Trump Isn’t Entitled To Freedom Of Speech Anymore

When someone, whoever they may be, even the president of the United States, intentionally fans the flames of division and hate, he or she must be stopped immediately or else lives will be lost.

I am watching in amazement as Trump and the GOP are staging a coup right under our noses, on television in America. They feel that they are so above the law, so entitled, they aren’t even respecting the first and elementary rule of coups — plan it in secret and surprise everyone.

No, they are staging their coup in broad daylight. Wasn’t that a smirk I saw on Attorney General William Barr's face when he said: a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration?

My word, not only are they doing it, they actually seem amused. They are basically walking a fine line between instigating a brutal civil war and outright treason, and they are laughing about it. Is this some sick joke?

And the media — both the traditional media and the social media are fervently reporting minute after minute of this nonsense. Trump tweets and seconds later, CNN is analyzing, reanalyzing, commenting, repetitively, ad nauseam, it's ridiculous. Trump is getting even more visibility, his coded messages are getting farther and further — into the hinterland — into the Bible Belt.

The media is helping him get his message out — the media is helping him foment a civil war. What if they just stopped? What if the media — all the media — traditional and social, just gave a complete and total blackout on Trump news?

What if they didn’t lend him a hand to mobilize his base which as we know includes the Proud Boys and other white supremacists, nationalist groups of despicable repute? What if the media just stopped reporting about Trump?

Before you crucify me, let’s take a moment to think about this proposition. There are over 393 million guns in America — that’s more guns than people. It’s been a tough year, compounded by COVID-19 lockdowns, racial tension, and now a disputed presidential election. Some people are stressed, and others are on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

Is it the right time — or is it ever the right time to persuade them that a Deep State or Democrat-backed Kabal is rigging elections with illegal mail-in ballots?

Is it the best time to not concede an election under the unsubstantiated claims that dead people voted in blue or flipped states? Is it really the right time to pedal unfounded conspiracy theories that pit Americans against one other? I would say that no.

If Trump and his cronies are allowed to continue down this path, domestic terrorism will for sure increase in the US. The department of Homeland security already identified this as one of the largest threats to America at the present time. Trump instigating hate could push some of these groups into action — and this would represent dire consequences for Americans at large.

A perfect storm is brewing in America — one fuelled by inequality, police brutality, mismanagement of COVID 19, and dire racial tension — and I would argue that all it takes are a few more inflammatory Trump tweets to set off a civil war.

So the media needs to be responsible. By continuing to broadcast Trump’s every word, they need to think about what the consequences of their actions might yield. A few days ago, Trump called a press conference during which he disparagingly accused Democrats of rigging the presidential election.

Three media outlets: NBC, ABC, and CBC decided to stop transmitting the event due to the number of falsehoods that the President chose to share. CNN stayed until the end — re-transmitting what were mainly lies.

With CNN's huge audience reach, I can’t imagine how many people got to listen to Trump’s unsubstantiated claims. Of all those people, probably the 71 million Americans that voted for him — how many blindly believed their guru and are at this very moment planning to take up arms? How many of them will be triggered into action — to commit heinous acts to avenge what they see as an injustice?

And this is where I see that the media as a collective (traditional and social media) need to decide what side of history they want to be on.

Do they want to go down in the history books like the institutions that led America to the next Civil War? Do they want to have the blood of American citizens on their hands? If they don’t, then they need to do what’s right for humanity and completely turn down the volume on Trump’s megaphone.

Thanks a lot for reading my perspective.