by William Skink
The political cartoonist Ted Rall is watching the new regime closely for signs that it’s time to leave. His duel citizenship could be a life saver.
In my latest video piece, I punch Trump in the face. How long will us creative types be allowed artistic license to free expression?
The steps Obama took to chill dissent weren’t met with howling outrage. Now that Trump has seized power people are beginning to panic as the threat of consolidated executive power becomes apparent.
You were warned. You ignored the warnings. Now we will all reap the consequences.
Have a nice weekend.
JC
Last I checked artists with a quill, plucked from their creative plumage, have no greater or lesser license to free expression than anyone else. Has something changed?
It’s the getting, and maintaining the “license” to free expression that is the problem, Craig. In other words, there are those who expect a certain level of “professionalism” (or ‘toe-the-line’-ism) in order to be granted and pay for a license or permit to practice “free” expression. All others are relegated to minor positions to be swept by the wayside, or repressed in whatever fashion of censorship that seems applicable.
Free speech zones, parade (protest) permits, time/place/manner restrictions, content guidelines (what is pornography), tv/movie ratings (who gets to watch what), political correctness police (both left and right) stifling debate, censorship online limiting content on social media, backlash over any critique of the political landscape silencing the critic, and on and on.
And all of this is replaced with predictable and safe pablum of propaganda. Free expression is an illusion in the land of the free and home of the brave. The shining city on the hill has revealed itself as the eye of sauron policing the globe.
Once again, Craig, it all seems so right and reasonable, on paper. This is, of course, what “dumb goyim” are led to believe. In practice, artists, poets, and others who demand a closer “look under the hood,” and possess a penchant for revealing publicly certain systemic atrocities by TPTB, will always be higher priority targets than “average” Americans, who are generationally, well-controlled from cradle to grave. No, nothing has changed.
Much bigger fish to fry than going after minnows that suffer from persecutory delusions. Just not important.
So said Ahab to Moby-Dick.
Don’t see where settling for Bill of Rights #2 through #10 can be seen as progress. #1 “just not that important?” Is that so?
I guess some people can’t read the writing on the wall.
ACLU
You really down on the ACLU? You don’t believe the 1st Amendment even deserves to be protected? Either the separation of powers and preservation of freedom and liberty needs to be upheld and interpreted in court — as the Constitution ages and society changes — or our country will continue to ossify into a rigid fascist state.
Just the opposite on the ACLU. They do a great job of holding the govt. accountable for 1st Amendment overreach. That being said, just who holds the fascist left accountable for shutting down the exercise of free speech on public campuses like Berkeley and the University of Washington?
Campi Flegrei is truly something to worry about.
Is not the response to offensive free speech also free speech? The 1st Amendment mentions other things: ” the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”
Given that the speech was disrupted by a small minority of anarchists or agents provocateurs while 1,500 peaceful protesters stood by, who has the greater right? The speaker, the protester, or the agitator? In the old west the second amendment ruled: he who had the bigger gun and the quicker draw won.
You label the black dressed and hooded provocateurs as “fascists,” which they definitely were not. Anarchists are not fascists, not even remotely. But when real fascists — those who combine militarism, capitalism and the authoritarianism of the state — continue consolidating power, what are the people to do? Gently stand aside as a new Führer rises in the midst of political correctness and blind obedience to the Constitution?
Berkeley was a harbinger of things to come: anarchists battling fascists in the streets while meek and mild protestors stand on the sidelines waving signs; and those who have been mollified by propaganda sit in their living rooms drooling over reports from Fox, CNN and MSNBC about who is to blame while Nero fiddles away the night…
JC, I threw our the left wing fascist comment just to see you respond. I thoroughly enjoy your comments. Please post more. BTW, IMHO calling someone a fascist has practically no significance as the term is rather without much real foundation. Authoritarian intolerance has no political or philosophical boundaries. Assholes are assholes.
Particularly when it is cleansed off as quickly as possible, relegating social critique to the dustbin of useless graffiti in need of another coat of sanitizing white paint.