How about in our nation, right now:Originally Posted by iris lilies
r/feddiscussion[COLOR=var(--color-neutral-content-weak)]•[/COLOR]11 hr. agoSeparateMastodon3477
1st Amendment
[COLOR=var(--color-neutral-content)]I was in a meeting today where I was told by my fed supervisor that I shouldn’t post anything disparaging about the “King” on social media. This “suggestion” included protesting against the administration unless I wanted to lose my federal job.
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Our President is very thin skinned which is a major indicator of him being unsuitable for this job.
But let us not forget earlier attempts to intimidate free speech about the occupants of the
White House or ideas they dislike.
Big Brother Barak Obama launched the website “AttackWatch.com” to encourage us in reporting our fellow citizen’s disparaging remarks about him. It was supposed to address rumors and attacks on the Obama White House.
Then followed President Biden’s short lived Department of Misinformation which was set up to identify expressions of thought not OK’d by the White House. It failed miserably for laughable reasons.
I do not give these examples to point out. “but but Obama did it too” I give the examples to show the creep of authoritarian control of speech.
Yes, the definition seems to vary depending upon who's using it and who they're applying it to. To me, fascism involves strident militarism, anti-capitalist, anti-free market, nationalist governance.
I suppose an 'America First' agenda might be construed as filling the Nationalist criteria but it seems to me that several previous 'regimes' have done a better job of encompassing a higher degree of fascist tendencies that anything we are currently experiencing.
I like to remind myself, regardless of who's currently in charge, that this country is governed as a constitutional republic with leaders democratically elected by the people it serves, and that's what we're seeing now. Sour grapes aside.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
Elon Musk was not elected.
Of course he wasn't, and he has no authority on his own as he can only advise and perhaps speak on behalf of the President, who was democratically elected.
I suppose we could make a list of all the senior advisors to previous administrations who have enjoyed tremendous influence on this country's governance without being elected, but that list would be very, very long and unlikely to dull Musk haters favorite talking point.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
please don’t forget the team surrounding feeble Joe Biden, who might’ve been running the country to an extent we’ll find out as their books come out. Someone on Mr. Money Mustache actually said they were happy to elect the same nameless faceless team running the show in 2024. I can’t begin to understand that one.
If Elon Musk didn’t exist, it would have been necessary to invent him. The narrative requires it. It is hardly surprising, given his odd demeanor and vast wealth, that he will be held out as a sort of Bond villain. Introducing tech bro disruption culture to our complacent, self-satisfied federal bureaucracy was bound to create cries of anguish. I’m not sure if it doesn’t help Trump’s agenda to have a windmill for the Left to tilt at while he goes about his chaotic business. I will be curious to see if his enemies are able to rally the general public around the plight of federal employees.
I hope so! I hope they are serving ALL the people!
Can this thread now be moved to Politics? If not, I'll just stay away from Consumerism & the Media.
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
In a world where you can be anything - be kind. Unknown
Kind of like bringing in a tiger instead of a house cat to keep the mice away. There won't be any mice, but God only knows what else will be stirred up. I'll take a house cat.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
I’m cleaning out bookmarks and in doing so ran across these links to articles about the Obama administration and its relationship with the media. They belie the general picture we all have of jovial, cooperative Barack Obama. I have to say they surprised me in the look back on that period.
excerpts
https://www.politico.com/story/2010/...n-obama-036454
“…Obama and the media actually have a surprisingly hostile relationship — as contentious on a day-to-day basis as any between press and president in the past decade, reporters who cover the White House say.
Reporters say the White House is thin-skinned, controlling, eager to go over their heads and stingy with even basic information. All White Houses try to control the message. But this White House has pledged to be more open than its predecessors, and reporters feel it doesn’t live up to that pledge in several key areas…”
https://cpj.org/reports/2013/10/obam...ance-post-911/
excerpts:
“U.S. President Barack Obama came into office pledging open government, but he has fallen short of his promise. Journalists and transparency advocates say the White House curbs routine disclosure of information and deploys its own media to evade scrutiny by the press. Aggressive prosecution of leakers of classified information and broad electronic surveillance programs deter government sources from speaking to journalists. A CPJ special report by Leonard Downie Jr. with reporting by Sara Rafsky…”
and
“…In the Obama administration’s Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press. Those suspected of discussing with reporters anything that the government has classified as secret are subject to investigation, including lie-detector tests and scrutiny of their telephone and e-mail records. A…”
and
“This is the most closed, control freak administration I’ve ever covered,” said David E. Sanger, veteran chief Washington correspondent of The New York Times.”
For you Rachel Maddow fans, neither of these publications are considered right wing. They are lefty or lefty-centrist. I checked before posting these because I didn’t want our little Simple Living space polluted with right wing media thought.
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