The Left grows more authoritarian and intolerant of opposing views by the day and never shows even the remotest concern for preserving America as a free society. Even when Old Joe Biden’s Disinformation Governance Board crashed and burned amid concerns that it would be used to destroy the freedom of speech and persecute those who dared to exercise it, Leftists didn’t give up their Orwellian habit of referring to speech they dislike and that opposes their agenda as “disinformation.” And now a humor website is taking up the fight for freedom.
A new law in California aims to silence that alleged “disinformation,” but standing against this effort to destroy one of the fundamental pillars of any free society, the ability to dissent from the government’s line without fear of prosecution, is none other than the Babylon Bee, the frequently riotous satirical site of which it could accurately be said that every last one of its posts is “disinformation.” In a certain sense, that’s what satire is, although it’s designed to reveal a deeper truth. And the Babylon Bee’s stance for freedom is no joke.
The Washington Free Beacon reported Wednesday that the Bee “is suing to block a California law it claims gives the state power to censor their content.” The law in question is Assembly Bill No. 587, which the Dear Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of California, Gavin Newsom, signed on Sept. 13, 2022. According to the Free Beacon, it “requires social media companies to periodically report certain content to the government, including ‘hate speech’ and ‘disinformation.’” “Hate speech” and “disinformation” in whose eyes? Why, those of Gavin Newsom and his henchmen, of course. Accordingly, the Bee and the other plaintiffs “claim the bill is a ‘vehicle’ for California Democrats to crack down on speech they find distasteful,” because of course that’s exactly what it is and all that it was ever meant to be.
The suit, Minds Inc, Tim Pool, and The Babylon Bee LLC v. Robert A. Bonta, Attorney General of California, declares that “those who wield power in the Golden State have been candid about their displeasure with the speech being published on social media platforms. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta have both expressed a desire to use state power to chill speech they do not approve of, constitutionally protected expression they refer to with derogatory labels like ‘disinformation,’ ‘hate speech,’ and ‘extremism.’” Indeed. When Newsom signed this insidious bill, he declared: “California will not stand by as social media is weaponized to spread hate and disinformation that threaten our communities and foundational values as a country.”
Behind this self-righteous posturing is a frankly authoritarian agenda, in which all political dissent and anything that is politically inconvenient to the ruling party, that is, the Democrats, will be silenced as “disinformation.” Skeptical? Remember those 51 top intelligence agents who signed a statement just before the 2020 election, assuring the world that Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation.” It has been clear since then that the Left’s quest to stamp out “disinformation” is actually its quest to make its political and cultural perspectives the only ones that are allowed to be enunciated in the United States.
The entire Left in America today seems to be on board with this initiative. The Free Beacon points out that AB 587 “passed with the backing of groups like the Anti-Defamation League.” Neither the Anti-Defamation League nor any of its other backers seem to have paused to consider the possibility that the day could come when their views don’t align any longer with those of the privileged elites who decide what constitutes “disinformation” and what doesn’t.
The backers of this bill could one day find themselves in the position of the Old Bolsheviks who helped install the authoritarian Communist regime in the Soviet Union, only to find themselves falsely accused, imprisoned, and executed by Stalin as he did away with potential rivals to his autocratic rule. Bolshevik pioneers such as Nikolai Bukharin, Gregory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev had no problem denying others their basic rights; it likely never occurred to them that someone could subject them to the same treatment.
Thus The Babylon Bee and the others are standing for the freedom of everyone, not just those whom Newsom’s law targets. The targets can change; once the authoritarian apparatus is in place, it can be used against anyone. Here’s hoping that the Bee’s suit will dismantle it.
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