Censorship

Real or imagined, the trump regime doesn’t like opinions or news articles that don’t support their point of view. They battle such by lawsuit, regulatory shutdowns within an industry (public broadcasting stations and networks) and pointed public attacks. Stephen Colbert being cancelled by CBS is one example. Others jump to mind. Trump’s constant belittling of CNN is an example of public attacks. Lawsuits of endless timelines have long been a tactic of trump. And the tactic has worked, even against big pocket corporations who don’t want to be bothered by the time it takes to defend itself, plus the money it demands.

PBS and NPR were created to expand reporting of facts and events to add to understanding the world and its many contexts. Like education and its research to expand society’s knowledge base, facts are the basis of all truth. Things are what they are, comfortable or not. Later, with more information from research and study, we arrive at other conclusions that further expand our knowledge. Some of this action corrects errors made in conclusions based on incomplete facts. That process works both ways. Precisely because of this, we support open discussion to uncover, share information, discuss and create more questions to pursue in our journey toward truth and fuller understanding.

Censorship, however, does not care about this. Censors only care about the appearance of right and wrong in the public’s mind and how it affects power and acceptance of authority. It is the basis of making tyrants and dictators. We learn that over and over again in our research and study of human development and history.

Censors focus on tearing down truth and facts, not building them. This sort of activity takes time and effort to instigate and partially explains why trump and gang don’t provide programs, just attacks on existing organizations, programs and agencies. The Big Beautiful Bill? That’s not a program; it is an attack that destroys existing programs. Of course, it extends a huge tax break for wealthy individuals and corporations, a cut that wasn’t affordable in the first place, and continues that assault on a balanced budget for many years to come.

Trillions of wastes are claimed, yet they pursue more trillions of wastes on their own. A sad truth that Trump followers do not want discussed or aired. Hence the censorship.

We have done better than this for ages and need to continue that progress. That means eliminating censorship and supporting facts, research and open discussion of all of this. Only then can we properly understand our world and the many contexts it contains.

Secure education, research and facts. Find and root out all forms of censorship. It is a critical duty of a free society.

July 23, 2025

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