{"id":13446,"date":"2022-04-21T16:41:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T20:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=13446"},"modified":"2022-05-17T16:53:33","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T20:53:33","slug":"freedom-of-speech-is-one-of-our-most-basic-liberties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/21\/freedom-of-speech-is-one-of-our-most-basic-liberties\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of Speech Is One of Our Most Basic Liberties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Freedom of speech is one of our most basic of all liberties. The right to speak openly and honestly about the issues of the day is paramount to the functioning of our republic. It\u2019s also the first right that tyrants attack and try to curtail. In recent weeks we\u2019ve seen Twitter suspended Christian satire site\u00a0The Babylon Bee<\/a>\u00a0& others for daring to state biological fact and conservative columnist & commentator\u00a0Amber Athey\u00a0fired<\/a> from her radio job for a joke about the pant suit Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 wore to the State of the Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us to today\u2019s collection of quotes on free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first from Frederick Douglass: “Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down.”<\/em> reminds us that unless we can express our ideas & opinions openly, we are not free & that tyrants will always seek to silence dissenting voices first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second from Benjamin Franklin: \u201cWhoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.\u201d<\/em> reminds us that for tyrants to strip away our freedoms they must first strip away out right to speak freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third from George Washington picks up on Franklin\u2019s warning: “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent, we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth from Thomas Paine reminds us that: “He who dare<\/em>s not offend cannot be honest.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the last comes from Justice Louis D. Brandeis\u2019 1927 concurring opinion in Whitney v. California: \u201cIf there be time to expose through discussion, the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us back to today\u2026 the modern left wants \u201cenforced silence\u201d they want to force dissenting voices from the public square. We can\u2019t allow that to happen\u2026 the left loves to scream about \u201cthreats to our democracy\u201d. Sadly, the greatest threat to democracy is their intolerance of dissenting opinions. Which I suppose is lost on them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freedom of speech is one of our most basic of all liberties. The right to speak openly and honestly about the issues of the day is paramount to the functioning of our republic. It\u2019s also the first right that tyrants attack and try to curtail. In recent weeks we\u2019ve seen Twitter suspended Christian satire site\u00a0The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,1390,7],"tags":[1398,1403,1402,1394,522,1404,1396],"class_list":["post-13446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-culture","category-history","category-politics","tag-benjamin-franklin","tag-frederick-douglass","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-george-washington","tag-liberty","tag-louis-d-brandeis","tag-thomas-paine","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-3uS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2675,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/29\/video-this-used-to-be-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":13446,"position":0},"title":"Video: “This used to be America!”","author":"Jeff","date":"August 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Congressman Jim Moran's August 25, 2009 town hall meeting at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA. is turning out to be a goldmine for commentators... First because of Rep. Moran's demand to see a constituent's ID before allowing him to ask a question and Howard Dean's remarks on tort\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13438,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/19\/13438\/","url_meta":{"origin":13446,"position":1},"title":"The Chaos of Freedom is Far Better Than the Tranquility of Oppression.","author":"Jeff","date":"April 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The past few days have been testament to Murphy\u2019s Law\u2026 whatever could go wrong did. Repeatedly. I won\u2019t bore you with details... thankfully it wasn\u2019t anything serious just a cascade of small failures that created big headaches. In strange way the last few days have been a metaphor for liberty.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jefferson-Liberty.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jefferson-Liberty.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jefferson-Liberty.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jefferson-Liberty.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jefferson-Liberty.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4016,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/30\/lest-we-forget-memorial-day-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":13446,"position":2},"title":"Lest We Forget — Memorial Day 2011","author":"Jeff","date":"May 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My Father was a World War II veteran, like many of his peers he never talked much about his service or the things he\u2019d seen... To him Memorial Day was a day for quiet reflection, for remembering those who had given their full measure, and so it is with me.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lest We Forget"","block_context":{"text":"Lest We Forget","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/lest-we-forget\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/wK0T4pVHP28\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":867,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/28\/be-afraid-be-very-afraid\/","url_meta":{"origin":13446,"position":3},"title":"Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid…","author":"Jeff","date":"October 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Be afraid, be very afraid... In all the furor over Barack Obama's 2001 remarks on redistribution we missed a larger more frightening point. Take a look the transcript of Sen. Obama's remarks (emphasis mine): If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Law"","block_context":{"text":"Law","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/law\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14595,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2022\/09\/02\/make-no-mistake-this-is-what-tyranny-looks-like\/","url_meta":{"origin":13446,"position":4},"title":"Make no mistake this is what tyranny looks like","author":"Jeff","date":"September 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"President Biden delivers remarks at Independence Hall in Philadelphia September 1, 2022. If you watched President Joe Biden\u2019s speech last night in Philadelphia you saw one of the most toxic, divisive, and frankly dystopian speeches ever delivered by an American president. 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