Defaming Patriotism
By John Longenecker (05/29/07)
Patriotic Organizations operate in the public interest, and because of this, the United States Government has seen fit to make them tax exempt. Most Americans agree with this because supporting such organizations is a vote of a sort, you might say, where donations to a non-profit charity of their choice are the voice of the supporters. Weight to that vote is given meaning by being unfettered with things such as taxing the donation. Instead, it is tax deductible.
There is little question that non-profits here effect social change, and for the kind of change you’d like to see, simply locate the foundation which interests you and support it. As part of that change, there is a healthy measure of protecting the public interest as some foundations give grants to those in need of assistance as part of their mission. They help people.
This is as it should be.
As President and Founder of the Good For the Country Foundation, I feel the sting of some disturbing news: How do you feel about a civil right being labeled as bad taste? How do you feel about patriotic foundations, publishers and certain groups being classified as X-rated and that your Internet search term brings you to a warning page that you must be 18 to view the site you’re looking for?
This may be rectified soon, since some have brought it to the attention of the search engine holding company, but Dogpile, the search engine, categorizes keywords such as Guns or Gun Control as Adult Content.
What’s the big deal?
It's my opinion that this is defamatory. Blocking or even warning visitors that your search term is to be found only after a warning that the topic is alongside X-rated websites is a political maneuver that is very unpatriotic in nature. It’s not mere opinion, it is technically unpatriotic because it reflects values incompatible with our national interest and it could be that the case could be made that it is defamatory.
This is classic abuse of the First Amendment in disparaging by association. One may not defame another and claim freedom of speech, any more than one may falsely advertise, commit mail fraud or lie under oath and hide behind the first amendment. The first amendment is not absolute, but the second amendment is, and to warn visitors that the search terms of Guns and Gun Control are taking you to a category of XXX content is to disparage those patriotic organizations named among the search results.
Try it for yourself: Visit Dogpile and enter search terms Guns, and see what happens. Now enter Violence as a search term and notice no such warning. How is this unpatriotic? Let's review.
For the impartial or anti-gun, here is something you should know. The Founding Fathers had just won the War for Independence, and that independence was to be free from abuse of due process. This is where the Crown (or government) gets to say what is illegal, and the subjects have no say-so. In this country, the citizen is the supreme authority, and it is the government which has little or no say-so. Like it so far?
Well, if you do, you need to understand that the Founders did, too, and they wrote the Constitution to put limits on government, and they back that document with legal force, force in the hands of the supreme authority, the citizen.
Now when the Second Amendment was written, the Founders knew they didn’t have to fear guns in any age, then and now, but they did fear abuses of due process (then and now), so they wrote 2A not for citizens like you and me, but for government, and said to government, ‘shall not be infringed’. The Founders anticipated that due process would be used to disarm the honest. It is. Gun laws do nothing to stop crime, and associating liberty organizations with websites of bad taste by way of an adult content warning is no accident of good intentions.
Weapons are the legal and lethal force which backs citizen authority, and government cannot legally make moves to regulate the force which backs that authority. Get it? The Founders wrote that such infringements are not permitted, and, of course, it is the citizen who gets the final say in this. Other citizens of a differing opinion may speak, but cannot be patriotic if they dissuade you from a civil right.
Search engines, then, which join the anti-authority rhetoric and groups making it harder to find information are not operating in the public interest when they defame for the purpose of discouraging learning more about that sovereign authority as part of our way of life here.
Freud said that all knowledge is good. He knew that knowledge, like any other thing, can be weaponized, and that its use depends entirely on the hand that operates it.
This is certainly true of the Internet. A Warning may seem helpful at first, but it is more than that: it is a branding that the search results are among the purveyors of bad taste.
The free access of information is becoming a political football to silence patriotic views, views which are in the public interest. Access to information must be unfettered.
It would be good for the country.
John Longenecker is President of the Good For The Country Foundation at http://www.GoodForTheCountry.org/
(Printer friendly version) Email: John Longenecker
