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Freedom of Speech: Sold to the Highest Bidder [1]

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Date: 2023-05-07

"Free Speech" is costly and has long been for sale to the highest bidders.

Perfectly Legal Corporate Censorship.

I’m reminded of the saying “If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” Actually, it does, but few if anyone is usually there to hear it. Freedom of Speech, granted by the First Amendment, does not apply to the vast number of media, newspapers, social media, movies and radio outfits that are privately owned for anyone but the owners.

You typically also have to be wealthy to own one, which means you’re likely to have views and motivations at odds with your customers. They have a right to censor things like social media text, comments section, content which appears on line, expel members, etc.

Legal Censorship

So, we have a situation where corporate/wealthy owners of social media can exclude certain points of view, progressive content, or even content they just don’t like, etc. If desired, the owner can promote violence, racism, misogyny, even overtly fascist commentary. While you can still write a letter to the owners of any on-line operation, they get to decide whether anyone reads it. In this way, Corporate Media controls what we see and hear as well as what political perspectives we are exposed to. (Sounds a bit like the opening lines in the “Outer Limits.”)

The same basic thing happens regarding the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” While you definitely still have the right to do so, the Corporate Media decides if, when and how to cover it in the news.

Media Bias: a Natural Occurrence in a Poorly Regulated Capitalist Society

Media Motto Today.

Corporate Owned Media’s basic motivation is to maintain or increase it's profits and provide news, information, and entertainment that is compatible and complimentary to those goals and class interests. So, for example, when they cover a strike, we will typically hear a lot about the inconveniences it will cause and about how they are asking for too much and maybe a word or two about the workers side of the strike.

When they cover street crime in a poor neighborhood, Media always emphasizes the shocking details of the crime that are available, the fear factor in the community, the race of those involved and never ever its causes. The “cure” presented will typically involve hiring more police. When a war or conflict is covered, you will only hear about their own perspective as to who are the good guys and who are the bad guy instigators.

A License to Lie?

The First Amendment wasn’t intended as a license to lie. Verifiable bald-faced lies are repeatedly made by some corporate owned Media, usually with impunity. I think most of us were glad Dominion won their defamation suit over lies Fox repeatedly spread that their machines had fixed the election, but it still doesn’t come close to undoing the damage to the country’s electoral process that was caused. Nor did Fox have to admit their lie to their own viewers as a condition of settlement.

Exact Wording, First Amendment “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.”

The views of the masses are reported when they agree with the corporate perspective, otherwise there is silence.

Most can easily understand that giving you the right by law to free speech, while significant, is not the same as being able to afford a medium for your speech to be heard. So the masses are perpetually silenced and rarely heard or listened to.

MAGA was Years in the Making

It is indeed twisted and ironic that so much misinformation and falsehoods have been spread by the media’s abuse of their freedom of speech, and has been absorbed by millions of Americans over the years, that a grifter scoundrel like Trump was able to become a viable figure.

MAGA folks felt thrilled and excited that they finally had someone who was just like them in politics they could follow. He was wrongly perceived to be one of them and featured some of the same biases and acknowledged them openly. His backward xenophobic nationalism and racism, like their own, were elevated to a presidential level.

The National Media and Fascism

Snarling House Speaker and fascist Kevin McCarthy.

To understand the national media’s attitude towards fascism, you have to understand their class interests. In a two-party dominated system, those outlets not already controlled by the fascists have to appear neutral since they do not have any idea who will win.

Should the fascists win, they will have to compromise their news to please them and hope they don’t get closed down; if the opponents of fascism come out on top, nothing lost nothing gained. I’m not sure how much any of them realize their fate if the fascists win, they will quickly move to clamp down on a free press as well as eliminate as many of them as they can.

Neutrality Favors the Fascists

Never accept neutrality.

Neutrality, of course, favors the fascists. Under supposed neutrality, most media will not warn the public of the dangers at hand. Nor will the Republicans ever be called what they are, fascists, or criticized for the many ways they are destroying democracy, repressing the vote and the violence they are fomenting. Or the way they are using the legal system and Congress to destroy the rule of law and government itself.

Media bias, even among outlets that do not favor the fascists, also stems from their corporate nature. Democracy is less important than media survival and profits. Again, I don’t think they realize or care just how much most will be severely impacted and censored, if not closed down or put under the thumb of those that supported fascism.

Any Situation can be Media Normalized

Even without an outright fascist victory, much of media today promotes a corporate, fairly conservative point of view. And when it carries fascist news, it disguises or normalizes it as typical bipartisan back and forth bickering. Including the massive amounts of guns sold in America (perhaps as many as 400 million) resulting in at least one mass murder a day on average.

Neutrality made more sense back when things were much less polarized, and the Republicans were actually required to govern and act in a more bipartisan way on some issues. Now they openly push military grade weapons of death as a way of life! And praise homeowners who shoot at someone who rings their bell. That’s how places like Fox News use their purchased freedom of speech.

"Mass Murder is the New Normal” America in 2023

Texas Motto appearing on some Texas Walls.

The above quote belongs on a Texas Wall. Under inadequately regulated market capitalism, there is simply no way the First Amendment has any teeth today as far as freedom of speech is concerned unless one speaks in a way which supports a Wall Street perspective on economic and social policy.

Terrorism for Profit

It has been replaced by a bastardized and ridiculous Supreme Court interpretation of the Second Amendment, making cold blooded mass murder massively profitable for gun makers and as American as apple pie. The consequences of selling the National Media to the highest bidder, to billionaires like Eton Musk and Ruppert Murdoch, are Constitutionally disastrous.

Extremism and the Current Supreme Court

The corrupted, unholy six on the Supreme Court.

Because of the current court’s extremism and its untrustworthiness, the literally hundreds of instances of unconstitutional laws being passed by mainly Republican state governments nearly every day have not been challenged. Including those passed by Gov. DeSantis’ rubber state assembly in Florida. Many further challenging the First Amendment rights of citizens.

Mass Murder is not only becoming the new American normal, so is murdering the Constitution. The Republicans have figured out that having a virtual monopoly on the nation’s Media makes such crimes possible. Having such media control plus oil dollars havw combined to prevent alarm bells being rung on global warming as loudly as they should, which has made already caused catastrophic climate changes being felt all over the world, with the worst yet to come.

World economies will prove powerless against climate changes, which will persist for hundreds of years regardless of any curbing of fossil fuels. What has failed to be attempted is to come up with a method to remove enough of those gases from the atmosphere to reverse it.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/7/2167447/-Freedom-of-Speech-Sold-to-the-Highest-Bidder

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