This Is the Greatest Threat to Free Speech Since the Red Scare

Opinion [re arrest of #MahmoudKhalil]
Michelle Goldberg
March 10, 2025

from #NewYorkTimes #NYT
[gift article - link can be shared. Expires in 30 days.]
[Bias alert - #NYT usually favors Israel]

"“This seems like one of the biggest threats, if not the biggest threats to First Amendment freedoms in 50 years,” said Brian Hauss, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s a direct attempt to punish speech because of the viewpoint it espouses.”"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/opinion/mahmoud-khalil-free-speech.html?unlocked_article_code=1.404.Y_fK.OGBIayggrMEg&smid=url-share

#ACLU #DefendAcademicFreedom
#repression
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#SolidarityWithPalestine is #NotAntisemitism
#EqualRightsForAllFromTheRiverToTheSea is #NotAntisemitic
#JewHatredHurtsPalestine
#Gaza #Israel #Palestine #MiddleEast #WestAsia #politics
#USA #US #USPolitics #Trump
#media #news #press @palestine

The US assault on free speech is not going to end with #MahmoudKhalil

from #TheGuardian #Guardian
Arwa Mahdawi - Opinion
Sat 15 Mar 2025 09.00 EDT

"It should be clear by now that America is not exceptional; the constitution is not a magical document that will protect our freedoms simply by existing. We are sliding towards an authoritarian future at alarming speed and #Khalil’s detention is an important reminder that we can’t fight for our rights in isolation. All of our freedoms are intertwined."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/15/mahmoud-khalil-free-speech-civil-liberties?CMP=share_btn_url

#DefendAcademicFreedom
#repression
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#EndTheOccupation #SettlersOut
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#StopArmingIsrael
#BDS #DivestFromIsrael
#USA #US #USPolitics #Trump
#media #news #press @palestine

"Kent State had proven something ugly. The government was willing to shoot its own children to keep them in line.

Flash forward to today, and Trump has threatened to imprison student protesters and cut funding to any college that allows students to exercise their First Amendment rights.

Guess what happens when you tell young people not to do something?

That's where the next chapter begins."
#USPolitics
https://carlynbeccia.medium.com/allison-krause-believed-flowers-were-better-than-bullets-kent-state-proved-otherwise-bd6a5f06c6b8

Trump Declares...

"US AT WAR!“
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GOP #Politics #uspolitics #uspol #Yemen #Houthis #Breaking #BreakingNews

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7TDmHpkNCm4&si=4kDHLE4AW7mJqV-v

LAST DAY for public comments on anti-trans passport rules

Today (Monday) is the LAST DAY to public-commentc-protest Trump/Musk anti-trans passport rules.

You’ve got ’til 9PM CASCADIAN/PACIFIC or Midnight EASTERN time to make public comments against Musk and Trump’s hate.

There are THREE open public comment sections. If you use the ACLU’s site, it’ll cover all three. But if you want to do it directly, you can. Just do it all three places.

Here’s the ACLU’s comment relay site [action.aclu.org]. It also links directly to the individual comments sections.

Go. Do. [action.aclu.org]

You've got 'til 9PM CASCADIAN/PACIFIC or Midnight EASTERN time to sign public comments against Musk and Trump's anti-trans passport rules.

There are THREE open comments sections. If you use the ACLU's site, it'll cover all three. But if you want to do it directly, you can. just do it all three places.

https://action.aclu.org/reg-action/hands-off-our-passports-stop-attacking-transgender-americans

Harvard is joining other elite institutions (MIT, Pennsylvania and Caltech) who are responding to SCOTUS's ban on affirmative action by making tuition free for low-income students.

Harvard is providing free tuition to students whose family income is less than $200,000 per year, and are providing additional services (food, housing, etc.) for families making less than $100,000.

These do not directly target diversity, but help ensure equity.

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/17/harvard-financial-aid-expansion-tuition

#USPolitics @academicchatter

Please consider adding a public comment to the US State department to protest the anti-trans policies regarding gender markers on passports/IDs.

: https://transequality.org/news/freedom-fly-passport-access-action

"We need 11M strikers to reach 3.5% of the US population. When we reach 11M signed strike cards we STRIKE

The General Strike is a grassroots network of regular people who know our greatest power is our labor and our right to refuse it. We aim to unite every person and organization fighting for racial, economic, and environmental justice so that together, we can see real change in our lifetimes.."...

#generalstrike #democracy #uspolitics

https://generalstrikeus.com/

Stanley Milgram conducted an Electric Shock Experiment at Yale in 1961. Although 64 years old, the findings of the study are as relevant today as they were then ...

"Key Takeaways

Aim: The experiment studied obedience to authority, exploring whether individuals would obey instructions to harm another person because an authority figure told them to.

Method: Participants were instructed by an authority figure to administer increasingly intense electric shocks to a “learner” (an actor), who feigned pain and distress.

Results: A significant percentage of participants obeyed the authority figure and administered the maximum level of shocks, despite their apparent discomfort.

Conclusion: The study demonstrated that ordinary people are surprisingly likely to obey authority figures, even when those orders conflict with their own moral beliefs."

With the atrocities ordered by #Putin & #Netanyahu, and now seeing #Trump2 blatantly ignoring the laws of the land undoing decades of democratic progress, it's interesting that the following article on this study was published again only a few days ago ...

https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html

“All of this talk of making Canada the 51st state has been upsetting. It’s just incredibly offensive,” the 54-year-old said. “So I’m doing what I can: No more Tide. No more Coca-Cola. No more Disney. And barring a funeral or someone in the hospital, I am not going to the United States.”
#tourism #USpolitics #economy #travel #Trump #fascism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/03/16/international-tourism-travel-trump-canada/