604 Comments

What, no mention of the FBI's abuse of FISA against Trump, both as a candidate and as President? Do any of the other abuses even come close to that subversion of "our democracy"?

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Censorship for safety reasons. That's the same logic used for the COVID lockdowns and other draconian measures imposed upon US citizens, it was for our safety. It was an obvious lie then and it's still a lie.

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The thing that the free speech issue drives home for me is how wrong Madison was when he posited that the US Constitution didn't need a Bill of Rights, that it was implicit in the Constitution itself. You clearly need it stated, "Congress shall pass NO law..." in regards to an issue like this. And look, even this, the Alien and Sedition Act -banning criticism of the government- passed in defiance of the Constitution just a few decades later. My point is that this will never be a settled issue, but require continuing debate, and importantly, the Good Guys who understand liberty to stand up for it.

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I read the FP article on censorship and safety, the point being, as I saw it, that "safety" was a spurious rationale to police speech. I've also noticed that FP has not been a strong opponent of censoring pro-Palestinian activists or Israel critics in general (I also read the negative profile of Tucker Carlson), using, it seems to me, the same rationale, i.e., these views make people unsafe and therefore need to be censored. It's disappointingly inconsistent. It seems like the same argument on both sides, left and right: we can't have freedom of speech because it's just too dangerous.

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Wonderful issue today. Thanks Oliver.

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The safety concerns leading to censorship is oddly relevant. I have had a uni human rights complaint filed against me for posting a private message that I stood with Israel/ & Hamas are Nazis. All the accusors were granted anonymity due to safety concerns. The safety concerns have no root source. They are a self fulfilling anonymity card that isn't really very clever. I am a 59 year old out of shape lecturer, not sure when I became a killing machine but thank you. www.freedomtoffend.com

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I read that "Polycule" article. Disgusting. Just plain disgusting. And it's happening down the street from me.

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I did not quite see the similarity between the Bruxelles case and this California student: Asna Tabassum, an undergraduate that the University of Southern California disallowed her to speak as valedictorian. Never mind her statements, but she put on her CV that she finished some studies about "genocide" in a program associated with Spielberg Holocaust Memory initiative. The Spielberg office made an official announcement that she lied - there is no such thing and they do not know anything about her claims. Perhaps USC president should read Aesop's Hermes and the Chariot fable at the graduation ...

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UPDATE!: THE FREE PRESS DISCUSSION BOARD MEMBERS!!

ZELENSKY IS JEWISH!! IF YOU DO NOT SUPPORT UKRAINE YOU ARE AN ANTI-SEMITE!!!

https://www.thejc.com/news/world/how-jewish-is-volodymyr-zelensky-n4utji15

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When I went to my son’s college graduation, I was going to attend a family event. A celebration of his accomplishment. A time to move on and-start a career. I wasn’t going to get into a political fist fight. I was not coming to hear an academic debate. I was not coming to hear someone advocate for eradicating a country because that was free speech. A graduation is not a public political event. It is a private event. A tradition. It is an elevation of students to the next level. USC was absolutely right to pull this speaker. What they did wrong was to blame the change on safety. What they did was common sense.

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Apr 17·edited Apr 17

Hmmm.....guess TFP discussion board isn't really about "merit" after all.

Seems "merit" is actually all based on what color you are/ identity politics for TFP discussion board

Damn DEIs.

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>Oliver fears FISA (as every Constitution-appreciating citizen should)

>The political positions staked out by The Free Press support those FISA without hesitation.

One of these things does not belong. Which is it?

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The struggle between the progressive left and political centrist's is intensifying.

The portion of the population that retains common sense is growing more ill at ease with those who lack that characteristic or have abandoned it.

As can be seen in this example, progressives do not tolerate criticism or contradiction from those in their particular cloister - nonconformance is grounds for immediate expulsion and subsequent discretization - but the damage control efforts made only enhance the credibility of the ostensible heretic.

Progressives are enamored of the notion that their self-anointed moral and intellectual superiority is going to deliver humanity from its foibles and cannot abide the reality that this mission is, in fact, an impossibility given their own imperfections are not correctible or erasable.

Progressives can manipulate information to support their agenda but this simply provokes those within to realize the can no longer accept the 'means to an end' tactics of their colleagues.

The radical progressive movement as well as its agenda beginning to be subject to the examination it has heretofore been able to avoid by the moral and intellectual intimidation it has been allowed to wield indiscriminately within both public and private institutions.

The extent and nature of progressive influence is vast but is crumbling under the scrutiny of those possessed of the character and courage to question the development of intellectual of moral conformity that has attempted to paralyze competitive thinking and speech.

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NPR's new CEO calls First Amendment the 'number one challenge' in American journalism which makes it hard to crack down on 'bad information'

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Re: USC valedictorian—I’d be careful about pointing out where an anti-Israel voice was silenced, Oliver. Your boss has been preaching for them to be silenced for months, so I don’t know how much she’ll appreciate you pointing it out. DL, bro, DL.

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Oliver, your beef with Elon Musk is fucking childish. Hey, let’s make sure we bring Musk up to remind everyone that he hates leftists. And let’s remind everyone that since he lost a lawsuit and Tesla stock is down, now he’s only the 2nd richest guy. Nanny nanny boo boo!!

That is true 5th grade level maturity.

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