What did you say? Oh, sorry – I wasn’t listening.
Now if someone said any of the above to you, it can be flustering or annoying, depending on the importance of your message or the frequency of your attempts to say it. People want to be heard, people want to be able to speak their mind – or just simply share what’s in their heart.
Do you know what I bought for my husband as a wedding gift many years ago? I bought us cell phones, so that we could communicate. Cell phones and services were not as affordable as they are today, but I understood that good communication between a couple was of utmost importance.
Actually, good communication is essential between family, friends, and people in their communities… and while that truth is so simple to understand, it can be taken for granted.
Being able to speak or express freely is of such ‘essential’ importance, the Founding Fathers of the United States made ‘Freedom of Speech’ as part of The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – thereby making it among our Bill of Rights.
Many dutiful patriots have given their lives or livelihood to defend this right, so this freedom must be treated among one of the most precious things a human can possess. (Of course, making threats to harm others is an abuse of this right, and may result in appropriate repercussions.)
We understand that in some private businesses, you agree to refrain from saying certain things or you just don’t partake in that business. This, of course, should be done within reasonable expectations, prudence, and rule of law.
In today’s day and age, the public ‘town square’ where many people express their thoughts are on social media platforms. You hear users mention that their postings may be ‘suppressed’ so that no one hardly sees it, or that they themselves have been ‘shadow ban’ – or even kicked off the platform. When this happens, it’s because the message or person shows a particular political or social viewpoint – but suppressing them seems plain wrong to me.
Even worse is the ‘coordinated suppression’ so that only one viewpoint is the one that really gets heard due to politicians persuading the social media companies to help with ‘their’ propaganda (as revealed by the Twitter Files.’)
Lately, I’m hearing more and more people say that they are being restricted in social media in various ways … gee, we must have an election coming up soon, perhaps? But look – the social media platforms tried to silence the sitting President of The United States back in early January 2021…and their reasons they cited did not seem to ‘jive’ with reality or reason, if you ask me and many others.
Many highly qualified medical professionals were also banned from sharing their insights since ‘the 2020-2021 pandemic,’ – and many common people were prohibited from sharing these medical professionals’ valuable insights. By suppressing these valuable insights, many people were not able to make ‘informed’ decisions – but sadly were swayed by much propaganda that got the spotlight. The public seemed like they were not allowed to ask questions, or challenge the position by ‘the powers that be.’
But this made many wonder why you can not do so, because many understand the notion that: THE TRUTH DOES NOT MIND BEING QUESTIONED, BUT A LIE DOES NOT LIKE BEING QUESTIONED.
This brings to mind Mr. Jimmy Lai, a 75-year old British citizen ‘billionaire’ who resides in Hong Kong, who is under severe persecution by Communist China – wrongfully. Jimmy was only 12 years old when he fled Mao’s treacherous Great Leap Forward in mainland China.
He stowed away on a ship to Hong Kong and worked at a garment factory, where he learned to speak English. He later started Giordanno’s clothing and made a fortune for himself.
Jimmy then made sacrifices by starting up a pro-democracy newspaper called Apple Daily, and selling pro-democracy shirts in support of the victims of the Tianamen Square massacre that took place in China in 1989. So despite Jimmy’s UK citizenship, this 75-year old billionaire chose to remain in Hong Kong to expose the Chinese government’s human rights abuses, including religious freedom.
Due to China imposing the ‘National Security Law’ in 2020, they gave themselves the reason to jail Jimmy Lai as a threat to national security and thereby shut down his media.
Other Hong Kong journalists who fled the city after Beijing imposed that National Security Law continue to campaign for press freedom for the city from overseas, but say they are constantly targeted for transnational repression by agents and supporters of the Chinese state, including secret Chinese police stations in a number of countries. These secret CCP police stations are not authorized by the countries they are operating in – and the United States is aware of at least six of them across the country, making recent arrests.
Now here is the key thing about this whole ‘National Security Law’ imposed on Hong Kong: it should have NEVER happened!
China was supposed to leave Hong Kong with their independence in lifestyle until 2047, per their 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration treaty regarding the handing back of Hong Kong to China in 1997 to be “One country with Two systems” until 2047.
Unfortunately, I don’t think we can expect Britain to actually hold China accountable for this… even though Britain’s present King had promised Hong Kong their liberty when speaking as Prince of Wales at the 1997 handover: https://youtu.be/g57WZ4zvHkI
I’m sure China’s many violations of that 1984 treaty frustrated and devastated many ‘Hong Kongers’ – yet some may not be surprised since they know how ruthless the Communists can be. It is known that the Communists will force their way into whatever they want, defying whoever they can – because it is about control.
What is the lesson for us who have Constitutional protections of our liberties?
I would say that we constantly pay attention to what is happening around the world and in our own neighborhood, so our freedoms don’t get taken away from us by deceivers who want ‘globalism’ and hate our Constitutional rights.
Call them out, call your elected officials to take action, notify and inform your family and community to do the same. At the very least, ‘throw sand in their gears!’ Per Dr. James Lindsay of New Discourses: “One of the most powerful tactics against totalitarianism, one that worked to stop regimes from taking over and that broke existing regimes from within, is the simple strategy of “throwing sand in the gears,” “
You can listen to more quick detail in his audio: https://newdiscourses.com/2023/05/sand-in-the-gears/
So keep learning the truth, and keep sharing the truth, and the Truth will keep us all free!
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