The assault on the first amendment (and the return of McCarthyism)
I believe this merits its own thread now. The first amendment is definitely under assault.
I just watched the head of the FCC get asked point blank if he was directly involved in "persuading" ABC to remove Jimmy Kimmel. He would not answer the question, and instead rambled about how local stations have a right to not air content that they find unacceptable. This is absolutely not what happened with Kimmel.
Related, we have, in my opinion, one of the most level-headed, smart and I would go so far as to say the best poster here (Rococo) posting this:
I am more that a little unsettled by the overall climate right now. Although I believe my opinions are well within what should be tolerated in a free society, purely as a matter of self-interest, I am very close to going entirely silent on politics on the internet. I have been silent under my own name for many years now. I am rapidly approaching a time when I will no longer
He is not overreacting. People are getting fired left and right now for posting political opinions on social media. However, they are only getting fired for "left" political opinions. Maga is immune from this.
The right's take now is illustrated by our own geezerchess
Kimmel used to be funny and make money for his network.
He can start a podcast like everybody else and not have to bow-the-knee to any network.
First of all, Kimmel was making money. The totality of revenues don't solely come from direct advertising dollars. Even so, it's a smokescreen. The government starts here and will proceed to podcasts in the not so distant future.
In fact, what will be coming will be far more insidious. The government controls a lot of purse strings. People like me will lose their social security and medicare. They have the database and they will use it.
This article pretty much sums it all up.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
Earlier on Wednesday, the chair of the US media regulator, Brendan Carr, who was appointed by Trump, appeared on a rightwing podcast and threatened ABC affiliates' broadcast licenses if action was not taken against the late night host.
After ABC’s announcement hours later, Johnson boasted online that it was his interview with Carr that had led to Kimmel’s suspension. “It’s called soft power,” he said. “The Left uses it all the time. Thanks to President Trump, the Right has learned how to wield power as well.”
There have been reports of teachers, firefighters, journalists, nurses, politicians, a Secret Service employee, a junior strategist at Nasdaq and a worker for a prominent NFL team, being sacked or censured in some form after publishing opinions on Kirk’s politics or death.
Efforts to track down, intimidate and harass people perceived not to have sufficiently mourned the killing of the Kirk were endorsed on Monday by JD Vance.
Not removing my ad blocker for this, but the title says it all - 70 Oklahoma teachers under investigation for kirk comments
And texas
Hundreds of teachers are under investigation by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) over social media posts related to Charlie Kirk's assassination.
It's happening everywhere.
Not removing my ad blocker for this, but the title says it all - 70 Oklahoma teachers under investigation for kirk comments
And texasIt's happening everLet me ask you this . If a teacher was found out to be walking down the street in a KKK rally should he be fired ? How about if a teacher was to say someone needs to kill Joe Biden
During the whole George Floyd and BLM riots right wing folks got fired as well for free speech
Also I think what was done with ABC was disgusting and with Kimmel. But also ABC maybe its time you stood up to Trump
Ellen Schrecker, an expert on the McCarthy era, said it's worse now. Today we see not just the persecution of individuals, but state capture of institutions like Harvard and ABC.
I am rapidly approaching a time when I will no longer will be willing to participate even on an "anonymous" basis on sites like 2+2
Be brave. There's safety in numbers if everyone all at once keeps denouncing censorship.
Ellen Schrecker, an expert on the McCarthy era, said it's worse now. Today we see not just the persecution of individuals, but state capture of institutions like Harvard and ABC.
Be brave. There's safety in numbers if everyone all at once keeps denouncing censorship.
It is worse now because it is coming from the top. Not only that, the heads of every agency are trump sycophants. They will gladly trample the constitution to benefit dear leader.
Back in the day at least some of the politicians on the right had a semblance of a spine and a speck of the sense of right an wrong (see Nixon). This no longer exists.
BTW, chances we don't have midterms are becoming more and more likely.
I suspect that's what the troops in the streets are for.
The 1st amendment has been under assault from the 2nd amendment for quite a while.
It’s alright guys, what we lose in rococo we gain in this guy
a
I don't recall the head of the fcc calling the head of abc to threaten their license if they didn't do something about Rosanne.
