

One of the scariest developments in the history American discourse is the idea that some topics are so offensive and so provocative that they are better left unexplored.
I'm telling you, this is the most un-American idea ever. You can quote me on that. This has nothing to do with how this great country developed. This is not American at all.
If you're looking for banned ideas, you might as well look for banned books. You can find plenty of that in Europe. Yes, I'm talking about Western Europe, the supposed cradle of global democracy, global liberalism and what have you.
The sad reality of Europe is that they really do not believe in freedom of expression.
Make no mistake, parts of Western Europe enjoy a tremendous amount of political and economic freedom. That is indisputable. That's why a lot of these economies are very advanced, and that's why a lot of these countries are very rich.
Still, it goes without saying that there are extreme limits to what you can choose to talk about. You only need to look at Germany and the fact that if you talk about certain topics, not only do you get censured, but you have a good chance of going to jail.
And we're not talking about a slap on the wrist here. We're not talking about an overnight stay at the gray bar motel. We're talking about misdemeanor of felony grade offenses. You're going to be locked away for at least a year. That's crazy.
And that's why it really is mind boggling that a lot of these ideas regarding certain topics being so off limits that they are better left undiscussed is so un-American that it should disgust anybody. Seriously. It should disgust people who truly believe in freedom of expression.
The reason why this website exists in the first place is the fact that we truly believe in an exchange of ideas. We truly believe in the Judeo-Christian concept that the truth shall set you free.
We also understand that, oftentimes, the truth will first offend people. It might first get under people's skin. It might annoy people, it might frustrate people, it might be a struggle to understand the truth, but eventually, it will set us free.
We focus more on the freedom rather than whatever inconvenience or drama the truth can lead to. We are willing to take that risk. We are willing to pay that price.
Unfortunately, it is quite alarming that a rising percentage of the American population is not willing to pay that price. They're not willing to be inconvenienced. They're not willing to be shaken out of their comfort zone, so they would rather wall off opposing ideas.
And unfortunately, the rise of social media, and I am talking primarily about Twitter and Facebook here, has thrown gasoline into this raging fire of censorship.
If you go on Facebook and you follow, for example, Donald Trump groups, Donald Trump Facebook pages, conservative intellectuals and public figures, it quickly turns into an echo chamber. Everything on your timeline pretty much reinforces things you consider true.
The same applies to the left. I'm not just singling out conservatives or Donald Trump supporters here. This applies to Hillary's supporters as well.
A lot of people are complaining that the age of free and open political discourse and exchange in the United States is long gone. A lot of this has to do with social media because it's very easy to get trapped in your own ideological bubble. We seek to burst that bubble here at americangrandjury.org.
If you are looking for a real exchange, you have come to the right place.