Facebook has decided to start censoring "hate speech." I cannot think of
an issue that so well illustrates the value of the Constitution.
Now, to be honest, Facebook is a commercial enterprise and has every
right to censor it's content. Just as its subscribers have every right
to find some other social media outlet that has a better grasp of the
necessity of the public discourse, which, by nature, must be free from
restriction.
But, what Facebook has decided is that it wants to control the debate,
allowing one side to freely express itself and restricting the other
side. It has chosen to be a megaphone rather than a telephone. It wants
to allow others to speak to us, but will not allow us to speak to them.
To me, that is a really poor business model, but that is what they have
chosen to do. It is a poor business model, because if they were
intellectually honest, they would wind up disposing of nearly all of
their accounts save for the Mother Teresas of the world.
This is exactly the sort of behavior exhibited by those who must not be
trusted with leadership. They are incapable of responsible use of power.
To them, if they can silence those with whom they disagree, they will.
That is not the act of someone who understands America.
The Constitution protects free speech. Now, there was a reason that
speech was protected, but those in control of Facebook have never read
the Federalist Papers or even the Anti-Federalist Papers. They have
never read Miracle in Philadelphia, or they would understand the
arguments behind an amendment that protected free speech. Trust me,
there were no political figures of the time that did not suffer greatly
from pamphlets written by their political enemies, but even in the heat
of those political battles, none suggested that the First Amendment be
abolished, because they were educated men, not Facebook petty tyrants.
It seems like ever since Barack Obama made hating America popular, every
little tyrant with the slightest amount of power has exercised it
against freedom. Facebook is just the latest example, following the IRS
targeting of conservative organizations, PayPal's suspension of accounts
(usually those of a conservative nature, like mine) and etc.
This is a narrowing of the discourse, that's all. This is how
genocides are started: identify, target, restrict, censor, imprison and
slaughter. The first act of a tyrant is to vilify a particular race or
political sect. Can you tell the difference between a Sunni and a
Shiite? They can and they were willing to kill each other over what
small differences there are.
Read the rest @ Christian Mercenary here
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