The establishment press. The mainstream media. Google, Twitter, Facebook. The professional left. They are forever finding cause to quiet ideas to which they object. Even the First Amendment itself. If not for that outmoded protection foreign interlopers might not have aided in the rise of Mr. Trump. Yes, Free Speech is now to blame for the result of the 2016 elections.
Dana Pico, writing in a promoted post at RedState tells the tale of Michael Gerson. A card-carrying member of the ruling-class media establishment. A modern Leftist who from his perch at the Washington Post casts dispersions from a decades-old McCarthyite mold. He sees Russians in the bushes. Using the First Amendment to ignite Trump’s rebellion against America’s political class.
“freedom of speech and of the press — if we can call Facebook and Twitter the “press” — allowed Russian spooks to directly communicate with the American public.”
Free Speech protections were drafted to prevent the government from silencing dissenters. To stop politicians and their functionaries from serving as gatekeepers. Guardians of which words or voices found their way to the people. How ironic is it that the ‘Free’ press stepped forward to do the work of tyrants? Or, that the internet moguls, the inventors, and enablers of the modern soapbox would follow in their footprints?
If the government cannot be gatekeepers then why not the credentialed media and their internet offspring?
Free Speech is to Blame. Yes, yes it is.
Mr. Gerson’s blames free speech for the rise of Trump. And I’m sure it had something to do with it. Not because of Russians, though. Free speech is responsible for the rise or fall of nearly every major political figure in our history. It’s how we roll. And even when they win the Left hates it. Because they believe they can win without it but we can’t.
So, they are forever finding ways to limit free speech. The entire campus culture exists to program future generations to not just live without it but to scorn it.
If we can’t drive it out, we’ll breed it out.
Mr. Gerson and his media peers are onboard. Bankrolled by multimillion-dollar conglomerates with close ties to the ruling class Left. Pushing (ironically) a political program very similar to the one the Russian interlopers are said to favor. With a cure (to free speech) that is distinctly Soviet. What Dana Pico describes as,
“the restoration of their gatekeeping functions, to make sure that the plebeians aren’t exposed to anything that the Patricians do not believe to be true, or that they ought to read.”
The credentialed media, Facebook, Twitter, Google, are despotic in their desire for control. It’s why they want Net Neutrality. It is why they support campaign finance laws that do not apply to the “professional press.” They wish to control ideas. Their creation and dissemination.
The rise of the internet that Al Gore so irresponsibly invented has robbed the credentialed media of their gatekeeping functions, has taken away their ability to decide what speech does and does not get published and widely disseminated.
Cornering the Market
Mr. Gerson works for state-controlled media masquerading as a free press. The tech and social media giants controlling the internet town square are dancing around how to milk us for more profits while appealing to Mr. Gearson’s darker purpose.
Their goal is to corner the market on ideas, and any profits that come with it. Standing in their way are bloggers, tweeters, rouge networks, and new media journalists. And the United State’s Supreme Court.
As long as there is one voice willing to be pilloried by the ruling class long enough to get a case to the Hig Court the left cannot win.
That will not stop them from trying.
