Call me old-fashioned, but I’ve never believed there should be a person (or persons) sitting in an ivory tower somewhere determining what is safe for me to see/read/hear. Unfortunately, in the world of 21st-century American pendulum politics, it seems I’m in the minority.

Whether it be Trump’s executive orders trying to stifle any political opposition online or the Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) doing everything they can to “save the marginalized” by publicly destroying anyone whom they deem to be morally bankrupt, free speech has become completely negotiable for both conservatives and liberals in this country.

For the Republicans, their most recent actions to decimate Amendment One comes in the form of the aforementioned executive orders enacted by Trump, intended to make Antifa—a group whose name is literally derived from Anti-Fascism—into a terrorist group through a fascist kind of legal maneuvering.

Using the assassination of Charlie Kirk as its base, the executive order paints anyone who opposes the Republican Party as being a part of a bloodthirsty anti-American regime. It continues by claiming that anyone who shares these thoughts online is doing so with the specific intent of organizing a coup. Therefore, this kind of speech MUST BE STOPPED.

As much as I despise these actions, I at least respect Trump for being honest when he recently came out and claimed, “We took the Freedom of Speech away.” Also, during the time this statement was made, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the government would also start going after “hate speech.”

Since one of the foundations of cancel culture is stifling hate speech, upon initial glance, it may appear that the two major political parties of the US can finally agree on something.

Of course, the SJWs have a very specific definition of what hate speech looks like. And, as I found out, if you cross that line, they will be more than happy to kill your ass.

In 2015, while working for a magazine in Utah, I was given the opportunity to cover a band that had been making headlines at the time due to controversy surrounding their name: Black Pussy.

Though I didn’t do an interview or the like, because of the large amount of press they were already receiving, even just a review of their performance was enough to make the article become one of my most read, ever. So, when I found out they were looking for a new PR manager in 2016, I jumped at the chance.

When I first got with band leader Dustin Hill to discuss the plans for promoting their “Power” album and tour, he made two things crystal clear.

The first was that the name was just a device to shock people, nothing more, nothing less. The second was that no matter what happened, if I recommended changing the name, I’d be fired.

Because I grew up as a fan of KISS, Alice Cooper, W.A.S.P., etc. I was all for the shock aspect. He said that with the band’s ’70s look and psychedelic/stoner rock sound, along with the fact that “Black Pussy” was the original name of (his favorite band) Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar,” the name was perfect … until it wasn’t.

The “Brown Sugar” connection had some people claiming that Hill and his bandmates supported racism and/or slavery and slave rape—something that is unequivocally false. And since it was 2016 and not 1976, cancel culture was more than willing to “right this wrong” … even up to the point of murder.

Around the time the album was released, we put together a press kit for the tour and sent it to all our media connections. Within a week of sending the email, multiple shows during the opening leg of the tour were canceled because of violent/death messages.

SJWs reached out to the club owners and threatened to beat them and their staff, burn the building down, or commit any number of other similarly violent crimes. Once I saw this, I wrote a press release about the threats and labeled the people making them as “entertainment terrorists.” To me, someone willing to kill someone else for a moral ideology—even when it’s something I agree with, like stopping racism—is the definition of a terrorist.

That’s when I started getting death threats.

Threats of hunting me down and killing me, assaulting me in various ways, it was a lot. Thankfully, I’ve always used some kind of pen name, because if I hadn’t, I’m sure something pretty bad would have happened to me.

After telling Hill of this, I backed off the promotions because I knew the name was poison.

With all of that said, it seems there are some liberal politicians—from Colorado and elsewhere—who know that stopping any speech through violence or other means is anti-American and are doing what they can to right the ship.

I present to you, Colorado’s own, Representative Jason Crow and the NOPE Act!

Though I have had disagreements with Crow in the past, I am boy-fanning all over his recently released piece of legislation called the No Politician Enemies (NOPE) Act, as it is designed to protect individuals and organizations—including non-profits, faith groups, media outlets, and educational institutions—from politically motivated harassment and prosecution by the federal government.

During the official press release, I believe he underscored the need for this legislation in an incredibly prescient way:

“After national tragedies, past presidents have worked to heal and bring the nation together. But Donald Trump is attempting to use this moment to seize power and go after his political opponents.”

Because I believe this bill is something the country desperately needs to start heading in the right direction (in terms of protecting speech), I reached out to Crow’s office to find out what other steps he thinks we should take.

At the time of this writing, his office has not returned my contact attempts.

I don’t like what Trump is doing, and not for the obvious reasons. I’m afraid because, as we’ve seen throughout this century, when the pendulum swings back in 2026 and 2028 towards liberalism, the experiences I had with Black Pussy will be tame in comparison. I’m hoping that once the tide inevitably shifts, most Americans will be tired of the back-and-forth and will realize the need to protect all speech, especially the kinds we disagree with.

But, one thing to remember: this shift into the blue all depends on whether you think Trump will weasel his way into a third term somehow.