first amendment

WASHINGTON — Pro-Israel lawmakers in Washington, undeterred by the partial shutdown of the United States government, are pursuing their agenda full speed with the introduction of the first piece of legislation before the 116th Senate — a bill that aims to stifle the free-speech rights of American critics of apartheid Israel.
The Republican-controlled Senate’s first bill (S.1) would enact penalties on entities that engage in boycotts of Israel — one of many measures in the United States intended to push back on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As we saw Sunday evening, the new poll from NBC and the Wall Street Journal found that 62% of voters believe Trump lies about the Mueller investigation, up significantly from last summer when voters were asked the same question.

Press conferences with the president are not guaranteed by the Constitution. Tucker Carlson pointed out the irony of CNN claiming a violation against free speech as the network led the campaign to silence Alex Jones on the internet. 

We are in a propaganda war unlike anything anyone ever expected in the United States. As recently as the 1970’s and 1980’s, the common knowledge even among young elementary school students was that the Government of the United States cannot restrict the operation of a free press. Freedom of speech was taught and vaunted as one of our most precious rights, and the Soviet Union’s history of oppression was the catalyst by which love of the right of free speech was protected.
Do not let go of this freedom, or we will become like them, we were told.

Four weeks ago, Twitter came under fire for not banning Alex Jones from its social network as a wave of bans against the strongly conservative newsman swept across other prominent media outlets like Facebook, Apple and YouTube. But now, it appears that Jack Dorsey has caved into the pressure.
Alex Jones and InfoWars are now banned from Twitter as well. CNBC reports:

The Court of Public Opinion has bitten many high-tech industries really hard in the United States, with great companies like Apple, Facebook and Google taking upon themselves the mantle of “for your own good” censorship and curtailing of free speech.

What a mess. As America has become ever more polarized, and those polarized factions have become more militant and less inclined to listen to—or even allow for the existence of—other viewpoints, we are fast becoming a nation of people who just can’t get along.

It is a fact, but also an utter contradiction in terms, that “liberals” are completely against “liberty” in the United States. While this is a contradiction in theory, in practice it is absolutely normative in the nation’s culture.

Support of Julian Assange outside the Ecuadorian Embassy (Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge, London). Marshall24 /Flickr

In a decision free speech advocates celebrated as a “historic moment for the First Amendment” and online freedom of expression, a federal judge ruled (pdf) on Wednesday that President Donald Trump cannot block Twitter users for their political views or criticism of his policies.