In America, we have a secular First “Commandment”: Speak your mind.
To put it in cross-disciplinary terms, it would be “sinful” not to express your opinion, thoughts or ideas on any sundry subject. After all, you might be the person with the right answer to any problem.
What if Martin Luther had shut up and not renounced Catholic doctrine when he tacked his 95 Theses to the door at All Saint’s Cathedral in Wittenberg 1517? We’d all still be listening to sermons and chanting songs in Latin ― and not understanding a word of what the Gospels really mean.
What if Galileo had kept his ideas on Copernican heliocentrism to himself in the early 1600s and never risked being burnt at the stake by Inquisitors hell-bent on “proving” Earth was the center of the biblical universe?
Great things can come out of free speech performed by free thinkers who go against the prevailing “wisdom” at any given time.
We live in a time where progressive socialist Democrats in America “think” they know everything. They want to control what anyone says about everything. The problem is most of what they “think” they know is as wrong-headed as the Catholic Church was back in Luther and Galileo’s day.
Here’s how to recognize a totalitarian: If they want to use force to suppress the speech of their opposition, they are totalitarians. One reason they want to silence opposition is they know what they are doing is wrong. The main reason is because they know they cannot justify nor explain why their ideas are so great in the first place.
Which is the reason why Joe Biden was hidden in a basement in 2020 and why Kamala Harris has yet to field any questions from an open press conference. They can’t answer dissent.
Thankfully, the secular ruling principles we have in America are self-determination and freedom. Our First Amendment in the Bill of Rights is our over-arching “First Commandment” in a pluralistic secular civic governance sense.
Imagine living in a country where you are regularly told your opinion doesn’t matter. Imagine living in a country where you are canceled from your job for holding different beliefs than others. Imagine you live in a country where a small group of tech engineers know how to deliberately limit the reach of your comments online by manipulating the algorithms and whatever else it takes to run information through the internet nowadays.
I know it is hard to do. But it is easy if you try.
Each of those censoring activities should make you boiling mad when you hear about any of it. When our free speech is thwarted, it is like a “god” of the American spirit has been blasphemed.
The First Amendment specifically says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise (of the freedom of religion); or abridging the freedom of speech, or (freedom) of the press; or (freedom for) the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and (freedom) to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
(Freedom) has been added where appropriate for emphasis.
The First Commandment reads: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”
In a similar manner, the First American Commandment tells us to elevate free speech to the highest extent possible in our civic life together. When you hear any elected official ― virtually every Democrat in the past decade ― say the opinions of anyone who disagrees with their policies must be suppressed, they have crossed the line and told you to “worship” them and not your own free thoughts and beliefs.
No matter whom we elect to represent us in Congress, they can never restrict anyone’s ability to conduct free speech. There is no “misinformation” ― there is only incorrect information that needs to be refuted with facts and reason.
The modern Progressive Socialist Democratic Party (PSD) has fallen prey to the siren call of silencing their political opponents and throwing dissidents into jail since 2008. They are not even shy about what they intend to do anymore.
There used to be ardent supporters of free speech in the older now-defunct Democratic Party. That party died over two decades ago ― they have either passed away, retired or been pushed out in primaries by uber left-wingers.
The first step toward restoring the primacy of free speech in America is getting rid of control of legislative and executive bodies by PSD authoritarians. That chance starts in a few days in many states through the electoral process.