Curtis Dahlgren
Thomas Paine and "The Day After, 8.1" (continued)
By Curtis Dahlgren
"RenewAmerica is a fringe right website that promotes Christian fundamentalism and makes Townhall.com look sane in comparison (though some of their pundits also post on TownHall, their overall crazification factor is significantly higher). In fact, it is so far to the right it has criticized . . [blah, blah, blah]." – RationalWiki
THE LEFT MAKES A GREAT SHOW, a pretense of defending the First Amendment, BUT they desire to attain the same results as censorship through the means of shaming, ridicule, and intimidation. And the end justifies the means, so the Left's French Foreign Legion, the Antifa nihilists, are enlisted to finish shutting us up through violence (think Ben Shapiro). On the other hand, Harvard University offered a fellowship to Chelsea Caitlyn Manning, the alleged leaker/traitor. Traitors are heroes to the Left because they hate our Founders. The Left wishes our Revolution had been more like France's or Russia's. Our educators tell our kids that the Founders weren't Christians, they were Deists (which to the Left is the closest thing to atheism, which is SMART of course). **
WELL, little do the history revisers know, but even Deists such as Thomas Paine were a lot closer to fundamental Christianity than to the Left's nihilism. I wrote a column about Paine before, and I just checked a Paine book out of the local library: "Selected Writings of Thomas Paine," edited by Richard Emory Roberts (Everybody's Vacation Pub., 1945). It's a small town library in the U.P., which is the only reason the book has survived over 70 years of used book sales! Freedom of thought – freedom of "con-science" – is a hot topic right now thanks to Harvey and Irma (the Left is against it), so here are some pithy words by Paine. You want "reason"? Here's some Reason for you (surprise, surprise); PAINE ON LIBERTY OF THE PRESS:
Thomas Jefferson said that "the licentiousness of the press produces the same effect as the restraint of the press was intended to do if the restraint was to prevent things being told, and the licentiousness of the press prevents things being believed when they are told." [the remark was about newspapers in England around 1787].
We have in this statement evidence of the truth of Jefferson's remark. The number of Federalist newspapers in New York are more than five to one the number of Republican papers, yet the majority of the elections always go against the Federal papers, which is demonstrative evidence that the licentiousness of these papers is destitute of credit [credibility].
Whoever has made observations on the characters of nations will find it generally true that the manners of a nation, or a party, can be better ascertained from the character of its press than from any other public circumstance. If its press is licentious, its manner are not good. Nobody believes a common liar or a common defamer.
Nothing is more common with printers, especially of newspapers, than the continual cry of the Liberty of the Press, as if because they are printers they are to have more privileges than other people . . . Prior to what is in England called the Revolution, which was in 1688, no work could be published in that country without first obtaining the permission of an officer appointed by the government . . The same was the case in France, except that in France there were forty who were called Censors, and in England there was but one, called Imprimateur . . . A man does not ask Liberty beforehand [permission' to say something he has a mind to say, but he becomes answerable afterwards for the atrocities he may utter. In like manner, if a man makes the press utter atrocious things he becomes as answerable for them as if he had uttered them by word of mouth. Jefferson has said in his inaugural speech: "Error of opinion might be tolerated when reason itself is left free to combat it". . . .
The Liberty of the Press arose from a FACT, the abolition of the office of Imprimateur, and 'opinion' has nothing to do with the issue. The term refers to the fact of printing free from prior restraint, and not at all to the matter printed, whether good or bad. THE PUBLIC AT LARGE – A JURY OF THE COUNTRY – WILL BE JUDGES OF THE MATTER. [end Paine quotes, caps added]
CONCLUSION: When the alt-left "protesters" say they are "fighting fascism," what they really mean to say is that they are fighting Freedom of Speech and the Press, fighting the right to assemble peacefully (upon which depends the Freedom of Religion – and the Freedom of Speech about religion)!
P.S. I'm in the U.P. which normally has some of the cleanest air in the lower 48, but this morning little bits of Montana are floating by in the sky. The Big Sky Country is fogging things up for ours. Last night you couldn't see the outline of the sun at sun down. It looked sort of like that big blue blob they air-brush over unmentionables, only it was an orange blob. And you can't fool "Mother" Nature!
PPS: If you want oranges or juice this winter, you'd better buy soon. Florida's crop just got wiped out. "Jose can you see?" More to come?
** By the way, the end of the Roberts book focused on a few words of Paine's about religion, such as:
"I have said, in the first part of 'The Age of Reason,' that 'I hope for happiness after this life.'" [I should continue this next week, because post-modernists think that Deists such as Paine thought God was a hands-off God totally. Thus no after-life. NOT TRUE!]
