Celebrate Free Speech While it Lasts!

Some riveting television from Rick Santelli – go here.

You know what makes it riveting?

The man is speaking truth from his heart, and the people around him are spontaneously responding. There is nothing scripted, nothing hedged and over-considered, no punch pulled. This is not an “acceptable narrative” being promulgated by a member of the no-longer-free press. This is not a drone, dutifully mouthing-and-approving today’s talking points from the Leadership. This is fire from the ground, aimed upwards.

It is uncontrolled speech. It is free.

In our politically correct age, where everyone is afraid of giving offense, being misconstrued-and -then-sued, or simply fearful of falling out-of-step with the trendoids, we almost never hear or read anything that is uncontrolled.

But “free speech” cannot be controlled or it is not “free” at all. And we in America have for too long engaged in self-censorship in favor of “niceness.”

Sometimes, you have to lose control and let the words fly, and if you cannot do that, you are not free.

Coincidentally, today we read a scientific study on how losing one’s control can have a liberating effect. On a variety of issues, we are ultra-controlled in our speech, but the study is especially interesting with regards to Attorney General Holder’s remarks yesterday that our nation is cowardly on race. I read his remarks and thought, “well, if we’re cowardly on race, why is that? Is it because for the last 30-40 years the issue has been an unstable bomb ready to blow up in anyone’s face, no matter how well-intentioned they may be? And whose fault is that?”

I tried to write about race last year, and – naturally – was immediately called a racist for it:

It has been exceedingly difficult to discuss race in this nation for about 30 years, because anytime anyone – white or black – has tried to make a serious point, the word “racist!” is immediately flung out; lasting and damaging labels are instantly attached to people, and so everyone just shuts down. People guard their words and swallow provocative debating points – even if their aim is to generate a real, open and honest forum of ideas – because no one wants to be called a racist. This happened to Bill Clinton and to Bill Cosby; it happened to Rush Limbaugh and Geraldine Ferraro, and driving today I heard the word spat out at Sean Hannity. It happened to me, actually, last week, when I was called a “racist” on another blog for writing this…
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“Black” America is forced to live a psychic duality, but in a way, “white” America is, too. We are supposed to – apparently – somehow split our brains, into never even noticing that there are racial differences between us, unless we’re working in praise of those differences. So, there are no differences between us…but we celebrate the differences…but their are none, and if you think there are, you’re a racist. Now celebrate!

Watching Rick Santelli on CNBC proved the point of that study: he threw out the controls and said what he really thought – and it was liberating for the moment, and certainly great tv.

Now, we’ll have to see if he has a job tomorrow, or if he will be silenced. Will he be “suspended” as David Schuster was, from MSNBC for wondering if Hillary Clinton was “pimping Chelsea” to voters during the primary? Will he be made to apologize and grovel, as Chris Matthews was, when he suggested that Hillary Clinton’s post-White House career has been helped by her husband’s infidelity?

Hey, we’re watching police pull over drivers for sticking stupid (but not yet illegal) signs on their cars.

America has already lost her free press, but that was a free-surrender on the part of the press; the government did not shut the press down – it simply married them, hired them and subsumed them.

That sounds exaggerated? Here, try this little exercise: Google putin warns don’t go socialist and see what it brings up. Blogs covering it – blogs covering this – but not US news agencies. Hit the “News” button on that search and see what you get. You get bupkis.

Okay, show of hands, how many of you were surprised that this story saw the light of day: Dobson students question Obama’s plan

Think of all the stories you have known about but not seen covered by the Mainstream Press, from the robust economy that defined most of Bush’s presidency but was constantly called “recession” to our successes in Iraq to the recent protests of the stimulus bill? If a story does not serve the “established narrative,” it either does not get mentioned, or is quickly buried. The press has betrayed the public trust.

The press is not free, but for a little while we can still live without them. Until the internet and talk radio are regulated into dreary sameness, charged with “hate speech”, and rendered politically impotent, they are our best vehicles for free speech with some reach.

If we lose our freedom to speak out – to opine loudly, to mock, to question, even to demand – then we have lost everything.

And the truth is, we have already – thanks to political correctness and self-censorship – fallen into the mindset that our speech should be controlled, measured and unfree.

And that is why Rick Santelli’s rant today was riveting, and fascinating, and incredibly necessary.

Speak up. This is still America – in this nation, for now, you are free to do so. The more you shut yourself up, the more easily others will shut you up, down the road.

And if you have not yet rented this movie, hurry up and do it. Hurry up and retrain yourself to the mindset that you are free, and that you are free to speak your mind.

Do it quickly. We just watched our president and his congress “hurry through” a piece of very dubious legislation, because if they’d waited too long, we would have stopped it. Hurry up and take back your freedom of speech, before that gets “stopped.”

And enjoy Instapundit’s beautiful bit of snark, too.

Related:
Federalist No. 61: “Laws so voluminous that they cannot be read”…
Yes of course, the left conducts “witch hunts”. Both sides do, but the left pretends to be better than that.
White House Propaganda being well-propagated
“Fascist? You keep using that word”
Mr President: “have the guts to be an optimist”; yeah, unless you actually like relentlessly talking down your own country.
White House Missing Documents
The Savior-based Housing plan
“Bush’s Administration was more open and more honest”
IBD Warns of Socialist Tsunami
Getting politics involved was Bernanke and Paulson’s biggest mistake
Sirens