I know I'm a little late to the discussion here, but this has been stewing in my mind for a little bit and felt a little bit of time might help me articulate what I want to say. As many are aware, Jimmy Kimmel last week was indefinitely suspended from ABC after threats from the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Disney, ABC's parent company caved to the U.S. Federal Government's push to unconstitutionally censor them.

Yes, what happened was government censorship. The same thing that so many conservatives have gotten up in arms about over the last however many years when they made constant false claims against the Biden administration and government censorship that even conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett called them out on their bullshit.

Jimmy Kimmel said didn't denegrate Charlie Kirk. Kimmel didn't make light of what is a horrific murder and assassination. Nothing of what Kimmel said was offensive. He appears to have misspoke about the motivations of the assassin, but I'm not sure we still know who the shooter was and the full extent of his motivations.

To start, Disney has every right to decide what content they produce and air. They are not required to air Kimmel or anyone else. But the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel wasn't about them deciding that they didn't like what he had to say. Their actions were in direct response to the federal government through Brendan Carr and the FCC threatening them if they didn't take action against Kimmel. That's censorship, plain and simple. You have someone from the federal government who has the ability to shut you down if you don't listen to them.

I disagree with just about everything Ted Cruz says, but even he sees how dangerous it is for the government to be intervening in speech cases.

Our freedom of speech is one of the many things that makes America what it is. As soon as you have the government deciding what speech is okay, and what speech is not, you are going to run into major problems. Right now, MAGA and the GOP are in control, maybe for you that's great. But what happens if and when the Democratic Party retakes control. Do you want them to have the same power to control what speech is okay, and what isn't? No one in the government, be it a Democrat, Republic, Libertarian, or whatever should be able to determine what is "good" speech and what is "bad" speech.

This is what bothers me so much about this and why I'm so scared about what is going on. The Trump administration and the rest of MAGA are coming for our free speech rights. They'll use whatever means they can to attack our right to speak out. They're even trying to criminalize flag burning despite the Supreme Court clearly stating that it's protected speech.

We're going down a dark, dangerous road as a country. The dangers of this administration against our constitutional rights is only going to get worse.

I'm hoping more companies are willing to take John Oliver's advice:

At some point you're going to have to draw a line. So I'd argue, why not draw it right here. And when they come to you with stupid, ridiculous demands, picking fights that you know you could win in court. Instead of rolling over, why not stand up and use four key words they don't tend to teach you in business school? Not, "Okay, you're the boss." Not, "Whatever you say goes", but instead, the only phrase that can genuinely make a week bully go away. And that is fuck you, make me.