New 'Thought Policing' Bill May Let Rubio Strip Passports from US Citizens Over Political Speech | Common Dreams
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Free speech advocates fear a new bill could let the Secretary of State strip passports from US citizens based on their speech. "Rubio has claimed the power to designate people terrorist supporters based solely on what they think and say," one said.

Free speech advocates are sounding the alarm about a bill in the US House of Representatives that they fear could allow Secretary of State Marco Rubio to strip US citizens of their passports based purely on political speech.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), will come up for a hearing on Wednesday.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
      34·
      6 months ago

      It was the same back then. Years ago, a Vietnam Vet Draftee told me that he never understood why he was fighting in Vietnam, until he had to run an errand back to the port where supplies were coming in. He saw them unloading entire cargo ships of Budweiser beer, and he instantly understood why the war was dragging on - it was good for business.

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
        3·
        6 months ago

        I watched Superman: Red Son last night. Throughout the entire movie I was wondering what the plot resolution would be.

        In it, Stalin is enriching himself while killing millions (just like real life). Superman finds it appalling that Stalin’s only response is “it’s necessary.” In the US, Lex Luthor is doing typical capitalist bullshit just getting rich and getting power.

        But LEX LUTHOR ends up doing it all for altruistic reasons because even Superman can’t create a perfect society without harming dissenters. At the end, instead of continuing the altruistic steps, he steps down from power for his VP to do it and fucks off to a private island with billionaire stuff.

        What I got out of it? Capitalism good, it saves you from gulag and brain control devices. And billionaires will save you.

        War is GREAT for business.

    • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
      4·
      6 months ago

      Perhaps we can at least say that your heart was in the right place depending on your personal goals. It’s even possible that your work bought additional time which does matter even though ultimately we had the current collapse.

      I don’t think it’s all bad. But it’s definitely a shame that we’re at this point.

  • RejZoR@lemmy.mlEnglish
    72·
    6 months ago

    Um, this literally goes entirely against 1st Amendment. That’s literally all about free speech. To be able to comment or criticize politicians and politics without government retaliating. And now they want to do that exactly. These fuckers straight want a dictatorship.

    • hector@lemmy.today
      30·
      6 months ago

      The courts have been cancelled so do not expect them to defend the constitution. Even if they do they will allow loopholes to allow it anyway, as preposterous as their reasoning will be.

      It is clear they are idealogues on the courts, but also that they are compromised by the admin, career ending dirt on them. Just like the borgia pope appointing compromised cardinals, and compromising existing ones with prostitutes.

      Earning himself the nickname of the whoremaster of rome. Borgia pope is early 16th century, that machavelli’s the prince was based on.

    • hansolo@lemmy.today
      25·
      6 months ago

      It’s literally Congress making a law that penalizes free speech. I genuinely can’t believe we’re here.

    • rayyy@piefed.socialEnglish
      16·
      6 months ago

      Remember when republicans carried around those vest pocket copies of the constitution - they were keeping them handy to use to wipe their asses.

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
      102·
      6 months ago

      How do you propose confederates not gaining power when their ideas are not only popular but celebrated and worshipped?

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
        4·
        6 months ago

        Their ideas aren’t popular, Trump won because the economy sucks the Democratic party sucks and the media sucks. Fix any of those three problems up a bit and they lose.

        All easier said than done, but let’s define the problem properly. It isn’t that people on average are bad and can’t handle democracy, it’s that our systems are bad and manipulating people into supporting bad things.

          • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
            1·
            6 months ago

            Eh. Trump was able to make a very specific and tangible case to his voters for how he was going to directly improve their lives. Kamala was completely unwilling to do that. That’s why she lost.

            Trump’s plan was evil, but it was clear and direct. His message was “I will deport a bunch of immigrants and slap up tariffs. This will make it easier for you to get a job and buy a home.” It’s a cynical, evil, and short-sighted plan, but it was actually a plan to directly improve the living standards of working class Americans.

            What was Kamala’s equivalent? Nothing. She had some vague language about a tax credit that would just inflate the housing bubble higher, and she took the usual idiot liberal approach of attaching dozens of strings that made it so only select marginalized people would qualify for it. Kamala offered nothing. People were hurting, and she offered them nothing. She didn’t lose because of Gaza, no matter what Republican trolls on Lemmy like to say. She lost because she was unable to make a clear and specific case about how she was going to help the people that voted for her. Her only real core message was the defense of democracy, but it turns out that people see little reason to support a democracy that will do nothing to actually advance their interests.

  • Ex Nummis@lemmy.world
    20·
    6 months ago

    Yeah this just shows you don’t have any rights. You have temporary, revocable privileges, depending on the whims of those exercising power.

  • Professorozone@lemmy.world
    1·
    6 months ago

    So they want to keep people who say things they don’t like IN the country now? I’ll never understand the Bizarro world we live in.