By The Vashon Loop Editorial Team
The United States of America was founded on a set of agreements and goals that were unique in their time, and remain unique today. As of Monday, February 27th, only 336,142,103 humans enjoy the protections of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which specifies our individual rights in relationship to our government. Such as freedom of speech, press, and religion. That’s only 4.2% of earthlings.
Over the past century, citizens of our nation have held fast to these ideals, thanks to various safeguards put in place by the Founding Families. With great effort, the fertile ground of liberty bore fruit, including a free press that provided some level of protection from government power and its inevitable corruption. Unfortunately, as media was consolidated into fewer, larger presses, they became far less independent – soon resembling a “branch” of government, rather than a wary watchdog.
Today, there is a new category of media. Yochai Benkler, author of “The Wealth of Networks,” testified in the United States vs. PFC Bradley E. Manning trial on July 10th, 2013. He described the Networked Fourth Estate as, “the set of practices, organizing models, and technologies that are associated with the free press and provide a public check on the branches of government.”
We of The Vashon Loop are a part of this renewed Fourth Estate, and we are not alone. The suppression of the past three years has highlighted how far we have fallen from the ideals our nation stands for, and the result has been electric! Professional writers, disillusioned by widespread MSM (mainstream media) censorship have flocked to Substack in the same way that famous YouTubers, facing content moderation and cancellation, have moved to Rumble. Why? Because our freedom of thought, speech, expression, and discourse is all that protects our 4.2% of humanity from the totalitarian domination experienced daily by Chinese citizens (18.5% of the world’s population).
If you are not free to print what you truly think, then are you living in the United States of America? Or in the crumbling ruins of a country that once drew millions of immigrants from around the world, all in search of hope and a better life? Only those who have not experienced oppression are capable of dismissing or making light of it. For the rest of us, we know the worth of freedom and the cost of its loss.
We encourage you to learn about the Substack Platform. You’ll find amazing writers with great content on every topic imaginable, all uncensored and free to share their thoughts.
