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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Can the government ban the text of the First Amendment itself on municipal transit ads because free speech is too "political" for public display? If this sounds like some ridiculous brain teaser, it should. But unfortunately it's not. It's a core claim in a lawsuit we filed today challenging the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's (WMATA) restrictions on controversial advertising.
[...] Earlier this year, following President Trump's repeated commentary denigrating journalists and Muslims, the ACLU decided to remind everyone about that very first promise in the Bill of Rights: that Congress shall make no law interfering with our freedoms of speech and religion. As part of a broad advertising campaign, the ACLU erected ads in numerous places, featuring the text of the First Amendment. Not only in English, but in Spanish and Arabic, too — to remind people that the Constitution is for everyone.
The ACLU inquired about placing our ads with WMATA, envisioning an inspirational reminder of our founding texts, with a trilingual twist, in the transit system of the nation's capital. But it was not to be: Our ad was rejected because WMATA's advertising policies forbid, among many other things, advertisements "intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions" or "intended to influence public policy."
You don't have to be a First Amendment scholar to know that something about that stinks.
Source: https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/first-amendment-literally-banned-dc
Also at NPR.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday August 11 2017, @12:55AM (14 children)
Serious revolts require money and weapons. You will get nowhere without them no matter how devoted.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 11 2017, @01:19AM (1 child)
Money's easy if you already have the weapons.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday August 11 2017, @01:19PM
Bit of a vicious cycle then, 'cause weapons are easy if you've got the money.
One job constant is that good employers have low turnover, so opportunities to join good employers are relatively rare.
(Score: 4, Disagree) by c0lo on Friday August 11 2017, @01:42AM (10 children)
So, in your opinion, the following were absolute clowns (because they achieved it without weapons and/or money), right?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Friday August 11 2017, @01:50AM (7 children)
Are you honestly trying to tell me all those were accomplished without money, probably from the outside, just like the American revolution?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @01:52AM
The and/or makes your statement foolish. *golf clap*
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 11 2017, @02:01AM (5 children)
Yes, I'm honestly trying to open your eyes to the reality.
As a former citizen of one of the countries in the list above, I can assure you I was out in the streets without a weapon and without being paid from outside.
As were all my friends and lots of others; what clowns we were, right?
---
(do you really believe Mahatma Gandhi was actually sponsored by CIA or somethin'?)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Friday August 11 2017, @02:17AM (4 children)
I guess in your country personal anecdotes make for valid statistics. Maybe you should check what actually brought the government down in the first place. If you name the country, maybe I can provide some assistance in that. I can assure you it wasn't for a bunch of people out the street stomping their feet.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 11 2017, @02:39AM (3 children)
I'd love to see what the "conspirators" (that you alleged) would have done without people in the streets stomping their feet.
Those clowns without weapons and/or money which, in Romania's case [wikipedia.org], actually lost their life doing so.
If you like a challenge, do it for India/Mahatma Gandhi's case
(no, I'm not going to disclose my country of origin)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday August 11 2017, @02:57AM (2 children)
Gandhi... was financed by some of the leading industrialists in West India, the Sarabhais, textile magnates in the Gujarat, and the Birlas, second largest industrialist group in all of India. Millions of rupees were given to him over a period of 25 years.
There appears to be much about Gandhi you don't know...
I'm not going to disclose my country of origin
So be it, then I won't believe your story...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 11 2017, @03:09AM (1 child)
Believe me or not, a fact is that you are yet to demonstrate the emphasized conjunction in your original assertion.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0, Troll) by fustakrakich on Friday August 11 2017, @03:35AM
Sorry, I don't take pedantry into account...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Friday August 11 2017, @02:15AM (1 child)
Interesting take on India: https://kurukshetra1.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/no-non-violence-didnt-free-india-from-the-british-empire/ [wordpress.com]
Yugoslavia sort of saved its violence for engaging in a horrific civil war.
Anyway, whether a revolution turns violent or not seems to depend on how much the ruling class is willing to fight. With India for example, the Brits were pretty beat up by Germany, faced organized armed resistance in India, and apparently decided to say "fuck it." France too was battered in WWII, but it decided instead to keep a death grip on Vietnam which obtained its freedom in bloody struggle.
So anyway, it seems to me that non-violence is an effective strategy against a tired or soft ruler, but not so much against a hard ass.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 11 2017, @02:47AM
If you substitute "hard ass" with USA today, there's nothing US govt can do against a general strike lasting for, say, 2 weeks. And I guarantee you, the govt is not going to last to such a strike.
Fortunately, this isn't going to happen: without govt, in spite of what the diehard libertarians/anarchist in US think, without a govt the US future is a Somalian type of chaos.
The USians are too divided now and, besides, their life-long education is based on opportunism and competition - good luck organizing (or self organizing) a coherent social movement.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Friday August 11 2017, @08:33AM
this should be no problem. Putin is already funding your downfall.