Free Speech Hypocrisy

Nico Perrino (of FIRE) sternly points out the rampant hypocrisy.

Do we actually believe in free speech?

Do we actually believe controversial speakers have a right to speak in America — free from government censorship?

For the past decade, I stood alongside conservatives who loudly — and justifiably — protested when speakers like Ben Shapiro and Charles Murray were prevented from speaking on college campuses, often under the guise of vague appeals to "safety."

Will those same voices rise up now that the boot is on the other foot?

Do we actually believe in free speech as a principle, or merely as an expedient argument when our side is censored?

Do we actually oppose cancel culture?

Do we actually oppose the heckler's veto?

Do we actually oppose vague security rationales for censorship?

I will work with anyone to defend free speech in any scenario, even if doing so means those same people — whether they are the canceled conservatives of the past or the canceled left-wingers of the present — will sometimes abandon free speech when it's their side doing the censoring.

Believing in free speech is as simple as the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Nat Henthoff's book title comes to mind: "Free Speech for me, but not for thee."

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NPR Forgets Important Facts Regarding Michael Brown

NPR reports the "News."

Grok Offers this description of an excellent documentary I viewed: "What Killed Michael Brown?" Well worth watching:

What Killed Michael Brown? (2020), written and narrated by Shelby Steele and directed by his son, Eli Steele. Below is an overview based on available information:

Overview

What Killed Michael Brown? is a 1-hour, 49-minute documentary that explores the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man, by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. The incident sparked nationwide protests and became a pivotal moment for the Black Lives Matter movement. The film challenges mainstream narratives about the event, particularly the "hands up, don’t shoot" slogan, which it argues is a "poetic truth" not grounded in evidence. Instead, it presents a perspective rooted in Shelby Steele’s conservative viewpoint, emphasizing personal responsibility and questioning systemic racism as the sole explanation for Brown’s death. Key Details

* Director: Eli Steele

* Writer/Narrator: Shelby Steele, a Hoover Institution fellow and noted conservative author who argues that systemic racism is more a strategy than a truth.

[More . . . ]

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Douglas Murray’s Insists that Regular Folks Should Shut the Fuck Up and Leave Commentary to “Experts” who have “Standards.” Jimmy Dore Responds

Douglas Murray, who tanked on Rogan, wants "standards" and complete reliance on "experts." Jimmy Dore reviews the track record of the expert class and their legacy media stenographers. I largely agree with Dore. The legacy media has almost zero credibility and the proof is in their track record. Those who still trust legacy media are infected with a mind virus. Murray claims he is for words he has sanitized: "Standards" and "experts." When Dave Smith drilled down on what Murray meant, it was clear that Murray wants the same thing the censorship-industrial complex wants: obedience by you and me and censorship for those who disagree with Murray.  Dore:

New York Post Article by Douglas Murray: 'Douglas Murray, so called Israel Hamas-Ukraine war expert's spew false info on Joe Rogan's podcast. There has to be a standard.' There is no standard in journalism. How about you start with the standard for journalism? Journalism got everything wrong about COVID. They got everything wrong about Russiagate. They get everything wrong about the Iraq War, the Libyan war, the Afghanistan War and the Ukraine war. They still won't tell people how it started and why. They've got everything wrong. They got the biggest story of their life wrong: COVID. They got ivermectin wrong. They got the vaccine transmission and contraction wrong. They got where the virus came from, who funded the virus. They got everything wrong. They got lockdowns wrong. They got masks wrong. There wasn't a thing they didn't get wrong. You know who got it right? Joe Rogan's Show. You know who got Russiagate right? This show.

You don't have to be an expert to know when someone's lying. To know when the war machine is lying, all I had to do is use my common sense. This is the establishment media and the Zionists losing. This is the Neocons losing the argument and so they want to shut people up by saying, "You don't get a right to say anything. We have to impose some standards." There's no standards when it comes to the establishment, corporate journalism. There's zero standards. They lie as they breathe. There isn't a thing they haven't lied about about, about COVID. There isn't a thing they didn't lie about, about Russiagate. There isn't a thing they didn't lie about January 6. There isn't a thing they haven't lied about when it comes to Ukraine war, Iraq War, the Libyan war, the Syrian war. The Afghanistan war was 20 years of straight lies as the Afghan Papers reveal. This idea that the corporate media has some sort of standards is a lie.

Dore aligned himself with Democrats until recent years, supporting Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 202. So did I (I canvassed for Sanders). Also voicing support for democrats until it went over the cliff on ideology/war/censorship/shitting on the middle class: Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK, Jr. , Joe Rogan, Kyrsten Sinema.

Here is the Rogan Podcast featuring Douglas Murray and Dave Smith. Watch it and make up your own mind, of course. But here, in my opinion, are two examples of  Murray arguing in bad faith. Murray is a guy who pontificates on anything and everything based on his English Degree. He gets almost all of his information from armchair adventures, just like you and me and most everyone else.

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NIH Muzzles Criticism of Israel

Trump admin is clearly violating First Amendment here. How did this happen, you might wonder. I'm starting to think of this as right-wing wokeness. And how did it happen that Israel has apparently dictated much of US foreign policy for decades? AIPAC $, perhaps?

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