Free speech and freedom of the press under assault

Yahoo

16-03-2025

Replica of the United States Bill of Rights, documenting the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. (Leezsnow/Getty Images)
On June 4, 2024, an op-ed I penned (Project 2025's threat to democracy) was published in The Fulcrum, a national bipartisan social media platform. It received over 74,000 views and landed as one of the top 10 most read op-eds – out of 1,460 – published in 2024.
The op-ed identified how the right-wing extremist Heritage Foundation think tank had prepared a 900-page blueprint of actions Donald Trump should implement – if elected — in the first 180 days of being America's 47th president. Dozens of op-eds were spun off from the op-ed by a multitude of cross-partisan freelance writers and published in The Fulcrum, identifying – very specifically – what Trump and his appointees would do by following Heritage Foundation's dictum of changing America from a democracy to an authoritarian, fascist-like country.
We're about 1/3rd of the way through Heritage Foundation's 180-day blueprint and have witnessed 129 executive orders resulting in – no surprise to people who completed a high school U.S. government class and understand America's distinct three levels of government — 113 legal challenges (Litigation Tracker).
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Five books were cited in the June 4 op-ed to assist readers better understand how an authoritarian-dictator acts and can – rather quickly — convert a democracy into a totalitarian and oppressive ruled country. Four of the books were written by the contemporary authors' Anne Applebaum, Barbara McQuade, Heather Cox Richardson and Timothy Snyder. The other book was George Orwell's dystopian novel '1984.'
You might like to know the #1 most banned book by right-wing agents is Orwell's '1984,' which warned against autocracy's reign of terror. After Donald Trump made unprovable and 'alternative fact' statements in 2017, sales of '1984' soared 9,500 percent. After Trump's 2024 election victory, '1984' sales went 'soaring off the shelves' (Axios, Nov. 8).
In Orwell's '1984,' Big Brother and his acolytes installed the practice of eliminating words, called `Newspeak.' `The Party' was the name of the totalitarian government that used Newspeak to delete words, discourage free thought, limit people's ability for critical thinking and control its citizens.
Jump to 2025 and the term `Newspeak' is now being applied to a portion of our 47th president's administration. Despite Mr. Trump claiming to be the 'champion of free speech,' The New York Times found hundreds of words used in Trump 2.0 documents have disappeared on hundreds of federal document websites and on more than 5,000 pages.
A partial list of words that have being eliminated by Mr. Trump from America's lexicon include: advocacy, biologically female, Black, clean energy, climate science, cultural heritage, disability, discrimination, diversity, equal opportunity, equity, female, females, feminism, gender, hate speech, Hispanic minority, inclusion, Latinx, LGBTQ, mental health, minority, multicultural, Native American, pregnant person, race, sex, social justice, transgender, tribal, under represented, victims and women.
Notice what words are not on Trump's banned list: male, man, men and White.
Another example of Orwellianism in Trumpism exists …
In George Orwell's '1984,' several citizens in the authoritarian country Oceania work for the Ministry of Truth, whose job was to alter historical records to fit the needs of `The Party.' On the sixth day of Trump's 47th presidency, he ordered 'the U.S. Air Force will no longer teach its recruits about the Tuskegee Airmen, the more than 15,000 Blacks pilots (first Black aviators in the U.S. Army), mechanics and cooks in the segregated Army of World War II.' Trump's very own `Ministry of Truth' is attempting to erase history of active Black fighters from 1940 to 1952, who flew in over 15,000 sorties and destroyed more than 100 German aircraft.
Recall one of the words Mr. Trump has eliminated from U.S. documents is … Black.
Orwell's Big Brother also wanted to destroy the literature of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Bryon, etc. so he could control the way people could think, how much they could think and what they could think about.
In a similar literature vein, Donald Trump has controlled what news agencies can work at the Pentagon; CNN, The Washington Post, The Hill, War Zone, NBC News, NPR, New York Times and Politico have been kicked out (AP, Feb. 7). Four news agencies (i.e., Associated Press, Reuters, HuffPost and Der Tagesspiegel) have been barred from attending Trump cabinet meetings. Americans are being controlled over what media can report to us and therefore how much to think and what to think about.
Evidence is replete Mr. Trump is not only following Heritage Foundation's authoritarian-oriented playbook with his multitude of executive orders but many of the actions employed by the fascist rulers and tenants of George Orwell's '1984.'
Call your two Senators and U.S. House Rep. (202-224-3121) to remind them that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech and freedom of the press and demand it is their job to put a stop to Trump's 2.0 anti-free speech and anti-freedom of the press dystopian movement.