It is not easy to unseat an incumbent in Congress, but Will Rollins believes that he has hit on a guaranteed winner to galvanize Democratic support in California’s 41st congressional district. He is pledging to push for greater censorship to stop those “profiting by spreading division based on lies.” Of course, the former assistant U.S. Attorney suggests that he will know who is lying and who should be allowed to speak freely.
Rollins is also running on his role “prosecuting insurrectionists” from January 6. While most of us condemned the riot on that day and supported the prosecution of those who broke into the Capitol, polls show that most Americans do not view what occurred as an actual insurrection or rebellion.
That, however, is a legitimate matter of debate and people of good faith can differ in how they view the crimes committed that day. What is far more serious is the embrace of censorship as a political cause.
Rollins pledged to stop people saying things that “erode our democracy.” His policy platform promises “accountability” for tech platforms that “spread conspiracy theories” and do not yield to demands for censorship. It appears to be a pitch to restore censorship systems on sites like X but also pledges to go after “media outlets.”
He is not alone in such efforts. Democratic members caused a firestorm previously by writing to cable carriers like AT&T to ask why they are still allowing people to watch FOX News. Rollins promises to crackdown on “propaganda networks to protect the public’s right to be informed.” He does not identify which networks would be targeted, but the assumption is that it is not MSNBC. (For full disclosure, I am a legal analyst on Fox News). However, he wants ramped up penalties for anything that he considers “harmful lies and conspiracy theories.”
Of course, one person’s “conspiracy theory” is another person’s news. It is again unlikely that Rollins will be pursuing the Washington Post which recently reaffirmed that it is standing by past false claims made about Lafayette Park, the Hunter Biden laptop, and Russian collusion. Rollins is not likely referencing the false conspiracy theories funded by the Clinton campaign like the Alfa Bank allegations.
As someone who was raised in a liberal, politically active Democratic family in Chicago, I remember when the party championed free speech as a touchstone of the party. Now it is often treated as an existential threat to democracy.
In recent hearings on the government’s censorship programs, Democratic members and pundits attacked witnesses as “Putin lovers” or supporters of “insurrectionists” in opposing censorship.
President Joe Biden is now arguably the most anti-free speech president since John Adams. His administration is unabashedly and unrepentantly pursuing the silencing of those with opposing views. Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, extended her agency’s mandate over critical infrastructure to include “our cognitive infrastructure.” That includes combating “malinformation” – described as information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”
Democratic members have warned social media companies that they will not tolerate any backsliding after Elon Musk dismantled the massive censorship system at Twitter.
In one hearing, tech CEOs appeared before the Senate on past censorship. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) pushed back on statements from the witnesses suggesting an effort to protect free speech and reminded them that “the pandemic and misinformation about COVID-19, manipulated media also cause harm” as well as “climate change misinformation policy” and “climate denialism.”
It did not matter that many censored over their views on the efficacy of masks or the necessity of shutting down schools have been vindicated. Even raising the lab theory on the origin of Covid 19 was denounced as a conspiracy theory. Even after the theory was embraced by government agencies as possible or the most likely explanation, science and health reporter for the New York Times, Apoorva Mandavilli, continued to denounce the theory as “racist.”
The concerning aspect of Rollins’ campaign is that censorship was largely used as a political tactic in Washington to silence critics and opposing views. It is now an actual political campaign. It shows how speech regulation has become popular with the rank-and-file in the party. It now defines the party.
Campaigning for censorship should be a warning sign of the breakdown of democratic values. Limiting free speech is akin to cutting off oxygen to the body politic. It produces atrophy in a system, the breakdown of our political tissues. That is also reflected in a recent poll that shows that 52% of Biden supporters say Republicans are now a threat to American life while 47% of Trump supporters say the same about Democrats. Roughly 40% of both parties believe violence is now justified and roughly a quarter of both parties now question our system of government.
Politicians fuel that anger by running on silencing their opponents in the name of disinformation or malinformation. It is of course popular. Rage is often popular. Indeed, it can be addictive. Yet, what remains is release from reason in the blind pursuit of those with opposing views.
