[The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on video games has the usual suspects bellowing their contention that the U.S. Constitution gives the Nanny State the power to protect them from speech they don't want to hear. They use the term 'free speech', because it implies that there is some speech which is NOT free. 'Free Speech' is term Korrectniks brandish when they are creating speech codes, promulgating thought crime laws (aka 'hate speech'). Free Speech, and its fellow traveler Restricted Speech are at the heart of political correctness.
If the term 'free speech' is a trap, what's the proper term for this inalienable individual liberty? That answer is enshrined in our First Amendment. Anyone who takes time to read the First Amendment, will notice that the Founding Fathers don't cite 'free speech', They use the unambiguous term 'freedom of speech', a term which does not give the eager censors any wiggle room. The opposite of freedom is tyranny, and nobody in their right mind thinks the Founding Fathers wanted any part of that.]
This venerable Hambo rant explores the following elements of the PIG Doctrine, in greater specificity:
The exaggerated sensitivities of others are not my responsibility, nor do their hurt feelings empower them to abolish my right to Freedom of Speech.
Since a word is nothing more than an ethically-neutral sequence of sound waves, it only has as much power for good or evil as the listener bestows upon it. There are no intrinsically 'offensive' sound waves, there are only hypersensitive listeners who are predisposed to being offended by them.
America And The Sounds of Silence
It's no accident that our inalienable birthright of Freedom of Speech is enshrined in the 1st Amendment of the U. S. Constitution. Its primary purpose is to remind the Nanny State to back the hell off when it comes to our Freedom of Speech. A secondary purpose, probably an unintentional one, is to remind each and every one of us that Freedom of Speech involves other sovereign individuals who can, and will, say things that we don't want to hear. Unhappily, neither of these lofty purposes has been achieved.
From the dawn of time, humans have been trying snuff out speech that they didn't want to hear. Each of us is afflicted with this utterly human malady. We want our voice to be heard, without restriction, but few of us have the stones to tolerate an opposing point of view. The Free State of PIG calls this phenomenon the 'Sounds of Silence'.
The Sounds of Silence have a long, sorry history. For example, when Iggy the Apeman started to feel frisky and went searching for female companionship, he would, invariably have his trusty club resting on his shoulder. Why? When he meet a suitable playmate, the last thing he wanted to hear from Cuddles the Cave Cutie is 'Not tonight, Iggy, I've got a headache'. A little love tap from his club resolved the pesky issue by imposing the sweet Sounds of Silence.
Not much has changed since Iggy and Cuddles' time, and humans continue to do everything in their power to snuff out speech they don't want to hear. They prefer the Sounds of Silence, because they can't handle speech that makes them defend their views, makes them listen to an unfiltered dose of objective reality. These self-appointed censors, invariably, use the government's monopoly on the use of force, to impose their preferred Sounds of Silence.
* Over the centuries, supernaturalists - from every sect - imposed the Sounds of Silence with blasphemy laws criminalizing 'religious' speech they didn't want to hear. We regret to report that such laws persist, to this very day, in parts of Europe, and in most Jihadikaze infested nations.
* Over the centuries, tyrannical regimes imposed the Sounds of Silence by making it a "shut up or we'll kill you" class crime to criticize the current regime. That, too, persists in certain notorious liberty-nuking blights on our globe.
* When it comes to censorship, when it comes to imposing the Sounds of Silence, America's true believers have a long, ignoble history. During the earliest phases of America's Colonial era, supernaturalist enclaves were imposing the Sounds of Silence on anyone who didn't spout the 'party line'. The differently-religious, along with true believers from the WRONG Cross Cult sect, got the Sounds of Silence bum's rush right out of town. Those who refused to comply were taught the errors of their ways.
The Sounds of Silence's infamous history was one of the reasons that America's Founding Fathers did their best to protect our Freedom of Speech birthright from a government-imposed Sounds of Silence. Unfortunately, human nature won't be denied and our 'shut the hell up' instincts seem to be winning this two centuries old battle to impose the Sounds of Silence from sea to shining sea.
Despite the 1st Amendment's protection of Freedom of Speech, sovereign American individuals, on both sides of the political spectrum, do their utmost to silence speech they don't want to hear. Technically, the 1st Amendment is still the law of the land. Technically, it continues to tell the government to 'back off'. Technically, it continues to warn sovereign individuals to 'get over it', when it comes to hearing things they don't like. Technically, but 21st century reality tells a different story.
* The Demoncrats imposed the Sounds of Silence on debates during primary elections by refusing to appear at any debates hosted by Fox News. That 'liberated' them from listening to, from answering, any hard, challenging, questions that could expose their views to the chad-punching public.
* When it comes to the Sounds of Silence, Messiah Barry is without peer. In a daring, preemptive, strike, he took numerous items off the table. These include, but are not limited to: his supernaturalism, his middle name, his rogues gallery of friends and associates, his inexperience, his blatantly Marxist platform, his unrelenting flip-flopping, and his unsuitability for that Oval Office job. He snuffed out any comments on these, and other matters, with a Sounds of Silence weapon of mass destruction: the race card.
