A spokesman for the Denver Republican Woman organization is warning that a new plan in the Democrat-run state legislature in Colorado is dangerous to a free society.
Because it would end up in speech controls not heard of since … “1984.”
That would be the novel “1984” by George Orwell, whose dystopian plot included a “Ministry of Truth,” absolute speech controls, and very little truth allowed.
Republican Women vice president Ashley Troxell, in fact, has written at Complete Colorado, “Novelist George Orwell’s vision of government-controlled thought and speech has taken a disturbing turn in Colorado with the introduction of Senate Bill 24-084. Sponsored by Senator Lisa Cutter and Representative Lorena García, both Democrats, the ‘Attorney General Duties to Prevent Mis- & Dis-information’ reads like a page straight from Orwell’s classic novel ‘1984,’ and should send shudders down the spine of freedom-loving Coloradans.”
She cited the Democrats’ demands for state-monitored “curriculum” that would be intended to “facilitate productive and honest conversations” on various issues.
“On the surface, this may seem like a well-intentioned effort to combat misinformation. But Orwell warns about the perils of government-controlled thought and speech. Echoing the tactics of the Thought Police in Orwell’s novel, the bill represents a troubling encroachment on the fundamental freedoms that form the bedrock of our democracy,” she explained.
The plan includes a “curriculum” attempt to “dictate the terms of public discourse.”
“Who gets to decide what counts as ‘honest’ and ‘productive’ dialogue? By what authority does the government anoint itself arbiter of acceptable speech?” she asked.
It gets worse, she said, because the bill orders the state AG to “coordinate with the Department of Education” to tell schools what resources to use.
“We cannot allow our lawmakers to twist rhetoric in service of an Orwellian agenda. The people of Colorado should see Senate Bill 84 for what it is: a blueprint for thought control, cloaked in the language of public safety. Orwell’s vision has become our reality, and we cannot afford to let our fundamental freedoms be gradually chipped away,” she said.
The bill, in fact, proposes spending $150,000 of taxpayer dollars to, among other things, “study how the internet and other media channels, including social media platforms, are used to share and spread misinformation and disinformation.”
Also, the AG must “review relevant state and federal constitutional provisions and federal laws and regulations to address preemption and the intersection of state and federal authority.”
The AG’s assignment, per the law, is to “prevent and combat the sharing and spreading of misinformation and disinformation.”
The state-required “curriculum” would be used to push people to “find common ground” and have “honest conservations.”
It also orders the AG to “examine the legal framework governing the regulation of online speech,” since obviously the First Amendment is so unclear.
And the proposal includes a threat: of “civil liability” for companies that fail to prevent “the sharing and proliferation of misinformation and disinformation,” even those words are left undefined.
Such controls, the legislation demands, must be instituted immediately, for the “preservation of the public peace, health, or safety…”
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