Feds Should Delete Anti-Islam Video
Feds Should Delete Anti-Islam Video
For our federal government - and our public officials - to wring their hands and be in false distress about not being able to order Google to take down the Anti-Islam YouTube video is just absurd. Try posting a film denying the Holocaust and see what happens. Or try posting a film praising Al Queda and see what happens. Or try posting a film attacking the Catholic Church and the Pope and see what happens. I mean a really false, mean and totally grotesque film about the Holocaust or Catholic Church - or even Jesus.
Try it - and see how long it takes for you to be charged with a crime - and see how many hours before Google deletes the film. And taking down the film is the right thing to do. Why? Because at their basis, those are fighting words, and at best are so flagrant as to lead to a breakdown of public discourse. But the Feds do not even allow public discourse if it strays into verboten areas. This film is way out of bounds - and should have been deleted. But no one should be charged with a crime.
I can speak to this. The idea of freedom of speech in America is one of the big lies that most buy into. There is total control of speech. You can say anything so long as it is not effective - so long as it is not actually threatening any real projects or government programs or insulting the established Jewish, Catholic and Christian religions. Oh, atheists and such are tolerated and they speak in their little publications. Our democracy can handle them. But something really effective is shut down.
The worst is the criminalization of free speech around the issues of terrorism today. I could post something tomorrow that would have the Feds taking down my entire website and visiting me - and making sure I truly regret ever having thought such. Hell, I may be pushing the edge right now. But I am probably not at risk as this blog is considered minor and not influential. YouTube is influential.
So - to leave the horrible Anti-Islam videos posted on YouTube is a conscious act by our federal government to allow this film to do its dirty work - and inflame the Middle East against our country. Why? Well that is another topic. For now the point is - there is an exception being made by Google and the Feds for this series of videos. There is plenty of precedent for taking them down.
Check out this good article "America and the Muslims" by Esam Al-Amin in CounterPunch. We need to read those who can wake us from our sleep and point out how our America is not what we seem to think it is. We do practice double standards.



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