Free Speech, Media, Politics

Incitement or Free Speech? CNN Analyst Calls For Slashing Tires as Critics Call for Action Against the Canadian Truckers

I have previously lamented what I call “the age of rage” and how many seem addicted to rage in our society. That was evident this week as many vented against groups ranging from the Canadian truckers to the unvaccinated. CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem seemed to suggest vigilantism as a proper response to the Canadian protesters while James Carville said that he wanted to punch the unvaccinated. I do not view either Kayyem or Carville as seriously advocating or condoning violence. However, the heated rhetoric highlights the danger of past demands from the left for censoring or prosecuting others for violent speech.

On her Twitter account, Kayyem responded to a Wall Street Journal article on the gridlock caused by the truckers: “The convoy protest, applauded by right-wing media as a ‘freedom protest,’ is an economic and security issue now. The Ambassador Bridge link constitutes 28% of annual trade movement between US and Canada. Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks.”

For his part, Carville longs for even more personal satisfaction, saying that anyone without a vaccine was a “piece of s–t” and he wanted to punch them in the face.

These snarling, violent comments are all-too-common in today’s environment. However, they also raise the question of how we treat violent speech.  Various Democrats are calling for the disqualification of members of Congress, and former President Donald Trump, for their comments made before the January 6th riot. Some members have brought lawsuits over allegations that such speeches constituted incitement for insurrection. However, violent language continues to be common on both sides of our political divide. What constitutes hyperbole and what constitutes incitement is dangerously undefined.

If CNN viewers went out on a tire slashing frenzy, would Kayyem or CNN be legally responsible? I would oppose such claims as inimical to free speech. Likewise, MSNBC hosts and politicians like Minnesota Attorney General Kieth Ellison have supported Antifa, but I do not attribute the violence of that group to their support.

Trump has still not been prosecuted (as previously suggested by some) for incitement. It is not in my view, but, if it were to be prosecuted, some Democrats could face similar allegations. Likewise, many have called for conservative figures to be barred from social media for engaging in violent or incendiary rhetoric. Should Twitter now bar Kayyem or Carville?

The point is only that commentators are risking more than hypocrisy in calling for prosecutions of figures like Trump or disqualification of figures like Rep. Madison Cawthorn for reckless rhetoric. This is a fluid standard that can apply as easily to figures on the left who vent their anger with violent speech and ideations.

 

157 thoughts on “Incitement or Free Speech? CNN Analyst Calls For Slashing Tires as Critics Call for Action Against the Canadian Truckers”

  1. If all the Russophiles on Youtube think that Russia is so great, then why don’t they move there?

    Thought so.

  2. Good explanation in this book by Dr. Peter Breggin….for anyone interested.

    Wearetheprey.com

    1. What the heck is going on with Covid and who “planned” for all this? Dr.Breggin book, ‘Covid 19 Global Predators: We Are The Prey’

  3. The New York Times editorial today is likely to discombobulate the commentariat here today.

  4. This is what incitement looks like. Progressives are fine with violence as long as it is against anybody they disagree with.

  5. The government that governs least governs best. A controlled economy just makes things worse…so worse, that they must be controlled, and the viscisous circle continues… All we need are supply and demand, and Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the economy, and things will right themselves, just like how oil will eventually find its proper place on top the water when a bottle of water and oil is shaken.

    1. When a government shuts down an economy it is good and necessary. When the citizens do it to be free of government dictates it is bad to those who govern. Trudeau refuses to talk to the protest leaders about an end to mandates because in his opinion they are racists and terrorist. Why it really is is tyranny.

    2. “All we need are supply and demand, and Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the economy, ”

      You couldn’t be more wrong. As Allan Bloom pointed out, economics is always sub-political. The left marched through the institutions over the past 60 years, and they were mostly unopposed. Too many conservatives had foolishly adopted the Marxist worldview that everything is sub-economic. Of course, the Conservative, Inc. crowd had already made their stack and it was easy to pretend their tepid resistance to the left was in the service of some noble economic system like “free enterprise” when in truth it was just protecting the status quo and their own pile of crap. Now that the institutions are lost, the Conservative, Inc. crowd is going to learn what Bloom meant good and hard.

  6. If Trudeau wanted to end the crisis crippling his nation, he would end his government’s forced vaccination program, effective immediately.