Will Rollins is right that this is a popular pitch for an age of rage. However, it is the political version of the Dead Sea Fruits that were irresistible to pick but would turn to ashes in one’s mouth. Silencing others creates an insatiable appetite for combating an ever widening circle of “lies.” Until, that is, when you find yourself encircled by your own truth police.
Below Estovir mentioned the incident yesterday in which a Jewish man died after being pushed to the ground by a Palestinian supporter and hitting his head; either that or the Palestinian supporter hit him over the head with his megaphone.
NBC headline on the incident: “Man dies after hitting his head during Israel and Palestinian rallies in California, officials say.”
That level of bias is pretty embarrassing, even by the lamestream media’s low standards.
https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1721890540411920587
In Catholic theology, there is the teaching that sins can be acts of commission or acts of omission.
I always find it instructive, and tell family and friends as such, that the Left picks and chooses their hysterics for the day, all the while omitting truly evil events. The murder of an elderly Jew expressing his defense of Israel is horrific but worse, at a Pro-Israel rally where the murderer is an anti-Semite.
The Left’s sins of omission when decrying evil are only rivaled by their sins of commission that include, but are not limited to, declaring war on innocents like the unborn, children bodily mutilation, heterosexual families, and now apparently anti-semitism.
No wonder the Left created their own religion of Woke Inc, where they can be judge, jury and executioner. The Left is a sure sign that evil reigns in our world
What occured was horrible, it was criminal. It was a hate crime.
But we should be careful about escalating it to murder.
Unless the perpitrator intended to kill this man – it is not murder.
If as was the case the perpitrator was reckless – intending harm but not death – then it is manslaughter, or agrevated asault.
Can anyone tell me why we should tolerate the spread of atheism online?
Denying God is the ultimate disinformation and the ultimate hate speech.
Denying God endangers people’s souls!
You misunderstand. The person you’re referring to was asserting that God is God even in blue states like Delaware (DE) and New York (NY).
C’mon Turley… knowing who to censor is child’s play.
You say something I don’t like, I know that you need to be censored ;-P
Its the new Democratic motto.
“Free speech for me, none for thee”
-G
Jonathan: Why is it that you claim “President Biden is now arguably the most anti-free speech president since John Adams”? No mention of DJT who sued both the NY times and WP for defamation–trying to silence their criticisms of his policies. What about DJT’s silencing of the CDC for trying to give Americans accurate information about the Covid pandemic? What about DJT’s gagging of employees at the EPA over climate change or silencing the Dept. of Agriculture over clean water rules? Biden has never silenced any of his administrative agencies. Unlike DJT, Biden has never tried to weaponize the DOJ to go after his “enemies”. DJT is saying that if he is re-elected next year he will go after his “enemies” again. “Arguably”, DJT was actually the most anti-free speech president ever and will do it again in spades if re-elected!
As to whether Jan. 6 was an “insurrection” or just a “protest that went too far” you continue to claim it was the latter. You cite your earlier column (7/2/22) in which you claim a CBS poll (you don’t identify) showed “Some 76% believe this was a protest that went too far”. I looked at the earlier CBS poll on the one year anniversary of Jan. 6. It doesn’t support your claim. 85% of Dems viewed Jan. 6 as an “insurrection” or “trying to overthrow the govt” while only 21% of Republicans had the same view. 56% of Republicans said Jan. 6 was “defending freedom”. When CBS asked about the “Actions of those who forced their way into Capitol” 88% of Dems “disapprove” and 76% of Republicans agreed. That was the only “76%” number I could find. And it doesn’t support your claim. Maybe you are referring to another CBS poll. I couldn’t find one. So I must conclude you distorted the CBS poll to support your false narrative.
In your earlier column you also claimed “No one is charged with insurrection or sedition or conspiracy to overthrow the country”. Of course, that was before a jury found this past May that the Proud Boys were guilty of “seditious conspiracy”. That’s the classic legal definition of “insurrection”. It defies logic, reason and the facts for you could continue to claim Jan. 6 was just a “protest that went too far”. But, it appears, your job is simply to echo the Fox false claims about the Biden administration and what happened on Jan. 6. You serve one master–and that’s Fox News!