Let me ask you this . If a teacher was found out to be walking down the street in a KKK rally should he be fired ? How about if a teacher was to say someone needs to kill Joe Biden During the whole George Floyd and BLM riots right wing folks got fired as well for free speech Also I think what was done with ABC was disgusting and with Kimmel. But also ABC maybe its time you stoo
Charlie Kirk said Biden should be executed and didn’t lose his job 😀
Carr has been re-nominated at the FCC by Biden btw, that's how partisan he was perceived to be by democrats.
On Monday, May 22, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Brendan Carr '05 for Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. This is a renomination for Carr, who currently serves as a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission.
Below is a portion of the White House's press release:
. . .
Brendan Carr currently serves as a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, having first joined the agency as a staffer in 2012. In his time on the Commission, Carr has focused on expanding affordable, high-speed Internet service to all Americans. Carr also leads a groundbreaking telehealth initiative at the FCC, the Connected Care Pilot Program, which supports the delivery of high-quality care to low-income Americans and veterans. Prior to his current role, Carr served as the FCC’s General Counsel and before that as a staffer in multiple offices at the Commission. Before joining the agency, he clerked for Judge Dennis Shedd on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and worked as a lawyer in the private sector. Carr earned his B.A. from Georgetown University and his J.D. magna cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where he served as an editor of the Catholic University Law Review. He lives in Virginia with his wife and three young boys.
That is what you say he said with no link to back it up and im sure taking out of context
I don't recall the head of the fcc calling the head of abc to threaten their license if they didn't do something about Rosanne.
Your right but I do remember Biden's cronies pressuring Instagram and Youtube to de-platform folks for their opinion on Covid which was mainly correct in the end
I know what you're thinking, we've got to get Joe Biden out of the way so we can run up against Kammy. Oh my goodness, is she beatable. It's like Black Hillary on steroids. Is she Black? I guess she says she's Caribbean or whatever. Doesn't matter. She gives these speeches, and it just has this aura of totalitarianism. My team says she is Indian and Caribbean.
I'll tell you what, she would be a lot easier to beat than Joe Biden. Joe Biden is a bumbling, dementia-filled Alzheimer's, corrupt, tyrant who should honestly be put in prison and/or given the death penalty for his crimes against America.
I believe this merits its own thread now. The first amendment is definitely under assault.
yes the scenes of Donald Trump sending jackbooted thugs to beat peaceful protesters are very disturbing.
and manhandling elderly reporters
I as thinking how to answer in this thread, then i found this perfect tweet answering similar claims:
Lomez
@L0m3z
We are finally seeing the first real consequences of major institutions having spent the last decade undermining the facade of liberal neutrality they at least used to claim as an ideal.
This facade actually mattered quite a lot, and even though it was obviously never entirely sincere and even though conservatives were always out numbered and often poorly represented, they at least felt like participants and stakeholders in these institutions.
During the Trump years this all went away. Conservatives were aggressively ousted, even as token voices, and the facade came down to reveal a perverse and illiberal set of political and cultural directives underneath it that were explicitly antagonistic to more than half of the country and denied them as legitimate participants in public life.
Despite this, MAGA won (again), and, surprise, surprise, do not intend on preserving the institutions that declared them illegitimate political actors. This is, in fact, MAGA’s core promise. These institutions and the norms that govern them may not go away entirely but they will not keep their current form. Appeals to liberal neutrality they enjoyed and depended on, but defected from first, are not going to save them.
The whole thing is going to be reset. Free speech and civil liberties have not gone away, and are not being suspended or selectively applied or anything like that. They still exist and are still an essential feature of American civil life under this new ordering. All of American legal and political theory that has obtained for 250 years fits very neatly inside of this reset, despite the kicking and screaming from the old institutional gatekeepers.
But no, you no longer get to run roughshod over the commons, enjoy the largesse of public resources and its infrastructure, while denying them for the rest of us.
It’s the same game, but we are now calling balls and strikes. Get used to it.
lol you all sound line the radical BLM people. “Equality feels like oppression when you’re an oppressor!” type beat.
Look, if some of you want to live in a country where the president extorts TV networks to shut down shows that speak critically of him, and says things he doesn't like, then you just should admit you're OK being fascist.
