“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” — Benjamin Franklin. That’s exactly what’s being done, and it’s terrifying. Citizen or foreigner, people are being stopped at our borders and questioned for hours. Some people get deported right back to their home country. Citizens eventually get let in, at least so far. From Raw Story:
The Trump administration just refused to allow an Australian writer entry to America because he’d penned articles on his personal blog critical of the administration’s support for the Netanyahu government’s Gaza policies. Whether you support or oppose those policies, this should shock every American. George Orwell noted, in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four: “The Thought Police are always watching. The only safe way was to think nothing, to know nothing, to believe nothing.” Are we there yet?
It’s certainly feeling like we are heading into that culture in the US. American politicians of either party have been outspoken on freedom of speech. It’s written in the Constitution – the FIRST Amendment, the very first one. The founders must have really been thinking about what to protect. But people are being stopped at the border for the use of free speech.
Echoing the quote often misattributed to Voltaire — “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” — elected officials from Lincoln to Goldwater to Reagan have pointed to our First Amendment rights of free speech as a bedrock of the American ethos. A strong nation that believes in its principles isn’t afraid of criticism. If anything, the embrace of dissent is the steel in the spine of our nation. Yet now we have officials who are examining the writings of people flying into the U.S. and using those writings — when critical of Trump or his friends — to harass travelers or even deny them entry into the country.
Are we at George Orwell’s 1984 Thought Police yet? It certainly seems like we’re heading that way at a faster and faster pace. We risk a whole lot of things, all the way up to being arrested, for speaking our minds. “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” Well, our president and his crowd seem to think that doesn’t apply to them.
Hasan Piker, an American who was born here, was detained for several hours when flying home into the U.S. this May. As The New York Times noted of the blogger and podcaster who has over 4 million followers on YouTube and Twitch: “Hasan Piker, a popular Turkish American online streamer, said he was stopped and questioned for hours about his political beliefs by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after flying back to the United States from overseas on Sunday.” He told the Times: “They straight-up tried to get something out of me that I think they could use to basically detain me permanently.”
So what is this about? They kept an American citizen for hours about his beliefs and free speech. A citizen! Harassing a citizen for writing and speaking his thoughts. I’m not sure he would have had any defense if they *had* detained him. We know how those who are detained tend to disappear permanently.
Travelers are being stopped at our borders — not for criminal acts, but for the crime of speaking out. A blog post criticizing Trump. A tweet expressing solidarity with Palestinian students. A comment on Facebook about fascism. That’s all it takes now to be interrogated, turned around, and blacklisted. This isn’t national security, it’s ideological cleansing. It’s the Thought Police with badges and DHS lanyards. But don’t mistake Trump’s and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s stupidity for harmlessness.
When agents of the state are combing through speech to decide who gets to enter the country, it’s not just foreigners who should be alarmed. It’s every one of us.This is how authoritarianism creeps in: not with tanks, but with men in uniform who tell you that your words are a threat. That your conscience makes you into a suspect. That the border is now a checkpoint for loyalty to the king. If we still believe in liberty, this can’t be allowed to stand. Silence is not safety: it’s surrender.
We have a big problem here. We need to figure out how to do something about it. Thus far, we’ve had 2 big protests. They can’t arrest all of us. It’s a start. Thanks for sticking with me!
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He loves the Saudis…they lock up innocent people, who have duel citizenship here, for tweets criticizing the murderous thug known as the crown prince. Once they visit family in that country, they get prison time. Dictators are fragile. They’d rather kill or imprison people than stand for some feedback on their lack of morality and murderous ways. Hell this tweet could get me prison time there so let me tell those rich soulless assholes…PHUCK YOU!