The New York Times recently published an op-ed titled “The First Amendment is Out of Control.”
The author, law professor Tim Wu, argues in the piece that free speech arguments are now used to protect corporate interests and harm everyday citizens.
Discussing the regulation of the internet, Wu writes, “Such regulation is not always perfect to be sure, but it represents a legitimate tool with which Democratic governments can stand up to private power.”
“The next phase in this struggle will presumably concern the regulation of artificial intelligence. I fear the First Amendment will be extended to protect machine speech at considerable human cost,” he continues.
“I one-hundred-percent agree with that,” Glenn Beck comments. “It’s something I’ve been warning about for about three decades.”
However, Wu then begins to steer into dangerous territory.
“Free speech rights have been hijacked to suppress the sovereignty of humans in favor of the power of companies and machines,” he continues.
“No, there’s a difference between individuals and the government and regulations and suggestions,” Glenn disagrees. “You want to regulate, okay, regulate. And let’s have that not go through the administrative state; let’s have that go through Congress. Let’s have that debate.”
“I think the right of the individual is what will win in that,” he adds, noting that Wu isn’t fully grasping what the First Amendment truly is.
“You can speak your mind without fear of censorship or persecution,” Glenn explains. “Now, that doesn’t make you popular, but it does mean that the government and those powerful institutions can do nothing against you, to stop you.”
“Would you like it if a church all of a sudden was in charge and said you can’t say these things? I mean, how many people on the left believe in burning the flag? You have a right to do that,” he continues.
However, the current powers are already behaving more like a church than a government. Most recently, teens and young adults have been getting charged with felonies for something as harmless as leaving skid marks on rainbow crosswalks.
“What is that other than a religion?” Glenn asks.
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