Free Speech Under Attack
Every day we wake up to find the national outrage mob losing its mind about something new.
They’re engaged in semantic warfare. And it’s exhausting. These overly sensitive P.C. warriors parse every sentence, every word, every sentiment uttered by political adversaries, searching for an opportunity to take offense.
One day it’s bike shorts emblazoned with “Fake News.” The next it’s calling an Italian-American “Fredo.” The next it’s describing illegal aliens as, well, illegal aliens.
The problem with all of this hyperventilation in the age of the internet? Usually, within minutes, examples can be found of the victims engaging in the precise sort of thing they accuse their enemies.
Take the outrage du jour, for instance.
President Trump unleashed a firestorm Tuesday when he charged that the impeachment inquiry, being held in secret in a House dungeon, is a political lynching.
“So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights,” Trump Tweeted. “All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here — a lynching. But we will WIN!”
Typical Trump taunt. And right on cue, the left took the bait.
How dare he! Racist! Impeach him!
“Our country has a dark, shameful history with lynching and to even think about making this comparison is abhorrent,” snorted Joe Biden.
Seconds later, Twitter sleuths unearthed this:
That’s Joe in 1998, before he did whatever to himself to look like as he does today. He was unhappy with Newt Gingrich and company’s impeachment of Bill Clinton and suggested it would go down in history as a “partisan lynching.”
Ooooh. The L word. Fine for me but not for thee, apparently.
To its credit, The Washington Post quickly found four other examples of Democrats accusing Republicans of forming a lynch mob to attack Clinton.
Drawn to the controversy like a cat to catnip, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chimed in:
“It is atrocious that the President would refer to one of the most horrifying, violent practices of white supremacists to pretend he is a victim of anything but his own actions.”
This, from a woman who earlier this year trivialized the extermination of 6 million Jews by casually comparing conditions along our southern border with concentration camps. AOC even invoked the words “Never forget,” which are closely associated with the Holocaust.
Why is it that liberals believe they can use all the inflammatory language they like but hold conservatives to a different standard?
It’s odd. We live in a country where free speech protections are enshrined in the Constitution yet many Americans are eager to censor language they don’t like.
Take Kamala Harris, for instance. She’s been itching for weeks to get Trump’s Twitter account cancelled, thus depriving him of his favorite method of communication. She doesn’t want to run against the president and beat him next year. She wants him silenced.
Cities are getting in on the act, too.
New York City has outlawed the term “illegal alien” and can impose fines on those who deliberately use the wrong pronoun for a transgender person.
Now a Boston politician has introduced a measure that would criminalize the word “bitch” when it’s used to demean a person. Use of the B word could result in a six month jail sentence.
Clearly unconstitutional. All of it.
If this insanity continues we should consider changing our national motto: From E pluribus unum to vigilate os tuum.
Watch your mouth.
Thumbnail photo credit: Rebecca Barray
