The Democrats’ platform committee says they have a “Final Draft To Advance Progressive Democratic Values.”
Among those progressive values, criminalizing scientific dissent. A plank calling for criminal prosecution of anyone who dissent’s from “the scientific reality of climate change” was adopted with unanimous consent. Progressives do not tolerate dissent even from calling for the persecution of dissenters.
UPDATE:
Predictably, progressives ( wd400 @ comment 3 and rhampton7 @ comment 12) come in and apologize for the brown shirts.
No, WD, it is not like the tobacco company cases at all. Those cases were civil cases in which the goal was a civil money judgment against companies that sold products that killed people. In this case the plank calls for criminal securities fraud investigations (notice the emphasis on misleading shareholders) against people who have harmed no one.
Both WD and R7 suggest that if the criminal defendants are ultimately found not guilty after spending millions of dollars and tens of thousands of man-hours defending themselves, they will have nothing to complain about. Of course they are wrong. The investigation is itself a punishment, no matter the outcome.
The mere prospect of the having to defend against a criminal investigation for the crime of thinking differently will chill speech. You know, there was a time when you progressives championed free speech. Now you stomp on it. Well did you learn from Maud’dib:
When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.