Big Surprise: A Leftist Calls For Censorship… Of Me

 

(The following is a Letter to the Editor (LTE) written by me that was published today in the local daily newspaper of Santa Clarita, The Signal. I was responding to another LTE critical of my last column, “The Great Mask Scam”. You can read that person’s LTE here: Dorio LTE)

Most of the columns and letters to the editor (LTEs) that I write and that are published by The Signal concern political topics, and since I’m a conservative I expect – and get – a lot of umbrage and pushback from leftists who disagree with my views.

That’s fine with me. I believe in open debate in a free society. But that’s a view that apparently isn’t shared by all.

My 2 December column “The Great American Mask Scam” engendered a responding LTE from Gene Dorio (“Fringe-Speak in Baker Column”, 9 December) that illustrates the problem. Rather than making any effort at all to refute the specific assertions of my column, which included six links to verifiable reputable sources, Dorio presumes a position of superior moral authority (“As a geriatric physician…”), makes a claim unsupported by any documentation (“(I) find this commentary disseminates misinformation while pitting science and public health against political bias.”), and then advocates censorship (“Advising and advocating citizens to wear a mask is not a scam, and The Signal might join in to better serve the health and welfare of our community.”).

You don’t get to win at poker by claiming you have the better hand but refusing to show your cards. The same holds true when debating public policy. Dorio is certainly entitled to his opinion, but that’s all it is… an opinion.

To their credit, The Signal’s editors follow a policy of open debate, and in fact noted when they published Dorio’s LTE that they didn’t agree with my column. Such a policy gives the reading public the opportunity to see all sides of an issue, not just whatever seems to be most popular with leftists at the moment. Major kudos to The Signal.

The leftists’ love of censorship and “cancel culture” is one of the biggest dangers facing this country. They can’t be allowed to get away with it.

 

©Brian Baker 2020

 

 

Liberty Is Under Fire

 

Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and

murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that didn’t

commit suicide – John Adams, 1814

 

Anthony Breznican’s column “Hart’s Messina wrong man for leadership role” in the Weekender edition of The Signal (Link) published September 23^rd was a reminder to me of how dangerous leftism is to the liberties we take for granted in this country.

Breznican’s focus is on Hart school board member Joe Messina, and views Messina has expressed in social media (apparently Facebook) and a self-published book, both of which Breznican claims are “disturbing acts”. Breznican complains that in spite of those stated views “the district has taken no action to censure or demand even an apology from him about his inflammatory remarks.”

Nor should they. This may come as a surprise to Breznican, but what a citizen says or does on his own time, as long as it’s legal, can’t be sanctioned by any governmental agency. It’s called the First Amendment. It’s not subject to the district’s approval or disapproval.

From what little I know of him I happen to agree that at least some of what Messina says makes no sense, but if that were some kind of threshold, I can’t think of anybody in the Dem/socialist party who would be qualified to hold public office.

If that board tries to do anything, that’s the action of a government body reacting to, and taking action against, a person for exercising their right to express an opinion, which is EXACTLY what the First Amendment prohibits.

Breznican goes on: “”That’s what Joe Messina has done. He is harming the students and the district with these fabrications.”

Well, that’s Breznican’s opinion, and it’s only an opinion. Clearly, a lot of people don’t agree with him, or Messina wouldn’t have been able to get elected. And at the next election, if other people share Breznican’s opinion, Messina won’t be re-elected. Right?

I think that Bernie Sanders is a Trotskyite communist, and his ideas and policies are insane, but that doesn’t mean I think he should be silenced, or booted from the Senate. He was duly and properly elected to the Senate by his constituents, as crazy as that seems, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.

I think every Dem/socialist in Sacramento, along with about two-thirds of the GOPers, are nuts. But that doesn’t bar them from office, or justify any form of governmental sanction.

That pesky First Amendment again.

Which brings us back to that threat to our liberties that I mentioned at the beginning of this column. Conservatives believe that the liberties guaranteed to us by the Constitution and Bill of Rights mean exactly what they say. I may not agree with you but I won’t try to silence you. Or, as attributed to Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

But the Left… Ah, the Left. If they don’t like what you say, they’ll try to destroy your life, demonize you, silence you, shun you, exile you from the public square, get you fired from your job, and outlaw what you can say.

If that’s not a threat to liberty, I don’t know what is.

 

©Brian Baker 2017

 

(Also published today in my local newspaper, The Signal )