Free to speak — Pay to be heard
You know it. You all know it.
The hypocrisy of America’s grandeur is staring you right in the face, but your Steinbeckian poor-man double-think has you accepting it all.
“ [I]n America… the poor see themselves… as temporarily embarrassed millionaires”
-John Steinbeck
We allow the rich to do what they will, as we expect to join them some day. We let them advertise at us, and we fear breaking laws that affect them.
Rich or poor, does it matter if we are all equal under the law?
The first amendment states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
-Amendment I of the United States Constitution
Law is a set of highly interpretive rules upon which we arbitrate argument.
Going to court takes so long and is so expensive that many people avoid it if at all possible.
On top of that, as you can see by the language in the First Amendment, it’s not easy to understand. Petition? Redress of grievances? I think I know what it means, but then again, I’m not quite sure.
I know there are rules in court for just being allowed to speak in turn or what you are and aren’t allowed to say. I have no idea what they are.
I know I should probably have a lawyer, but if I’m up against someone richer than me, they will probably be able to pay for a better lawyer.
So there’s the First Amendment in a nutshell. I’m free to say whatever I want, but if someone ever takes me to court for any reason… I can’t afford to win.
Then there’s the issue of property ownership.
If you own property, then you get to say what goes on it. I’m assuming that you’re legally entitled to that as long as whatever you put on your building isn’t slanderous (such as a lie about the president), dangerous (such as a giant thing that could fall on people), or offensive (like a penis, they’re totally the worst things ever, no one should ever see one, ever!).
The government owns most of the public property available (especially in cities,) such as infrastructure (streets, tunnels, busses, street signs, bridges, sidewalks, lightposts, etc,) and public spaces (courthouses, parks, town hall, the DMV, etc.) And pretty much everything else is privately owned, or owned by a publicly traded corporation.
If you’re middle class, you may have worked hard enough to lease your house from the bank under the illusion of ownership, also known as a mortgage. So there’s at least one place in America where you can do or say whatever you want, if you’re not poor.
There is no such thing as unowned property in America. Anything that you actually put onto those structures without permission is considered vandalism.
“ Vandalism is an offense that occurs when a person destroys or defaces someone else’s property without permission… While vandalism may be considered “art” by some, it is nonetheless a crime against property that is punishable by jail time, monetary fines, or both.”
-A brief overview of vandalism from findlaw.com. A more legal definition here from Cornell Law
Stickers on street signs are vandalism:
Art (such as Obey Giant) is vandalism:
Speaking for or against people in power is vandalism:
But advertisement, so long as you own, rent, or pay the owners/renters of the property a fee, is not vandalism:
So what should we do if we want our voices to be heard?
Hope an op-ed column picks up our writing?
Hope our social media posts go viral (and that they are not censored by the rulemakers or AI within those companies)?
Should we stand outside and yell through a megaphone like a street preacher?
If we do not have money to rent billboards, then we probably do not have time to take from work to stand on the street. We may not have a voice that resonates with the newspaper editor, even though we have an opinion that we think needs to be heard.
In an interesting way, criminalizing vandalism is a way of criminalizing free speech.
Here’s another way to think about vandalism. Once a person owns a piece of property, they also own the right to determine what it’s used to say. In densely-populated cities, most of the population cannot afford to actually own a piece of property. Because of that, they lose the ability to use any piece of property for speech. In addition to that, an entire landscape is used as a form of advertisement, from the menus at the restaurants we eat, to the sounds that come out of our radios. There is no end. But, what if I don’t want to be advertised to? How do I express that? I can turn off the radio, but can I turn off the buildings?
What if don’t want someone hiring psychologists and marketing directors to subtly exploit and track psychological traits that I’m completely unaware of to get me thinking about a product for longer? What do I do?
It’s a stretch, but advertisement vandalizes your mind.
What if I want my city to be a place where I can go somewhere without having to pay to sit, or look at an ad?
The lack of freedom of speech that we have as Americans is not because of any one law. It’s because of the financial attrition associated with the current laws and their byproducts.
It takes too much time and costs too much money to be able to be seen and heard in the same way that multi-million dollar companies can.
There is no law or set of laws in place that encourage a balance between paid speech and public discourse.
If I have to pay to be seen and heard, is it really free speech?
