Saturday, November 28, 2015

Facebook does not operate by standards we would demand as citizens of the United States

We are taught as children the rudimentary elements of a free society; these include the freedom to speak and write, the opportunity for a hearing if we are accused of something, and we are promised some plausible objectivity and fidelity to the rules when we are being judged for having violated social norms. Facebook does not appear to honor any of these precepts. The Magna Carta was written in 1215, and is understood to be one of the cornerstones of Western Civilization. What do we know about the Magna Carta? It established the idea of Habeas Corpus - in Latin "To Have the Body" - one must present evidence of WHY a person is being held by authorities. I find it quite disgusting that it's all free speech when people talk trash about President Obama. But if you remember Oliver Wendell Holmes, one cannot yell "fire" in a crowded movie theater. My interpretation of this is that if someone is openly accusing the president of things that, by the letter of the law, are impeachable offenses, this is NOT to be taken lightly. For IF the president - or any officer of our government is indeed GUILTY of "high crimes and misdemeanors", they can at minimum be removed from office, they can serve a punitive sentence, or they can be executed. I don't know why a person can cavalierly make overtures that the President is acting outside his authority or in contravention of the Constitution of the United States and that's not a problem to Facebook. What I said to this person is what he says when he sees anything of the kind: "If you have the evidence, present it, and if it's valid, you can get at least an indictment and a hearing if not a conviction and a sentence" But no, I call the man a fool because he makes these very serious claims, but then does not apparently have either the evidence to get a conviction, or his own conviction to follow through on what are very grave claims and accusations. Instead, I get blocked from an entire worldwide community of friends, readers, followers, and - yes - adversaries. Free speech is protected by law because words have meaning; words inspire action, and actions have consequences. If a person can offer up speech that implies very serious action with very serious consequences, but another man's speech is censored and the speaker is locked away from the community to which he speaks because he offended one member of it well, then we have Facebook operating in a very unAmerican manner indeed. In my never humble, but apparently sometimes worthless opinion.

No comments: