free speech

Department of Failed State Travel Advisories

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We’re just two months into this administration and the horrors at the border and within continue to escalate. Tourists from close allies are getting sent to the gulags we’ve previously reserved for refugees who are desperate to get here to seek asylum. Residents with green cards or visas are getting arrested, detained, and even deported for their speech. And others are being rounded up without due process and sent to slave labor camps in El Salvador.

This is not a great environment for jokes. My mind keeps going to the fact that all that separates myself from these current victims is my tacky little U.S. passport. Any CBP or ICE thug can take it and instantly render me and anyone they don’t like a stateless individual with no rights.

I don’t have plans (or the budget) for international travel any time soon, but I don’t have to go anywhere for them to claim jurisdiction over me or two thirds of the population. The War on Terror has come home, we’re all the targets, and if you can’t call it fascism, you won’t until you’re the one getting stripped and hosed down in a cage.

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2025 Corporate Media Style Guide

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After less than a week of insane (and illegal, if laws were still real) executive orders, the mainstream media has rolled over and showed its belly to the second Trump administration. The publishers and owners signaled this move was coming throughout the election, but to see them all become state media apparatuses overnight was jarring.

When these policies were first introduced to the public with coverage of Project 2025, the public recoiled, because it’s unpopular Nazi shit. The media gave Trump a boost by letting him claim he disavowed it, but now that he’s practically signing copies with each executive order, they’re desperately trying to spin their audiences into favoring it or pretending it’s not happening.

Unfortunately, mainstream media’s not the only one doing it. Democratic leadership seems to be using this same playbook instead of acting anything like an opposition party.

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A Conversation with the Boot on Your Face

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Protests against Israel’s siege/ethnic cleansing/genocide of Gaza have been happening as soon as it was clear Palestinians were facing collective punishment for Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack. Even as Israel’s war crimes escalated, proponents of a ceasefire have been largely ignored by those in power and people who can only perceive events through their implications on the presidential election.

Until this week, when Columbia University’s administration sent the cops to remove its encampment of student protestors. This delighted reactionaries and spawned solidarity protests on campuses throughout the country, which face crackdowns of their own. The semester ends in a couple weeks. Administrators could’ve just waited the students out, but chose to escalate, just like the country the students were protesting in the first place.

For the past seven months, commenting on Biden’s enabling of Israel’s actions was met with a chorus of “Trump would be worse!” Of course he would be, and he’d send more troops to bust kids’ skulls even harder. But doing or saying nothing today out of fear of something worse happening means fascism’s already here. And being quiet won’t make it go away.

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Flea Marketplace of Ideas

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A lot of right-wing chuds assume their right to free speech means they have a right to say whatever they want to a captive audience everywhere they go. And if someone uses their own free speech to tell them to fuck off, they whine about cancel culture until they get a glowing profile in the New York Times.

Deplatforming works. Anyone claiming they can defeat racism, fascism, or any form of extremism through honest debate is either stupid or a collaborator. People spewing those views need to be ostracized from society. Humoring them just gives them oxygen and drags that poor Overton Window so far to the right it causes the entire house to collapse.

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Susan Collins’s Concerns

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Whining about protesters is all the rage this week among those who don’t want to mention the impending overturning of Roe v. Wade. Claiming these spontaneous, harmless protests are “protoviolence” and beyond the scope of the First Amendment is the first step to normalize the looming crackdowns when the (illegitimate) SCOTUS opinion officially comes down.

I don’t really want Maine to return to Massachusetts, but a lot of states should be consolidated, especially the prairie states which produce nothing more than senators, grain and natural gas.

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The Self-Appointed Protest Referee

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The Self-Appointed Protest RefereeColin Kaepernick is protesting and drawing attention to the epidemic of unprosecuted police brutality by sitting out (kneeling out since this cartoon was drawn) the national anthem. Everyone outraged about his free speech is talking about patriotism, respecting veterans and arcane flag etiquette instead of systemic racism because it’s easier to change the subject.

The Santa Clara Police Department proved Kaepernick was correct by throwing a tantrum and explicitly stating they have the power to choose who they protect and serve. Hopefully the protest continues and the discussion expands beyond Kaepernick to the actual issue of police brutality he’s trying to highlight.

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Peter Thiel’s Million-Dollar Legal Maneuvers

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Million-Dollar Legal ManeuversBillionaire Paypal founder Peter Thiel has thin skin, so it makes sense that he’s also a Trump delegate. Unable to sue Gawker for outing him, Thiel used his fortune to anonymously fund other suits against the tabloid. A lot of “serious” journalists shrugged since they think Gawker got what they deserved, but there’s nothing stopping him or other rich people from doing the same to more reputable publications.

Please don’t show him this cartoon; I can’t afford to make him angry.

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