Free speech isn’t dying in one dramatic moment. It’s getting shaved down in two different ways — both deliberate, both dangerous.

The first track is blunt-force censorship. It looks like platform bans, coordinated deplatforming, demonetization — and in some countries, handcuffs.

The First Amendment requires vigilance — and a culture and an infrastructure that respect not only the right to speak, but the ability to be heard without invisible manipulation.

When Joe Rogan reacted to reports that more than 12,000 people in the United Kingdom had been arrested over social media posts, he said the U.K. has “lost it.” Hyperbolic? Maybe. But the concern is real. Americans still recoil at the idea of police knocking on someone’s door over a tweet. In parts of Europe, that line keeps moving.

Take the arrest of Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan over posts criticizing trans activists. Agree with him or not, the point stands: Government shouldn’t referee online speech disputes. Speech that would receive constitutional protection in the United States is treated elsewhere as a criminal offense. That isn’t progress. It’s just regression dressed up as “social responsibility.”

We aren’t immune in the United States. We just do it differently.

The First Amendment still blocks direct government suppression in most cases. But a parallel system has grown up alongside it — one where Big Tech companies act as speech gatekeepers. They decide who can speak, who gets heard, and who disappears into digital exile. You may have the right to talk, but if you can’t reach anyone in the modern public square, what does that right mean?

That’s the predictable result of handing global communication infrastructure to a handful of corporations with opaque rules and shifting political winds. Platforms remove accounts, throttle content, suspend monetization, and slap “misinformation” labels on disfavored opinions. The rules move, enforcement varies, and appeals are a black box.

Jeff Dornik, founder of Pickax, a fast-growing platform branding itself as a free-speech alternative, puts it bluntly: “You can’t have freedom of speech without freedom of reach. It’s quite literally written into the First Amendment: ‘abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.’ If you limit reach, you abridge speech.”

That brings us to the second track — subtler and arguably more insidious.

It’s algorithmic manipulation. It’s the Overton Window nudged by code instead of Congress. It’s the illusion of free speech paired with the quiet denial of reach.

Dominant platforms defend themselves by insisting they support “freedom of speech.” Ask conservatives who’ve watched Big Tech suspend them, kneecap their businesses, or bury their content, and they’ll translate it the same way: Say what you want — we decide who sees it. Freedom of reach is optional at best.

Algorithms decide what trends, what goes viral, and what gets buried on page six of your search. They shape perception, reward some views, starve others, and then hide the rulebook. Users adapt. They soften language and avoid topics entirely. They self-censor — not because they got banned, but because they learned the cost of crossing invisible lines.

RELATED: The European Commission wants your free speech. Elon Musk is in the way.

Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Dornik argues that algorithms can be more corrosive than outright censorship: Instead of punishing speech the powers-that-be don’t like, they dangle engagement and monetization to train creators to censor themselves — “essentially getting you to rewire your own brain.”

“Almost all of the Big Tech platforms are using algorithms to manipulate us,” Dornik says. “The byproduct of this form of censorship is that it’s almost impossible to create community.”

He’s not wrong about the incentive structure. When creators wake up to find engagement cut in half after an unpopular opinion, they get the message. Stay inside the narrative. Don’t challenge the consensus. The window narrows — not because voters demanded it, but because code enforced it.

That’s why the free-speech debate can’t be reduced to arrest statistics. It’s about who controls visibility. It’s about whether speech is meaningfully free when distribution gets manipulated behind the scenes.

America still has the strongest constitutional speech protections in the world. But constitutional protection is only part of the story. Culture matters. Platform design matters. Incentives matter. When creators depend on systems that can quietly demonetize or suppress them, speech becomes conditional.

That’s the gap platforms like Pickax say they want to fill: no shadow bans, no algorithmic throttling, no opaque moderation. The feed is chronological and long-form content is encouraged. Creators own their content, and monetization is simple and direct.

Pickax held a launch event on February 24, with an all-day livestream featuring many of its creators. Dornik called it more than a rollout: “One of our primary missions with Pickax is to build human-to-human connections. We do this by eliminating the computer-driven algorithms … allowing our users to become the algorithm.”

RELATED: California’s next dumb tech idea: Show your papers to scroll

Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Skeptics will say alternative platforms stay niche or ideological. Maybe. But the fact that they keep gaining traction tells you something: People sense the digital public square has been curated, filtered, and sanitized in ways that don’t feel organic.

Free speech has always been messy. It has always included opinions we dislike and arguments we reject. Far from a flaw, that’s the system as it is supposed to work.

The alternative is a world where governments arrest people for posts — and corporations erase dissent with code. One is loud and authoritarian. The other is quiet and corporate. Both undermine open discourse.