    1. Trudeau is a tyrant. He will use force against peaceful protestors (like Macron is doing now in Paris) instead of de-escalating all tensions by simply lifting the mandates.

      For more understanding of what’s at stake for Trudeau, et al —->

    2. Macron’s police in Paris are using force and tear gas on peaceful freedom demonstrators. Trudeau will be using force soon. And the media are all for it.

      Remember the media outrage when they accused Trump of using tear gas to clear VIOLENT protestors who set fire to St. Johns Church and attacked the White House? But now? No media outrage. The peaceful protestors are the problem that must be put down, by force, if necessary. Shameful fake news media.

    3. Trudeau will not even agree to sit and work out a plan for ending the mandates with conservative party. Nor would he answer at what percent of vaccination can the mandates end. Canada is at 90%. Instead, he demands the opposing party must condemn the protesters and get them to leave first.

  7. Fox News And Key Republicans Cheering Convoy Protests

    But Do They Support Organized Labor??

    When adjusted for inflation, median wages for truck drivers in 1980 were about $110,000 annually. In 2020, median annual wages for truck drivers were $47,130. Nearly 40% of US truck drivers were covered by union contracts in 1983, which dropped to 10.1% in 2020. Many trucking companies also misclassify drivers as independent contractors, shifting overhead costs on to workers and burdening them with massive amounts of debt for their vehicles, gas and fees.

    Edited From:

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/27/us-truck-drivers-economy-pay-conditions?ref=upstract.com&curator=upstract.com
    ………………………………………………………..

    Republicans have championed Right-To-Work laws while opposing minimum wage increases. So their support for Truckers is disingenuous. Republicans only want to undermine Justine Trudeau.

    2. “massive amounts of debt for their vehicles, gas and fees.”

      Who is responsible for inflation? Who caused the prices of vehicles to rise as much as they have? Who caused the increase in gas prices, and who is responsible for most of the fees?

      Have you bothered to think about those things? Of course not.

  8. Pusillanimous idiots like “anonymous” compulsively engage in projection, adding nothing of value. (Projection occurs when a person attributes a quality to another person that really comes from themselves.) More precisely, pusillanimous idiots like “anonymous” are incapable of adding anything of value.

    1. JFeldman – there have always been many “Anonymomii”, of varying political shades. Sussing them out individually is difficult. The best you can do is respond to a particular writing style or position.

      1. Isn’t all outrage manufactured? George Soros owns several companies that specialize in the manufacturing of outrage.

        1. Paul, are you a puppet too? We haven’t seen your name in more than a year. What city are in?

    3. Well anonymous the stupid and her ilk remind us that 2 of 3 people we come across are truly wrongheaded. There’s some satisfaction in knowing that.

      1. Mespo – I have always found it hard to separate the various anonymonii. You clearly have a more finely tuned ear then I do. 😉

        1. Paul, in your absence I have tried to fight the good fight against Peter Hill. While you were gone he has adopted sock puppet accounts under numerous names (see below), but his writing voice is unique. His weakness is someone mentioning his self-proclaimed lifestyle in West Hollywood; doing so always results in spectacular bat sheet crazy antics on his behalf. Enjoy

          1. Estovir – thanks for the heads up and holding down the fort while I was incapacited.

      2. Mespo would have us believe that one is ‘stupid’ not to think George Soros is a “vile Jew” as Feldman proclaimed.

        1. I never wrote that Soros was a “vile Jew.” Those are your false words. I wrote below that “[t]he vile, despicable George Soros is no Jew.” However, I must acknowledge that you are a skilled liar. You would make an excellent presstitute. Go work at CNN and MSNBC. They need more skilled presstitutes than the ones they already employ.

          1. Do you think those “false words” were from Anonymous the Stupid or another run of the mill liar?

  9. What The Puppets Are Saying

    JFeldman says:

    The vile, despicable George Soros is no Jew. And the George Soros “playbook” is fact, not theory.
    …………………………………………………………..

    This comment is just a brief scroll down. Here Feldman tells us he’s just another sock puppet expressing manufactured outrage.

    1. REGARDING ABOVE:

      We’re supposed to think Feldman is an ‘authentic’ Jew. And if he feels George Soros is ‘vile’, it’s a reflection of popular opinion amongst American Jews.

      In reality Feldman is commenter Estovir, a malicious cancer on these threads.

