Being a Canadian living in America, I want to learn more about my adopted homeland, so I recently purchased The U.S. Constitution and Other Writings. It begins with the Silence Dogood letters, which were written by Benjamin Franklin in 1722, at the young age of 17. Using this pseudonym, he wrote 14 letters, which were published in the New-England Courant, a newspaper published by his older brother, James.
Letter #8 is particularly interesting because it deals with the subject of Free Speech. In the letter, he mostly quotes an article published two years earlier in the London Journal. You can read the entire letter, but here is a critical portion:
Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it he does not hurt or countroul the Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only Bounds it ought to know.
This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Governments, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech always go together; and in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own.
Fast forward 300 years, and we find scoundrels like John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Keir Starmer, Justin Trudeau and his fellow Liberals, and assorted government officials throughout the EU, all openly insisting that Free Speech be eliminated.
Make no mistake, we have entered a Very Dark Age, where there is a concerted effort by powerful people to silence, punish, and imprison anyone who dares speak out against their despicable policies and actions. The next time you hear anyone speak of misinformation or disinformation or “hateful speech”, know that the motivations behind their words lie somewhere between malicious and pure evil.
An Ontario town has been fined $10,000 and its officials ordered to complete mandatory “human rights” training