The First Amendment is not self-executing. It requires vigilance — and it requires a culture and an infrastructure that respect not only the right to speak, but the ability to be heard without invisible manipulation.

No algorithms and no more shadow bans. No “reach dropped — try boosting.”

If we lose that fight, we won’t lose it all at once. We’ll lose it post by post, throttle by throttle, until only approved voices remain.

​Censorship, Free speech, Social media, First amendment, Overton window, Uk, Big tech, Opinion & analysis, Arrests, European union 

An axe-wielding male allegedly threatened a pair of car-wash employees in Ocala, Florida, last week — but one of the victims managed to violently turn the tables on him.

Marion County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the Tidal Wave Auto Spa on SW 95th Street Road over a reported disturbance around 8:30 p.m. March 8, officials said.

‘I timed [it] so that once he lowered [the axe], that’s when I shot the takedown.’

Upon arrival, deputies said they found an 18-year-old victim restraining 36-year-old Bryce Thayer.

The investigation revealed that Thayer approached two employees at the car wash as they were closing, officials said.

Thayer was told to leave the property, officials said, but Thayer became angry and approached the two victims in a threatening manner while wielding an axe.

Officials said the 18-year-old victim lunged at Thayer in an attempt to disarm him and was able to get him on the ground. The second victim then was able to remove the axe from Thayer’s grip, officials said, and the 18-year-old victim restrained Thayer until deputies arrived.

RELATED: Teen robbers open fire on victim behind Texas Family Dollar, but victim also has a gun — and turns the tables lethally

Leodan Pino, 18, told WOFL-TV that his instincts took over amid the unnerving ordeal.

“I hear some screaming, someone yelling something,” Pino told the station. “Something along the lines of, ‘Where’s my wife? I can’t find my wife.’”

Pino added to WOFL that he knew he had to act.

“I timed [it] so that once he lowered [the axe], that’s when I shot the takedown,” Pino told the station. “I got on top of him, and I controlled the situation.”

WOFL reported that one of the car-wash workers — presumably Pino — hit Thayer in the face several times to disorient him.

Thayer was taken into custody, officials told the station, and he was found in possession of drug paraphernalia — a glass pipe believed to be a methamphetamine pipe.

He faces two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and a drug paraphernalia charge, WOFL said.

Thayer was taken to the Marion County Jail, and bail was set at $65,000, the station reported.

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​Crime thwarted, Florida, Marion county sheriff’s office, Arrest, Axe, Disarmed, Ocala, Car wash, Self-defense, Fighting back, Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill charge, Tidal wave auto spa, Drug paraphernalia charge, Crime 

The SAVE Act, which would require individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections, is currently stalled in the Senate. Republicans, led by President Trump and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), are adamant on pushing it through, as it prevents noncitizen voting.

But is the GOP so hyper-fixated on passing it that it’s glossing over an even bigger threat?

According to Blaze Media’s Daniel Horowitz, the answer is yes.

“All you hear going into this new week is ‘the Save Act, the Save Act.’ Do you see what minutia that is when you look at the magnitude of what we’re facing just with Islamic immigration?” he asks.

On this episode of “Conservative Review with Daniel Horowitz,” the no-nonsense conservative analyst breaks down why the SAVE Act is actually a distraction from more pressing immigration issues.

“We basically let in … several million people that believe in at least civilization jihad, don’t like America, cultivate a climate where you have several hundred thousand people that downright support terrorism as a form of fulfilling their jihad,” says Horowitz.

In light of this looming threat, the SAVE Act is “so small potatoes,” he argues, calling it “an idolatrous bill“ that ignores the real problem.

“It’s illegals being counted in the census, noncitizens being counted in the census, bringing in mass waves of people that become citizens and legally vote Democrat. That is a much bigger issue than the actual illegal voting,” Horowitz declares.

“Having Hezbollah, Hamas, Shabab, and Al-Qaeda-supporting Muslims in the millions in this country is a much bigger deal than the freaking SAVE Act,” he continues.

But stricter vetting isn’t the answer, he says.

Citing his interview with former Muslim Danny Burmawi, Horowitz contends that Islam is “not a religion” so much as it’s “a state” with its own “system of governance.”

Unlike in the Middle East, where governments often have to limit or modify strict Islamic practices to keep the state functional and avoid total dysfunction, Muslim immigrants in the West are free to express support for jihad and terrorism.

“We’re trying to run our state, and they’re able to actually implement a full unfettered, unadulterated Islamic state within the confines of our state. And that’s how you have a greater concentration of jihad now in the West than you have even in the East,” says Horowitz.

Instead of focusing on the SAVE Act, he argues that the GOP’s attention should be fixated on “[shutting] off the new flow” of Muslim migrants and denaturalizing and deporting those here legally who support foreign terrorists.

