Elon Musk Buys Twitter Promising Free Speech

There has been varied and copious reactions to Elon Musk purchasing Twitter. Some have hyperventilated, gone catatonic, feigned insult and virtually any negative panicked reaction one might imagine. While in the media a few thought that Elon Musk purchasing Twitter has potential to level the playing field and allow all sides at least some level of fairness, most of the media have reacted as if the current system was totally fair and needs no adjustment. We may be one of the smallest groups, those who have never had a problem with Twitter or any other net service we use. From our perspective, the entire debate depends on one’s interpretation of the First Amendment, which reads:

            Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So, what speech is permitted by the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, as written by the Founding Fathers at the insistence of many of the individual states?

Painting of the Founding Fathers Signing the Constitution

Free speech intends to allow unencumbered exchanging of ideas, politics, cat videos, insults, fawning agreement, viral videos and anything short of threats of harm in any form. We fully expect a period where new limits, and limits are necessary, which guard against anything which crosses with the law. This will eventually lead to a Supreme Court decision and we think we know what the first challenge is to come. Early on there will come a challenge to hate crime laws as an impediment to free speech. The opposing argument will claim that such speech causes mental anguish and other emotional distress. In our opinion, even hate speech is protected if free speech meant the American Nazi Party was permitted a parade and hold speeches in Skokie, Ohio. This specific case explained how complete the concept of free speech was held, unlike today. Numerous Holocaust survivors resided not only in Skokie but along the proposed route the American Nazis intended. These survivors of the most heinous institution in human history, the Nazis and their murder of six million Jews and another six million other people declared deplorable and unproductive, had to witness what for them was an abomination. Free speech is preserved for exactly that speech we find most distasteful provided it remains within legal bounds. We all have to also accept that what is legally acceptable changes with every court challenge. One item the protestations got correct; the fur is about to fly.

Beyond the Cusp

Argument for Free Speech, Old Style

 

The college scene is not what many of us remember it being. We knew a place where all sides met on the stage of debate. Professors would take the opposite side of every student and force them to defend their positions. This built confidence and forced everyone to understand their own side and the opposition side just as well. Why know the other side, that would be the question from students today. Their response to any opposition is to shut down all discourse and disallow their opponents from speaking at all. There are some serious deficiencies with that approach, namely what do you do when you no longer have complete control over the debate and the new rules are defend your position or shut up. That is called the corporate world or the business world. Even a salesperson needs to shop their competition such that they know why their product is superior or how best to show their product or ideas to perspective clientele. In the real world you cannot just show up to a convention with baseball bats and cans of paint and try and intimidate your competitors as doing so will soon put your company out of business and you in prison. The real world, that’s the place you end up after college, demands more from you than running to a safe-space and grabbing a coloring book or cuddling with kittens or puppies. They demand that you actually produce and then they grade you, it’s called your annual review, on your performance against the other employees. I realize for many of you coming from a liberal arts education, or should we say indoctrination, will find the real world filled with triggers, microaggressions, full-on aggressions, challenges and not one single safe zone outside your parent’s basement, will be quite a system shock. Your current college education costing your parents $50,000/year or more is leaving you dreadfully unprepared for the horrors awaiting you out there in the real world.

 

If we have gotten your attention and you now are wondering what you can or should do, we do have some advice. The first thing you should do if you are remotely capable of handling something in the hard sciences, change majors and probably schools and take a hard science where opinions are not important, only facts in these parts, real provable facts. Engineering is demanding and dependent upon mathematics, seemingly the courses which most Liberal Arts majors have the greatest fears and trepidations over. Differential Equations will be your nemesis that stands in the way for a fair share of engineering majors. Let us assure you that it is not that horrific, just remember and learn to use the quadratic equation. It works much the same and they keep that a secret until about three weeks before the final just to make you learn how to do proofs. Just get through the course as once in the real world much of the equations and solutions are performed by calculators, very nice calculators. Other courses include Mathematics, Physics, Cosmology, Chemistry and Biology, which all are straightforward sciences. Computer Sciences and numerous Computer fields also exist but we would recommend avoiding simple repair as that field is slowly disappearing and will require ever increasing competition over fewer and fewer positions. But first, you are going to have to look inside and make some decisions.