It cannot be said enough times: the stupidity and ignorance of brainwashed and completely misinformed, uninformed MSNBC viewers is astounding.
it is easier to tell my chihuahua not to bark at a knock on the door than it is to hold any type of meaningful conversation with the braindead (by that I would include anyone left of center who still clings to the “D” as savior to mankind).
“What about DJT’s silencing of the CDC for trying to give Americans accurate information about the Covid pandemic?”
Thank you for the laugh. What accurate information would that be? That it came from a bat? That the shot was a vaccine? That the experimental medical treatment would stop you from getting covid? That if you didn’t wear a face diaper you would kill grandma? That covid lived on surfaces and you need to do a Silkwood shower of everything every day? That PCR tests should be used with a CT count over 30? That we should quarantine healthy people for the first time in history? That kids should be looked out of school?
Thomas Sowell is such a gift to anyone capable of critical thought.
Beware Man’s Ignorance
All this history and much more is packed into this short but critical book, whose single most important insight may be how little we know about the lives of others. We must, therefore, be careful when making policy decisions that have the potential to affect many people — and possibly even whole societies.
As Sowell warns, “Stupid people can create problems, but it often takes brilliant people to create a real catastrophe. They have already done that enough times — and in enough different ways — for us to reconsider, before joining their latest stampedes, led by self-congratulatory elites, deaf to argument and immune to evidence.”
https://thefederalist.com/2023/11/07/thomas-sowells-new-book-wrecks-social-justice-warriors-favorite-fallacies-with-facts/
I would love to meet Dr Sowell, sit down over coffee and just listen. His lived experience and intellect are too rare and important to be squandered, particularly with the intellectual poverty of “black” academics today, e.g. Ibram X. Kendi, Nikole Hannah-Jonesl etc
It must irritate the prog/left to such a degree that a man as wise and well spoken as Sowell is also black… It must disturb their shakra or something like that…
No doubt whimsicalmama. In fact, if he had been considered “mainstream,” it could have been he and not Obama that Biden praised for beingthe first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. 😎
Let’s take a moment to notice that Turley rejects the idea of objective facts. Truth or lies are the same to him.
Everything the good professor mentions are objective facts.
The Lafayette Park, the Hunter Biden laptop, and Russian collusion, the false conspiracy theories funded by the Clinton campaign like the Alfa Bank allegations.
All facts.
Yes Upstate, those are all objective facts. How do we know? Because we don’t merely take JT’s word as gospel. We do our homework and independently verify them. And when JT posts something that is not verifiable, we call him out for it. Another, albeit less objective method to determine truth on this blog, is to see the degree by which the Leftist trolls go on the attack. The glorious thing about that is their attacks amplify the veracity of the facts they are feverishly trying to obscure.
You so know that there are free detox centers for koolaid addiction, seek help.
It was Flavor Aid, not Koolaid. Get your history right.
Dinesh D’Souza and Jonathan Turley are warning of the same thing…we are in many ways becoming a Police State.
Dinesh D’Souza: It’s a scary film. Not because I’ve made a horror film using the techniques of cinematography, But it’s because America is becoming a scary place to live. Not for everybody, because there are going to be people on the left who say, “Well, I’m never going to be censored and the FBI is not going to come banging on my door.” And I go, “Well, that’s because you’re helping to build the police state.” So police states, when they are under construction, rely on a constituency to help build them up. And that’s the stage we’re in now. We’re not a full-fledged police stage. But it is amazing, Jim, to see how far we’ve come in a bad way in just a few years. It’s been a free fall in terms of protecting our liberties.
” we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
Barack Obama, October 2008
The left MUST gut the Constitution to advance their agenda. All of the Bill of Rights is methodically being dissassembled by the left with the aid of leftist judges.
This in not new. FDR, the founder of “never let a disaster go to waste”, had a slew of solutions. . . they just conflict with the protection of the Constitution.
