The “progressives” who run California are all about power. They believe that their enlightened vision of the good society, where everyone lives in accordance with their “green” precepts, nobody works for less than $20 per hour, all students are taught about America’s evils, and so forth, must not be criticized. Now, in a Big Brotheresque attempt at controlling speech, they rammed three bills through the legislature, and Governor Gavin Newsom signed them.
In his latest Bastiat’s Window post, Bob Graboyes dares to poke fun at the effort.
Lest we think that our politicians have never before sought to stop people from expressing opinions that the pols dislike, Graboyes takes us back to Pennsylvania in 1903, when Governor Samuel Pennypacker tried to outlaw political sarcasm — specifically cartoons. It backfired.
The California law, meanwhile, was denounced by people and organizations that want to preserve our free-speech rights. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, for example, said:
In targeting ‘deceptive’ political content, California’s new law threatens satire, parody, and other First Amendment-protected speech. . . . A.B. 2839 bans sharing ‘deceptive’ digitally modified content about candidates for office for any purpose. That means sharing such content even to criticize it or point out it’s fake could violate the law. . . . The law also requires satire and parody to be labeled, like requiring a comedian to preface every joke with an announcement he’s making a joke. That’s not funny — it’s scary.
The good news is that a federal judge enjoined enforcement of the law, but even if the “progressives” don’t get their way this time, they will undoubtedly try again, waiting for more enlightened judges who understand that speech simply must be controlled for the good of society.