Is there a better word than jawbone for what the government has been doing? The term seems to cover both public exhortations and private communications. I know that both are powerful means by which to suppress allowable speech and behavior, and we need look no farther than than Thomas Becket and Henry II’s “will no one rid me of this troublesome priest” for an example.
Yet, there seems to me a difference between the King’s utterances and the actions of his henchmen. Fiery pronouncements from a podium are materially different from visits by the police. Maybe, we have a chain of implied commands resembling the children’s game of telephone. Until recently, I would have dismissed any police involvement in the suppression of the first among the rights as an aberration or the act of a rogue zealot. However, like a black stain on a white shirt, these transgressions against freedom of conscience are spreading. Remarkably, my acquaintances in Canada and in Europe are proud that “free-speech absolutists” are not tolerated. I have heard speech suppression described by a European government official as due to their “more advanced thinking.”
Fortunately, there are still people who are shocked by this. I am still shocked that a culture has seemingly developed within government and other institutions that finds implied threats acceptable whether we call it jawboning or not. My FIRE donations are well worth the price.
Censorship is so hot, the idea of an Israeli flag didn't even cross the artists mind;)
Is there a better word than jawbone for what the government has been doing? The term seems to cover both public exhortations and private communications. I know that both are powerful means by which to suppress allowable speech and behavior, and we need look no farther than than Thomas Becket and Henry II’s “will no one rid me of this troublesome priest” for an example.
Yet, there seems to me a difference between the King’s utterances and the actions of his henchmen. Fiery pronouncements from a podium are materially different from visits by the police. Maybe, we have a chain of implied commands resembling the children’s game of telephone. Until recently, I would have dismissed any police involvement in the suppression of the first among the rights as an aberration or the act of a rogue zealot. However, like a black stain on a white shirt, these transgressions against freedom of conscience are spreading. Remarkably, my acquaintances in Canada and in Europe are proud that “free-speech absolutists” are not tolerated. I have heard speech suppression described by a European government official as due to their “more advanced thinking.”
Fortunately, there are still people who are shocked by this. I am still shocked that a culture has seemingly developed within government and other institutions that finds implied threats acceptable whether we call it jawboning or not. My FIRE donations are well worth the price.