Posted on 07/05/2023 4:27:45 AM PDT by MtnClimber
This is a huge victory for free speech, though it must be kept in mind that the injunction issued by US District Court Judge Terry A. Doughty is a preliminary injunction that almost certainly will be appealed and will take a long time to be finally decided, perhaps by the Supreme Court eventually. I expect there will be fierce attacks on the ruling, and on Judge Doughty, who is a Trump appointee (thank-you, Mitch McConnell). Judge Doughty’s nomination was confirmed by a vote of 98 – 0 on March 1, 2018.
The ruling by Judge Doughty is 135 pages long, and will take more time to analyze thoroughly, but as a first take, the following excerpts (impressive to me) are worth bearing in mind. (Footnotes are omitted)
INTRODUCTION (pp. 2-3)
I may disapprove of what you say, but I would defend to the death your right to say it.
Evelyn Beatrice Hill, 1906, The Friends of Voltaire
This case is about the Free Speech Clause in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The explosion of social-media platforms has resulted in unique free speech issues— this is especially true in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history. In their attempts to suppress alleged disinformation, the Federal Government, and particularly the Defendants named here, are alleged to have blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free speech.
Although the censorship alleged in this case almost exclusively targeted conservative speech, the issues raised herein go beyond party lines. The right to free speech is not a member of any political party and does not hold any political ideology.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The problem is that most of these tech leaders are leftists and they already know what the democRATs would want to censor.
During the Iraq war someone sent me a link to a video of a car bombing. The video was shot from a chase car and you could hear the men in the chase car shouting “alahu akbar!” The bomb car pulled up beside a truck filled with soldiers and exploded. I went back to the link a moment later and the video I had just watched was already gone. This was a long time ago and the ability to censor was apparently well developed then. I have to believe it’s much better now. France has called on social media to censor as did Egypt when the military took over and Russia today. The people in charge are always going to do whatever they think they need to in order to stay in charge. Biden is trying to censor Trump. Because Biden, legitimately, sees Trump as a danger. As far as ANY leader sees it, a danger to himself is a danger to his country. Yes, that’s Sun King “I-AM-the-state” level of ego. But people with ordinary sized egos do not generally rise to lead nations.
The court did the right thing under law, but the system is still broken.
Had they each independently created a policy and enforced it without coordination with the government, it would have been more problematic. Additionally, there are other state laws - e.g. Texas - which declares that over a certain size and you have become a public platform similar to a utility - have imposed restrictions on what can be done for censorship.
They’ll just call go-betweens to funnel spin instructions and the word/phrase everyone must inundate the news with.
It makes me cry with joy to read his words.
Heckuva ruling about one of the most egregious attacks on the Constitution and US citizens, especially conservatives by the Biden admin. If ever a case deserved to be decided by SCOTUS on the way to halting the nation’s slide toward tyranny, this is it.
Thanks for posting.
Worthy to be read in full. This judge is SCOTUS material. If anybody on this site finds the ruling in full, ping me a link. I’ll research and do the same.
This should read “Silence Dogood”
I am hoping this typo is the artifact of the article author and not the judge.
If it is the fault of the judge it may diminish the impact of the ruling in the minds of some.
Regardless of the error’s human or origin it is doubtlessly an artifact of the evil Spell Check.
My bad. The link is near the top of the AT article.
That’s true but no state local or federal government agency or their proxies should be involved in asking any private social media to do the censoring as a matter of government policy. Let the government set up it’s own media presence(ahem NPR/CPB) to push its message if it wishes!
Some trial judges can try to quash public dissemination of evidence prior to a trial to ensure “fairness”,(questionable some times)...but that’s about all the “censoring” that should be allowed by government under the constitution.(spy secrets is another issue).
Spell check creates an eggcorn!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F12LSAbos7A
Description
Are you getting these phrases wrong too? | EGGCORNS
RobWords
38K
Likes
832,700
Views
Jun 24
2023
In the “doggy dog world” of the web, ...
Eggcorns are no “old wise tale”. These misheard phrases are everywhere. In this video we look at lots of examples of these amusing mishaps and try to understand why they happen, with the help of Professor Mark Liberman who helped coin the term “eggcorn”. We also discuss other linguistic calamities, including malapropisms, folk etymologies and mondegreens.
==LINKS==
Prof. Liberman’s blog post inspired by our chat: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll...
The Bonnie Earl O’ Moray song:
• 7. The Bonnie Ear...
Online eggcorn database: https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/browse-...
Check me out on the web, Twitter & TikTok:
https://robwords.com
http://twitter.com/robwordsYT
http://tiktok.com/@robwords
==CHAPTERS==
0:00 Introduction
0:45 What is an “eggcorn”?
1:45 Mark Liberman explains the name
3:57 Malapropisms
5:20 Rob’s confession
5:56 Mondegreens - origin & Hendrix
7:27 Spot the eggcorns with NordVPN
9:00 Eggcorns aren’t stupid
10:20 Butt naked or buck naked?
11:50 Old Timer’s Disease, wet your appetite, just desserts
13:25 Damp squid or damp squib
14:08 Historic eggcorns
14:53 Folk etymologies: Jerusalem artichoke
17:31 Call for foreign eggcorns
Little Late
Thanks for the video.
I think we all probably develop or create eggcorns in our youth when we are listening to adult conversations and mishear what the adults are saying.
I’ve heard it described as a natural process engaged in by the fertile and creative human brain/mind. And that’s true, as far as it goes. But I’ve also read commentary suggesting that to the extent a young person strives to become well read, the number of eggcorns that they will end up entertaining in their fertile mind will be numerically limited in the first instance, and those that do crop up over time will be significantly time limited (since they will eventually read in written form the original (and presumably correct) expression).
This Guy gives a “+1” to those comments—it’s generally been true in his life.
Everyone should strive to be well read.
In the meantime, eggcorns, malapropisms, etc., are a total hoot!
Exactly no meetings will be needed
It’s not just censoring speech and denying first amendment rights. It’s giving aid and comfort to the domestic and foreign enemies of the United States.
From the Conclusion to the ruling (footnotes deleted for continuity’s sake):
V . CONCLUSION
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one place to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
Harry S. Truman
The Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to silence the opposition. Opposition to COVID-19 vaccines; opposition to COVID-19 masking and lockdowns; opposition to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19; opposition to the validity of the 2020 election; opposition to President Biden’s policies; statements that the Hunter Biden laptop story was true; and opposition to policies of the government officials in power. All were suppressed.
It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature. This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech. American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country.
Although this case is still relatively young, and at this stage the Court is only examining it in terms of Plaintiffs’ likelihood of success on the merits, the evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth.”
__________
This may be the most important First Amendment case of our time. Reading (and, yes, mostly skimming the legal jargon and precedents) this ruling gives you the feeling that the Biden Admin used 1984 as an instruction manual.
You would love my wife.
She is a veritable treasure trove of them.
Many of them she continues to use no matter how many times I correct her.
She gets very annoyed with me at times because she knows that I know what she means.
Most times I let it slide. But others, I just can’t stop myself.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.