One thing to always try to remember when reading the propaganda pieces of the oligarch run media (through advertisements and ownership) is that free speech is a constitutional right in the United States. Free speech is important: it does not matter whether you are NPR or Google or the New York Times or CNN or FOX or some lowly Citizens Journalist/Blogger sitting in your underwear and writing your heart out with your soul felt thoughts. Free speech is important: it doesn’t even matter if you are Russian, Chinese, a janitor or Prince Harry or Donald Trump using the internet. Free Speech is the most important of rights that is only constrained by common sense laws such as you don’t use fighting words, you don’t scream fire in a crowded theater, you don’t proposition an undercover officer for sex, you don’t harass someone, you don’t lie about someone, you don’t try to con people, you don’t try to blackmail people, and so on.
But if you know the truth you have the right to speak that truth even if that truth was potentially obtained illegally. You have the right to theorize. You have the right to ponder ideas even if other people think those ideas are stupid. It does not matter if you think the earth is flat or that vaccinations violate some religious thought or do more harm than good or are the primary reason that you are no longer feeling horny. You have the right to express your thoughts and make your case. It does not matter whether you are as brilliant as Einstein or as dumb as a stump, you have the right to free speech.
You have the right to express your dislikes. It does not matter whether your hates are founded in logic or are just your stupid attempt to make yourself feel better about yourself by putting other people down. You don’t have the right to lie but you have the right to dislike whoever you choose to dislike just like you have the right to express your love for whoever or whatever you love so long as you are not attempting to incite criminal acts. Hate is a normal and natural emotion. Every trial in the US is based to some degree on the government’s own institutionalized hatred of criminals. People have the right to misuse the word hate and conflate it with bullying or worse, but just understand when the oligarch run media does something such as redefining the word hate, there almost always is an agenda behind their propaganda. Usually that agenda is the agenda of power and control. They would like for you to believe that they have the right to hate you through identity politics but you don’t have the right to hate them and their identity politics. They would like for you to believe that, but you have the right to hate them and everyone who serves them. Just be careful and do not follow their lead and confuse the word hate with the word hurt. You don’t have the right to hurt them any more than they have the right to hurt you by getting you fired for your beliefs. You don’t have the right to vandalize their memorials any more than they have the right to vandalize your memorials or tear down your statues.
Right now there are all kinds of attempts by the oligarch run media to limit online free speech. The argument is made that the social media companies are private companies and have the right to do whatever they want. The oligarchs would like for us to ignore that the pressure for censorship is coming from the political parties, the government, the oligarch run media, the oligarch run banks and so on. The internet is not private any more than the roads you drive on. It is public. Facebook is using public resources. Twitter is using public resources. Google is using public resources. And so on. These public resources do not just originate from the infrastructure built both publicly and privately but with the money you spend to access the internet. Verizon does not own the internet. AT&T does not own the internet. The US government does not own the internet. Red China does not own the internet. The United Nations does not own the internet. Russia does not own the internet. And so on.
YOU, the collective you, OWN THE INTERNET!!! It operates with your money and your time. It can not function/exist without you.
And make no mistake about it, the oligarchs want to steal the internet from you. They want to steal your voice from you. They want you to be silenced while they attempt to brainwash you with a bunch of bullshit propaganda. They have the right to spew that propaganda but by God you have the right to try to explain to people that it is bullshit propaganda.
Support the indie writers, musicians, artists, and movie producers. Support citizen journalists. Support small business. Support video creators.
Support free speech and tell those who oppose free speech that you are not their slave and you are not their puppet. Within reason and the bounds of the law, you will say and think what you want to say and think. That is your right!!!