Speech and the Despot Franchise

"You can break a man's skull. You can arrest him. You can throw him into a dungeon. But how do you control what's up here? How do you fight an idea?"
--Sextus (Ben-Hur)

Escalating pushback against free speech reminds us once more of just how radical the notion of liberty is. The history of the world has been dominated by those who desire to dominate. Authoritarians who seek to control others through use of force.

Our founding ancestors developed a constitutional framework that proposed otherwise. At the top of the list was speak and write with no government interference.

Authoritarians despise this freedom to no end. They understand that minds exposed to alternative viewpoints threaten the despot franchise.

As current events demonstrate, statists will stop at nothing to silence dissent.