 

College is supposed to be an adventure through which you find out who you are and what you are made of. This requires meeting challenges head on and often failing at them. Failing at a challenge does not mean you fail a course, it means you need to do some more work and prepare better for the next time. If your professors were honest and sure of themselves, they would challenge you honestly and debate and they would usually win, as they are slightly older and hopefully more knowledgeable. The same professor would defeat you when you took one side and then in the same class defeat the next student who took the opposite side. A good professor can argue both sides equally well and defeat every student except that rare student who surprises his teachers. Such students were prized, not scorned back when we went to college and was often given more challenging assignments. You want to become that student because challenge is presumably why you are in college. College is where you can try different ideas and find the ones which will define you for most of your life and it is up to you to find these core beliefs, not for some leftist professor to assign you core beliefs. When you have a good and solid education as your base, then you do not need be afraid of people who oppose what you believe because you know your side and the weaknesses of their position and this makes you the one holding the power. That is real power, not a mob of masked zealots wearing black and threatening people while preventing those they oppose from speaking. Somebody who honestly believes an opposing view would debate the speaker during question and answer and prove their beliefs to be a better solution. These people using violence and claiming that all ideas they do not support are hate speech and must be banned are insecure and afraid of honest debate and will not have any power outside the university. What job would they be hired for anyways? What skills have they shown? What prowess? What proficiency? What competence? What ingenuity, resourcefulness or useable mastery have they shown?

 

Are you getting the idea here yet? University or College is not just a place to drink beer or whatever and smoke whatever you wish and other recreational activities; you are also supposed to prepare yourself for the remainder of your life. Many of you who have demanded trigger warnings about courses which might challenge your beliefs or even slightly make you feel uneasy or who demand safe spaces where nobody can say things which might offend you are not going to be prepared for anything except a world controlled by robotic creatures who are programmed to keep a certain number of humans alive as their pets; you will be fully capable of being a robot’s pet. But let us for a minute take your beliefs and inspect their viability in the real world. Let us also inspect a world made to honor and respect your sensitivities and also another person your age with the same degree as you and identical grade point average and all the same recommendations. The two of you are perfect bookend, and like bookends, your composure and beliefs are exactly opposite. So we have the two of you identical in all ways but holding opposite views and sensitivities. Now you are both working in the same company and the company has extremely progressive tendencies except they are unfeeling so they do not fully understand that safe spaces are supposed to be exclusively for protecting left wing ideology holders and are supposed to be closed to people like your opposite who have right leaning ideas, remember you are bookends, you on the left, then all the books and then your opposite on the right. Now somebody starts defending President Trump and his policy to hold immigrants from six Middle East and North African (MENA) nations and you get all flustered and feel threatened by this person so you run to the designated safe room where you grab a coloring book. Now right after you leave another employee berates this person as a racist and spouts collective ideas and your opposite now feels challenged and afraid and also runs to the safe room and starts holding a puppy. In your world, what happens when the two of you start to discuss the situation and the argument out in the office? You are both in a safe room so your opposing beliefs cannot be offensive or is your opposing viewed bookend not permitted feelings? That is the problem with the real world, even if they had safe spaces they would be sued to make them equal opportunity safe spaces.

 

But we hear Google and many other Silicon Valley giants have found a solution to this kind of problem, namely selective employment where only those people who hold correct thinking views, which agree with the left, are safe in their employment. We are waiting for the next step where some employees gather together, go to management, and inform on the conservative in their department. Will this poor unfortunate be dragged into an office and badgered to determine whether they are truly one of those? What after that, maybe told to take an Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and if they score too right of center with their indicators they are fired. Then the witch-hunts will start and those companies will start to tear themselves apart and that will be their downfall. There was an entire nation which fell because of this exact deficiency in their community.

 

Destruction of the Second Temple

 

The Israelite nations had fought and gained their freedom from the Greeks and were once again united and were one people. Even though the Assyrians and then Romans conquered their lands, they remained united. They fought the Romans and gained their freedoms only to be reconquered when Rome sent many Legions such that the Roman Legions about equaled the number of Judeans (Jews). Imagine a conquest where there are almost as many soldiers as people. The Romans appointed a King over the Judeans who the Romans lazily and with scorn simply referred to as Jews (pronounced Juze). The people turned one against their neighbor. Gossip became the main form of communication. This made the people very argumentative and restless. Some groups blamed the Romans for their troubles while many simply blamed their neighbor, their employer, anybody but their own actions. This made the province more difficult to manage and eventually the Romans decided to remove the central institutions and erase the Jews from the earth like they had so many other tribes of people. They burned the Second Temple and stole all of the holy objects with one glaring exception, the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark simply seemed to disappear completely from the face of the earth. The Romans searched but were unable to find even a trace of where it might have been taken, hidden, or even carted out of the nation, absolutely no trace, and this was immediately after the Temple was destroyed and it presumably was within the Temple just before the destruction. The exception was most evident on the Arch of Titus, the Roman General who paraded through Rome with the artifacts he stole including the great seven armed candelabra (see image below). This was supposed to be the end of the Jews as many were taken to Rome as slaves. Another seventy years later and thousands more Jews were sent to the far corners of the Roman Empire and the Jews were given the same treatment as the Carthaginians and numerous other Roman enemy tribes who were rebellious against Rome.

