NYT - Let's Kill The First Amendment. How Conservatives Weaponized the First Amendment

The New York Times published an article which suggests that the First Amendment needs to be controlled. Conservative speech is bad for the country and free speech reinforces and amplifies injustice!


How Conservatives Weaponized the First Amendment
www.nytimes.com...

“The libertarian position has become dominant on the right on First Amendment issues,” said Ilya Shapiro, a lawyer with the Cato Institute. “It simply means that we should be skeptical of government attempts to regulate speech. That used to be an uncontroversial and nonideological point. What’s now being called the libertarian position on speech was in the 1960s the liberal position on speech.”

As a result, liberals who once championed expansive First Amendment rights are now uneasy about them.

“The left was once not just on board but leading in supporting the broadest First Amendment protections,” said Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment lawyer and a supporter of broad free-speech rights. “Now the progressive community is at least skeptical and sometimes distraught at the level of First Amendment protection which is being afforded in cases brought by litigants on the right.”

Many on the left have traded an absolutist commitment to free speech for one sensitive to the harms it can inflict.

Some liberals now say that free speech disproportionately protects the powerful and the status quo.

“When I was younger, I had more of the standard liberal view of civil liberties,” said Louis Michael Seidman, a law professor at Georgetown. “And I’ve gradually changed my mind about it. What I have come to see is that it’s a mistake to think of free speech as an effective means to accomplish a more just society.”

To the contrary, free speech reinforces and amplifies injustice, Catharine A. MacKinnon, a law professor at the University of Michigan, wrote in “The Free Speech Century,” a collection of essays to be published this year.

“Once a defense of the powerless, the First Amendment over the last hundred years has mainly become a weapon of the powerful,”

originally posted by: infolurker
The New York Times published an article which suggests that the First Amendment needs to be controlled. Conservative speech is bad for the country and free speech reinforces and amplifies injustice!


How Conservatives Weaponized the First Amendment
www.nytimes.com...

“The libertarian position has become dominant on the right on First Amendment issues,” said Ilya Shapiro, a lawyer with the Cato Institute. “It simply means that we should be skeptical of government attempts to regulate speech. That used to be an uncontroversial and nonideological point. What’s now being called the libertarian position on speech was in the 1960s the liberal position on speech.”

As a result, liberals who once championed expansive First Amendment rights are now uneasy about them.

“The left was once not just on board but leading in supporting the broadest First Amendment protections,” said Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment lawyer and a supporter of broad free-speech rights. “Now the progressive community is at least skeptical and sometimes distraught at the level of First Amendment protection which is being afforded in cases brought by litigants on the right.”

Many on the left have traded an absolutist commitment to free speech for one sensitive to the harms it can inflict.

Some liberals now say that free speech disproportionately protects the powerful and the status quo.

“When I was younger, I had more of the standard liberal view of civil liberties,” said Louis Michael Seidman, a law professor at Georgetown. “And I’ve gradually changed my mind about it. What I have come to see is that it’s a mistake to think of free speech as an effective means to accomplish a more just society.”

To the contrary, free speech reinforces and amplifies injustice, Catharine A. MacKinnon, a law professor at the University of Michigan, wrote in “The Free Speech Century,” a collection of essays to be published this year.

“Once a defense of the powerless, the First Amendment over the last hundred years has mainly become a weapon of the powerful,”

There should be a thread on how liberals weaponized the press and now want to subdue any free speech. The NYT has gone from a journalistic powerhouse to an incompetent arm of the DNC that doesn't report facts but merely spouts the whine du jour.
How the mighty have fallen.

a reply to: infolurker

My god they are desperate!!

Scumbag Globalist Carlos Slim is upset that Operation Mockingbird is no longer working!?

Cheers America! Happy Fourth of July!!

This is how we know we are winning!

Did not know how to link a gif!

This is a scary trend to be honest.

On the final day of the Supreme Court term last week, Justice Elena Kagan sounded an alarm.
Conservatives were “weaponizing the First Amendment.”

Even Supreme Court justices want to curb our speech.
We already have Google and Youtube doing a fine job with a little help from the SPLC telling them who is a "hate group" and who is not. On the brighter side the SPLC just lost a defamation lawsuit for listing someone as an Anti-Islamic activist.

It was only because of freedom of speech that slavery ended, that women got the right to vote, that Jim Crow laws were abolished. It can be used as a weapon by either side but the injuries are political and not personal. They are trying to make us think that free speech is hurting us instead of their pet causes.

a reply to: elementalgrove

They are desperate.
Desperate enough to shred the Constitution in their death grip on power.

To the contrary, free speech reinforces and amplifies injustice, Catharine A. MacKinnon, a law professor at the University of Michigan, wrote in “The Free Speech Century,” a collection of essays to be published this year.

Yeah.

Full blown commies that lot.

a reply to: infolurker



Censorship is a tool used by cowards and tyrants.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: infolurker



Censorship is a tool used by cowards and tyrants.

Chinese, and North Koreans will agree.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals
a reply to: elementalgrove

They are desperate.
Desperate enough to shred the Constitution in their death grip on power.

Also desperate enough to expose themselves for exactly who they are!!

I have been waiting for the Globalists nightmare to expose itself, it stayed hidden during Bush SR/JR, Billy Boy and began to be exposed during Obama.

Now that they lost control it becomes increasingly obvious!!

There is a new surge that is happening and it is to defend the constitution of the United States of America, thank god we are on this timeline!

The left wants to turn this country into a dictatorship. No free speech, No 2A, nothing that offends their lot. I consider myself a centrist with more socially liberal views than the avg conservative, but more fiscally conservative views than the avg liberal, but after the last couple of years I really can’t ever see myself supporting another dem, it’s too dangerous for the country.

What I have come to see is that it’s a mistake to think of free speech as an effective means to accomplish a more just society.”

Just heard on the radio.

There was a mass word attack.

Quick turn on CNN.

Next up, for your voting approval.

The Ministry of Truth!

Does this next attack on the US Constitution surprise anyone? Well, at least any American who believes in the principles of the US Constitution?

Tom Perez, leader of the DNC, has now gone on record that Socialism is the future of the Democratic party. To make that a reality, the left will have to completely dismantle the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the ideals of the founding fathers.

Make no mistake, destruction of the United States and what it stands for is a real possibility under the “new” left ideal. It’s as if they can’t even see why people are fleeing socialist countries in droves to illegally immigrate into the US.

Happy 4th to all true Americans (left, right, and independent)!

a reply to: JinMI

a reply to: elementalgrove


The awakening! Bet your ass the globalists are running scared and who are they using to shut down any dissent against them?
Remember when the term "Hate speech" hit the airwaves? Now look at the EU. The police spend more time chasing down citizens for speaking out against what's happening to their country than going after criminals. This is what these people want in the United States of America.

]]]

Happy 4th of July!!!

a reply to: infolurker

Here is the solution America.

The Ministry of Truth has exposed themselves, now do as any Freedom loving American would do and #WalkAway from the tyrannical 'progressives'.

To back up the statement of progressives being the party of tyranny, Twitter labeled this SENSITIVE material.

WTF??
#WalkAway before its too late.

Happy 4th of July everyone

ETA: Twitter link to "sensitive" material

a reply to: infolurker

War is peace.....

a reply to: infolurker

It sounds like they don't get it. They are "The Man" they all spent their youth railing against.

a reply to: seeker1963

Yes, because it's easier to simply deny people their voice than it is to actually address their arguments and concerns.

a reply to: JinMI

Who knew?