Thomas I. Emerson Quote

“Suppression of expression conceals the real problems confronting a society and diverts public attention from the critical issues. It is likely to result in neglect of the grievances which are the actual basis of the unrest, and this prevent their correction.”

~ Thomas I. Emerson

Yale Law Journal, 1963

Ratings and Comments


Anonymous, Reston, VA, US

Great insight...

Waffler, Smith

I don't know what i worry about more free speech or the freedom to lie and misinform. The liars, deniers, deceivers have free speech also and that is scary.

cal, lewisville, tx

Well said Waffler, you have just described our current president.

jim k, Austin

We should cut Obama, Pelosi, Reed, and the gang some slack, they only lie when their lips are moving. And thank you , Massachusetts.

J Carlton, Calgary

Nailed it Cal! And I wonder what a denier is? Someone who doesn't believe the Holocaust happened? Or maybe he means someone who doesn't buy into the Man Made Global Warming garbage.

Waffler, Smith

Yeah Mr. Scott Brown voted for Universal Health Care in Massachusetts and so now they have it, Strangely enough he is against it for the rest of the US. Queer and strange is it not this thing we call politics. Deniers are those who disrespect facts.

RBESRQ
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RBESRQ    1/22/10

Well done Waffler, nice to put the record straight. Next it will be suppression of the internet; suppression of dissident's; suppression travel; suppression of all free people. Then America you may just realize who the true terrorists are.

E Archer, NYC
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E Archer, NYC RBESRQ 11/7/22

Very prescient, RBE!  Are we still in denial?

RBESRQ
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    RBESRQ    1/22/10

    It's not Global Warming, it's Climate Change due to man greed. Just read your history books and look up Uruk, once the largest city in the world.

    E Archer, NYC
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    E Archer, NYC RBESRQ 11/7/22

    It's not Climate Change either  it is a CON!!  And the method used by the globalists to lay claim to the Earth and all within it.  It is to rule the world, and there are a LOT of players.  Don't buy it, their aim is to reduce the population and that means YOU and your progeny.  Waffler is one of their biggest advocates.

    Ken, Allyn, WA

    RBE, I have studied early Mesopotamia history fairly extensively. It wasn't climate change that destroyed a succession of empires. It was dictatorial rule that turned the common people into slaves that did it. An empire built upon enslavement will whither away because the innovation and spirit of the individual is crushed. A city, nation, or state that is filled with free people will be able to overcome any mere force of nature including your vaunted, yet suspect, anthropogenic "climate change". The climate change scam is all about enslavement and empire. That is a critical issue.

    B Fingers, hun bch

    Waffler, Mr Brown was correct in voting for health care in his state as health care is a STATES' issue, not a federal issue. Health care is not supported by the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Federal government has enumerated priviledges and they don't include health care. All areas not enumerated are states issues. Federal government is supposed to be very very SMALL. That is what the founders gave us...and we have been wearing blinders and allowing federal government more and more incursion into the lives of individuals and states, causing this immoral behavior, economic failure, and treasonous activity we now witness. We have been sitting around watching Idol and Survivor and letting our federal government sneak into places they have no business and remove liberty along the way. I guess this is okay with you, but it isn't okay with me. We are either going to have to take our country back in the next 3 years, or nod happily that we have a new dictator and 325 million slaves owned by the NWO. You will be counted among those who are slaves. Ken is correct, climate anything is propaganda. Please recognize that each crisis is by design...and to gather control by the masters. Butterfingers

    Nora, Fairmount

    I think that politically correct speech scares me. When we are so afraid of words that people say...there has been too much blood spilled on foreign soil again and again so that Americans may continue to be free, including being free to speak their minds...regardless of how offensive that might be.... There are a lot of words that I find offensive, but people being afraid to use those words frightens me more!

    RBESRQ
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      RBESRQ    1/24/10

      America has caused that bloodshed - America has killed millions in the name of Freedom (but really for their corporate masters). How do you think covert operations are paid for, yes, drugs...

      Waffler, Smith

      B Fingers you should read The Constitution again and again. It was written and the Nation under it was created "In Oder to Form a more perfect Union" and to provide for the General Welfare. The Feds have been involved in Health Care for a long time. I guess you have never heard of "Center For Disease Control", Federal Drug Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration, USDA inspection of meat packing etc. These entities were creaed for a reason, that being drug makers, meat packers etc were trying to kill us with bad products. Your lack of knowledge of these things makes you a slave to ignorance. I am gald you did not reiterate Ken's digression into climate change denial as further evidence of a sprialing down into the debts of lack of knowledge or ignorance.

