Prickly City by Scott Stantis for March 24, 2023

Sad…

orange hates it and the moron from Florida doesn’t which way to go, he keeps changing

It’s nice how they gesture with their hands…uh paws…

It also dies in an insurrection if the insurrection is successful.

Republicans’ fondest desire.

Thank you, public school system! Colleges and universities aren’t off the hook, either!

“So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause” (George Lucas, Star Wars).

I wish people would understand that the first amendment does not guarantee their right to say anything they want anywhere they want without consequences

For every action, there are consequences

Not too long ago, the Biden administration announced that the Department of Homeland Security would create a governmental Disinformation Governance Board. In other words, a political propaganda group that would restrict and censor ideas and opinions that they didn’t like. The “truth” as they saw it.

(wiki) The Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) was an advisory board of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced on April 27, 2022. The board’s stated function is to protect national security by disseminating guidance to DHS agencies on combating misinformation, malinformation, and disinformation that threatens the security of the homeland. Specific problem areas mentioned by the DHS include false information propagated by human smugglers encouraging migrants to surge to the Mexico–United States border, as well as Russian-state disinformation on election interference and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.123

On May 18, the board and its working groups were “paused” pending review, and board head Nina Jankowicz resigned, as a result of public backlash.3456 On August 24, 2022, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas disbanded the board.7

Background[edit]The Disinformation Governance Board was announced and revealed to the public by the DHS on April 27, 2022, during a 2023 budget hearing before the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security.1 The board had begun operating two months prior to the announcement. The DHS had decided to form the board in 2021 after conducting research that recommended creating a group to “review questions of privacy and civil liberty for online content”.2 White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the board is the “continuation of work that began in the DHS in 2020 under former President Trump”.8 The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has previously addressed the spread of what they referred to as “mis-, dis-, and malinformation”, as well as addressing Russian disinformation as part of their election security efforts in 2020.910 CISA director Chris Krebs was fired by President Trump in November 2020 for refuting Trump’s false claims of election fraud.11

Pogo was right, We have met the enemy and he is us.

There are restraints on the 1st Amendment. The classic shouting fire in a crowded theater. Threats. Slander. Libel.

“Canceling” – which as far as I can tell is when I decide not to give my money to a company that will use it to do bad things – IS free speech.

A very perceptive person said “just because it offends you doesn’t mean it’s wrong”. Correct (and refreshingly brief!) response to the left’s being offended: so what?

FALSE EQUIVALENCY ALERT!!!!!

sighs and points at That XKCD Cartoon again… https://xkcd.com/1357/

I find it disheartening that so many of my countrymen feel that knowledge is the enemy. I will concede that everyone has a right to be “stupid,” which I define as being deliberately ignorant, misinformed, and close-minded. However, I have the right not to buy into such stupidity.

The guy selling Dunce Caps is doing pretty good these days.

Try it sometime. Listen when someone tells you certain speech needs to be restricted, blocked, shouted down. Find the equivalent speech from their political view point (or the same action just done by someone they support or in history) and ask if they agree that should be treated the same way.

You’ll get a scream of “false equivalency” or “that’s not the same”.. because they don’t really believe that type of speech should be blocked, just blocking those they disagree with from having the same rights as them.

Which, of course, is worse.. it’s political hypocrisy, which few recognize in themselves, and was considered so bad Dante gave it its own section on the 8th level of Inferno.

Every time I see somebody crying about their first amendment rights on a website or social media platform I have to laugh. The first amendment might grant you free speech, but it does not indemnify you from the consequences of that speech (you cannot knowingly spread lies about people or businesses such as voting machine manufacturers, for example), nor does it obligate any private entity to give you a platform for that speech, and that includes syndicates when it comes to cartoonists (assuming Stantis is referring to the Scott Adams thing).

It’s funny how the right wing nutters whine and complain that Facebook supposedly suppresses right wing views, but they don’t complain that right wing “news” such as Faux and Newsmax suppress left wing views.

There are already constraints on 1st amendment rights, many would argue they make sense. To just make the blanket statement, like the characters do, that “any restraints” are bad, with no context is just lazy.

It should be obvious to the cartoon characters that false political ads, misinformation, lying by public figures in the execution of their duties, rampant disinformation by major media outlets – all of this does harm to our democracy. The 1st amendment can’t be used as a sword to slay our society.

I’m not advocating for any particular set of solutions like constraints on free speech, or loosening libel laws or whatever. But I would bet the “polls” mentioned in the toon were simplistic questions and really just reflect that the American people recognize things have gotten bad and just really want there to be an honest discussion about this issue and solutions.

Only partly true. Democracy normally dies with Fascism, Communism or dictatorship.

Winslow, you’ve spoken truly: “Democracy dies in a dunce cap”. Well said, Mr Stantis!

I think this is the poll Stanis refers too. If so, he is being very, very misleading about it: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/08/18/more-americans-now-say-government-should-take-steps-to-restrict-false-information-online-than-in-2018/ The Pew Center has a good many articles on press freedom. Few, if any, show a preponderance of those hoping to stifle honest speech. https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/politics-policy/political-issues/free-speech-press/