the dark side of society

A sincere and well-intentioned lady, Kathleen Seidel, the mother of an autistic child, has been subpoenaed by a lawyer working for the Rev. Lisa Sykes, who recently won her suit against the government, claiming that vaccines caused her child's autism. So, now she's got her attorney canvassing the net and sending out what amounts to subpoena-bullying to anyone and everyone who has even the slightest cyber-connection to the case; that is, if you happen to have said the wrong thing, look out, they may be after you.

It would be bad enough if this woman "of God" were simply pursuing a libel ruling; but, apparently, she has gone much further than that: she (or rather her lawyer) is attempting to intimidate legitimate criticism and opinion in order to suppress it. It's the same tactic that the government (FBI, et al.) uses when people on the net get too many hits and become a nuisance when criticizing...whomever, whatever influential politician or bureaucrat happens to be offended at that moment.

Free speech? Sure, you got it. But don't you dare to try to exercise it effectively. Seidel is a lawyer herself, so she knows how to defend herself, and does so effectively. Not so, most of us. We plod along in relative anonymity and seem to do just fine; but if we manage to gain a bit of an audience, then someone, somewhere is going to take exception, and some people being what they are, incapable of accepting others' opinions as being as legitimate as their own, will go out of their way to shout you down or, failing that, rally quasi-legal forces against you. This is the dark side of society, the force that demands that you join the consensus, or else.

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