Uhm... no. You have free speech only if you speak in government-approved manner about government-approved topics. It is okay to diss a member of one branch of the Party, praise a member of another branch of the Party, or otherwise engage in speech that has absolutely no effect upon the profits or power of our ruling elite. Heck, you can even say that every member of our ruling elite should be strung up by the neck from the nearest oak tree and democracy brought to America, because our rulers know that if you say this, people will just laugh at you -- after all, centuries of propaganda have convinced most Americans that democracy already is in America.
This is a softer, gentler rule that we live in here, where our rulers do not feel the need to remind us every few hours that we are ruled, this is a rule where the iron fist is well disguised in a most plush velvet glove. But if your conduct ever truly rose to the point of threatening the profits or rule of the oligarchs who run our nation... well. You, too, would find a court order slapped into your hands prohibiting you from speaking. Or perhaps even, like Eugene Debs, slammed into a jail cell for the crime of disagreeing with the ruling elite. But as long as we are merely nattering here on the Internets rather than taking any real action to bring our rulers to justice and bring real democracy to America, why would our rulers bother? It's just a way for us to let off steam. It's not as if we threaten their rule doing this nattering. That would require us to, like, actually do something, rather than just natter along...
-- Badtux the Nattering Penguin
You have the freedom to speak. And the powers-that-be have the freedom to ignore you. Unless you have a big wad of cash to give them. Money speaks louder than freedom.
ReplyDeleteWhat speaks louder than money is a flaming bottle of petrol though a plate glass window, especially if it's repeated 999 times. But America's a long way from that.