This
is
going
to
be
one
of
those
moments
where
future
generations
will
ask
how
we
didn’t
see
the
writing
on
the
wall
so
much
earlier.
For
some
reason,
the
country
laughed
off
one
of
the
first
big
rhetorical
shoes
in
the
door:
“alternative
facts.”
The
constitutional
threat
implied
by
the
phrase
“fake
news”
got
treated
as
seriously
as
“covfefe.”
One
of
the
most
lucid
“What
the
hell
are
we
doing
here?”
moments
was
when
Obama
asked
an
audience
to
imagine
the
fallout
that
would
have
happened
if
he
pulled
the
equivalent
of
Trump
blocking
a
CNN
reporter’s
White
House
press
credentials
during
his
time
as
president:
Funny
or
not,
these
became
the
grounds
for
deciding
which
narratives
were
state
doxa
and
which
would
fall
under
the
umbrella
of
the
“woke
mind
virus”
or
whatever
term
talking
heads
felt
like
using
to
dismiss
thoughts
that
fell
out
of
line.
The
thought
must
have
been
that
these
were
brief
detours
on
a
moral
arc
that
bends
toward
justice
or
that
free
speech
and
the
circulation
of
ideas
would
ultimately
be
the
disinfectant
best
suited
for
a
nation
dirtied
by
misinformation,
propaganda
and
fake
news.
Maybe
we
just
thought
things
would
never
get
this
bad.
But
it
is
getting
a
lot
harder
to
deny
facts,
alternative
or
not,
when
they’re
right
in
front
of
you.
A
couple
of
months
after
Stephen
Colbert
got
a
delayed
axing
for
sharing
thoughts
critical
of
Trump,
the
Jimmy
Kimmel
show
has
been
indefinitely
suspended
after
making
a
Charlie
Kirk
joke:
You
can
see
the
offending
joke
below:
I
know
that
it’s
easy
to
point
at
this
or
that
thing
as
partisan,
but
have
we
reached
the
point
where
you
can
get
fired
for
pointing
out
that
someone
redirecting
conversation
to
decor
changes
when
asked
about
the
death
of
a
friend
doesn’t
exactly
scream
mourning
a
deep
loss?
Will
Smith
takes
jokes
about
his
wife
better
than
Trump’s
administration
took
this.
What’s
next?
Getting
fired
for
saying
Trump
was
focused
on
the
wrong
hole
in
the
ground
because
he
went
to
a
golf
course
instead
of
going
to
Charlie
Kirk’s
vigil?
We’re
Americans
Goddammit
it
–the
right
to
speak
our
minds
without
fear
of
government
backlash
is
one
of
the
most
foundational
aspects
of
our
country’s
mythos.
And
to
think
that
all
of
this
censorship
is
coming
from
the
right:
remember
when
they
were
the
ones
screaming
that
any
state
restriction
meant
that
we
were
sliding
down
vaguely
orientalist
social
credit
scores
and
Communism?
Because
the
internet
does:
Think
what
you
will
about
Jimmy
Kimmel
—
he’ll
always
look
a
little
lonely
to
me
without
Adam
Corolla
by
his
side
—
but
what
this
late
night
comedy
show’s
“indefinite
suspension”
means
for
free
speech
is
no
laughing
matter.
The
details
of
that
“suspension”
only
makes
things
worse.
It
looks
like
the
show
won’t
be
restored
unless
Kimmel
does
a
great
deal
of
ass
kissing
and
pays
tithe
to
Kirk’s
family
and
Turning
Point
USA:
Right
wingers
have
already
taken
to
the
this-isn’t-actually-a-free-speech-issue
grift
because
ABC
ultimately
made
the
decision
instead
of
the
FCC
or
Donald
Trump,
but
the
funny
thing
about
the
internet
is
that
there
is
an
archive
of
all
the
shit
you’ve
previously
said:
Back
to
Obama’s
point
of
imagining
if
he
did
this,
here
is
JD
Vance
railing
against
the
Biden
administration
for
“encouraging
private
companies
to
silence
people
who
dared
to
utter
what
turned
out
to
be
an
obvious
truth”and
promising
that
things
would
be
different
under
Trump:
Quite
the
difference
a
couple
of
months
makes:
This
isn’t
just
blatant
hypocrisy
—
this
is
jawboning.
It
is
hard
to
think
of
a
better
textbook
of
example
of
quelling
speech
by
removing
someone’s
speaking
platform
than
what
Donny
Boy
is
trying
to
do
here:
Despite
the
consequences
of
speaking
out,
we
(thankfully)
aren’t
at
the
point
that
people
are
too
afraid
to
speak
out
on
the
news.
That
said,
no
promise
this
doesn’t
get
CNN’s
White
House
pass
revoked
again:
You
know
things
are
bad
when
Tucker
Carlson
is
ringing
the
same
bell:
Maybe
the
real
bipartisan
politics
are
the
First
Amendment
violations
we
fight
along
the
way?
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s
.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
is
learning
to
swim, is
interested
in
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected]
and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.