"Fox News isn't going to send goons to your home and tell you to shut up or they kill you just because you ran some editorial or story in your paper that goes against something they said, just FYI."
No, granted. They'll just put words in your mouth and not let you get a word in edgewise to defend yourself.
"I don't see how this would violate your free speech. People can pretend whatever the hell they like as far as I'm concerned."
Ok, I'll rephrase that. Replace "pretend" with "act as if". A
de facto establishment clearly didn't want people to know the existance of moral courage (as opposed to physical courage), as that would nullify charges of "cowardice" next time someone had the (moral) courage to speak up against, say, out-of-control warfareism. (Like, say, remembering how previous ones on that path spoke German, or how those, too, had perfectly reasonable (to them) reasons for warring all over the place...)
"The biggest assault on free speech here in the USA is brought on by the democrats"
So Rupert Muroch is a Democrat?
Last time I checked, all major media (radio, TV, papers, book presses...) in NA was owned by 4 -four- entities. That kind of monopolisation is an almost bigger threat to freedom of speech -- and democracy! -- than the government
de juro censoring, or downright owning, the same media. The reason is simple: when one owner controls all media, he gets to control what people get to hear, read etc, and with it, what people get to know. And with it, how they're likely to vote. (This is, after all, the main reason dictators keep seeking to control media.)
Seemingly OT: the record (selling) industry over here seems to define "diversity" as "two extra Britney Spears clones". When their surveys ask what kind of music you like, the tickable alternatives are invariably pop, rock, jazz, classic, folk, dance (some perverted version of a local variety, not the electronica ver by&for teenagers),
period. Not even an "other" box. If they feel generous, they might throw in hip-hop, "Eurovision Song Contest" or somesuch. Anything else, and not only isn't it on the survey, they're not selling it. You have to go to a specialty shop selling (some) African, Indian/Pakistani or even Vietnamese music. If you still haven't found what you're looking for, (like Caribbean, electronica, JPop etc) then
good fkin luck!
What this has to do with anything? How about manufacturing a uniformist culture with uniformist music taste, where everybody listens to the same music, dances the same dance, even thinks the same thoughts?
In both these cases (media monopoly & music pseudo-diversity) there is a war going on. A war on deviation. A war on independent thinking. And as with the (Christian) Devil, its greatest triumph is tricking people into thinking it doesn't exist.
"and Hitler was a Socialist"
Actually,
National Socialist, "Nazi" for short ("Nazionalsozialist" in German). If you look at the analysis page in the site
>>1 linked to, you'll see there's a certain difference between him and Stalin.
I mention this because way too many Americans seem to think "Social* == Communism", because of the "social" in the name. This makes, say, Social Democracy difficult to explain, mainly because of the lack of, erm, social intelligence resulting from this short-circuit.
And speaking of Stalin, there's no shortage of people over here willing to argue how Stalin wasn't a
real Socialist, just as people have started to argue how the US doesn't do
real Capitalism anymore, or those Christians arguing how Bush isn't a
real Christian...
"Hitler, unlike Bush, was a strong proponent of gun control"
I've noticed taking guns from an American is like taking alcohol from a Scandinavian...
One reason for wanting all those guns seems to be the (mythical) ability to rise up against a gummint-turned-tyrants. Yeah sure, Joey Sixpack's sawn-off shotgun's gonna be
re-e-ally handy going up against an army that's got stealth planes, attack helicopters, tanks, nukes, aircraft carriers and all that jazz. Sure! Bring'em on!
...think I just found out who took
my booze! :-)
Oh, and as for that Rep-vs-Dem gobbledygook, I'm really not into two-party systems whose main preoccupation is pretending those two parties are actually different...
"Show me where Bush arranged a Harry Potter book burning."
He doesn't need to. Not with the way Der Busch and his ilk have poisoned a nation where such churches were already popping up like the weed they are (in my oh-so-humble opinion). With this new millieu, these Sieg Halelujah sects (my generosity just ran out) have got more bold, and less afraid to copy some "juicy" stuff from the "Greatest Commander Of All Time"(1). Like burning books.
1: "Grösster Feldherr aller Zeiten", or GröFaZ for short. The term mocks Hitler, so usage of it would easily carry the death penalty, and definitely a vicious treatment previously reserved for blasphemers...