We find that for governments the world over, that freedom is a very strong power to cede to the people, and therefore when that freedom is in the hands of the people, a lot of governments get kind of worried, for governments have a strong tendency to desire to repress freedom and replace such with law and order, rules and regulations, along with having control over what the people are or are not permitted to do, with all of this under the thumb of the government. Indeed, a government that only tolerates certain actions from the people is the same government that can decide that its toleration has reached its limit because, for example, of exigent circumstances; whereas, a government that has provided the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press for the people, is a government that is obligated to work with the people, with the legislative representatives of the people, for these people, in whole, are free, and not just tolerated.
It is true that freedom is often inconvenient for governments, for, no doubt, it’s easier to govern when the people’s voices and desires are suppressed and thereby replaced by governmental desires, for these typically are not one and the same. Indeed, in a true democracy, with powers dispersed throughout the judicial, executive, and legislative branches, this seems to produce a government that is less repressive and more accommodating to the very people, who have given their consent to be governed, through that representative government.
In today’s governance, the reason that so many governments don’t desire for the people to truly be at liberty and thereby be free to speak their minds and to be about their business is that the powers that be, find it to be more conducive for their business for the people to cooperate and comply with what those powers desire, be that profit, foreign engagements, wars, exploitation, and so on and so forth. In other words, many governmental working models desire compliance from the people and aren’t interested in getting any pushback from those same people, which is why the world over, we hear so much about the need for law and order, for public order, and safety, of which, all of these things, logically necessitate therefore that the people give up some of their freedoms so that they will be safe and secure, even though, in actuality, that is a smokescreen used by governments to more effectively manipulate the people.
So then, despite the First Amendment, being absolutely clear, we find that in this present age, that those who are the true actuators of how this government is run and operated are doing all that they can do to chip away at our freedoms and liberties, to replace it with nebulous things such as tolerance or forbearance with the intent to take even that away, when it suits the government, of which, because freedom provides to the masses far more power in their hands and in their minds than those that desire to run this show find that they are comfortable with, is the reason why they want to flip the First Amendment script, to mere toleration, to provide them therefore with far more control.