries to censure individuals and groups through defamation, twisting the facts, or outright lying. This is meant to silence and marginalize other views. The press violates the “letter and spirit” of the Constitution when it engages in character defamation. It has a responsibility under the Constitution to report the truth. It is expected that the press is to be respectful in its treatment of an individual so as to not cause the person harm.

A Republic is for a moral people and that involves the ability to self-govern. If the people are moral and thus able to self-govern, they constrain themselves from saying things intentionally that can destroy the life and livelihood of an individual. If not, there are legal remedies for the defamed in state courts.Unlike private schools, public schools are arms of the government and cannot tell students what to think or constrict one view and allow another such as teaching evolution and not creationism. The Constitution is also violated through programs that are forced on the children that push a certain political, religious, and philosophical view and allow the expression of only those approved.

The government cannot constrict speech according to the First Amendment to the Constitution. Freedom of speech is one of the inalienable rights, meaning they come from God and we cannot be alienated from them. The U.S. Constitution serves to constrain the government and protect those rights. The First Amendment to the Constitution says:“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.”

Notice these rights have a common thread of expression and that is the element of speech. The government cannot tell us what to think nor constrict our speech. We need to freely communicate with each other, exchange ideas, discuss matters of importance, debate, and reason together. Without this, liberty simply cannot exist. Abridging the freedom of speech and the censuring that is prevalent today will cause the loss of all our freedoms.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.” The freedom of thought comes from our Creator and the outward expression of it, whether verbal, written, or other. If our inalienable rights are protected then each person can live life to the fullest who God created them to be.We need to ask ourselves if our government is doing a good job in protecting our rights. Historian and philosopher Voltaire said, “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” Can citizens today publicly disagree with the government and its activities and policies without fear of reprisal, punishment, fines, censorship, vilification, and other retaliations that are meant to silence?

Constricting free speech is an essential step to destroying liberty. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” As with the destruction of all liberties, it usually happens slowly over time. James Madison stated, “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

George Washington said in an address to the officers of the army on March 5, 1783, that without freedom of speech we will be destroyed. “For if men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter.” Thomas Jefferson said, “Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.” Look at what happened with covid-19. Opposing views on treatment were censored therefore great errors were made.

Harry S. Truman, on August 8, 1950, said to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States: “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”  As Voltaire famously said, and this was a hallmark of the Founding Fathers, and should be of every citizen, “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” Founder Thomas Paine said, “He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression.”  Will we fight as hard for the freedom of our fellow Americans who disagree with us as we would for our own?

Without freedom of speech there is no liberty. The shining city on a hill becomes a desolate slum of mental, spiritual, and social midgets, slaves to their petty tyrants. The Founding Fathers said to future generations that America is worth fighting for, if not for the sake of liberty, do it for their sake, for those who gave up everything to secure it. The justice system today is weaponized against those who would disagree with the prevailing philosophy of the left thus the government has become a “source of terror” for the citizen. The citizen fears the government rather than the other way around as it should be in a free country. This course must be reversed. Vote for true Patriot warriors who are firmly grounded in the Constitution.