On Censorship and Silencing
It is deeply troubling to hear and see the rapid normalization of censorship happening in clear daylight with little pushback or challenge. The open waters ahead of a unified government has emboldened silencing and deplatforming to accelerate at a frightening pace. It should terrify everyone, but left-of-center are not complaining much — yet — because that is the side doing the silencing.
This quote from former Facebook CSO, Alex Stamos, was made in a recent CNN interview. (Keep in mind, he was embroiled in multiple controversies in years past when Facebook was called on to take down child porn content);
“We have to turn down the capability of these conservative influencers to reach these huge audiences. There are people on YouTube, for example, that have a larger audience than daytime CNN, and they are extremely radical and pushing extremely radical views…”
“And, so, it is up to the Facebooks and YouTubes, in particular, to think about whether or not they want to be effectively cable networks for disinformation. And then we're gonna have to figure out the OANN and Newsmax problem that these companies have freedom of speech, but I’m not sure we need Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and such to be bringing them into tens of millions of homes…”
Any sentence that begins with, “They have freedom of speech, but…”, never ends in a good place.
If we superimpose his use of “Conservative influencers” and “Extremely radical views” over the inaugural speech’s reference to, “Political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism”, we need extremely clear specificity, profiles and parameters to precisely define who the enemy is. A basic rule of engagement is: Our side must be in perfect agreement as to who the enemy is. Otherwise, we all become the enemy rather quickly.
Few know that after the inauguration, Antifa riots rocked Portland once again. The Oregon Democratic Headquarters was thoroughly vandalized by a large mob — in clear daylight — with the utter absence of law enforcement. As leaders bullhorned their mantras of hate for both Biden and America, they cheered for the overthrow of our government as they destroyed yet one more Starbucks. Remember in the 2020 Democratic Debates, Joe Biden sputtered, “Antifa is an idea, not an organization.” I haven’t seen an idea shatter glass like this since I Dream of Jeannie.
While we hear quite a bit these days about Twitter’s stringent Community Guidelines as conservative accounts are taken down by the thousands, apparently riot coordination does not violate these policies. Mr. Dorsey, to sum up your Guidelines: Tweets with words which may be interpreted by someone as having the potential of leading someone to possibly committing violence at some point in the future are far more dangerous than Tweets with actual violence? Anyone? Bueller? Which brings us back to the main point: Who exactly is the enemy that needs to be silenced?
A cursory read of history reveals the repeated hellishness of what happens when a nation turns in on itself: It’s like a siamese twin going on a hunger strike in order to starve its own sibling. In the case of the Rwandan genocide, the colonizing Belgians set the minority Tutsi’s as the ruling class while the majority Hutu’s were primarily relegated to work the land. Maniacally demonic tensions began to grow between otherwise similar peoples solely delineated by an I.D. Card. To find the enemy, there was no need to examine individual behavior or intent. You see, they were friends, neighbors, coworkers and in many cases; husbands and wives. Tragically, years of relentless programming taught a nation that mere identity with one group or the other meant mortal enemies were hiding everywhere — in plain sight. Group identity alone gavels the guilty charge
When the game is rigged this badly and tension is loaded into the system, when the board flips — it flips in the worst way possible. Of course, a canceled Facebook account does not lead to genocide, but: We should all be keenly watching how the game board is being rigged, where the pressures are building — and by whom.
