(Article by Warner Todd Houston republished from WesternJournal.com)
Schneider was replying Saturday to a Twitter post by author James Lindsay, who published a portion of a speech delivered in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy who said in part that, “Freedom of information is a fundamental human right … for a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
To that, the outspoken comedian and actor added, “We now live in a Nation where our own Government doesn’t want us to know or try to figure out the truth.”
We now live in a Nation where our own Government doesn’t want us to know or try to figure out the truth. https://t.co/xQDqAU3vRs
— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) May 8, 2022
Kennedy’s speech was delivered on Feb. 26, 1962, at the Health, Education, and Welfare Building in Washington and featured his thoughts on the 20th anniversary of the Voice of America.
Kennedy noted that in 1946, the United Nations passed a resolution that pronounced that “freedom of information is a fundamental human right, and the touchstone of all the freedoms” of the civilized world.
To that, Kennedy added, “This is our touchstone as well… We welcome the view of others. We seek a free flow of information across national boundaries and oceans, across iron curtains and stone walls. We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
But as Schneider noted, we now have a regime in Washington, and an entire major political party, that wants to silence dissent, shut down the free flow of information, and to propagate only state-approved views. That seems to be exactly what we have with Biden’s proposed “Disinformation Governance Board.”
Schneider deserves credit for his increasingly perspicacious comments. In 2019, for instance, Schneider slammed the left for the left-wing cancel culture’s destructive effect on free speech.
“Sorry to have to repeat this again: Free Speech is ALL speech. Even the speech that you find repugnant,” Schneider wrote in a Twitter post about politically correct culture. “You are either for ALL of it or… you are for none of it.”
Schneider also criticized his former employer for firing a cast member over old jokes that the left found distasteful. In 2019, “SNL” fired comedian Shane Gillis only days after hiring him when leftists started pushing out videos of his edgy old jokes. Schneider called the firing an example of the left’s “intolerable inquisitions.”
Last year, Schneider excoriated Big Tech, saying that if Jesus were to come back, Big Tech would ban him from the electronic public square.
Schneider is not the lone “SNL” alum to be criticizing the left. During the Obama era, former “SNL” cast member Victoria Jackson frequently slashed the then-president as a communist. And famed non-conformist comedian Norm Macdonald riled the left by protesting leftist comedians who attack Christians and the Bible.
Macdonald also went head-to-head against leftist hero Neil deGrasse Tyson after the latter tweeted that “The Universe is blind to our sorrows and indifferent to our pains.”
“Have a nice day.”
To that conceit, Macdonald replied, “Neil, there is a logic flaw in your little aphorism that seems quite telling. Since you and I are part of the Universe, then we would also be indifferent and uncaring. Perhaps you forgot, Neil, that we are not superior to the Universe but merely a fraction of it. Nice day, indeed.”
Neil, there is a logic flaw in your little aphorism that seems quite telling. Since you and I are part of the Universe, then we would also be indifferent and uncaring. Perhaps you forgot, Neil, that we are not superior to the Universe but merely a fraction of it. Nice day, indeed https://t.co/bSYUd7EH91
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) April 11, 2019
Also, former “SNL” cast member Jon Lovitz recently took a shot at left-wing cancel culture with the New York Post, saying that today’s leftists are no different from the “McCarthyism” of the 1950s.
While Schneider is not alone in his drift to the middle and away from leftism, he and a select few of his castmates have been “mugged by reality” and realized that the left is simply not on the side of morality or America.
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