Maybe there is a free speech dimension to this afterall. Someone pointed out to me that compared to US-controlled social media platforms, TikTok is overwhelming pro-Palestinian. You can draw your own conclusions. On the other hand, why was there an effort to ban TikTok a couple of years ago? What was driving that? Anyway, I personally think that all social media is evil…so they can all go to that very hot place.
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China doesn’t raise your kids, the US gov doesn’t raise your kids, the village doesn’t raise your kids. You raise your kids.
I know the next argument will be that it is not my kids. I have to worry about how my neighbor raises their kids. If so, you live in a lost culture and no amount of censorship will fix it.
There is zero difference between I must stop kids from seeing naked girls to make the world a good place and forcing people to use particular pronoun to make the world a good place.
I am far more worried about the destruction of the rights guaranteed in the constitution.
Ban speech and ban guns cuz bad things happen.
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It is not a good argument to say that one should do the wrong thing because doing the right thing may make the mob mad. This seems to be Nassim’ argument. “No matter the reason”.
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What’s the point here?
What does the writer “know [is} difficult”?
To accept that we are being demographically overwhelmed by Muslims? Yuh that’s a toughie!
But the funny thing is, in light of these demographic figures, how can ANYBODY call the conflict in Gaza a “genocide”?
If and/0r when (no, undoubtedly “when”) Islam gets to the point Christianity has reached,( where even if you profess the faith you have no desire to impose it on anybody else, nor even to personally accept its strictures), it really won’t matter if they re in charge. Our problem right now is that we just can’t believe anybody is really, um, dead serious about their particular creed.
I’ve written before, (and I hereby solicit your opinions dear polymaths) that, if Judaism and Christianity are “Western” religions, then so is Islam, Father Abraham and Mother Church’s bastard issue, fed and nourished on the scraps, the crumbs, dropped by the two earlier faiths.
People get so pissed when I write that! Why? If you read the Koran the truth is obvious.
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Hahahaha!
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Hypatia – Agreed! There is absolutely no question that Jews, Christians, and Muslims are all praying to the same God. Sadly, that has not stopped Christians in Europe from murdering other European Christians with glee – the Thirty Years War, the Hundred Years War, the Irish Troubles … to name but a few; or from making national sports out of persecuting Jews. Identification with a religious faith has historically not had much to do with respect for the tenets of that faith.
Since you have shared excellent book suggestions in the past, please let me reciprocate with a relevant little book that I found fascinating: “After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split”, by Lesley Hazleton, ISBN 978-0-385-52394-3, 230 pages (2009). Muslims did not have to learn anything from Catholic-Protestant splits in Christianity.
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I think there is much difference between them. One of these things is prudent and the other is not.
Yes, perhaps we ought to ban guns in Baltimore, Chicago, and D.C., whose residents are not only largely irresponsible to handle them, but enemies of the constitution you want to protect (nevertheless, a constitution which has failed in its purpose). Extending the same rights and privileges to everyone indiscriminately might not be the best strategy.
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You must be kidding. Who decides to whom it is not “prudent” to extend certain freedoms? No, all citizens (note that word) must have the same freedoms, unless and until deprived of them by due process of law.
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That only works in a culturally cohesive society with a shared moral foundation…clearly that’s not America in 2024.
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It’s not that it isn’t working. It’s that it isn’t being worked in America 2024.
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If you say so. LOL!
Yeah I do. And why is that LOL? Surely you can see we no longer have the same principles of justice applied uniformly.
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You don’t have any answers to our problems and neither do I. I’ve accepted the fact that the American experiment is over.
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Just Us 
I can agree with that. The question is – Who counts as a [US] citizen?
Used to be, the definition of a US citizen was (a) someone born in the US; or (b) someone born overseas to US citizen parents; or (c) someone from another country who, after thorough screening, renounced citizenship in that other country and swore allegiance to the US and the US alone.
Nowadays, the Biden* Administration treats “citizens” less favorably than unscreened fighting age males who walk across the southern border.
Clearly, we need a better definition of a citizen – one that does not automatically given citizenship based on the accident of place of birth or parentage; that does not allow dual citizenship; and that treats illegal aliens as, well, illegal aliens. That also means developing a new classification for Residents who were born in the US but do not meet the standards & commitment required for citizenship – perhaps something loosely akin to the Ancient Spartan helots. But we all recognize we are not going to get that – at least, not until after the coming inevitable collapse.
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Illegal aliens are now newcomers.
Used to be migrants.
Before that undocumented immigrants.
Regarding citizenship, jury duty should be a requirement for voting. That would eliminate half the current voting population
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With respectful, insightful comments like these, I now understand the concern with cohesive culture and the degradation that will be caused by Tik Tok.
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Well, maybe I went too far because I agree with you in principle.
The problem is that while we might aspire to these lofty ideals of free speech, due process, etc., our adversaries do not hold themselves to the same moral standards, and this gives them a strategic advantage. Consider the perversion of due process in the prosecutions of Donald Trump and many others. That’s why it might be important to know when to take the gloves off, so to speak.
As John Adams observed:
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
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