Censorship is a Symptom
Why the war on freedom of speech is just one of many evils suddenly considered good
Before bothering to determine who is committing censorship, we first need to determine whether censorship is wrong
Americans have historically considered censorship a problem, but the Left considers it a solution
Censorship is a symptom; leftism the disease
This war with the Left is fundamentally moral, not political
Losing to evil means Hell on Earth
Censorship: problem or solution?
Both the Left and Right accuse one another of censorship, though both claims are not equally true. But before we determine who is actually doing the censoring, we have to first establish whether it even matters. After all, if there’s nothing wrong with censorship, it doesn't matter whether anyone is doing it.
Prior to the communist takeover of the Democrat Party, we wouldn't have had to question whether censorship was immoral; it was a given. Both sides of the political aisle accused the other of censorship, and neither wanted to be associated with it.
But where these past generations regarded censorship as a problem, today's Left considers it a solution. They don't refer to their speech suppression as "censorship," of course; that term comes loaded with too much baggage. Instead, they claim to be opposing an epidemic of misinformation, disinformation, and "malinformation." But censorship by any other name is still censorship; and regardless of what it may be called, we can be sure to find it present within every institution controlled by the Left.
Censorship is a symptom, not the disease
This isn't to say that all censorship is the product of leftism, but it is to say that leftism always produces censorship. And this shouldn't surprise us because leftism has no basis for opposing censorship. Leftists do not believe, as we do, that their opponents should be given a fair hearing because they do not believe their opponents have a right to speak.
Trying to shame them for speech suppression is like trying to shame a pig for wallowing in the mud. The pig is just being a pig and the leftist is just being a leftist; both are merely being true to their nature. The leftist is not going to be talked out of censoring so long as he remains a leftist, so our problem is not censorship, per se, but leftism.
On a practical level, we need to push back against censorship in the courts and legislatures. This is essential because if we lose this battle, bloodshed is inevitable. If we lose our ability to defend ourselves metaphysically with ideas (the First Amendment), our only remaining option will be to do so physically with weapons (the Second Amendment). No sensible person wants this. It is always better to spill ink than blood.
But stopping censorship is not the fight, it merely keeps us in the fight. The real fight is against the immoral worldview of leftism that rejects God and everything derived from Him, including the inherent and equal value of all human life -- the basis of our civilization. The leftist worldview is not just un-American, it is anti-American. An argument for America is an argument against leftism, and vice versa. Thus, the Left and Right are not divided by how to pursue Americanism, they are divided by whether to pursue it.
Either leftism or Americanism, not both
Those of us on the Right are effectively making the case for America's existence. We are arguing, as our forefathers did, for the principles in the Declaration of Independence and their practical outworking, as enumerated in the Constitution. But our challenge is greater than our Founders' because they had a common biblical foundation to which to appeal in their dealings with England. There was at least a shared belief in God and therefore in the inherent value of human life.
This, however, is not the case in our dealings with leftists. We and they share no common ground; no basis for parlay. The Left is an insurgent force within the United States; one necessarily committed to its downfall. Each of its victories comes at the expense of American principles -- the two cannot peacefully coexist. Either leftism or Americanism will be defeated.
The war is fundamentally moral, not political
This war is currently being waged on the battlefield of morality. The Left, by virtue of rejecting God, has an inverted moral perspective -- it sees good as evil and evil as good. For this reason, it is not enough to fight on an issue-by-issue basis; doing so is like cutting the heads from a hydra -- new ones sprout to replace those that have been severed. We need to instead stab at the heart of the beast by attacking its (im)moral premises. It is not, for example, sufficient to attack the Left for being censorious, we have to attack censorship for being immoral.
Leftism is not mistaken, it is evil, and if we are not willing to say so, we will lose. Failure to expose evil as evil is tantamount to accepting its premises, and since both culture and politics are downstream from morality, accepting evil's premises redounds to total surrender. We will not merely lose the censorship battle, we will lose every battle and ultimately the war.
Losing to evil means Hell on Earth
What does losing look like? It looks like the Soviet Union. Like North Korea, like China, like Nazi Germany. It looks like mass extermination, indoctrination, and deprivation. It means that slavery will not only return, it will dominate. Total surveillance, complete censorship, secret police, unjust courts, sudden disappearances, and so on will become the New Normal.
The United States was created as a haven for those seeking to escape this kind of evil, and it remains the only place on earth remotely capable of serving in that role today. In the words of President Ronald Reagan:
If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.
Leftism is evil. We must deal with it accordingly.