There is a terrific NY Times article this past Sunday discussing Russia’s aggressive attempt to silence Russian citizens who oppose or question the Ukraine invasion. According to the NY Times, after “invading Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia signed a censorship law that made it illegal to “discredit” the army. The legislation was so sweeping that even his spokesman acknowledged it was easy to cross the line into prohibited speech. In the first 18 months of the war, the law scooped up a vast array of ordinary Russians — school teachers, pensioners, groundskeepers, a carwash owner — for punishment.” Read the whole piece here.
This is horrific. Normal Americans will shrug their shoulders after reading this article and say, “of course, it is Russia, duh” and then go on with their day. While that gut reaction is correct, there is something more frightening to this article. There are those on the political left, make no mistake, who would love to implement this game plan to stifle and eliminate speech and questions regarding elections, Covid mandates, masks, vaccines, etc.
This is not a hyperbolic “sky is falling” statement, but reality that the Biden Administration was aggressive in stifling speech about Covid.
If that is not bad enough, according to a poll done by the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports, “Almost half of Democrats who voted in the poll think state and federal governments should be allowed to either fine or imprison those who publicly question COVID-19 vaccine efficacy.” Furthermore, “Forty-eight percent of Democrats taking the poll were in support of the criminal punishment of vaccine critics, whether the criticism appeared on television, radio, or even on social media.”
As Ronald Reagan prophetically said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not our inheritance, it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”
All Americans who love and cherish freedom, that includes free speech, need to protect it with every fiber of their soul. Even when we disagree with the opinion of others. Because before you know it, they will come after you if you don’t agree with the New York and Washington, DC herd mentality.
So read the the NY Times article “How the Russian Government Silences Wartime Dissent.” Replace the word Ukraine with Covid, 2020 Elections, or any other issue progressives dislike and realize this isn’t far fetched alarm. Nefarious forces want to eliminate questions, alternative facts or logic.
Russia is a case study that should scare us and awaken us to Reagan’s quote above.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Chuck Warren only and not his co-host Sam Stone or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.
