PRIMUM EMENDATUM REQUIESCAT IN PACE

Abstract: The First Amendment died this week: rest in peace. First Amendment freedoms in the United States have been severely compromised through a combination of government pressure and media self-censorship, exemplified by recent actions by major broadcast networks. The assassination of Charlie Kirk by Tyler Robinson has opened the door by radical right political movements to attribute the violence to alleged leftist radicalization through university attendance or social media platforms like Discord and Reddit, despite evidence suggesting the perpetrator acted alone. and without political motivation at all. Claims of rapid ideological conversion, unlike prolonged historical brainwashing techniques, are unsupportable; rather the incident may simply reflect the actions of a disturbed individual rather than systematic radicalization. Free speech, assembly, and press freedoms are the cornerstone of American democracy; current trends toward censorship and self-censorship threaten the foundation of a free society.

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This week the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, assembly and press were killed. Although the ideocide was cheered by the cult of MAGA Trumpian oppressors, the co-conspirators included huge blocks of American print outlets and broadcast networks. Donald Trump no longer has to point his bony finger at a target and demand removal of content; a mixture of fear and opportunism has gripped the media such that self-censorship has overnight become the order of the day. Yes, ABC, I mean you (and others). All Trump has to say is that if media simply criticizes him in the slightest, that will be sufficient grounds to lift licenses and boycott outlets.

Charlie Kirk was brutally assassinated, evidently by Tyler Robinson, a lone gunman with no evident ideological attachment, no history of violence, no association with any political or other specific organization. This has not stopped the MAGA movement from seizing upon the tragic murder to claim he was radicalized by attending Utah State University for one semester studying engineering. Once again, that’s Utah State University. (Who would have thought the bridge builders were so crazy political that it would only take three months of math and similar courses to turn them into violent assassins.) When that theory dropped like a stale donut, MAGA shifted focus to say he had become radicalized by all the (unidentified) websites he visited in a rather short period on two platforms, Discord and Reddit. Opening Discord.com reveals its not very revolutionary bent with the self description as “Group Chat That’s All Fun and Games. Discord is great for playing games and chilling with friends, or even building a worldwide community. Customize your own space to talk, play, and hang out.” Opening Reddit.com, on the other hand, brings up a page with news headlines, advertisements for hair product, pet services and the like. One would have to search at length to uncover the “deep web” which is suppoedly reponsible for converting otherwise normal people into violent killers. Are Reddit and Discord then MAGA’s next targets for removal?

I’m not familiar with what people call the Dark Web, and perhaps there is much revolutionary advocacy of violence (bearing in ind it is already illegal to incite violence, but we’ll set that aside for the moment). Personally I’ve never seen or read a psychiatric analysis of how that can happen -- yet those who would censor what we can see and read keep telling us people are being radicalized. Personally I’m radicalized about the right to speak and write freely when I read about ABC censoring a silly comedian — but I guess that’s another perspective.

Brain washing is a phenomenon we all heard about during the Korean war and North Korea had apparently greatly advanced the techniques and applied them upon American POWs held there during the war; through repeated indoctrination sessions, but the virtually instantaneous extreme conversion the far right is alleging occurred to Charlie Kirk’s assassin would have been the amazed envy of the North Korean propaganda ministry. Or maybe all this MAGA chat is just plain garbage, and the guy is simply a deranged loner, the victim of some bizarre brain malfunction; sadly a not-uncommon occurrence in troubled times. We already know that he likely is very gender confused and may be rebelling against his own LGBTQ sensitivities. But do we want to sit quietly and allow MAGA and cohorts to upend the entire social order because of a (fortunately small) handful of deranged young men with Second Amendment free access to killer weapons. Please do not forget the importance of the police announcement that “he was acting alone”! Unfortunately that signals that there is virtually nothing we could do to prevent such atrocities other than regulate gun possession, and current interpretation of the Second Amendment makes that impossible. But it instead has become MAGA’s ticket to suppress our freedom of speech.

Returning to our topic of the unprecedented explosive increase in speech and press censorship in the U.S., there is now no hiding the fact that this is how our right to speak out erodes. I have no doubt that if anyone in power was paying attention to my little essays, you would no longer be treated to them. But I will continue to shout out against any form of censorship. (I’ll allow for two major exceptions: keeping pornography from children too young to process it intelligently and outlawing open calls to violent conduct -- although I’m moving my own goalposts as to what is truly violence advocacy, but I will not quietly indulge any other forms or restrictions on what people can say or write.) I’m not a consumer of late night television so am not very familiar with Jimmy Kimmel or his uniformly supportive competitors on other networks. To the limited extent I watch any major networks, I would boycott ABC at this point because of their outrageous conduct and Trump sycophancy (and lack of any particularly interesting programming -- but that’s not the point). And I would really like to see all of the remaining late night tv hosts stand together on camera and say the very words that got Kimmel erased, daring the sponsors and networks to fire the entire bunch simultaneoulsy!

I have always said the First Amendment is the most important thing that makes America what it is; all the other Constitutional and institutional privileges are secondary to a truly free society. If you can speak out, write what you will (like this tiny essay effort), congregate with other like-minded people to demand changes large or small, then you have a free society. Think about it: take that away and others control virtually all facets of your lives. Let us hope against hope that we have not lost all of that — but I do fear.

I leave you with this slightly briefer effort on my part since I’m aboard ship in the Mediterranean enjoying a fall holiday with wife Ruth but didn’t want to break off my schedule, so this and the next scribble are being composed on an older laptop; please excuse any misspelling, typos or other errors. Like it or not, fellow readers, longer essays will resume next month. For now speak out, join with your neighbors to insist on our First Amendment rights, find a way to write, say or do something to show how important it is.

Ave et vale, Jimmy Kimmel.

Arne Werchick, after fifty years as a California litigation attorney, pro tem judge, law lecturer, former Presiding Arbitrator of the State Bar of California, and past president of the California Trial Lawyers Association, moved to Hawaii and lives with his wife Ruth and their rescue dog Topaz. His prior community service included two years as Special Counsel to California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at Hastings College of the Law, Administrative Law Judge pro tem, Chair of the Palm Desert Rent Review Commission, and numerous professional and civic organizations, and he was frequently an invited lecturer at continuing education programs. He now writes and publishes OUT OF MY LIBERAL MIND to provide a progressive perspective on current politics and provide a forum for liberal conversation.