* The Elephant Clan is equally adept at imposing the Sounds of Silence. They, too, favor the preemptive strike and it's almost as good as Messiah Barry's race card. Determined to snuff out any Freedom of Speech that exposes their sorry, government expanding, liberty nuking, antics, the Elephant Clan's Sounds of Silence trump card is their venerable mantra: We know that we really, really suck, BUT, the Demoncrats still suck more.
* Believe it or not, even on the Internet, where Freedom of Speech is alive and well, the Sounds of Silence have gained a foothold.A year or two ago, some Blogspot sites were shutdown by the parent company, Google. The Sounds of Silence scheme is simple and very effective. A group of Daily Kossack Obamatons singled out sites that were critical of Messiah Barry, then complained to Blogspot/Google that the sites are 'offensive'. Armed with those complaints, Blogspot/Google locked out the perpetrator of that Blogspot site while the investigation was under way. The ensuing Sounds of Silence resulted in several of the bloggers moving their sites to a competing blog site provider, but it will take time for them to recover their lost readership. Many of the targeted blogs are run by disgruntled Comrade Hillary supporters, who refused to be dazzled by Barry's bullshit.
* Until President Reagan eradicated it, the Sounds of Silence were very successful in snuffing out political speech on radio and television with the 'Fairness Doctrine'. In the name of promoting Freedom of Speech, this Draconian Nanny State stinker chased it off the 'public' airwaves. The instant the Sounds of Silence were dropped like a bad habit, talk radio exploded onto the scene, generating the robust political debate that the Fairness Doctrine promised, but never delivered.
The leftwing loons did their best to make this 'robust, wide-open political debate' work for them, but their primary success is on certain boob tube networks that were already dominated by lefties. The problem, as they soon found out, is that relentless liberal whining isn't viable in the marketplace. Whenever we the people are given a choice, we dump the liberal offering like a bad habit. That's why, depending on the outcome of the forthcoming election, this stinker could be disinterred, re-animated and used to restore the Sounds of Silence on the 'public' airwaves. If the libs can't make us listen, the next best thing is to use the Sounds of Silence to eliminate what rational adults want to hear.
* Juan 'Do You Want Salsa With That Citizenship, Chico' McCain succeeded in putting a muzzle on political speech, because Freedom of Speech gives incumbent Elected Tormentors a boo-boo. His Campaign Finance Reform imposed the Sounds of Silence during the critical phase of any election cycle, by criminalizing the Freedom of Speech of sovereign, chad-punching individuals.
* The neo-Marxist Eggheads, who dominate America's Ivory Towers, began imposing the Sounds of Silence, decades ago, with campus speech codes. Now, in the 21st century, roving gangs of Korrectniks intimidate any rational adult, who strays onto a college campus, into surrendering their Freedom of Speech birthright. The vaunted 'free exchange of ideas' has been unceremoniously evicted from the campus, by these cultural Marxists.
* Mecca Maniacs have reset the Sounds of Silence bar to dizzying heights. Their zeal, in this regard, is off the charts. If you dare to exercise your Freedom of Speech birthright about their prophet, their supernaturalism, their deity, or simply make them feel bad, THEY WILL KILL YOU. In their special circle of hell, Freedom of Speech is a synonym for "death sentence".
* America's properly hyphenated horde has whined its way around the 1st Amendment and prodded the Nanny State into criminalizing any speech that gives them a rash. It's called 'hate speech' and it's so loosely defined that it applies to any speech they don't want to hear. The Sounds of Silence are the law of the land, in this land conceived in liberty.
* Elements of the Vast Right-Wingnut Conspiracy have - in the name 'of the children' worked tirelessly to impose the Sounds of Silence on entertainment fare. Because some breeders can't, or won't, properly supervise their tykes, the Nanny State imposed Sounds of Silence which, systematically, deny sovereign individuals adult-themed content. Anything more daring than a test pattern is too 'edgy' for the boob tube. Any movie DVD that is aimed at an individual older than 5 can't be sold in the local outpost of capitalism, because - GASP - a child might get his mitts on it. Music albums that contain adult lyrics must be exiled, affixed with warning labels, and, wherever possible, removed from a store because some tyke might find it. Video games that give the VRWC a rash must be banished from the marketplace.
Too many alleged adults are hooked on the Sounds of Silence. Too many alleged adults take the easy way out by snuffing out speech that they can't handle, or just plain don't like. Too many alleged adults seem to forget that the Sounds of Silence are the quiet that proceeds the thunder of jackboots goose-stepping over our liberty. It's time to flush the Sounds of Silence. It's time to grow a pair and confront that exercise in Freedom of Speech that gets on your last raw nerve. It's time for each and every one of us to restore Freedom of Speech - as the Founding Fathers intended it - to its rightful place in this land of the not as free as we're supposed to be. |
