Although the standard user of our pravda media is unlikely to hear about it, it seems that Scott Ritter (a well-known critic of the regime’s proxy war in the Ukraine) was dragged off a plane and had his passport impounded. Land of the Free!
This makes me wonder about Zelensky’s upcoming “peace conference” in sadly-fallen Switzerland. What if some of the 80 invited countries suggest that a good first step towards peace would be for “democratic” Ukraine to have … you know … an actual election? Even better, an election in which those millions of Ukrainians who voted with their feet are allowed to cast votes? Would we in the forlorn West ever hear about such a departure from the intended pro-war messaging?
What if some of the countries suggest it would be a positive step for the Ukraine to reverse its policy of no negotiations with Russia? Would that kind of wrongspeak ever reach the ears of Western citizens?
That was pretty much Stalin’s attitude too … although that may make you uncomfortable. Once a regime starts whacking people for advocating perspectives which the regime does not like, then the pretense of “democracy” and “free speech” is over.
Then what is left for any true patriot to defend in the regime’s hollowed-out husk?
I like the reasonable option of the First Amendment to the Constitution – “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech …”
But the Founding Fathers were innocents --they did not realize that today’s regime can abridge the freedom of speech without bothering to get Congress to make a law … and the sort of scum who get elected to Congress these days do not mind in the least.
I don’t think the Founding Fathers were innocents, but the Constitution was written on top of the Bible, not independently of the Bible. And that’s what the Bible says on this matter:
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.