Macbeth was fascinated with murder until he committed his first. Consumed with paranoia, he continued his murderous ways to avoid suspicion and then the fix was in. Or so some may say.  Almost from the moment of the murder, Scotland became a land depicted as one contrary to its natural progression as it was moving under the former king. It took a while longer for the bloodbath to encircle all in, and associate with, the household and drive them mad.

Of course, we know that as the EXTREME synopsis of Shakespeare’s tragedy, not close to what the historical MacBeth went through. Yes, he too killed, and his victim was King Duncan whose reign he then took for himself. But it was on the field of battle and that was how kingdoms were passed around in the eleventh century.

Often fiction resembles fact but not in that case. Perhaps though it does in the fiction we are currently living. We may not have found ourselves in a Shakespearean tragedy but there is at least a figurative bloodbath happening and those drawing the bath are indeed heading toward, if they haven’t already arrived at, insanity.

The seeming victim of our contemporary Hamlet is free speech, with such decrees as remove this comedian, remove that comedian. But no, it’s not about late night comedians. On the plane back from his recent trip to England, the orange menace railed about networks being “97% against me…that’s bad publicity, bad press…they have licenses you know.”

Let’s look at one of those networks and how intricate this really is. ABC claims Jimmy Kimmel was “pre-empted indefinitely” ostensibly because of a remarks made in a recent monologue. Those who have not listened to that monologue assume it was all about a particular right-leaning activist. But in the entire monologue his name was mention once over a 2 or 3 sentence portion of the bit. The vast majority of the time was devoted to our grand(iose) leader. The one who referenced those licenses.

It so happens ABCs parent corporation is negotiating several routine business and acquisitions which would all require federal approval. One of the network’s affiliate voicing most of the initial outrage Nexstar, happens to have a $6.2 billion purchase of a rival group of television stations pending government approval. The other affiliate group, Sinclair, also is pending FCC approval of their proposal to relax the rules limiting broadcaster ownership of its stations. And Disney itself is pending administration approval for the completion of its ESPN affiliate’s takeover of the NFL network.

There may just be more than speech being challenged with that particular incident. Now the Pentagon’s announcement over the weekend that all stories regarding or referring to the Pentagon must be approved by the Pentagon. That might be a different story  if it gets approved.

Maybe not the bloodbath (yet) but indeed we are living in a time when intelligent people are being silenced so stupid people will not be offended. Sane? I think not.