Launching the Westminster Declaration

submitted by penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable from networkaffects.substack.com

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[–]MeganDelacroix🤡🌎 detainee 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

NYPost column on the Westminster Declaration, linked on RCP

ZH also republished it this morning

Brussels Signal

[–]3andfro 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

This core principle, once unquestioned, must not be abridged. It must be absolute, not a matter for situational ethics. The ACLU of yore understood this and correctly defended the right of neo-Nazis to have their despicable march through Skokie, where many survivors of WWII camps lived. They lost financial backing for it, but they were right.

I doubt they'd take that position now, so powerful is this Orwellian mask of censorship to "protect the greater good" that has nothing to do with the greater good and everything to do with protecting and expanding the power of the powerful and enforcing their approved RightSpeak and RightThink.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The thing is that we've seen the result of censorship, who and what interests it serves. That in itself should be enough to discourage people from getting behind it but sadly it isn't.

[–]3andfro 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Did anyone catch this red, white, and blue address from Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas? She hits the chief uniparty TPs (jingoism lite), and announces that a Chinese seed company must divest its state land holdings. I don't disagree with the divestment but found her other comments textbook for the politically ambitious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELB7ySOS0UE&ab_channel=ForbesBreakingNews

[–]MeganDelacroix🤡🌎 detainee 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yes, and that's why I'm particularly glad to see Nadine Strossen's name on that list; as a former president of the ACLU, she often refers to and eloquently advocates for that position. I started listening to her and reading her writing a few years ago, after watching some of her conversations with Ann Coulter.

[–]3andfro 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's a new name to me; ty.

It's disturbing to watch as the process by which what was once non-negotiable--freedom of expression and denouncing censorship, especially by governments (through their lapdog media or directly)--has become not only acceptable but somehow desirable. Later generations may study how this happened and present it as a case study of what to watch for in the whittling away of basic rights.

btw, take a look at the latest flag Forever stamps. They're almost old-style Soviet sloganeering with a graphic flag over the word FREEDOM in large uppercase letters. If you have to market that hard, the idea isn't selling itself. And those stamps now cost 63 cents. The "Forever" branding that takes the place of the monetary value is handy in hiding the rate increases.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Under the guise of preventing harm and protecting truth, speech is being treated as a permitted activity rather than an inalienable right.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

https://westminsterdeclaration.org/

https://archive.md/6UNwN

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

"Open discourse is the central pillar of a free society."

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Excerpt:

Today we launch the Westminster Declaration, a statement opposing the cynical use of “countering disinformation” as a tool for censorship, and the government, media, NGOs, academics, Big Tech, and philanthropy coordination that is enabling it.

The signatories come from both the left and the right (however much those labels make any sense)...

In many ways the declaration is the crystalisation of the #TwitterFiles and other recent anti-censorship initiatives into a movement.

The declaration is a call to renormalise free speech (and constructive differences of opinion) as both a left and right norm (however much we fell short in the past).