“The Constitution is not a suicide pact,” he declares. “States are going to have to say no to mass migration — illegal and legal.”

To hear more of Horowitz’s in-depth breakdown, watch the full episode above.

​Conservative review, Conservative review with daniel horowitz, Daniel horowitz, Save act, Muslim migration, Jihadists, Blazetv, Blaze media 

Retired Green Beret veteran Joe Kent has resigned from his post as director of the National Counterterrorism Center Tuesday, citing his disapproval of the United States’ strikes in Iran.

Kent said Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the United States and that the U.S. instead became involved in the conflict due to pressure from Israel. Kent also said continuing to serve in the administration would violate his conscience, especially after losing his “beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel.”

‘This echo chamber was used to deceive you.’

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent said in a letter addressed to President Trump. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

“As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.”

RELATED: Trump’s hilarious response after intel reportedly tells him Iran’s new supreme leader might be gay

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Kent praised Trump’s foreign policy from his 2016, 2020, and 2024 campaigns, saying that during those campaigns, Trump understood that wars in the Middle East “were a trap” that cost American lives. He also applauded Trump’s killing of Qasem Soleimani and defeat of ISIS in his first term but says his administration has since been lobbied and persuaded by “high-ranking Israeli officials” who sought out a war with Iran.

“Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage war with Iran,” Kent told Trump. “This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory.”

“This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women,” Kent added. “We cannot make this mistake again.”

RELATED: ‘Die in your rage’: Islamist attacks and murder plots are quickly adding up

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Kent signed off with a warning to Trump, urging him to “reverse course” in the war with Iran.

“I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for,” Kent said. “The time for bold action is now. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.”

“It was an honor to serve in your administration and to serve our great nation.”

Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.

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​Joe kent, Israel, Iran, Donald trump, Director of national counterterrorism center, Odni, Tulsi gabbard, Forever war, Israel lobby, Iran war, Politics 

Recent research appears to confirm what many older people have been noticing for years: Younger generations are falling behind on cognitive skills. Measured IQs are dropping, and abilities like verbal fluency and nonverbal reasoning are declining as well.

If we’re going to reverse this decline in the young, parents and older adults are going to have to do what you might call “re-parenting.” We’re going to have to teach young people some basic skills.

Thank God for Mrs. McGonnigle. She sat with me during lunch for an entire week doing flash cards until I had my times tables burned into my brain.

These are skills that we largely seem to have absorbed by osmosis in our youths. For a number of reasons, these younger generations haven’t.

Digital deprivation

It’s not that kids are being born with fewer “hard-wired” smarts than before; it’s not that raw intelligence at birth is declining. Instead, it looks environmental, and the biggest culprit appears to be the “the rapid integration of digital technology into education.”

Bioinformatics researcher Shibasis Rath does a good job of putting complicated studies into plain English in his article “Is Gen Z the first generation less intelligent than their parents?”

The research in both Europe and the U.S. finds that younger generations show noticeable declines in their ability to reason abstractly, to solve novel problems on their own, and to engage in numerical/mathematical reasoning.

As Rath writes:

A large analysis of nearly 400,000 American adults tested between 2006 and 2018 found declines in verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, and matrix reasoning — key markers of fluid intelligence, or the ability to solve novel problems. Spatial reasoning showed modest improvement, but overall composite scores fell, with the sharpest declines among young adults aged 18 to 22.

What does the research suggest is the biggest culprit? Anyone who has watched a smartphone generation struggle with basic tasks will not be surprised.

Those interested in digging into the data can read some pertinent studies here and also here. To summarize, research on intelligence, measured by IQ and other tests, used to find a consistent upward trend over time. This is called the “Flynn Effect.”

From the 1930s to about 2000, researchers found IQs and mental skills rising in each subsequent generation. But then it flattened out. Worse, though, the curve started to decline around 2010; this was just a few years after the introduction of the smartphone.

Many people remarked that giving young people phones that let them outsource their thinking to a machine would lead nowhere good. But the pushback was, and is, loud and boisterous. Those who made such warnings were called “Luddites” and “Boomers.”

Math muddle

Well, it did happen. Think about how you’ve noticed that younger people are confused about how to deal with cash at stores. If they key in the wrong amount, they don’t know how to make change. This means they can’t do the simple arithmetic in their heads that people my age (51) and thereabouts do automatically. They don’t even know how to do simple subtraction on paper, because schools teach “new math.”

If you want to go down a nightmare rabbit hole of what public school math instruction looks like, start here.

This problem with math is mirrored in the ways reading is taught today, like using the discredited “whole language” approach instead of phonics. The series “Sold a Story” tells the tale in a compelling way.

If you still don’t believe today’s young people are floundering and adrift without basic skills, check out this demonstration from a college classroom. Before you watch this short video, understand that it’s not from a bottom-tier community college. These are Duke University students who have no idea which direction is north and who struggle, and fail, to read a simple road map.

