We were watching an excellent Father Brown Murder Mystery on PBS the other day (he is the English writer G. K. Chesterton’s version of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. Father Brown is the Catholic priest who often helps the local police solve murders. In the show, there was a delightful word interplay when the frustrated policeman admonishes Fr. Brown to leave the detective work to the “experts.” The good father’s response is perfectly apropos to today’s debate about the danger of free speech. “Remember, the experts built the Titanic. The amateur built the ark!
We think our president, Joseph Biden is much like Chesterton’s policeman. The “experts” become so sure of their side of the story, that they cannot see the merit of the opposite point of view. It’s kind of arrogant, actually; and as a result, the experts often reach the
This week President Biden said the following: “How do people know the truth? What do they — how do they make — make a distinction between fact and fiction? There’s so much — so much going on. And we’re in the middle of this.”
The President exclaimed this when was blasting Elon Musk, “who goes out and buys an outfit that spews lies all across the world.” That’s quite ironic coming from a politician who has a rather long history as someone who is fond of embellishing the truth. We think the President is increasingly like the Chesterton’s policeman; he is the expert who wants to protect the people by having the government tell the people what they should be allowed to her and see. Sounds like modern Russia or China, does it not?
Professor Jonathan Turley highlights all this in a fine article “How Do People Know the Truth?”: Biden Unleashes Tirade Over Musk Restoring Free Speech Protections on Twitter – JONATHAN TURLEY). We agree with Professor Turley when he says: “As a type of censor-in-chief, Biden has led calls for censorship on social media, which have been largely heeded by companies like Facebook and Twitter.” Indeed, the former CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, had pledged to regulate content! He said that the company would “focus less on thinking about free speech..,Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard.”
That anti-free speech philosophy ended abruptly when Elon Musk immediately fired Mr. Agrawal upon taking control of Twitter. Instead, Mr. Musk has pledged to make Twitter an open forum where different ideas can be freely expressed and debated.
The problem with censorship in a free society is the answer to the question, Who Decides? Who has the power to choose what people are allowed to hear? President Biden and his liberal, progressive cohorts were fine with censorship when liberals had that power. They seem quite upset now that they have lost that power at Twitter.
We believe that freedom of thought, freedom of expression and freedom of speech are an essential foundation of a free, democratic society. In contrast, we think is quite dangerous for anybody or any organization to have the power to censor – to decide what and who can be heard.
So back to the President’s question: “How do people know the truth?” The answer should be: let the people hear both sides of the issue, and then let the people decide for themselves.
Elon Musk should be celebrated, not vilified!
Comments