Posted on 09/24/2001 4:24:58 PM PDT by Rebeckie
Unfree Republic
by Jeff Elkins
Let the stench of Middle East flesh reach Paradise reassuring them that these filth have gone to hell permanently."
The quote above is representative of many posted on the FreeRepublic.com site in the wake of the WTC attack, and unfortunately its like is not uncommon elsewhere. Americans are angry, predictably and rightly so, but just as predictable are the side effects. As always, that righteous anger will be accepted as a beloved gift by the state and molded into tools of oppression.
It’s funny how that works. Every single state-sponsored war the US has become embroiled in has resulted in an inexorable increase in the power of the state.
It’s also funny that it’s always assumed that human behavior in the past has no relation to how we behave today. Why those people were old-fashioned, we’re modern, educated, etc.
The beginning of this repeating pattern has already become public with the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security. It has an ominous sound, that name, almost Germanic. (I can’t wait to see the uniforms.)
On April 13, 1917, days after our entry into World War One, President Wilson created the Committee on Public Information to promote the war domestically while publicizing American war aims abroad. Bush has replicated that step, with this new cabinet-level department.
Under the leadership of journalistic muckraker George Creel, the CPI was a propaganda apparatus unparalleled at that point in world history. The CPI functioned as a de facto public censor, vetting nearly all published material about the war and helping to draft legislation such as the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. In the months prior to our entry into the war and especially after our entry when they were nearly criminal, antiwar viewpoints were rarely heard.
The same pattern emerges now: Penn. Gov. Tom Ridge will be President Bush’s George Creel, and just as in those dim days of yesteryear, he’ll have plenty of willing civilian accomplices. And after all, there’s so much more to censor -- Ridge will need all the help he can get. In seeking warriors for the front line of Internet censorship, Ridge needs look no farther than FreeRepublic.com. The atmosphere there is now poisonous.
Again, look back to Wilson's CPI. It encouraged businesses to spy on their employees, parents to spy on their children, children to spy on their parents, neighbors to spy on neighbors, and above all to report "disloyal," pro-German sentiments. State authorities banned the teaching of German in schools and changed German street names. As the madness mounted, those regarded as pro-German were hounded from their jobs, pressured to change their German names, beaten, and in a few cases lynched. Almost all cases of violence, while incited by the state, were carried out by "civilians" in the grip of war hysteria.
Along with this anti-German hysteria, Congress passed several measures designed to rigidly suppress criticism of the war. In particular, the Espionage Act, passed in June 1917, specified a fine of $10,000 or twenty years in prison for "whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag."
The Espionage Act was very popular in its day. It was cheered on by mindless lemmings under the influence of state propaganda. Their great grandchildren now inhabit FreeRepublic.com, viciously attacking anyone who questions the wisdom of the state.
Our Congress is considering similar measures under the rubric of "anti-terrorism," and as it was at the beginning of the 20th Century, the FreeRepublic lemmings of the 21st are cheering the morally corrupt politicians along.
It’s not just message posters on the site. The management of FreeRepublic has instituted a "loose lips sink ships" campaign, with new moderators patrolling the forum to delete posts that in their opinion are detrimental to the "war effort."
The FreeRepublic mission statement claims "We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America."
Sanctimonious hogwash. Everything old is new again – the keyboard warriors of FreeRepublic would be right at home in 1917 shilling for Wilson.
September 24, 2001
All the best,
Callahan
FR has become an encampment for sheep and I'm amazed at seeing some of the people that I'd previously respected falling for this sham. This is surreal.
Callahan
I don't think so. Many still call them as they see them. To do anything else would not be any fun at all. You should try to gain a bit more respect for the intellectual honesty of those with whom you disagree. If nothing else, it adds a bit of civility to the public square.
I'm very proud of you OWK. Thanks for saying this and for being ashamed. You're a TRUE patriot. :-)
'keyboard warriors'
I say 'Screw Lew', if he wants it personal then that's what the whiner's gonna get.
You should realize that once that starts to happen, the terrorist asses will start to fart. You may not like the smell of their farts. I know I didn't when they farted in Washington and New York. Because I leave my windows up in my apartment, I smelled said fart here in the Washington area for some days. I didn't like it. Not at all. In order to prevent further farts, the American people must be prepared to make some compromises. Southern Federalist said it best.
We simply must win the war.
Otherwise, they'd have to admit that they've done a lousy job marketing their ideas.
Short of stopping all International flights into the US, we will never be 100% sure that the events of 9/11 will not repeat themselves.
Short of never allowing anyone else into our country, we will never be sure that terrorists do not walk our streets.
Short of deporting every foreign-born person in the US, we will never be 100% certain that sleeper agents do not live amongst us.
When we do all that, there will be the memory of Tim McVeigh.
As you watch our armed forces being deployed, remember one thing, they are not the front lines, we here at home are.
My parents bought round trip plane tickets to Las Vegas yesterday, they are going to see their grandkids, my Dad's neighbor told him that he is nuts, and that no one could get him to board an airplane right now.
I'm going to follow my father's lead, and fight this war, I'm booking a flight tomorrow.
I'm not letting them use my freedom, to take my freedom from me.
You want surreal, consider the potential of introducting a biological vector into the nation's wheat belt. Mad cow, hoof and mouth. A checmial agent into a major water supply. How about Small Pox introducted into the air filtration system of a major airport...how quickly would that spread across the nation.
And you are crying that the threat of the government tapping into your e-mail is more serious then the potential harm such attacks would cause our nation? Don't you think it's about time your turned loose of your prejudicies against the government and woke up to the reality of the war.
They chose to murder our civilians by the thousands, wholesale slaughter then it is.
Look to the past, to Japan and Germany.
We destroyed their armies, killed their leaders, and fire bombed their cities.
Freedom is neither easy to maintain, nor without cost.
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