By Guest Columnist, Michael Ceremello – August 7, 2018 – I find it quite entertaining, abnormally amusing, and oddly interesting how those with supposedly high ideals immerse themselves in the muck of, for lack of a better term, anti-American rhetoric and deeds.  It appears that I have been on the wrong side of the coin in my criticism of Tiffany nee Fabiani Wing Morlin and her cohort, this century’s version of the Wobblies, Ian Arnold.  These two are on the cutting edge of the progressive regressive censorship movement witnessed in last century’s Stalinist Russia and this century’s Venezuela.

While my congratulations might be a bit premature, it seems that the phenomenon is not relegated to Dixon but has now surfaced on a large scale across America, led by a party of miscreants who term themselves Democrats.  Starting on Monday, I began hearing about the movement to ban conservative speech on internet platforms.  On Tuesday, Facebook and Apple decided censorship is a good thing and they made an experimental run using Alex Jones of Infowars as their first victim.

One of the first complaints I heard was Facebook allowing a page titled F**k White People and another called Kill Trump.  I attempted to find both and neither could be found as a site.  Both existed in one form or another on the internet, the prior being printed multiple times on a piece of apparel which was deemed “art” and thus being exempted from hate speech.  Sorry folks but that Jedi mind trick doesn’t work on those of us who know what “is” is when we see or hear it.

This is much akin to Morlin saying she isn’t advocating boycotting this newspaper but wants to see it destroyed.  Again, this is not the first time those who are numbers in the ranks of the Bad Old Boys aka the Rotary, Downtown Dixon Business Association, and the Chamber of Commerce along with elected officials who were elected with their help, have tried this tactic.  It is obvious that lacking the ability to make a coherent argument in a debate frustrates those unable to convince the majority that their position is the right one which leads to the attempt to silence those who have that ability.

These little fish in the little pond are annoying but the national level demand for similar censorship should irritate us all.  I have yet to verify some of the contentions made on conservative talk radio such as Zuckerberg of Facebook and others were told by Democrat members of Congress to take action against people like Alex Jones.  This is not new as the Fairness Doctrine was an earlier attempt to reduce the effectiveness of the Right’s messaging.  As with most statists, that is those who believe in an all powerful central government controlling every aspect of your life, this isn’t enough so they want the government to control the Internet, regulate it, and tax it.

I will say that I attempted to find Alex Jones and access his podcast simply to verify the cacophony of objections to these actions.  Lo and behold it wasn’t a problem.  Even on Facebook there were links to follow to get to Jones’ site.  While I won’t say this is much to do about nothing, hyperbole as a sales technique appears to be the case.

This does not mean that the complaints have no merit.  Banning Michael Savage from Britain by taking portions of his broadcasts out of context was not reasonable.  How about letting us all hear or see what everyone has to say and allowing us to sort it out?  Since when did government become our friend?

As the solutions oriented person that I am, I initially thought the free market could take care of the problem.  Much as NewsMax or Conservative Review TV has taken the weakness of the Fox News network and exploited it, I figured the Zuckerberg template could be used to develop other social sites which wouldn’t have the proclivity toward censorship.  Unfortunately, this can not succeed if politicians control the internet … or the newspaper industry.

More importantly, the American people need to wake up.  This is not the America of the past, the long ago past.  I found it funny that I was watching the movie Field of Dreams and hearing “we have to stand up to the kind of censorship they had under Stalin” as the Leftist was decrying the book burning sentiments of the conservative traditionalist.  Again we see the attempt to control what others can choose to partake in because it offends the sensibilities of others.

It is fascinating to realize that the Berkeley protests over conservative speakers such as Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos are an exhibition of this same effect in reverse, with the Left attempting to say who gets to speak and who gets to listen.  I don’t need the fascist group Anti-Fa telling me anything about what I should or shouldn’t be able to partake in.  Of what exactly are they so afraid that they can’t let us judge for ourselves?

I was told that Alex Jones was a conspiracy theorist.  It seems that it is more likely that he is a conspiracy exposer.  What is hilarious to me is that the politicians pushing censorship have now exposed themselves for what they truly are.  This young woman from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has stated the Republicans will always say we are socialists, so why not give them a real one.  Maybe she forgot about Bernie Sanders but she admits what she truly is.  I understand Venezuela is looking for a new president with the current one dodging explosive laden drones.  Another example of failed socialism in a country which wasn’t in trouble before Hugo Chavez came along.

The bottom line to all of this is the attempt to remove debate, dumb us down rather than allowing us to educate ourselves, and to make us all conform.  In the entire time I have been writing this column, I have never told anyone not to read what other people write except to decry the substance as a waste of time.  I don’t need to tell you that there is nothing in the other local paper.  You can see it for yourself.

I suppose that Tiffany and Ian would have no objection if the council told them their input was not needed or valued because it didn’t mesh with their own ideas of right and wrong.  Actually, that is what most councils do right now.  That isn’t government, it is tyranny of the elected ruling class.  The school board is no different and you wonder why neither group advances anything of value for the citizens.

What truly makes this situation difficult is the lack of candidates who can get the financial backing to get into office in opposition to the status quo, at all levels of government.  The disease of corporate control, or those with the gold making the rules, has placed our Nation in grave jeopardy.  Considering that Trump is of this same ilk, it is wise not to stereotype because his actions don’t mirror what the rest have done to this country.

I also have a hard time with the fact that the Democrats supposedly are the ones pushing for control of anything as they alone do not have the votes to get it done.  This is the swamp where different rats are really not all that different.  All you have to do is listen to what they say and watch what they do.

I shouldn’t have to give you a play by play analysis …