FREE SPEECH; OR NOT

 

                FREE SPEECH; OR NOT                      

Written by Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, February 4, 2022

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In case you didn’t recognize it, the above is the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.  I have highlighted two sections for emphasis for a reason.

Recently we have seen numerous attempts by people (as compared to Congress) to quiet or de-platform Joe Rogan from Spotify broadcasts.  First a disclaimer; I have never listened to or watched a Joe Rogan broadcast but that is not important for the purpose of this Nugget.  Some of the people who have called for him to be de-platformed are members of The View, a television program that I have only watched once and trust me, once was enough to know I never wanted to watch it again – EVER! 

Members of The View were outraged over a Joe Rogan podcast when he spent 3 hours interviewing Dr. Robert Malone who obviously had opinions of the current pandemic that were contrary to statements made by the U. S. Government and organizations affiliated with the U. S. Government.  If you read the First Amendment above and if you pay particular attention to the first 5 words, you should recognize that the U. S. Congress is NOT the person or persons attempting to silence Joe Rogan.  No to the contrary, it is our fellow U. S. Citizens who are attempting to silence Mr. Rogan.

To demonstrate how hypocritical the members of The View and others are, more recently Whoopie Goldberg made outrageous comments regarding the Holocaust.  It serves no purpose to get involved in a discussion of what she said or what she meant, only that her words outraged a lot of people including me.  However, I did not see her speak them on live television, I saw her speak them on numerous television shows including news broadcasts.  I can only imagine what the Jewish population thought of her comments.  While what she said is important, it is NOT important for the rest of this Nugget.

What’s important is that ABC quickly suspended Ms. Goldberg for two weeks because of what she said on air.  Again, ABC is NOT the U. S. Congress; in that regard, no harm, no foul on the government’s part.  It was a civilian organization that decided to temporarily cancel Ms. Goldberg but for only two weeks.  The number of people that have been completely fired for making comments on air that offended people is frankly too long to even attempt to list.  The most recent that comes to mind is Sharon Osborne who was fired from The Talk on CBS.  Her crime?  She defended the comments made by commentator Piers Morgan on another television show on another network.  She simply defended his right to say what he said.  It should have been, no harm, no foul because she has a right to say whatever she wants to say.  Yes, CBS has a right to fire whomever they wish, provided of course, that the person’s contract with the network prohibited the cause for the firing which in this case, it obviously did not.  By the way, Piers Morgan was also released from his contract for saying what he said.

For the people who know me they are going to be shocked at what I am about to say.  Whoopie Goldberg, Joe Rogan, Sharon Osborne and Piers Morgan (and many others) should NOT have been fired and/or suspended for what they said – IT WAS THEIR OPINION, RIGHT OR WRONG, IT WAS THEIR OPINION. 

Since when and why has it suddenly become a violation for someone to speak their opinion as I am doing in this Nugget – THIS IS MY OPINION.  Go ahead, cancel me, frankly I don’t give a rat’s ass whether you like what I have written or not.  I only wish more people felt as I do about free speech and a person’s right to speak whatever they wish to say or write about. 

Here’s a novel idea.  If you don’t like what Joe Rogan, Whoopie Goldberg, Sharon Osborne and/or Piers Morgan (and many others) have said, TURN THE FRIGGIN TV/COMPUTER OFF and don’t listen/watch them ever again.  That is your choice!  If you do, your feelings will never be hurt ever again by these horrible people (your opinion, not mine). 

To further demonstrate just how ridiculous this has become, imagine it’s April 11, 1861.  President Abraham Lincoln has just made a speech in which he cast dispersions on slavery in the fledgling United States of America.  Just so you know, the Civil War officially began on April 12, 1861.  The people who supported slavery, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, were so outraged, they had President Lincoln banned from all of his social media platforms (as if there were any) and the news media at the time, refused to cover his comments as spoken, in the papers of the day.  Had there been television, Lincoln would have been ostracized on all of the main stream media channels.  Had any of this actually happened, the U. S. Civil War may have never taken place and slavery might still exist in America today as wrong as it was then, it would still be wrong today.  Lincoln obviously had opinions of slavery that were contrary to common thinking and the existing laws of the day and he wanted to eliminate slavery in America.

