In his eighth Silence Dogood letter, Benjamin Franklin wrote, 'Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.'
It's cliché to point out freedom of speech is enshrined in the First Amendment for a reason: given such primacy indicates how important the framers of the Constitution found the concept to be.
The First Amendment protects free speech not for the sake of popular, agreeable, or inoffensive speech. Quite the opposite, in fact: it is meant to protect speech that some may find distasteful, even offensive, or otherwise controversial.
This includes speech the Left has classified as 'mis/disinformation', and especially this type of speech. In a twist that would make even George Orwell blush, the term 'mis/disinformation' has become popular on the Left as a catch-all for 'speech we (the Left) don't like.'
By labeling it the nefarious sounding 'mis/disinformation', they seek to create fear among the public to garner support for censoring such speech and even punishing those who dare to speak it.
Failed Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz made it very clear that he doesn't think the First Amendment protects 'mis/disinformation' or 'hate speech' (which his fellow Minnesota pols defined so broadly it included supporting J.K. Rowling), and he even pushed for a 'hate speech' registry to track ungoodthink. Kamala Harris also lamented the lack of 'oversight' on social media, saying free speech is a privilege and not a right.
Jen Psaki, who enjoys the protection the First Amendment affords her in her job, wants to block people from getting news on social media. David Axelrod longs for the day when X 'polic[ed] disinformation.'
But it's not enough for the Left to push to censor free speech. Oh, no. They have to use our tax dollars to silence us.
NEW: Mollie Hemingway rips the Biden administration for spending nearly $300 million to suppress speech.
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) December 11, 2024
"The Biden administration collectively spent $267 million to combat misinformation."
"Look at the increase in spending from 2017, when just $316,000 was spent on it. It… pic.twitter.com/YvkDpQxUGH
The entire post reads:
'The Biden administration collectively spent $267 million to combat misinformation.'
'Look at the increase in spending from 2017, when just $316,000 was spent on it. It topped out in 2022 at $75.8 million.'
'We have federal agencies engaged in the suppression of speech and debate that the federal government disagrees with. That is in no way the job of the federal government to weigh in on what Americans are saying.'
'They put it under the guise of fighting misinformation or disinformation. They claim they are doing fact-checking and news literacy.'
'It's a horrific violation of the First Amendment, and Americans need to know how much money is going into it, and that money needs to stop flowing immediately.'
Perhaps @DOGE should stop the U.S. government from wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on violating the First Amendment rights of American citizens.
Where did that money go? Perhaps to Facebook, which censored users during COVID or suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story. Or maybe it went to GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) that was found to have target conservative media to strip them of ad revenue (before Elon Musk sued GARM into oblivion, that is).
There is no bigger purveyor of 'mis/disinformation' than the government and media: the economy is great. Kamala Harris is going to win the election, COVID started with bats, Hunter Biden's laptop is phony. You get the point.
And people see this. The government knows they see it, which is why they funnel this money through corporations and groups.
Remember when the Left hated corporations? They were greedy, oppressive regimes of capitalism that needed to be destroyed. Then the Left realized a relationship with corporations would give them a way to circumvent the Constitution and undermine our rights while -- technically -- saying they had nothing to do with it.
Don't be fooled; they know exactly what they're doing and why they're doing it. Their goal is to silence opposition until, like the U.K., they can criminally punish Americans for the crime of ungoodthink.
It's an absolute slap in the face to the American people: not only do they seek to shut us up, they make us pay them to do so.
