There are certain rights and obligations of citizens in society that every American should have learned in civics class. One of the first things I was required to do was memorize the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. I've even read it a few times from the actual document in the National Archives museum, in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom.
"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."
In reading all of our founding documents you'll notice that there are things we can do, things we ought to do, and things that the government can't do. For instance, the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment states that the government “shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise of religion.” However, that is in context with the fact that our freedom to exercise religious beliefs are spiritually and legally tethered to our unalienable rights. That means that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are God given rights, not sociological. Those unalienable rights are basic rights that you have at birth and are founded on the Judeo-Christian principle of Genesis 1:26:
“Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…”, which would imply that since all human beings have been created equal in God's image, we have been given basic unalienable human rights.
So, with that as a principle, there are other things you can't do if your religion conflicts with those unalienable rights. In other words, the First Amendment would not protect the practice of human sacrifice even if some religion required it. Because it is against God's law, which is the foundation of our human laws. We can debate theology another time. I'm not saying that you have to agree with the Bible or all our founders were Christians, they were not; however, there was most certainly a Judeo-Christian consensus."
First, let me say that as a general principle I believe censoring people is fundamentally wrong, unless it interferes with an individual’s life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's what our form-freedom experiment is all about here in America. We do our best to form a government that meets our responsibilities and obligations to society, but also respect individual rights of consciousness. In our system you even have the right to speak if you're ignorant, wrong or just plain stupid. I myself, at times, have met those merest requirements.
My biggest beef today is the use of technology to censor people. Commercial phone companies aren't responsible and can't censor a call because they're a carrier. Social media platforms can censor because they're a provider. It's burocratic B-S and it should scare you, because there are already laws against threatening violence and threatening to harm someone. Neither Twitter, Facebook, nor Parler can allow that...and Parler never did. Parler was kicked off because "they" said it had not sufficiently policed its users' posts, allowing too many that encouraged violence and crime. But we all know it was leftist demagoguery.
"They" the leftists use, and weaponize, words like encourage and incite, but "they" never define the acceptable context and are always the ambiguous arbiters of what is it all means. If you think that they’ve acted fairly, then may we also agree that there is a ton of music, movies, books, and entertainment that encourages and incites drug use, theft, gangs, violence, human trafficking, and sexual assaults just to mention a few horrific behaviors. It must be dealt with equitably. Or, do we as a pluralistic, common-sense kind of society say that it is the actual person who perpetuated the crime that is responsible. I can't know whether or not I encouraged or incited anything by writing this blog, nor can you. In President Biden’s words, "Come on man!" You go down the rabbit hole of your choice, but be consistent, because I'm going to watch you. Some things go or everything goes. It all makes sense or nothing makes sense.
You're walking a thin line when commercial Big Tech has the power to cooperate with government and shutdown free speech based on differences in ideology or religion. If that doesn't scare you---it should. Shutting down the Sisters of of the Poor because you don't believe in God or Parler and Ben Shapiro because you disagree with their politics is a totalitarian characteristic. But Mike, we want to protect the choices of women and Parler and Ben are private brands. We're just trying to protect human choice and protect us from foreign and domestic terrorist. B-S and B-S! on both counts. What about the rights of babies? They are human, if you believe science. And the powers that be are shutting down people who disagree with their political views and at some point you'll be next.
If you think its alarmist or conspiracy thinking, then you're plainly asleep. There is a systematic assault against our liberties and liberty of conscience going on right now in America. Don't be fooled or try to pull that baloney on me. The "Cancel Culture" is without a doubt coming from the radical left cult and their useful idiots, and big tech is performing a dogeza. Fortunately, a few patriotic Liberals, with common-sense, are starting to wake up and splinter off, because they see the totalitarianism speeding up in their review mirror.
Let's be clear, the far right White Supremacy or supremacy from anywhere must be repudiated categorical. Nevertheless, the message of "Right thought" and "Right speech" is coming from the leftists. They are those Neo-Marxist with their totalitarian enforcements of how everyone should think or behave being woven into every social issue. They're really Stalinist impositions of what right thought and right speak should be in their leftist utopian mind.
There's a loud hypocrisy coming from Democratic leaders and they need to be held accountable when they act like tyrants. For the Democrats to consolidate Nietzschean "Will to Power by uniting with the Black Lives Matters organization, public teachers unions, media, and Big Tech is terrifying. Their united efforts to criminalize speech and de-platform other voices should send shivers down your spine. It is not American. We will only stay united as a nation if we link arms and cherish our covenantal notion of American freedom, virtue, and faith.
Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of worship are essential American values that we should fight for--and I mean fight for peacefully, will we can.
Join the fight and contribute to our Last Call For Freedom campaign: https://www.patreon.com/LCFF
Mike Burnette's latest novels include:
The Only Spaceship Closet in the Universe:
Amazon Kindle $7.99 and $12.99 Paper
https://www.amazon.com/Only-Spaceship-Closet-Universe-Apricus/dp/B08P7RYJXM/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1612660689&sr=1-1
Also, try my sci-fi thriller, PSYCHONIX: Mind Over Matter, praised by Gary Habermas and J.P. Moreland for it's fictional work on Near Death Experiences and Consciousness.
Amazon Kindle $9.99 and $20.99 Paper
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=PSYCHONIX&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss
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