Armstrong Economics Blog/Freedom of Speech Re-Posted Jul 25, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”- This is our first amendment right which was signed in 1791. According to a recent poll, it is said that 55% of Americans believe that the government should have a say in restricting false information online and then 65% of Americans believe that Tech companies should remove content on what they believe is misinformation. I am not sure why anyone would think that this is a good idea. If our sources of information are regulated (which most of it is), and everything is being portrayed how the government wants us to see it- we are provoking the constitution ourselves. Basically, this would correlate as being brainwashed. The founders would roll over in their graves. This is a revoke of  what we ask our soldiers to die for- our Constitutional Rights.

Take the discovery of Obedience to Authority as an example. This discovery was made by Stanley Milgram who did experiments to show we are influenced by mob behavior. Meaning, that people would torture one another if ordered to do so. As I have said in a previous blog- “society swings back and further between public & private confidence. People canceling anyone who has ever said anything, even 30 years ago, is the swing of the pendulum excessively to the left. The swing is based upon the “sheep” who can be herded and they will move back and forth depending upon their influence.”

With that being said, people are very easily influenced towards a higher authority. Whatever the government thinks is good, most people will follow. There are some countries who already censor the content that they allow their citizens to view/ post, a few being North Korea, Vietnam, Iran, and China. In some countries, the fear of imprisonment for “spreading misinformation”- meaning if it’s criticism against their government, they will be dealt with severely.

This poll showing that 55% of Americans believe that the government should censor media content is very questionable. We have our First Amendment right put in place for a reason which doesn’t seem to mean anything these days since Tech companies such as Tik Tok have already limited, censored, or completely will remove videos of information that THEY find harmful or violent. The very argument that Russia censors what people can say is what we ask our own soldiers to fight against, yet the majority thinks that this is ok for our government to carry out. Our soldiers put their life on the line every day to fight to protect our rights, but doesn’t it seem a bit hypocritical that some think that the government should censor things that they believe shouldn’t be out there in the world. This is a direct rebuke to our Frist Amendment.