It's really no more complex than that. Just say... I love fascism, because right now it's my fascism.
/end thread
So jailed or the death penalty which both occur after a trail I do believe. I think many on the left feel the same way under Trump now . Though thanks to Trumps supreme court a president can not be tried which I disagree with also
I think what Trump's administration or the head of the FCC is doing is wrong. Though I want ABC to stand up to him and let him yank the license which I doubt happens but under Trump who knows .
When it comes to situations like Kimmel, I think it is important to remember exactly what we are talking about.
If Jimmy Kimmel had come on his show and said that he jerked it last night to graphic video of Charlie Kirk being killed, and then ABC/Disney had cancelled the Jimmy Kimmel show, I wouldn't have a problem. That comment would have been highly offensive to a large percentage of people, Disney is a private company, and it doesn't have a commercial or constitutional obligation to let Jimmy Kimmel say literally whatever the **** he wants. In other words, I understand that people will get fired or shut down by their employers if they go far enough.
But that really isn't what happened here. The totality of Kimmel's social media posts and comments on his show about Charlie Kirk's shooting were far less out of the ledge than the hypothetical comment I just described. Frankly, they weren't different in kind than mainstream comments that we have all heard from from both right and left wing commentators in response to analogous incidents in the past. But they were just enough to allow an unprincipled White House and FCC to lean on Disney/ABC to get rid of someone who has been highly critical of Donald Trump.
Many people here have argued that Kimmel's show was unprofitable and that Disney/ABC was happy to have a reason to cancel the show. Maybe so. I don't know. But as I said before, if Disney/ABC was willing to give the impression of bowing to authoritarian political pressure when it fact it was making a financial decision, that is a horrid form of corporate capitulation.
Look, if some of you want to live in a country where the president extorts TV networks to shut down shows that speak critically of him, and says things he doesn't like, then you just should admit you're OK being fascist.
It's really no more complex than that. Just say... I love fascism, because right now it's my fascism.
/end thread
1st of all, the purported threats came from a person that is fully bipartisan, so much that the Biden admin spoke highly of him and reconfirmed him in his role just in 2023.
2nd , the threats of federal action came after explicit endorsement of political violence happened in that tv show, and not for criticism of Trump which wasn't even the topic (the topic was Kirk death)
3rd it's you guys that love federal agencies like the FCC. If it was for people like me, those agencies wouldn't exist at all
4th the company only took down the show because it already intended to do so, because those shows are all unprofitable, and were kept even if bleeding money for a bit in a hope of some lucky turnaround of revenues (which didn't happen) and as a political gift to the left (which isn't needed anymore). But in order not to make the left angry for no reason, ABC capitalized on the problem to justify doing what it wanted to do anyway, without paying any political price toward the left (they know things can go back to "normal" in 2028).
5th you should really stop calling fascism everything you dislike in politics
1st of all, the purported threats came from a person that is fully bipartisan, so much that the Biden admin spoke highly of him and reconfirmed him in his role just in 2023.2nd , the threats of federal action came after explicit endorsement of political violence happened in that tv show, and not for criticism of Trump which wasn't even the topic (the topic was Kirk death)3rd it
You've made it abundantly clear, you're ok w/ fascism.
This is fascism. This is what it looks like. You're ok with it and don't want to see it, because you think "your side" is winning right now. You're completely blind to it, and you'll be an apologist for it every step of the way, just like you're doing above.
But I've read a few books in my time. I listen to the experts in fascism that have studied this important topic their whole careers.
What you don't realize, because frankly, you're just not educated enough, is that this always ends in the same place. And while you think your side is winning, everyone will end up bending the knee to a fascist dictator because all they want is ultimate power. They are so soulfully inadequate inside, that nothing will satisfy them beyond vanquishing all dissent, and consolidating all the power.
Everyone will eventually be put into a position to bend the knee or break... even you.
Not removing my ad blocker for this, but the title says it all - 70 Oklahoma teachers under investigation for kirk comments
And texasIt's happening everElon liked this clip (meaning disclaimer i have not done a character assessment of the tweeter or their entire tweeting history). I think it's a spot on analysis of the situation