      E Archer, NYC

      Kudos to Butterfingers, Ken, and Nora! Waffler shows his ignorance once again. Free speech doesn't mean we have to believe whatever someone else is saying. Truth may be ever present, but few are really aware of it. We have been conditioned by tradition and 'powers-that-be' for millenia, and for the most part we accept a great deal of oppression because it has always been like this. To question is still a sign of conscience and intelligence. Yes, there is global warming -- it has been warming for about 15,000 years. Should a coterie of men try to stop it by taxing the world? Obviously the 'climate change' agenda is about money and power OVER YOU yet again. The real truth is dangerous -- it is a threat to every group, company, government, and church. And in order to retain power over our minds, bodies, properties, and labors, every effort will be made to keep us 'on the plantation.' That is why the truth shall set you free -- and why you are actively kept from it.

      E Archer, NYC

      BTW, Waffler, why don't you take your own advice and read the Constitution -- it doesn't say "provide for the General Welfare" it says, "promote the general Welfare" -- big difference, as is discussed thoroughly in the Federalist Papers and the debates of the Constitutional Convention. The only slave to ignorance is yourself.

      empty pockets, NO, La

      Excellent and succinctly stated insight. "Political correctness" is a communist tool of suppression. In any totalitarian nation, everything is political since the political system controls all therefore any deviation from the political narrative is "incorrect" and must be "corrected" and/or punished. Totalitarians are hammer welders and any "problem" is a nail. A problem is "fixed" if everyone is too terrified to mention it.

      E Archer, NYC
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      E Archer, NYC empty pockets, NO, La 11/7/22

      Yep.  It's not difficult to understand  this is a classic tactic.

      Mike, Pleasant Hill

      Getting back to the quote itself, I see that the spoiled brat college students that want their safe spaces (whatever that means) have no problem with suppressing their opinions while at the same time endeavoring to eliminate the opinions and rights of others.
      They are like the spoiled child you see tagging along after his mother in the grocery store screaming, crying and throwing a tantrum because they are not getting their way. Then those of us who were brought up right observe with disbelief the negotiations begin between the brat and the parent as the child has learned at a very young age how to manipulate their parental unit to get everything they want when in saner times the child would've been taken into the bathroom or right there in the aisle for a good spanking, oh but heaven forbid we can't do that now because that's child-abuse, what hogwash!

      We now see the fruits of that philosophy played out on college campuses as the children are still throwing tantrums but only this time to a different subject, and now the college administrators take the place of the manipulated parent and kowtow to these brats ridiculous demands, with every capitulation they only embolden them more!

      The same holds true for these rioters like we've seen in Ferguson Missouri, Baltimore and now Milwaukee. The narrative is based on a lie but the truth is irrelevant to the agenda, this should've been nipped in the bud in the very beginning but now we have a professional grievance industry and BLM is their front organization masquerading as a race issue it is nothing more than a socialist revolution. The root of it all ties in, we are being subjected to cultural Marxism by the way of political correctness which was created to deconstruct Western civilization, research the Frankfurt school.
      Oh and the last word on global warming but I guess we can't call it that anymore because the actual temperature data isn't matching the bogus computer models so the name change was needed as a Figleaf to cover the discrepancies now they can have it both ways.
      I read a report just last week that some atmospheric scientists are saying because of changes in the sun going into a somewhat dormant phase we could be looking at cooling to the level of what occurred in the little Ice Age.
      Bottom line is global warming is a scam it has more to do with politics than science, we've caught these unscrupulous scientists red-handed fudging the data via there leaked emails but that's being swept under the rug, stop funding these unscrupulous scientists and you will see the global warming issue go away.

      Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown

      Encouraging positive expression allows the populous arrangement to understand the correct action and attitude for correcting problems.  Direct positive confrontation promotes a mature developmental problem solving facilitation.

      E Archer, NYC
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      E Archer, NYC Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 11/7/22

      Sounds like Kamala-speak.  A bunch of platitudes, not really saying anything, no specifics.  

      Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown
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      Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown E Archer, NYC 11/7/22

      Mr Archer specifically it's as easy as wishing a person a good morning in the hope a prosperous return for fair effort instead of criminal code for hope you score big today. Hope you have properous day today Mr Archer.

      @

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