in Gulag! I would recommend two excellent books: Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher and
Who Was Karl Marx?: The Men, the Motives and the Menace Behind Today’s Rampaging American by James Simpson
I have taken the position that I will speak my mind and let the chips fall where they may. I WILL exercise my 1st amendment rights. My rights are NOT dependent upon the approval of Facebook or Twitter.
It seems like most do not care I also people are just Lazy
Ends with you not causing me to die from Covid
Just remember people this quote, "God created men; Col. Colt made them equal.”
No, no it doesn’t end there, and that’s just the point. It is a never-ending series of steps to erode your rights until they no longer exist at all.
No one is “causing you to die from Covid,” by the way. That’s a Leftist line designed to allow you to rationalize away responsibility for your own life and lay that on others.
You are if you go in unvaccinated and appear in public. Wrap aluminum foil around brain
When they come knocking on your doors and making you wear a band on your arm and your kids and run threw your home taking everything from you so you can’t stand against our so call Government, unless American starts standing for what all our men and women die for this Country and our lord God and our Freedom to walk across the street to buy a coke, for me I serve to protect this Country at 80 I give my life for you and your family’s…
Two weeks to flatten the curve, mask up to protect yourself, mask up to protect others, use two masks, report your neighbors who aren’t socially distancing, get vaccinated, get the booster…
It doesn’t end. It’s an insidious erosion of our rights. If you want to give up your rights, please by all means, go ahead. You may not give up mine.
And knock off the “aluminum foil” type comments. I shouldn’t even have to explain why. You want to protect yourself? Stay home.
And you’re beginning to violate the terms of this forum. Stick to the topic.
I do think freedom of speech is under attack, but the insidious part is that government isn’t directly responsible. Tech companies have created new expansive forms of communication via the internet and currently restrict what is communicated. The argument for that is that these are private companies and have the right to set their own rules. However, cellular phone providers and landline phone companies are also private companies. Would you make the same argument defending a phone service if they set up call monitoring and forbid you speak certain opinions or have certain perfectly legal discussions?
My feeling is that tech companies should not be able to filter ideas or discussion anymore than phone companies would have the right to do so. These companies have ostensibly made claims they support the free exchange of ideas and opinions, but only the ideas and opinions of which they approve. I’m not a big government guy, but they need oversight to ensure they are not restricting free speech since they have massively inserted themselves into the public realm of discourse.
Another issue that few seem to have is about the effect on their their rights under the Patriot Act. As we approach the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we should remember the near universal support that the Patriot Act had. I understand why it passed. Everyone was afraid and a secretive surveillance measure designed to thwart terrorism seemed acceptable so we could feel safe. It has been used to surveil US citizens as well as terrorists and collect massive amounts of data on us while denying us our 4th Amendment protections. This should be troubling to anyone who values what this country claims to stand for.
1984 becomes more relevant with each passing year.
Good points, Stan30.
I worked for Banes & Noble Booksellers for a while and we were not allowed to censor anything. If I had a young boy who wanted to buy a book on growing cannabis or a teeny bopper girl who wanted to buy Paris Hilton’s diary book that had questionable behavior in it, I had to sell them the books. As a company, Barnes avoided some of the problems by making the cannabis books online orderable only. That makes the decision up to the parents and guardians where it belongs.
Don’t speak too soon. That is coming.
They need to get rid of Section 230.
“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” Section 230 - Wikipedia
But, when you do sensor what can be said or not, you are more of a publisher. Can’t logically be both.
I enjoy reading your comments. There are many people that believe in much of the social media
and news and there are many talks, saying that, if we loose our 2nd amendment, we could
loose many other amendments as well. I do not mean to write a book here or get red fagged and
all this is to comment and maybe list concerns.
I love having a baseball cap and clothing that USCCA has put out to purchase and wear, but
in many places I have to be very careful to not wear it in several communities. I wear my USCCA
ball cap anywhere I go, because not to many people pay attention unless you are a member of
USCCA. The shirts, clothing, patches, and pins; Safety First ! I have a big month and advertise
USCCA to help others know there are trainings that will help grow and be able to protect their home
families, and themselves with their training. The personal things are left to them and them alone.
Socialism, Legalism, Communisms, and people that do not know what they are doing and stand for
self will are going to make things harder on everyone.
I stand for Family, Hometown, Neighbors, Friends, and I know that everyone of us in the Great
United States of America can and will pull through all the nightmare.
I shared a lot of my experiences and training to other people and they seek to live in their personal
bomb shelters and they know that I train on a regular bases with firearms and carry, but I prefer to
help and serve others, not FIGHT. Respect, Love, Kindness, Peaceful Solutions to Problems, and
that is just the beginning to help others, not to destroy.
Please Stay Safe !
William H Smith Jr
My wife and I have had this discussion more than a couple of times this year (we’re on the same side, btw). Imagine someone saying AT&T is a private company, and so they can restrict what you say on their network, text and voice. What if Comcast decided to censor your email going over their cable? We’re pretty close, I’d say, as we already see internet hosting providers begin denying service because they disagree with the content of a website; we’re not talking illegal acts, but rather opinions.
What happens when a militant vegan group gains control of a local utility company, and says you can’t have gas or electricity until you sign a binding contract to stop cooking and eating meat? Private company. Do as they want. (As long as they’re not a cake baker.)
I saw what you did there. Good one. 
It doesn’t. Depending on where you live, you can resist and get yelled at, or, in the liberal areas, get attacked. We don’t have a 2 party system, we have a 1 1/2 party system, as so many republicans are part of the swamp and totally unwilling to really oppose the democrats.
I think the red states should form a new country and let the blue states immediately go socialist. As those in the blue states get sick of socialism, they can move to the new country. Would be glad to have them. When the blue states go bankrupt the new country can buy them.
I’d vote for it!
I don’t disagree with a lot of what has been said on the thread. I have read all the books discussed. I am a very conservative person. However, when it comes to vaccinations, the Supreme Court ruled in 1905 that the government could make vaccinations mandatory because it had the authority to regulate public health and safety in an emergency situation. The small pox vaccination was made mandatory. Personally, I think it is very myoptic and foolish to forego the vaccine. Covid does kill all ages and can mess up your life forever. You have a better chance of dying from a lightening strike than from the vaccine. Don’t be sucked into the argument this is anti liberty. I know the liberals want to take over total control but the Constitution has checks and balances to protect from tyranny. Believe in the Bill of Rights.