New Year Reflections, Part II - A Continuing Discussion of the True Threat to Our Freedoms and Democracy

United States Representatives Adam Schiff, Andre Carson and Kathy Castor, along with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (all Democrats) sent a letter to the president of global affairs at Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp).  

Here is part of their letter:  "Following the 2022 midterm elections, we write to urge Meta to maintain its commitment to keeping dangerous and unfounded election denial content off its platform.  To that end, we also urge Meta and its leadership to continue the suspension of former president Donald Trump's Facebook account beyond January, and to carefully monitor the spread of harmful election misinformation, including the BIG LIE about the 2020 presidential election, on Facebook..."  

When they talk about "election denial," they are only speaking of Donald Trump and his supporters.  They do not mean Hillary Clinton, who has never accepted that she lost in 2016.  Nor do they mean Stacey Abrams, Al Gore, or the many others who never accepted defeat, or those who never accepted Donald Trump as a legitimate president.  This is how the Left, the Democratic Party (recall these letter writers are all Democrats who are prominent members of Congress) tries to shut down speech with which they disagree.

Here's more from these Democratic letter writers to Meta:  "Meta's policies do not prohibit posts that make unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud...this is highly troubling, and an area where Meta must improve its oversight and enforcement."  These Congress members are telling Meta what they MUST do.  Is that how a democracy works?  Democrats using the power of the federal government to tell private business what speech is acceptable.  Is no one allowed to ever suggest there might be any voter fraud?

One of the totalitarian Left's tactics is to call opposing speech "misinformation."  Here is WH Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre:  "I want to be very clear here.  The fact is that the removal of Title 42 does not mean the border is open.  Anyone who suggests otherwise is simply doing the work of these smugglers who, again, are spreading misinformation which is very dangerous."  How to shut down conservative speech?  Call it misinformation.  Call it hate speech.  Attempt to criminalize it.  

Anyone who watches Fox News can see for themselves that the border is wide open.  Anyone who does a little reading or research knows that in the two years that Biden had been in office, nearly 5 million people have entered our country illegally.  Five million people, if placed in one location, would be the second largest city in the US, surpassed only by New York City.  And that's misinformation?  "Misinformation" is anything that disagrees with the totalitarian Left's talking points.  

This is almost unbelievable.  But it's not if you understand the influence of the Left.  Police in the UK interrogated, and then arrested, a woman standing outside an abortion clinic.  Her offense?  Standing across the street from an abortion clinic and silently praying.  Apparently, the City of Birmingham in the UK has a "Public Spaces Protection Order" in place.  That order prohibits any either pro or anti abortion protesting near any abortion clinic, by "graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counseling."  I get it.  Abortion is legal, so the City does not want people entering an establishment that provides a legal service to be harassed or intimidated.  But silent prayer across the street?  Really?  

The totalitarian Left will not only try to change your words and thoughts, they will act against you when possible.  The paragraph above was about the UK.  But here is a story about the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia.  Two of the schools administrators thought it was a good idea to withhold notification from students, mostly Asian, that they were deemed to be National Merit Scholars.  National Merit sends the list of students to school administrators, and allows them to notify the students.

Without that information, the students could not put on their college applications that they were National Merit Scholars.  The result is that they may have lost out on scholarships.  Said the Director of Student Services:  "We want to recognize students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements."  And, apparently, these administrators did not want to hurt the feelings of those students who were not recognized as National Merit Scholars.  

We know that the Left thinks that capitalism is bad.  Consistent with that, merit is also bad.  As is the hard work it took those students to achieve such recognition.  The Director said she wanted to "recognize students for who they are as individuals..."  But part of who they are is their dedication to hard work and achievement.  But if the totalitarian Left opposes that agenda, they will deal with it accordingly.  Any harm caused to individuals is of no consequence.