November 26, 1792, saw the birth of Sarah Moore Grimké, American abolitionist and feminist. She was the elder sister of the equally famed Angelina Emily Grimké Weld.
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A Grimké Day
In a world of almost universal assaults on freedom of speech, it is heartening when an avowed defender of it refuses to relent under pressure.
Rumble’s reason for being is to help people “control the value of their own creations.” The company creates “technologies that are immune to cancel culture.” Their mission is “to protect a free and open internet.”
A mission statement is one thing. Abiding by it in the face of major opposition is another. But Rumble has just told the French government to get lost for demanding that it deplatform certain sources of Russian news.
Stressing its policy that users with unpopular views “are free to access our platform on the same terms as our millions of other users,” Rumble has disabled access for users in France rather than acquiesce to the government’s censorship demands. Rumble will go back online there if it wins a lawsuit challenging the legality of the demands.
Like Elon Musk, who said that he wouldn’t block Russian news sources at the behest of governments “unless at gunpoint,” Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski says “I won’t move our goal posts for any foreign government.”
Rumble started out in 2013. By late 2021, Rumble.com was being visited by an average of 36 million active users per month.
If Rumble loses France, it loses less than 1 percent of its current users — but also an opportunity for substantial growth.
On the other hand, it holds on to what it is.
And what its customers value.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Note: This Week in Common Sense, the weekend wrap-up of this program, is published on Rumble as a video nearly every week. Last weekend’s episode is “It’s a Funny World.”
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Ambrose Bierce
anoint, v.t.
To grease a king or other great functionary already sufficiently slippery.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911).
November 25, 1975, Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands.
On the same month and date 17 years later, the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia voted to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (officially disjoined as of January 1, 1993). This split has been called “The Velvet Divorce” (following, in style and method, “The Velvet Revolution”).
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Happy Thanksgiving 2022
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Master Zhuang
A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.
Zhuangzi (perhaps more famously transliterated from the Chinese as Chuang Tzu), from the book called Zhuangzi (third century B.C.).
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Happy Birthday, Baruch!
November 24th marks the birthdays of philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632) and three influential Americans: ragtime composer Scott Joplin (1868), self-help writer Dale Carnegie (1888), and conservative editor, writer, and television personality William F. Buckley Jr. (1925).
In 2014, Sally Ladd started a service to help clients in the Poconos rent out their vacation homes. She posted notices on Airbnb, arranged for cleaning, and performed other chores.
But then, in 2017, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs — one of the many government agencies in the world that should not exist — told her that she was operating in Pennsylvania as a real estate broker without a license and must get one or shut down.
The obstacle was senseless. Ladd was already satisfying her customers. And getting the license would have entailed more than 300 hours of schooling, two exams, three years of apprenticeship, and opening an office in Pennsylvania. (Ladd lives in New Jersey.)
She had to shut down.
But she didn’t give up.
She teamed up with Institute for Justice, which filed suit, arguing, in IJ’s words, that “forcing her to get a full-blown real-estate license violated her right to earn an honest living under the Pennsylvania Constitution.”
At first, a lower court would not even consider the case, a decision overruled by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2020. Finally, on October 31, 2022, a trial court affirmed that the “licensing requirements are unreasonable, unduly oppressive, and patently beyond the necessities of the case,” and therefore unconstitutional.
Once again, it’s IJ to the rescue!
In a world filled with government agencies that shouldn’t exist, the Institute for Justice exists to check them.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Ernest Bramah
When struck by a thunderbolt it is unnecessary to consult the Book of Dates as to the precise meaning of the omen.
Ernest Bramah, from “The Transmutation of Ling” in The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900).
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Areopagitica
On November 23, 1644, British poet John Milton published Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.