Readers feel the Mission of the “Civility Forums” is nothing more than Censorship and Control political speech of Village residents.
I have not been able to attend the the so-called Civility Forums initiated by Paul Aronsohn of Ridgewood. I am sure that most of us would like to have the volume lowered in public discourse. The irony is that much of the high volume public discourse is perpetrated by politicians, pundits, and the print and electronic news media. I agree with the blogger that it is elitist that elected officials, a lobbyist, and a newspaper publisher would use their position and power to imply that anonymous bloggers are in someway destructive to the democratic process. I should not have to remind the participants that history is riddled with people in power who have sought to control and re-write the public narrative to their satisfaction. Mr. Tedesco and Paul Aronsohn should read Robert’s Rules of Order to maintain orderly public meetings. Public opinion, free speech, and dissent are the domaine of all the people including those who choose to remain anonymous.
“Ed Koch once said ,”If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”
But not according to Stephen Borg, Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group, who insisted that the whole problem is that since people have found their voice through social media they have come to so many different opinions civil discourse has fallen .Things were so much better when North Jersey Media had a monopoly on public discussion and could always dictate terms . Borg implied that elites like himself we the only ones qualified to make those decisions. Borg pointed out how this blog and its anonymous posters are the greatest enemy to not only American Democracy but to the dominance of North Jersey Media Group. While I was rather flattered that the Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group thought this blog shook the very foundations of civil discourse and was viewed as the barbarians at the gate , I would suggest the far larger problem might be the totally bias, and slip shot reporting of his Media Empire. Borg set the tone for the evening which came down silencing critics and reasserting the elitist “we know better than you ” , so time to be quite .https://theridgewoodblog.net/civility-forum-moves-forward-to-squelch-public-dissent/ “
Yes, it does sound as if some Gruber-like sentiments about the general public were expressed at the most recent event of Mr. Aronsohn’s series of discussions designed to lay the groundwork for the Obama administration’s plans for naked and direct government censorship of the political speech of individual citizens.
The general public, as a whole, has and regularly displays, far more integrity than do, as a whole, the self-appointed elites in this country. That’s why the following sentiment has always rung so true:
“I would sooner be governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand members of the faculty of Harvard.”― William F. Buckley Jr., Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist
Hillary Clinton, pining for Aronsohn-style “civil discourse”…as if! Sounds suspiciously like Borg with her complaint about non-standard media sources.
Hillary Clinton Blames ‘Different Media’ For Dividing Country by Charlie Spiering/Breitbart , the Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained that “different media” are dividing the country, making it impossible for people to even have a conversation with each other.”
