Cancel Criticism?

"If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen." -- Harry Truman

   Rep. Gavin Nunes (R-Calif) has sued the social media platform Twitter for libel, alleging that because they allow criticism that he claims causes him "pain, insult, embarrassment, humiliation, emotional distress and mental suffering, and injury to his person and professional reputations" brought on by those who post such criticism, he is entitled to $250 million in damages.
   Aw, poor baby.
   Aside from the possibility that the avid supporter of the president is using the tactic to build his profile and raise money, there is the greater danger that this is an attempt to weaken or overturn the First Amendment.
   I have been trying to find other things to write about, but the continuing attempts  by Trumpistas to stifle criticism through legal action and even thinly veiled threats of violence cannot go unchallenged.
   It would be easy enough to say this guy is full of hooey and he'll never get away with such nonsense. But stranger things have happened.
   Meanwhile, the news of his lawsuit was greeted with a barrage of more satire from late night TV shows.
   Several days ago, I wrote that if "government succeeds in curtailing disagreement, punishing satire and penalizing mockery, we will no longer have the right of free speech and a free press."
   Now Nunes is demanding that any such  criticism be stopped. Satire is a powerful weapon, however, and cannot be silenced. It may go underground briefly, or masquerade as fable, but it never dies.
   Many may remember reading "Gulliver's Travels," and initially thinking of it as a children's fable. But it was not written for children. Rather, it was and is a satire on government behavior.
   Likewise, "A Modest Proposal," also by Jonathan Swift, is another satire on government failure to deal with the hunger problem in Ireland. And this was more than 100 years before the Great Famine years of the mid-19th Century.
   Geoffrey Chaucer was also good at satire, and it appears numerous times in "The Canterbury Tales."
   In more modern times, "Animal Farm," by George Orwell, uses satire to challenge the doctrine that while all are equal, "some are more equal than others."
   And there is, of course, the heavy doses of satire doled out on network television, most notably on "Saturday Night Live."
  Perhaps this is the problem facing certain politicians in Washington today. They give lip service to the American principle that all are equal, but they, like some of the animals on Orwell's satirical farm, are more equal than others and therefore deserve more respect and allegiance.
   So it's up to everyone to continue to challenge any attempt to build superiority in the guise of equality, and a satirical pencil is perhaps the most powerful weapon available, whether through the printed page, an Internet connection or the entertainment media.
   Let's all remember that any attempt to stifle dissent and satire endangers the Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees.
   And let those who can't take the heat follow the words of former President Harry Truman: Get out of the kitchen.