Yelling "Fire" in the Theater...
I had this thought this morning:
We have gone well beyond “yelling fire in a crowded movie theater”
At this point, the owners of the movie theater have installed a very obnoxious and loud fire alarm with sirens that make your ears hurt… They wait until about 10 minutes into the movie and then they blast the alarm and don’t give a crap who hurts themselves in the panic getting out …
Then they turn off the alarm and when people say hey we want to finish that movie they say "oh yeah sucker.. uh I mean sorry patron, you left the theater. You’ll have to buy another ticket”
I am not speaking of any particular exact grift but just kind of where the rules of free speech and the social contract have been utterly weaponized by the fascists.. is this actually happening anywhere? no.
However imagine that theater and this grift ... they do this and people complain and protest and someone goes and sues or the DA files charges.. and because it's state/local the right thing happens and the shady theater loses time and time again... but they have money to appeal and they keep appealing up and up and manage to make a federal case about it saying that their right to run their fire alarm is free speech... and they get it up to the current incredibly corrupt supreme court and the court finds some way to say "no this is fine, they're in the right" and now not only did they get away with it, not only did the people wronged spend untold thousands on lawyers but now the precedent is set and every single other theater can do the same thing without fear.
Ok, so that was an absurd example.. but look at the recent case in Oklahoma - Where the state superintendent of schools required every classroom have a bible but on top of that the bible requirements were custom tailored so that only the tRump grift bible in faux leather with gold leaf and the constitution and bill of rights and declaration of independence and the words to "god bless the usa" were in it...
This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause (as well as a clear attempt to curry favor with the Cantaloupe Caligula) and it's guaranteed to be shot down at every level of court - even the most conservative is not likely to agree with this one... At least until it gets to the Supreme Court. You know they're just waiting for this type of case so they can overturn years of precedent
Stare Decisis is out the window folks... I'm not even sure how we as a society fight back except - pour sand in the gears - fight them every step, force them to go through round after round of court battles or bureaucracy - whatever it takes but just INFORM the populace of the grift, DELAY the implementation, and ORGANIZE resistance
We have to do this because there are going to be right wingers in every state passing horrendously bad anti abortion laws, anti trans laws, anti gay marriage laws that would be unthinkable and then are going to count on losing each step till they get to the Supreme Court which is ideologically so corrupt that they're going to break everything. We can't just lie down and take it but don't look for quick victories - Judges can file in junctions and slow the wheels, Each level of court should be dragged on as long as possible. Make it painful for the fascists... This is how we have to resist.
Also for the love of dog: vote... vote in every local election no matter how small.. vote as if your future depends on the local school board election - because IT DOES.