Coincidence?

In the old Soviet Union, people used to joke that they could tell when there was a shortage of butter, winter boots or heating oil was on the horizon, when Pravda would start running stories about how bad butter was for your health, how good it was to get your feel wet, and the benefits of a cooler house.

Completely unrelated: I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that about the time Big Media and Big Left (PTR) start telling us that “maybe freedom of speech is too complicated for peasants today“…

…that we start getting “news” like this?

11 thoughts on “Coincidence?”

For a moment I thought you might link to the Don Cherry story.

Fired hockey broadcaster Don Cherry tells Tucker Carlson he stands by immigration remarks that got him fired
https://www.foxnews.com/media/legendary-hockey-broadcaster-don-cherry-tells-tucker-carlson-he-stands-by-immigration-remarks-which-got-him-fired

Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.

Not sure anyone said it did.

Doesn’t mean Cherry was wrong.

I got a text message on my cell phone from “Don,” a volunteer for Andrew Yang, asking how I’d rate him as a candidate.

Well, gee, Andy, now that you’ve adopted the same tactics as telemarketers and e-mail scammers, I’d rate you just above mass murderers and just below child molesters. Still ahead of Hillary, if that’s any consolation.

What marketing genius thought spamming me with texts was a good idea?

“Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.”
People who say this usually fear no consequences from their speech. It is a statement about power, not about the value of free speech.

A few years ago Rush Limbaugh got kicked off of the only radio station on the Big Island that carried his show. It had something to do with some anti-feminist remark that he made, or was said to have made.
Who decided to pull his show? His ratings were good. The listeners here didn’t turn him off, the station manager did. The “consequences” in this case came not from the people who listened to him, but from the people who chose to silence him.
It has become very much like the religious persecutions of the 16th and 17th centuries out there on social media. Even on strictly technical forums, you can be banned for behavior you exhibit outside of the forum, and this ban comes from the nameless, faceless people who wormed their way into the organization that sponsors the forum. Announce on a political forum that you believe transsexuals are not not really the sex they pretend to be, and you are banned from Github, and any memberships you might have in professional associations are at risk.
In Elizabethan times, not attending a Church of England service, or refusing to swear an oath of loyalty to the Queen, resulted in heavy fines and disqualified you from public office, a university education for your children, etc. Sure, you had freedom of religion, but there were consequences.

And he didnt apologize. Also it was Canada not America where there is no freedom of speech. They proposed a law saying you could be imprisoned if you didnt use someones preferred gender pronouns and unintentionally made Jordan Peterson world famous as a result. He was also given a chance to retract his statement before they fired him. He gave them the metaphorical middle finger and I salute him for it. He confronted the Left in Canada, lost his job but not his dignity.

I believe in freedom of speech. You have complete freedom to chose how to agree with me. You could agree with me in words or gestures, by song or interpretive dance, you could even agree with me in pottery, painting or poetry.

Disagree with me and I’ll get you fired from your job, ruin your reputation on-line, picket your kid’s school and hand out flyers to your neighbors. Speech has consequences.