Censorship: The Week Democrats Finally Came Out - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

It has long been obvious that the Democrats harbor a deep aversion to free expression and that they are perfectly willing to silence voices that fail to parrot the pungent orthodoxies of the left. Historically, however, this authoritarian impulse has been impeded by the First Amendment and the revulsion with which most Americans regard censorship. It is no small irony that the advent of the internet, which was widely expected to make it all but impossible to interfere with the free flow of information, actually rendered it easier to suppress speech by stealth. The Democrats were quick to realize this and have effectively used the technology as an instrument of censorship for years.

Inevitably, this has come to light and forced the Democrats to adopt the position that censorship has become a crucial weapon in the battle to protect “our democracy.” And they demonstrated late last week that this is not empty rhetoric. As Fox News reported, “House Democrats on Thursday unanimously voted against legislation that would prohibit federal officials from taking any action to squelch the sharing of views and opinions online.” The Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act (HR 140) did pass, but no Democrat voted for it. Their pretext for rejecting the bill was provided by Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), who insists that it would somehow “wreak havoc on our democratic institutions.”

This vote occurred on the same day that Goldman and other Democrats attacked journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger during their testimony before the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Taibbi and Shellenberger are, of course, two of the journalists whose reporting on the Twitter Files revealed collusion between Big Tech platforms and numerous federal agencies. The Democrats referred to them as “so-called journalists,” tried to bully them into revealing their sources, and accused them of colluding with Elon Musk to profiteer from the Twitter Files scandal. Not a single Democrat on the subcommittee asked about these revelations from Taibbi’s opening statement:

via spectator.org

This is craziness, people. It would be one thing if we were talking about suppressing the speech of say, Nazis. Still bad, but that's one thing. But we're talking about suppressing true speech -- true criticisms for example of the efficacy of various policies, of vaccines, and of attempts to corrupt the electoral process. This is bad stuff. I hope enough Americans will realize this in time.