The hallmarks of healthy discourse include passion, opinion, give-and-take, and sometimes, areas of agreement. This holds true in a friendship, classroom, marriage, or country.
Unhealthy debate, however, might include an unfair playing ground, lies, innuendo, and perhaps most sinister of all, an effort to silence or cancel the opposing argument.
You can't make your case if your audience never hears your case.
On Friday's episode of "The Five," the panelists took on the issue of free speech, labeling the opponents of such as hypocrites and highlighting those championing more freedom for everyday citizens.
Former Republican Congressman Sean Duffy opened the Fox News segment with his monologue.
"Battle lines are being drawn in the fight over free speech in America. On the side of freedom, you have the world's richest man. Elon Musk getting one step closer to liberating Twitter from censorship-crazy Liberals. The Tesla CEO says he's secured more than $46 billion for his potential takeover," Duffy began. "And on the other side, you have former president Barack Obama, who is pushing for more censorship online."
A spliced montage then featured Obama saying, "The First Amendment is a check on the power of the state. It doesn't apply to private companies like Facebook or Twitter. While content moderation can limit the distribution of clearly-dangerous content, it doesn't go far enough. As so much of the conversation around disinformation is focused on what people post, the bigger issue is what content these platforms promote."
The program then featured a new study from the Media Research Center, which said Big Tech censored criticism of Democratic Joe Biden 646 times over the last two years. The study investigated the censoring activities of Big Tech platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, from March 2020 to March 2022.
"Big Tech's campaign to protect President Joe Biden and his agenda has continued unabated," an Media Research Center statement said. "The worst cases of censorship involved platforms targeting anyone who dared to speak about any subject related to the New York Post bombshell Hunter Biden story."
The main theme of the report is that censorship has increased as the Democratic Party and Big Tech don't like what is being said.
"What I find most interesting is the timing of all of this," Judge Jeanine Pirro said. "Now we have Elon Musk getting closer to taking over Twitter. Barack Obama, former President of the United States, comes out and starts talking about the First Amendment and the moderation of that concept that is so fundamental to who we are. It makes us the freest country in the world. The First Amendment, the freedom to speak, the freedom to practice religion, and the freedom to assemble. All of that is fundamental to who we are."
Pirro compared the methods of communication of centuries past to today's technological advances, such as email and electronic messaging. In her opinion, the vehicles of information exchange have changed, but the principles protecting that right have not. While we used to share ideas via pigeons and ink-penned letters, today, we use social media and devices.
"This is the antithesis of the Constitution and what free speech is all about," Pirro followed up. "What Obama is doing is he is cultivating now the concept that we can moderate things and content moderation, and now we can get rid of disinformation, which leads us to the place where if you don't agree with what I think you will be shut down."
Pirro said she is infuriated by the double standard - proven falsehoods being spread purposely by the media to bolster the Democratic political party while material from other news publications disproving the information has been censored.
"Do they think that we're that stupid, that they need to tell us what we can and cannot read?" Pirro asked. "This infuriates me. He is wrong on this. This is un-American. Free speech is fundamental, and when we lose it, we're gone."
Certainly, there are things published and shared via social media that are prosperous. Have you heard that President Trump colluded with Russia? Or that he said violent white supremacists were "very fine people?" Or that President Obama was a covert plant, born in Kenya? Or that he was groomed to infiltrate America and take it down from the inside?
There are those who have read and believed this "information" disseminated widely on social media and elsewhere. But many believe the solution is actually more information-sharing, not less. More media, not less. More true journalism, not less.
"Obama (in the montage) there started the speech off by saying I'm a First Amendment fundamentalist. You can't infringe on the First Amendment. Then he spent the rest of the speech undermining free speech in the whole speech," Duffy noted. "Free speech is not about protecting speech that we agree with. Free speech is about protecting speech we disagree with. Isn't it better that we all engage in the arena of debate and ideas, and the best ideas will rise to the top?"
Former Democratic Representative Harold Ford Jr. responded, pointing out some speech that courts have said is not protected, such as "yelling fire" in a crowded theater, but that he, at least, wants a free and open debate.
"I think it's important that we present ideas that may unsettle people, and for us to be able to have these conversations and have debates," Ford, long considered a remaining centrist in his party, said. "Even if the best ideas don't rise, at least we inform and educate people about what the issues are."
Ford concluded his thoughts by saying Musk is pursuing a purchase of Twitter for the most American of reasons - as a business venture with a large financial upside.
On that point, traditional Americans and centrist Democrats can mostly agree.
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