The professor in that video is fighting the good fight with humor as he tries to skill-up his college students with the kind of knowledge older generations had by third or fourth grade. But he can’t do it alone. Teachers can’t do it alone, because the problem doesn’t start at school — it starts at home.

Phoning it in

It starts with parental mistakes. Not malice, not abuse, just honest mistakes. This is hard for parents to hear. Heck, it’s hard in 2026 for anyone to hear that they made a mistake or made the wrong choice. But we have to face the truth if we’re going to do better by our kids.

The first and biggest mistake was giving children smartphones at all. And no, they don’t “need” them. If a child needs to be able to call his parents wherever he is, a flip phone will do that without the collateral damage of instant access to violence and pornography right in Johnny’s pocket.

But it’s not just the obscene and damaging internet content that’s the problem. It’s deeper. When Johnny has a GPS system, a calculator, an AI “write my email” program in his hands, he’s going to use them instead of his brain.

So what are we to do? It’s time to be “old-fashioned” again. Wise parents will put their youngsters back in time and take away the digital crutches that have stunted their growth.

1. How to be bored

Take that smartphone away. No child 16 or under should have a smartphone. If you’re not willing to do this, close this tab and stop reading, because you’ve already decided you’re not going to help your kid grow. Yes, other kids, and other parents, will point out to your kid that “you’re the only one who doesn’t have one.” This is an excellent opportunity to impart that timeless parental wisdom: “If every kid jumped off a bridge …”

For Gen X kids, boredom was the training ground of childhood — the quiet stretch of time that forced you to invent games, pick up a book, wander outside, or simply learn how to be alone with your own thoughts.

2. How to read a map

Buy your child a map of your city, and then expand to an atlas of your state. Sit down and show your kid how to read the map’s instructions (the legend that explains symbols), and plot out the route from your house to your kid’s school. Then have your child plot a route from his school to whatever his favorite destination in town might be. This has to be done by hand, writing down steps by hand, on real paper. Yes, it matters. No, typing doesn’t form the same neural connections. Then keep going to more complicated routes.

3. How to memorize math facts with flash cards

Does your daughter struggle with math? Does she have a hard time with arithmetic? It’s time for flash cards.

In third grade, I was the only kid in class who struggled to memorize his multiplication tables. Thank God for Mrs. McGonnigle. She sat with me during lunch for an entire week doing flash cards until I had my times tables burned into my brain. This kind of rote memorization is the nonnegotiable, must-have building block for moving on to long division, algebra, and more.

4. How to get places without a chauffeur

This one’s easy, and it will save you time: Stop driving your kid to school and everywhere else he wants to go. If school is a mile away, he can walk. I did, and most of you reading did too.

No, it’s not true that it’s “mostly too dangerous in these modern times.” That’s only true in some areas, but even parents in safe neighborhoods have fallen prey to hysteria; they won’t even let their kids ride bikes until sunset. Reverse that.

5. How to cook

Teach them basic cooking.

Not by directing them to a website with GPS-style “turn-by-turn” steps and directions — by showing them and getting them to put their hands on the mixing bowl and the stove along with you. You don’t need detailed recipes to teach basic cooking like pasta, grilled sandwiches, meat loaf, and other home staples.

Gen Z thinks DoorDash is “how food happens.” Teaching them kitchen skills will give them better physical health, it will save them money, and it will show them how much more affordable (and tasty) food can be. If you need a reference cookbook, I recommend the “Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook” (a 1980s version if you can find it). The book explains basic techniques in food preparation that make sense and all fit together.

RELATED: Cooking is easy; it’s our modern anxiety that makes it hard

The Print Collector/Getty Images

Parents: I know it’s not easy. You’re swimming against a huge cultural and commercial tide that wants to swallow your kids’ minds and money. Tech companies don’t want to improve your kids’ quality of life — they want them dumbed down and dependent, and they’re doing a very fine job. Only you can stop this.

It will be lonely for a lot of you. Other parents will think you’re that kooky, crunchy mom or the too-strict dad. All your kids’ friends will poke fun if your daughter doesn’t have an iPhone. Yes, I’m afraid those things will happen.

But so what? You can handle this. Yes, you can. You know you can, because you know that you did when you were growing up.

You can turn this into a lesson for your children too. Model good responses for them. Be confident in how you let silly jabs roll off your back. Explain that there’s value and confidence in knowing how to help yourself. Yeah, your kids will roll their eyes a few times. But in 10 or 15 years, they’ll say, “Thanks, Mom and Dad.”

​Lifestyle, How-to, Culture, Skills, Maps, Flash cards, Parenting, Boredom, Big tech, Intervention