Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 6,000,000 visitors since 2014 and over 9,000 archived posts.
Vox Populi: Today’s post about California Bill AB-715.
The video I offered as today’s post was labeled by YouTube as “This video was produced by the Turkish Government.” This distracting label was slapped across the face of the film making it unwatchable. And the statement is false. The video was actually produced by California teachers and progressives, some of whom are Jewish, who oppose censorship laws concerning Israeli policies toward the Palestinian people. Ironic, isn’t it? Protests against censorship are themselves censored.
Well, this is the America we live in.
Instead of the 3 minute video, I offer the ACLU’s argument for opposing the bill, which is now law in California, on grounds that it encourages censorship and violates teachers’ rights to free speech:
California schools should be places where students learn to think critically, engage with diverse perspectives, and build understanding across differences. But AB 715 would do the opposite — censoring teachers, undermining academic freedom, chilling critical, constitutionally protected classroom discussion, and threatening freedom of speech in our public schools.
We all agree that antisemitism and all forms of discrimination must be addressed in schools. But AB 715 goes far beyond protecting students from harassment or violence. Instead, it polices what can be said in classrooms, subjects legitimate academic frameworks to overly broad censorship, and risks undermining conversations about history, identity, and human rights.
AB 715’s provisions will dangerously:
- Censor inclusive and historically relevant curricula.
- Create a chilling effect on educators and students engaged in constitutionally protected expression.
AB 715 is a dangerous bill that risks infringing important constitutional free speech, and opens up the State to costly litigation over the bill’s implementation.
Principal Bill Author:
Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles)
Bill Co-Sponsors:
Jewish Public Affairs Committee of CA
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Unfortunately, this has been going on for a long time before it was legally codified, in California and elsewhere. Hopefully we are beginning to see more people understanding the implications of censoring speech, censoring writing. Even some conservative influencers are speaking out about the ramifications of censorship. There are finally reasons to feel slightly positive, but we all must keep speaking out and making sure we and others have the freedoms provided by our Constitution.
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Exactly! Thank you, Mandy.
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Purtroppo non ho potuto seguire il video, dice che non ho l’autorizzazione per seguire il blog privato.
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Long-time activist and subscriber E.D. writes: “Eight other states have introduced bills to adopt the chilling IHRA definition of antisemitism: AZ, AR, KS, KY, MO, NE OK and TN. Aside from campaigning against these bills when they come to our states, we can be non-compliant with anticipatory obedience in our daily discourse.”
I agree. Noncompliant anticipatory disobedience is what’s needed.
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Thanks for telling me what you want me to think the bill will do. Now how about the language of the bill itself and an explanation of why you think it’ll work that way? I’m not going to oppose something just because I am told to do so.
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The California legislature doesn’t allow cutting and pasting from their website, but you can easily go to the website and look up AB-715 and read it for yourself.
https://legiscan.com
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James, I just subscribed to your blog. Solid writing about music, culture and politics. Bravo!
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Unbelievable. Or sadly, not.
Yahoo Mail: Search, Organize, Conquer
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The people in power always try to silence the people, but if we stand together, no one can stop us.
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Grateful to you Michael for pursuing and highlighting the truth. Censorship is frightening, very dystopian.
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Thanks, Jan!
>
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I am surprised that this has to happen out of all places in California. And dismayed that it happens at all.
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People often think that California is liberal because of the left leaning San Francisco Bay Area and the Hollywood elite of LA, but once you get away from the coast, Californians are part of the West and have more in common with Arizona and Idaho. Remember, CA produced Nixon and Reagan, among many other conservatives.
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oh… of course
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I am finding this sort of censorship in other places as well. I tried to follow a news report the other day… won’t be able to find it again… but every time one of the commentators spoke, background noise increased to the point that you couldn’t hear the speaker.
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