The OP may be centered around the situation in the USA but the way I understand this opener is that everyones view is appreciated. Furthermore I believe any discussion does rely on diversity of arguments and their backgrounds.
Wanted to ask the question on the forum to get an understanding of what others feel our future beholds. We as a very interesting niche of people may or may not over a long term be able to semi openly discuss our love affair with these special species. It seems to be that the right to openly express ourselves via the first amendment right especially in the USA is being systematically squashed as time rolls along. There seems to be a push from the powers that be to quell and destroy info on subjects that offend them and challenge the "official" answer. Info such as plant medicines that challenge big pharma etc. Across all the major once truly public platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Google, etc that still try and claim freedom to express oneself they are systematically interfering or outright banning people from doing so under disguise of "fake news" as well as other titles etc. Yes this borders on conspiracy but it's becoming so blatantly obvious can it be considered conspiracy anymore?
I have put this issue in the past like this: "The spirit of the constitution(s) is dead". What I mean by this is that I am witnessing a shift in how consitutions are seen and treated by the officials and people alike. In the past especially in the process of law making people would ask, when considering the constitutionality of a proposal, "what did the creators of the constitution WANT, what does the constitution mean to achieve ?". In recent times it seems they have gotten more nitpicky. Instead of making the mentioned consideration they seem to busy themselves exclusively with the wording and how to circumvent it. That is why the spirit of constitution(s) is dead, the whole idea is brought to absurdity when we stop interpreting the idea behind the constitution.
In my country it becomes more and more apparent lately, that neither state nor officials seem to feel bound by any law or constitution and break the law at will, after all there hardly is anyone to judge them. Meanwhile the average Joe faces incresingly unrelateable restrictions and sentencing, often absent clear legal grounds, based on wild interpretation and thinking forth law beyond its clear boundaries. This is a symptom of the above, the indifference towards what law was meant to do when it was passed.
Examples:
Videos via YouTube on cannabis and cbd have and or are literally being removed permanently. We as the people we are are highly aware this plant in particular is truly highly medicinal and can be used as such. It is in my view a crime against humanity to hide that real and scientifically proven info from others to support continued prohibition of the plant and protect the toxic shit produced by big pharma.
Another novel example:
I do not in any way support the two party system the USA currently follows. Want to make it clear I'm not a supporter of either side necessarily or the system that exists abroad in general. Now when it comes to people supporting long standing American ideals and patriotic feelings of pride for American ways they are being highly unsupported by platforms like Facebook etc and a lot of which has been physically banned as "hate speech" as asinine as it sounds. Support for President Trump is highly discouraged blatantly in certain cases. Let me ask if something fishy wasn't in motion how in the country a man was elected to lead supposedly fair and justfully can you not show support for that man without the supposed freedom promoting platform stepping in to quell your opinion in the physical country that same man leads??? Sounds illogical doesn't it? Not saying you have to support him but if you want to. Both ideals should be equally protected in a free society. Has our governments been bought out by some kind of hidden agenda being amassed by a group of sick minded people whom care nothing of us regular people's and our wellfare in the name of control, power, and the mighty dollar? Seems to be approaching a logically undeniable level if you are observing the change in the atmosphere of everyday societal interaction closely coupled with some ability to think for oneself.
I do believe that a private business, platform or corporation is not and can not be responsible to grant constitutional rights to the people. The constitutions in my understanding only bind the state and its officials, all they can do is relay it by passing a law that requires private parties not to infringe those rights, as long as the law is constitutional. The question remains, wether those recent changes are 'imposed' from above or self-imposed by the mentioned private parties. Given cases where there was a lot of negative publicity for private services that did not see content removed ASAP or were otherwise reluctant to even bother it seems to me the censorship we wittness is in fact a reaction to official demands, demands that in many cases will not stand a constitutional challenge.
I am not voicing support for any politician. But I do see stupidity when they broadcast it. If you want to see perfect examples of failed diplomacy, tune into a european news broadcast at the time. The reporting is not done on political matters but rather focuses on embarrassing and insulting the elected representatives of other countries, mostly countries that have a different political agenda. After listening to the news you hardly have any clue about what the, USA or Russia is doing on a political level, but you can be assured to have all information you could ever want on the most recent fauxpas of their presidents, all brought to you with sarcastic undertone aimed at presenting those people in ridicolous ways. A move that never is diplomatically smart. Much more there is constant pointing of fingers, often about things that the EU for example has been doing long before.
Is the days of our niche activities numbered?
No. Not if we don't let it happen. But the threat is real, from both sides, Orwell was right, Huxley too. Our minds have become obese, like eating from a bucket of KFCs chicken bites that has no bottom we endlessly scroll through pointless information and stimuly we find online, maneuvering our very selves into the abyss where we will face depression and anger. At the same time we can not move unseen, can not speak unheard or even think without profiling and big data predicting our thoughts with uncanny accuracy. After which our thoughts will be labeled in the name of security.
We are easy to deal with, as long as we are unhealthy, tired, numb and filled with resignation. I don't believe that a society can come to a state like this, only pushed by external factors, it must have been rotten from within before or accepting what is going on. I refuse to believe that the lone master of puppets pulls our strings and we are forced to dance or lay still, we just find it the most convenient thing to do.
That is what is happening in my view of things: Commercialized convenience always outweighing threat. Add more convenience to any discomfort and people will accept it, the discomfort just leads to inner dilemma that ignored.
MP
BC
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Topic: Is the days of our niche activities numbered? (Read 19768 times)