 

Titus Arch

 

The name of the Carthaginians remains solely because of the Punic Wars and Hannibal and his elephants taken over the Alps. Why are there no Carthaginians to be found today, or more amazing, why are there still the Jews? We can answer that question with a single word, Torah. Judaism does depend on a land to flourish and the land depends on the Jews to produce, it is a marriage arranged by Hashem. But the land of Israel belongs to Hashem and the Jews are tasked with caring for the land belonging to Hashem. Our covenant is written in a single document that describes what is expected of us and how we are to live, Torah. We can carry our binding law and all we need with us and as long as there are Jews anywhere near, we will become a community. While we follow Torah, we will thrive; to not follow Torah will lead to our downfall. By the way, idle talk such as gossip is one of the things we are taught to avoid, both speaking and hearing and especially being the conveyance of such. Gossip cost us our Temple, our homeland, our communities but Torah saved us from extinction. Torah will bring our lands and communities back and Israel will thrive as long as we follow and do as we are expected by Hashem, it is all in Torah. That too is a challenge and takes understanding and often the accepting differences of opinion. As some claim, give me two Jews and they will produce at least three opinions. If you read the Talmud, you might be pressed to believe that to be true.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Silencing the Right Over the Violence

 

There has been a rash of “Free Speech” rallies and “Support the Constitution” rallies which have had their permits pulled due to the inevitable rioting which appears to be part and parcel of their coming together. Who can blame any protection oriented city council and mayor for pulling or refusing a permit to gather and hold a rally to any group which might erupt into violence and destroy their downtown or other area. The intended “Patriot Prayer” Rally which was cancelled in San Francisco was a perfect example. Only a day earlier the rally to celebrate the Trump Presidency at the Berkeley campus became a melee where the chief organizer of the “Patriot Prayer” Rally, Joey Gibson, according to police reports, had to be taken into protective custody as he became a specific target of some of the protestors and was endangered. This was reported by Lizzie Johnson on her Twitter Feed where commentary that follows depicts two opposing views of the events. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your positions and review of the video, the entire scene was videoed and can be viewed below. The man with his hands raised and backing away, while being assaulted intermittently and having something sprayed towards his face, is reported to be Joey Gibson. He apparently was accompanied by a large gentleman in American football shoulder pads apparently attempting to protect and guide him eventually turns him over to the police where we lose him behind the police wall (see video below). At about the 0:49 second mark a brick like appearing object bounces off the guard’s head with little apparent affect.

 

 

The violence against the pro-Trump rally attendees was the given reason for the cancellation of the “Patriot Prayer” Rally by the city officials of San Francisco. San Francisco is not alone, as other cities have stated intent to disallow right-wing rallies, as they will result in violence which the city officials claim is sufficient reason to prevent such rallies. Nobody has made any references to cancellations of leftist rallies but, then again, there has been no violence at leftist rallies, only at right leaning rallies such as pro-Trump, Free-Speech, Prayer, pro-Military and similar such right-wing rallies. This tendency was further proven at the Boston Free-Speech Rally where over twenty-thousand protestors threw urine-filled bottles and other objects at police as they were kept well over two-hundred-meters from the stage and the organizers who basically gave their speeches to one another. There was rioting at another pro-Trump rally, only this time in Phoenix, Arizona. The same has been reported from a Costa Mesa pro-Trump Rally in Orange County fairgrounds where police were posted around the entire area and the Fairgrounds Board of Directors announced they were changing their criteria for approving gatherings such that only those without any threat of violence will be granted license. Another Trump Free Speech Rally drew hundreds of demonstrators to a public square near City Hall in Portland, Oregon on June 4, 2017, where a far larger throng of counter-protesters and onlookers massed on three sides of the park in a heated encounter that grew tense but at least physical violence was avoided thanks to a heavy police presence. There have been violent protests disrupting virtually every free-speech, prayer, pro-veteran, Republican Townhall meeting and pro-Trump rally since the election of President Trump. The catch is the media is covering these violence prone rallies now more so than before the election. If we remember back, there was a cancelled Chicago Trump rally due to threatened violence and violence at virtually every campaign stop made by either Trump or Pence as well as numerous Republican candidates’ gatherings if they were endorsed by Trump.