      1. Good news, Peter Shill / John Burgoyne / Seth Myers / Svelaz / Sammy / Anonymous Factorial,

        Ivermectin has been proven to cure you of seeing Estovir as the author of every single comment you deem cancerous. So, contact Joe Rogan for his supplier of Ivermectin. It might garner you scores of horse-bucking sock puppets to throw you off this rodeo

        😜

        As an aside Peter, I am flattered I live in your head rent free, but I must remind you I am happily married, plus you are not my type.

  10. Biden, Harris, Trudeau, Carville, Pelosi, and the rest of the Global Elite know best how to deal with the troublesome hoi polloi that resist tyranny, fail to comply with police state mandates, and that seek freedom, liberty, and human decency. Here is a virtual wet dream depiction of how they’d really like to deal with the hoi polloi, courtesy of Sergei M. Eisenstein (director, co-writer, and co-editor), Nina Agadzhanova (writer), Eduard Tisse (cinematographer), and Grigoriy Aleksandrov (editor), from the classic Battleship Potemkin (1925):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yahcjCljIDQ

  11. Carville has shown his idiocy by calling those of us ineligible for vaccines as excrement. His ignorance is disgraceful. As for the trucker’s protests; CNN is the canned nasty network anymore. Sad state for entertainment.

    1. Lets hope Novavax is approved sooner than later. Many will be vaccinated but it will surely not cure Carville’s irrational ignorant anger.

    2. Msincivility,

      How does one become ‘ineligible’ for vaccines? Is ‘ineligible’ some ‘correct’ term used in far-right circles?

  12. Giocon says:

    “The agenda of the Democratic party seems to be division and chaos — straight from the George Soros playbook.”

    That’s right, blame it on a Jew. Fortunately, Turley does NOT share your Jewish conspiratorial theories. He objected to Dershowitz’s unsupported allegation that Soros had a hand in Obama’s DOJ:

    “Dershowitz Claims Obama Asked For An Investigation From FBI At The Behest Of Soros”

    https://jonathanturley.org/2020/02/18/dershowitz/

    And Turley excoriated Roy Moore’s “world of self-righteous bigotry.”

    “That’s Not A Good Place”: Moore States That George Soros Is Going To Hell With All Other Non-Christians”

    Do you likewise believe that all Jews are going to Hell, Giocon? Or just Soros?

      2. I wish you and Turley will meet one day so that Turley, not I, will shame you for making such a despicable accusation of a man who has given away billions in charity. What have you done to help the less fortunate?

    3. Jeff, can’t reply to Feb 12 9:15 PM, I will get to that shortly.
      For what it is worth I agree totally with your post of Feb 11 4:46 PM.
      Now back to the problem at hand, Interesting that the subject matter that we have been discussing (Soros), comes up in a post about slashing tires.
      On your post of Feb 12 9:15 PM,
      Yes there are always two sides to any story. And I will do the research you request. But before I do that I have a question on one of your statements involving the DA’s funded by Soros.
      You say , ” Do you have any links to their desire and justification of their social justice policy”.
      My question is this. And I alluded to it before. You use the word THEIR, meaning the DA’s. Should THEY even try to implement social justice policy? You know what my answer is. I would really like to hear yours. And of course you may respond in anyway that you choose. I can’t make any rules. But to me this is a simple YES or NO question.

      1. Paul,

        You claim that they are motivated by a social justice policy. I’d like to know what that really means is all. It could mean a lot of different things. I doubt it means what you seem to think, that is, we will not indict shoplifting because it would be unjust to further oppress poor people who are desperate for food or have been abused by the system. In other words, let’s give the bums a break.

        I’m thinking that maybe the DA’s don’t think jail is an effective solution to shoplifting. Maybe because they think jail will make criminals out of people who just need a diversion from crime other than imprisonment which costs the tax payers more money. I’d like to evaluate their reasoning behind their policies before I agree with you.

        1. Jeff, I will end with this as I think we have had sufficient back and forth. Not talking about shoplifting or other misdemeanors. Referring to violent crimes. I don’t think jail is an effective solution to shoplifting. But I think that there is some obfuscating here. And ” broken windows” policy did work in N.Y after the Dinkins crime wave. And I believe for many incarceration should be rehabilitative as well as punitive.
          Be Well
          GO RAMS!!. By more than 4.

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