I think you are reading too much into the 5 days Obama quote especially when read in context — see speech link below.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/obama_rallies_columbia_missour.html
Wow! This guy went to law school. I wonder what Marxist professor taught him the Bill of Rights? Very frightening. Imagine this gut becoming federal a judge.
The Left hate free speech. Democrats hate free speech so much that they have adopted terrorist tactics from Hamas here in the USA. An elderly Jew was murdered in California, per the Ventura County medical examiner, for expressing support for Israel at a public pro-Israel rally. Had this been a black man murdered by a white man at a Proud Boys rally, Merrick Garland would have dispatched the FBI to raid the perp’s home, with CNN and MSNBC in tow, with Joe Biden blathering about White Supremacists and Nazi Republicans. Never has there been such a groundswell of anti-semitism until now during Biden’s reign of terror, all perpetrated by the Left.
Democrats have incited violent hatred towards those who disagree with them.
Elderly Jewish man dies after confrontation with pro-Palestinian protester at California rally
Kessler’s autopsy at the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of death to be blunt force head injury and the manner of death to be homicide, per the release.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles wrote in a post on X Monday evening that the pro-Palestinian protester threw a megaphone at Kessler. ….some of the pro-Palestinian protesters as “extremely aggressive” and said they were yelling at police and “trying to incite a reaction or response.” The pro-Palestinian protesters could also be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” in a video shared with Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/jewish-man-dies-apparent-assault-pro-palestinian-california-rally
This is outrageous.
Ventura County Sheriff’s Office: Death Investigation
A 69-year-old man, identified as Paul Kessler, died as a result of injuries sustained during an altercation at a Pro-Israeli / Pro-Palestinian event…..Upon arrival, responding deputies located Kessler, who was suffering from a head injury. Witness accounts indicated that Kessler was involved in a physical altercation with counter-protestor(s)……An autopsy was performed on November 6th and the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of death to be blunt force head injury and the manner of death homicide.
https://local.nixle.com/alert/10410107/
Estovir – we are dealing with spiritual forces, in particular, an Amalekite spirit in the heavenly realms that is the enemy of God’s people, because it is the enemy of God.
In ancient times, the Amalekites made war against Israel on its way out of Egypt. They were the persistent enemy of Israel before the Babylonian captivity. Haman from the Book of Esther – who was the Hitler of ancient times – was an Amalekite. I believe Hitler himself was motivated by the same Amalekite spirit.
Once one realize that dimension is at play, the sudden bursting forth worldwide of extreme levels of anti-Semitism makes more sense. Particularly in response to Jewish civilians getting raped, tortured, beheaded, burned to death, and kidnapped. From solely a human level, one would have thought the reaction to those atrocities on 10/7 would have been sympathy for the victims. But instead the opposite has taken place: mass demonstrations in so many of the world’s large cities express hatred toward the very Jews that were victimized. Even before Israel struck back, 35 student groups at Harvard piled on with hatred toward Israel – and that was just a manifestation of what was happening at many other universities.
The spiritual explanation makes sense, and is also why anti-Semitism is the ancient hatred that never goes away. It was suppressed for several decades after WWII because the killing of Jews at that time was so extreme. But as that memory fades, the inhibition among the world’s people to give expression to Jew-hatred also fades away, as we see evidence of every day. (That is not to excuse the human beings caught up by this spirit. They are responsible for that, just as the Nazis who killed Jews had agency and were responsible for their actions.)
I recently read the Book of Esther over several days as it was part of my morning prayer time found in the Liturgy of the Hours. I was surprised to learn it was all just a story, though compelling. See the following analysis: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/esther/0
I am more interested in the story in the Books of Maccabees that details the slaughtering of Jews by King Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire (175 BC). The Book of Maccabees is not part of the Jewish Canon but is part of the Catholic canon. As I read recently the first Book of Maccabees, the current events in Israel came to mind. The hatred and joy of slaughtering Jews is millennia old.
I hope Netanyahu pushes out every Hamas supporter in Gaza and West Bank. Jews should have all of that land. Muslims can go to any number of lands where their jihadists already live, thanks to their conquering and annihilating Christians in the Byzantine Empire.
