Congress is Talking About Cardi B’s Music Because I Guess That’s More Important Than the Pandemic
When I was a child in the 80s I remember there being a full-scale public freak-out about a band called 2 Live Crew. It was caused by Jack Thompson, who you may know as the dickhead who was mad about video games in the 90s, and his crusade to have their album As Nasty as They Wanna Be, banned for obscenity because Jack was never a big “understanding the first amendment” kind of guy. They actually got arrested for obscenity at one point until the courts came to their sense and said “this is America.”
And that happened a few years after Frank Zappa testified before the Senate about if Rock ‘n’ Roll music made kids kill themselves. And then a few years later powerful Democrats Tipper Gore, Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton were trying to have “violent video games” banned because politicians never learn their lessons.
Congressman Glenn Grothman (R, WI) is no exception as he took the floor of the House of Representatives to complain that Cardi B singing ‘WAP’ was going to lead to the downfall of Western civilization. That’s the kind of foolishness I expect from Ben Shapiro, not an elected official.
Here’s what Grothman had to say in his own words.
“It is deeply concerning, and an affront to our First Amendment rights, that hundreds and perhaps thousands of Americans have been silenced for saying things that don’t conform to the worldview of a handful of big technology company CEOs’,” said Grothman. “Of particular concern is the censorship of President Trump and former Congressman Ron Paul. These leaders, and everyone who has been wrongfully silenced, should have their voice restored by these companies immediately.
“I expected Democrats to overreach on their authority when the party aligned themselves with BLM, an organization founded by self-proclaimed Marxists. I never dreamed, however, that it would be this quick and this extreme.
“As a practical matter, the decision to ban someone from social media platforms is to deny them the ability to share their ideas. I hope freedom-loving people from all parts of the political spectrum rise-up and demand a restoration of free speech.
“I commend Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, Alexei Navalny and the French officials who have spoken out against this censorship, for their courage to denounce this outright effort to undermine Americans’ right to the freedom of expression and the horrible precedent it will set to have companies deny individuals of their constitutionally protected rights.”
Oh, whoops, that was Grothman’s opinion on the free speech of people he likes, just three months ago. For what it’s worth, I agree with him on the perils of accepting corporate censorship, there was an entire genre of fiction in the 70s and 80s about it called Cyberpunk.But here’s what he said about the free speech of people he disagrees with.
“Wake up FCC and begin to do your job,” Grothman said during a speech on the House floor. “The moral decline of America is partly due to your utter complacency.”
This gets me so mad ya don’t even know! I think we all been on the edge this week since we seen police brutality back to back including watching one of the biggest case in history go down DUE to police brutality but wait ! This is wat state representative decide to talk about 🤔 https://t.co/k2ZBn9gONA
— Cardi B (@iamcardib) April 22, 2021
Smh! THERES PEOPLE DYING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! https://t.co/6GQM359waF
— Cardi B (@iamcardib) April 22, 2021
She’s not wrong. Although for the record, Saksa just seemed skeptical anyone had actually contacted their congressman about Cardi B. And he made a good point that this moral panic is no different from our countless other moral panics over the years.
Honestly, I would just once like to meet a politician who isn’t a total hypocrite on free speech.
