These are sad times, indeed. According to a recent Pew poll,
a majority of Americans now believe that people’s feelings are more important
than freedom of speech, the founding principle of the nation they inhabit. The majority
of Americans apparently believe that. To be more precise, the majority
of Americans apparently feel that feelings Trump freedom.
Vomit.
This is a result of progressives’
decades-long rampage
through American institutions, their near total infiltration and then
usurpation of academia, media, entertainment, Big Business, Big Tech, the
Military-Industrial complex, IRS, FBI, DOJ, CIA, and Big Religion, among other
entities now inalterably infected with the inexplicable yet apparently overwhelming
desire to destroy America first, the hell with whatever happens thereafter. (Likely
including their own destruction.)
According to Pew, 53% of U.S.
adults say “being able to feel welcome and safe online” is more important than
“people being allowed to speak their minds freely.” Somewhere, Jefferson and Franklin
weep.
It is no surprise that Democrats
were more likely than Republicans to feel this way, some 60%
prioritizing online “safety” over free expression. Yet, a shocking 45% of
respondents identifying as Republicans also favored safety over liberty. And
the trendline on this issue over time is depressing for anyone who still values
the First Amendment.
How can one be truly “unsafe” online?
More importantly, it is impossible to truly be safe if the truth cannot be
told, if one cannot speak one’s mind, if only certain points of view are deemed
acceptable.
When feelings
trump freedom, a society is a doomed. How will you “feel” when you have no
freedom, at least the freedoms you happen to cherish? Preferring feeling
“welcomed” to liberty is essentially saying emotion should have primacy over
reason, lust over discipline. It is an insipid form of selfishness, because
what you’re really saying is, I don’t believe other people have the right to
say things with which I disagree, because my right to not be offended or
triggered is more important than their right to think for themselves. This, of
course, becomes tyranny…writ large.
And there is
no “right” to not be offended. Whether free speech exists or not.
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