Free Speech Under Attack

We saw it during 2020 when the then President of the United States of America had his Twitter account removed - a major tool that he used to communicate with millions of Americans.  It was not the only communication block happening.  Nationally, Republicans were assaulted by the Facebook police.  We, as an example,  run a Facebook page for the Charlotte County Republican Party.  Prior to the election cycle, we would get hundreds of views and "likes" on our posts, somewhere around a month prior to the election both the views of our posts and "likes" mysteriously sunk like lead, going to meager amounts of views and paltry like numbers.  Not because the quality or pertinence of our page had deteriorated, another page we run that somehow the Facebook police missed was getting hundreds of views and likes for the same type of posts.  

Another page we administered for Trump, in particular, was being carefully patrolled.  "False" and "misleading" labels were placed on many posts,  administrators were forced into reviewing many posts before they could be posted, and many were just blocked.  

This was simply put election interference.  And it was an assault on free speech.

But there are other sinister ways in which free speech is being blocked and it is just as if not more dangerous.  

• A high school teacher telling a politically conservative student that his writing is not in keeping with the current discourse because he expressed a right-leaning opinion 
• A leftist professor banning use of words like "male" "female" "illegal alien" in the classroom saying these words perpetuate "white heterosexual privilege"
• The left-wing media dominating the airways and the print media including our local paper in a predominant Republican county.
• Democrat congressmen try to pressure TV  carriers to cancel Fox News OAN and News Max for spreading false news about January 6 break-in (notice I did not use the loaded and false word “insurrection”
• Banning Dr. Seuss books rather than providing context for the time in which they were written 

And these are just illustrations.  We can't let up.  We can’t let these socialists take away our freedoms.  We must do all we can to have our conservative voices heard.  Write letters-to-the-editor.  If you are an advertiser speak up and insist on a more balanced viewpoint in your local news.  Don't stop using tools like Facebook -- we need to be on as many platforms as possible. Use others as well.  Join efforts or donate to efforts that support free speech. Support legislative efforts that are designed to protect freedom of speech.   There have been wins.  Lawsuits have been won. Never give up.  

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