 

Top Berkeley Trump Rally Members and Promise Keepers Clash with Protesters
Bottom Anti-fa with Red Communist Flags Group Before Assault on Trump Berkeley Rally

 

The idea that any rally or gathering by conservatives or those who support conservative causes can be made to appear bad in the media if rioting should break out, especially should there be injuries to any leftists who can then make a full report of their encounter to the media is nothing new. This was the script during much of the late sixties and early seventies anti-war movement and other leftist causes. The left learned early that violence gets covered while nice, polite, quiet and peaceful rallies get next to no coverage beyond the people who attend them. The left learned that if you wish to be heard across a wider range of people and audiences, then simply riot and force arrests and make as much noise and created mayhem as humanly possible. Some of the most militant leftist groups such as the Weather Underground resorted to real violence and murdered police and bombed police stations and even conservative rallies in order to gain publicity. The left believed that all publicity is good publicity, and that included bad publicity. Back then, it was all about making sure they were heard from whether it was for their message or for the protest turned riot. Now the whole idea is that nobody they disapprove of be heard or even permitted to speak.

 

The left, actually the extreme left led by Anti-fa, have found their magic eraser with which they believe they can squelch all speech which offends them. What is even more frightening is that a plurality of college students questioned believes that the First Amendment should only apply to approved speech which meets speech codes and is proven inoffensive. Even more disconcerting is that they believe that their college leftist professors’ idea that speech must offend nobody before it can be permitted to be spoken in public is the best course to maintain a decent society. They have proven their great inability to be offended by the most basic ideas to such an extent that their universities and colleges have put in place safe spaces where students can gather and not be challenged by any terse or edgy talk or comment and have specific places on campus well off the beaten path where conservative and other controversial speech can be screamed to one’s hearts content without reaching an ear which may be offended. The entire liberal arts university scene is designed not to challenge the unquestioning minds of the student population but rather to protect them from those things which they may find disturbing. These poor young children are sensitive and must not be disturbed or made distraught. They are to be coddled and after four years, they will go out into the “big bad world” and demand to have their world made safe and their ideas spoon fed just as it was in university. These youth are going to be the future of the United States and will be the ones making and enforcing the rules within the next ten to twenty years. Imagine the method in which the First Amendment will be interpreted and applied in such a manner that speech codes will be applied and people fined for using speech deemed challenging to people’s sensitivities. The Second Amendment will be completely turned on its head such that instead of the people being armed to prevent an overreaching government, the government will have all the weapons and the people will be unable to reach for liberties they once enjoyed. We can forget about the Fourth Amendment as all your papers and personal information will be stored in the cloud where the NSA can read anything anytime. The Fifth Amendment’s disallowing self-incrimination will be ineffective as the government will see all, hear all and know all within reason and beyond so there will be little if any secrecy, well, unless you live out in the woods and completely off the grid in a well camouflaged residence which also prevents heat signatures from being detected from above and are knowledgeable of when satellites will be overhead and thus schedule your outside activities around these times. The new age and the college educated new age wunderkind will destroy all freedoms for which the Bill of Rights was demanded. What a sad commentary it is to hear that free speech must have strict restrictions so people are not offended which is a commentary on the coming future, such a far cry from the people of the era of the founding Fathers who understood individualism and freedom. Now the schools start from first grade conditioning the students to work in groups such that nobody can be judged and everybody will be considered as a member of the group and the group will be judged as a whole. This way nobody can be considered inadequate which might endanger their self-image, and that would be terrible for their sensitive temperament. We can see a world where students are grouped at an early age and then proceed through life as a group, are hired as a group and get fired as a group and each member is responsible for the other members of their groups and these groups follow them through their entire lives. Well, except for those terribly unfortunate experiences where one may get injured or otherwise leave the group for a period or permanently, then the entire group will require deep counseling, that we can assure you. Yes, should the New World Order that the Anti-fa desire enacting come to pass and all their earth-shattering new concepts become reality, well, if I am still breathing I will be on the first spaceship leaving the new Eden and off to elsewhere.

 

Beyond the Cusp