© Curtis Dahlgren
September 16, 2017
"RenewAmerica is a fringe right website that promotes Christian fundamentalism and makes Townhall.com look sane in comparison (though some of their pundits also post on TownHall, their overall crazification factor is significantly higher). In fact, it is so far to the right it has criticized . . [blah, blah, blah]." – RationalWiki
THE LEFT MAKES A GREAT SHOW, a pretense of defending the First Amendment, BUT they desire to attain the same results as censorship through the means of shaming, ridicule, and intimidation. And the end justifies the means, so the Left's French Foreign Legion, the Antifa nihilists, are enlisted to finish shutting us up through violence (think Ben Shapiro). On the other hand, Harvard University offered a fellowship to Chelsea Caitlyn Manning, the alleged leaker/traitor. Traitors are heroes to the Left because they hate our Founders. The Left wishes our Revolution had been more like France's or Russia's. Our educators tell our kids that the Founders weren't Christians, they were Deists (which to the Left is the closest thing to atheism, which is SMART of course). **
WELL, little do the history revisers know, but even Deists such as Thomas Paine were a lot closer to fundamental Christianity than to the Left's nihilism. I wrote a column about Paine before, and I just checked a Paine book out of the local library: "Selected Writings of Thomas Paine," edited by Richard Emory Roberts (Everybody's Vacation Pub., 1945). It's a small town library in the U.P., which is the only reason the book has survived over 70 years of used book sales! Freedom of thought – freedom of "con-science" – is a hot topic right now thanks to Harvey and Irma (the Left is against it), so here are some pithy words by Paine. You want "reason"? Here's some Reason for you (surprise, surprise); PAINE ON LIBERTY OF THE PRESS:
Thomas Jefferson said that "the licentiousness of the press produces the same effect as the restraint of the press was intended to do if the restraint was to prevent things being told, and the licentiousness of the press prevents things being believed when they are told." [the remark was about newspapers in England around 1787].
We have in this statement evidence of the truth of Jefferson's remark. The number of Federalist newspapers in New York are more than five to one the number of Republican papers, yet the majority of the elections always go against the Federal papers, which is demonstrative evidence that the licentiousness of these papers is destitute of credit [credibility].
Whoever has made observations on the characters of nations will find it generally true that the manners of a nation, or a party, can be better ascertained from the character of its press than from any other public circumstance. If its press is licentious, its manner are not good. Nobody believes a common liar or a common defamer.
Nothing is more common with printers, especially of newspapers, than the continual cry of the Liberty of the Press, as if because they are printers they are to have more privileges than other people . . . Prior to what is in England called the Revolution, which was in 1688, no work could be published in that country without first obtaining the permission of an officer appointed by the government . . The same was the case in France, except that in France there were forty who were called Censors, and in England there was but one, called Imprimateur . . . A man does not ask Liberty beforehand [permission' to say something he has a mind to say, but he becomes answerable afterwards for the atrocities he may utter. In like manner, if a man makes the press utter atrocious things he becomes as answerable for them as if he had uttered them by word of mouth. Jefferson has said in his inaugural speech: "Error of opinion might be tolerated when reason itself is left free to combat it". . . .
The Liberty of the Press arose from a FACT, the abolition of the office of Imprimateur, and 'opinion' has nothing to do with the issue. The term refers to the fact of printing free from prior restraint, and not at all to the matter printed, whether good or bad. THE PUBLIC AT LARGE – A JURY OF THE COUNTRY – WILL BE JUDGES OF THE MATTER. [end Paine quotes, caps added]
CONCLUSION: When the alt-left "protesters" say they are "fighting fascism," what they really mean to say is that they are fighting Freedom of Speech and the Press, fighting the right to assemble peacefully (upon which depends the Freedom of Religion – and the Freedom of Speech about religion)!
P.S. I'm in the U.P. which normally has some of the cleanest air in the lower 48, but this morning little bits of Montana are floating by in the sky. The Big Sky Country is fogging things up for ours. Last night you couldn't see the outline of the sun at sun down. It looked sort of like that big blue blob they air-brush over unmentionables, only it was an orange blob. And you can't fool "Mother" Nature!
PPS: If you want oranges or juice this winter, you'd better buy soon. Florida's crop just got wiped out. "Jose can you see?" More to come?
** By the way, the end of the Roberts book focused on a few words of Paine's about religion, such as:
"I have said, in the first part of 'The Age of Reason,' that 'I hope for happiness after this life.'" [I should continue this next week, because post-modernists think that Deists such as Paine thought God was a hands-off God totally. Thus no after-life. NOT TRUE!]
© Curtis Dahlgren
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