"Damn straight! I'll tell you what they ought to do!"

Does our freedom of speech allow for effective dissent - or does it actually mute it?

Most of us have heard, if not ourselves expressed, a similar thought. Because we enjoy freedom of speech, a much-touted and today maligned right recognized in the U.S. Constitution’s 1^st Amendment, along with the right to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances.

Citizens of the U.S. are accustomed to it; we express coffee shop and internet opinions that are not universally popular or accepted, without fear of legal consequences. Most of us appreciate that a roiling forum can produce multiple solutions to vexing problems.

But it’s hardly universally loved. Dissent is the often bitter fruit of free speech, and those in power rarely savor it. Widespread thought is that this freedom allows for political discourse that can address problems in a more frank and direct way than might be the case in a more restrictive environment. And it should allow for a meeting of minds and consensus-building – and thus the assembly of a power base – amongst those in opposition to the ruling faction. And that is why it worries political establishments.

 Those who can control language can control speech, and thus thought. I’m not entirely sure I agree, but that idea clearly motivates the censorious. Fortunately, when our government proposed creating a Disinformation  Governance Board a few years ago, it was swiftly and widely ridiculed as an Orwellian Ministry of Truth and disbanded. Americans still believe, more or less, in the essential worth of this freedom — but the urge to silence opponents remains eternal.

Across the Atlantic, our once-close cultural cousins in the UK supposedly enjoy some freedom of expression as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which also applies to their neighbors in Germany, Spain, France, etc. But of late, the English have been dismayed by their cultural decline, resulting in persecution of citizens for their internet posts.

Australia and the European Union have both adopted legislation granting themselves authority over U.S. social media companies, including threats to prosecute Americans for internet speech. These situations are presently unsettled, and I wonder whether VPNs won’t render those sanctions toothless.

This civil right is recognized in this country as essential to a healthy marketplace of ideas and also allows for dissent that antagonizes those who wish to control public discourse. But does it allow for effective dissent, or does it actually mute it?

It has occurred to me that often people express their dissenting or angry opinions, both in real-life discussions and on the internet, getting some gratification from “having done something” when they’ve actually done nothing at all. I can imagine the wiser ones in political power (obviously not those in Australia, the UK, or the EU) thinking to themselves: “Let them ramble on; they’re shouting into a hurricane and nobody can hear them.”

That’s not universally true, of course.  Voices do break through. But as the internet fills with noise — AI slop, bots, and gurus of garbage — it’s starting to feel less like a public square and more like a dissent sink.

Maybe freedom of speech gives us the right to speak, but not necessarily the power to be heard.

********

Things Change

If you had told me in January 1981 that shortly a guy would shoot the President in a bid to get a date with a movie star, I would have scoffed. But strange stuff happens, often.

So now, 24 years after the 9/11 attacks, Islamic Communist, Zohran Mamdani, is poised to become the mayor of New York City. This comes in the same year that Vietnam, where we fought a losing war with the Communists, has had their Central Committee of the Communist Party adopt Resolution 68-NQ/TW, recognizing private enterprise as the driving force in economic growth, creating employment, and fostering innovation while also guaranteeing property rights in an effort to bring their economy forward. So the United States is about to usher in what our old Communist foe is discarding.