Back to Joe Rogan.  I am 100% confident that the interview between Joe Rogan and Dr. Malone on that fateful day will prove that Dr. Malone was 100% correct in his statements.  Joe Rogan will be vindicated. He was simply asking questions of a knowledgeable person who had opinions based on facts but whose opinions were contrary to what the main stream media and people like members of The View, The Talk and even Dr. Fauci himself, would find acceptable.  I believe (an opinion in case you are unaware of the process) that Dr. Malone’s comments were based on facts that few if anyone had the expertise of Dr. Malone to dispute.  Yet there they were, The View, The Talk, every news outlet, Hollywood celebrities, over-the-hill musicians and others all who came forward to dispute what was said during the three hours AND NONE OF THEM HAD THE EXPERTISE TO DISPUTE ANYTHING THAT WAS SAID.  In fact, I don’t recall any of these people ever putting forth FACTS that would dispute what Dr. Malone had said, NO ONE!  They just didn’t like what he said or how he may have said it but they either could not or simply did not present facts to contradict the Doctor.

None of this is about FREE SPEECH as we hear in ongoing discussions.  It IS about a CANCEL CULTURE in America, nothing more, nothing less.  The canceling is being done by people who are basically ignorant of the subject matter they are canceling.  Case in point, does anyone think Joy Bahar of The View is knowledgeable enough to get into a live debate with Dr. Malone?  I seriously doubt that anyone at ABC could adequately debate Dr. Malone.  That is MY OPINION, so cancel me if you wish, I really don’t care.  Or, like turning off your television/computer, you can simply stop reading.  Just stop!

As a reminder, we spent the better part of 4 years listening to news reports after news reports on just about every television channel and in every newspaper, about the connection between President Donald Trump and Russia.  It was all a fraud, a hoax, and most people knew it was a hoax, yet the media covered it like it was as real as it gets.  No one ever canceled any of the talking heads that spewed this garbage 24/7 and none of them have ever apologized to we Americans for making us endure their lies and deceptions.  I personally cancelled them by simply not watching them or reading any of their news articles.  That is how you cancel someone, you do it by yourself and without fanfare.  Millions of people DID NOT personally cancel these programs/newspapers and as Josepf Goebbels of WWII Nazi Germany said,

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.  The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.  It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

The four years of the Trump Presidency is living proof of what Dr. Malone and Joe Rogan discussed in part when Dr. Malone referred to “Mass Formation Psychosis.”  In simple terms, this occurs when the lie being told is “big enough” and is “repeated” over the course of FOUR YEARS, “people will eventually come to believe it” because the news media would never lie to us folks who are glued to every word of their television broadcasts.  How much bigger could a lie be than to suggest that the President of the United States committed a treasonous act?  We heard it EVERY DAY FOR FOUR YEARS!  Even after it was proven to be a hoax, I know of people, certainly not you, who still believe it.  These were lies; and no one was cancelled or fired!  NO ONE!  I would be remiss not to point out that it was not just ONE television channel or just one newspaper, it was ALL of them.  How is that possible unless there was a coordinated effort to ensure we the people heard only what some unseen power wanted us to hear and see?

We see the exact same thing happening in 2022 with the COVID Pandemic and any reference to the 2020 election having been fraudulent.  No one is allowed to say anything contrary to the public’s perception that the COVID Pandemic is exactly as Dr. Fauci describes it or that the election was the most transparent in history.  How did the “public” come to believe these two supposed “truths?”  24/7 television/radio/newspaper coverage all saying the exact same thing and no one is permitted to dispute them without fearing being cancelled.  Only now, two years after the Pandemic began are we learning that most of what Dr. Fauci professed to be true, then changed, then changed again, is actually false, all of it!  Sadly, only time will prove me right or wrong on that statement.  That statement, if you haven’t guessed, IS MY OPINION, an opinion of which I am 100% entitled to have and to voice.  If you don’t agree, stop reading!  That is YOUR form of cancelation.

How could anyone forget, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. Matthew 7:3”  Before all you “woke” creatures condemn me for the pronouns used in this quote, “him” and “her”, get a friggin life!   I don’t know of anyone who has NEVER made a mistake in their lives except for Jesus Christ.  If you are “without sin”, feel free to cast as many stones as you wish.  No, I didn’t think you would either.

If someone makes a mistake and then apologizes, here’s a novel thought – FORGIVE THEM and then just move on!  You don’t have to like them or agree with them, just move on and if you choose, stop listening/watching/reading what they have to say.

I’ll even provide the first stone for you.  I challenge you to take it, thus signifying you are without sin…