“I recently read the Book of Esther… I was surprised to learn it was all just a story.
Many people consider much of the Old and New Testament stories. Those are personal opinions.
The question is, who wrote the scrolls? Within the scrolls are two lines indicating Esther and Mordechai wrote this together. But, the Talmud says The Great Assembly wrote The Book of Esther some years after the occurrence. They were the ultimate authority of the time.
Was it written twice? Likely. First, by Esther and Mordecai in manuscript form to be a historical record without the holiness in what is known as the Book of Esther, which is what you read.
There was fear of the Persians incorporating it into their history, converting God’s name into the Persian deities, so God’s name was left out.
Estovir,
Give it time, leftists will declare support for Israel is hate speech and must be banned.
People need to stop using the term “conspiracy theory” as it is currently used. The way progressives have defined it and use it as cudgel, it means something they disagree with. Do not play this game. Per Merriam Webster
Conspiracy Theory: a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators
Until a few years ago, a secret was a necessary element of any conspiracy theory. If you go by the definition, the Russia collusion conspiracy theory was and is a progressive clown conspiracy theory.
Do not play the progressive clown game. Correct the nitwits every time they use conspiracy theory incorrectly. They will never learn (you need intelligence for that), but at least you can intelligently disagree with the buffoons.
These days the difference between a “right-wing conspiracy theory” and what is reported as factual is about three months.
Democrats have decided that their mantra for the upcoming 2024 election will be “Saving Democracy”. And as always with Democrats, the exact opposite is true with their censoring everyone with whom they disagree. If a bunch of 60-year-olds being guided around by Capitol Police officers taking selfies is an “insurrection”, then I’m the Tooth Fairy.
So nice to have your thinking done for you.
The more I read of the woke prog/left fanaticism, the far easier it is to compare them to the Spanish Inquisition. Both fanatical movements were inspired by their unshakeable faith in their knowledge of the true path and their fervent desire to hunt down and eradicate heresy at all points. Neither of them would go to any lengths to reach their goal without any regards to the unholy methods they would utilize.
Whimsical – same with Islamist jihadism. It’s no wonder the Left supports that over the freedom, tolerance, pluralism, and democracy of Israel.
Feathers from the same bird.
I have always, in my mind, compared the islamic jihadis to the woke prog/left. Both adhere to a fantasy of utopia based on an unshakeable belief in their ideologies. Neither have any compassion for alternative beliefs and both would, and will ultimately need to, annihilate any opposition to their over-arching desire for total control. We should probably fear our home grown prog/leftism far more than we fear islam.
When someone says they are a fascists, believe them.
The parallels to Germany 1930s continues to grow.
There was an insurrection?
Will Rollins is wrong.
Each person has their own understanding of what qualifies as lies or damn lies. Likewise, we also have our own perception of what constitutes valuable information to us. The reality is that we should acknowledge that even misinformation, mal-information, and conspiracy theories are still forms of information. We may find the information offensive, and we may not “like” the information we hear or see, as it is filtered through our subjective senses, but that does not give the information no value or worth. Regardless of the type of information, there is something we can learn from it.
As illustrated by your wave picture, and from what you’ve said, Mr. Rollins seems to have political ambitions but no principles. He puts his finger to the wind to decide what to pretend his goals are, but he has no integrity.
I think we need to arrest 10,000’s of Democrat criminals across government…think Nuremberg Trials.
The Russian Hoax, Protecting Bidens, Pelosis, Obamas, Clintons, McCabe, Strzok, other Democrats and their crime sprees, the people indicting Trump a 100 times. We have a WHOLE criminal government with a 100% corrupt for democrats DOJ, FBI, CIA, IRS, SEC, etc
As always, the obvious question is who decides whatis misinformatio, or conspiracy theories, versus truth? Recall the lies…Russia, Wuhan, Hunter laptop, etc..
actually with ACTUAL free speech and a RULE OF LAW…we would know
But with Censorship, corrupt government and media…some DONT!