[applejuice]

Facebook and other social websites are censoring vaccine and health information and some political speech. You know I am a conservative, so let me say that I find it highly interesting that liberals, who led the free speech movement in the 60s and 70s on our college campuses, think they are protecting us from bad ideas, a la Candace Owens, Dennis Prager, Milos Yiannopoulos, Ben Shapiro. I put Mothering.com in this category too since I was told by the moderators of the time that it was perfectly OK to use one ethnic slur against a group that they thought deserved it - and I was banned for 30 days for disagreeing with them. Those moderators are gone, but they played a role in laying the groundwork for the censorship that we are enduring now. NO ethnic group should be called names, but we should not censor speech.

This is a republic, not a democracy.

This is a free country. Let us keep it that way.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10224086481807810

 

[Deborah]

Facebook and other social websites are censoring vaccine and health information and some political speech. You know I am a conservative, so let me say that I find it highly interesting that liberals, who led the free speech movement in the 60s and 70s on our college campuses, think they are protecting us from bad ideas. I put Mothering.com in this category too since I was told by the moderators of the time that it was perfectly OK to use one ethnic slur against a group that they thought deserved it. Those moderators are gone, but they played a role in laying the groundwork for the censorship that we are enduring now.

This is a free country. Let us keep it that way.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10224086481807810

I think America has been intermittently free for some people some of the time. We've got out ideals and then we've got our realities. And the gap between one and the other.

 

[applejuice]

Thank you, yes, Deborah.

IN that cut, I think the real Larry Flynt is the judge.

 

[Deborah]

Thank you, yes, Deborah.

IN that cut, I think the real Larry Flynt is the judge.

Interesting thought, thanks!

 

[Hyacinthe]

Facebook and other social websites are censoring vaccine and health information and some political speech. You know I am a conservative, so let me say that I find it highly interesting that liberals, who led the free speech movement in the 60s and 70s on our college campuses, think they are protecting us from bad ideas, a la Candace Owens, Dennis Prager, Milos Yiannopoulos, Ben Shapiro. I put Mothering.com in this category too since I was told by the moderators of the time that it was perfectly OK to use one ethnic slur against a group that they thought deserved it - and I was banned for 30 days for disagreeing with them. Those moderators are gone, but they played a role in laying the groundwork for the censorship that we are enduring now. NO ethnic group should be called names, but we should not censor speech.

This is a free country. Let us keep it that way.

I'm reading a book right now about the history of populism, how it went from an 1890's political movement advocating economic reforms (such as breaking up monopolies) and direct election of senators (this became law with the 17th amendment in 1913), to FDR's Democratic platform (with it's disregard for established economic policies), and eventually morphing from left-wing to right-wing in the popular consciousness during the 1950's, as liberal academia reacted to McCarthyism.

One thing that has remained constant is that those with power, whether they be the gilded robber-barons of the 1890's or the "liberal elites" that currently make up much of the American political class, is "democracy scares" - the idea that the people are the most dangerous part of any democracy, and it's best that governing and decision making be left to experts.

My point being, huge tech monopolies now get to both profit from free speech and control it. And there is a new "democracy scare" where a huge number of American people are now being seen as too ignorant, uneducated, and unfit for democratic society. Violence and loss of life is horrible, and it is not my intent to condone any violent action, but violence does not spring fully-formed from a vacuum. Huge tech monopolies are a bigger threat to democracy than any nitwit in a maga hat or "antivaxxer conspiracy theory". I'm sure they will be quite happy to further distract us by sowing ever more outrage, self-righteousness and fear of our fellow Americans, all while continuing to increase their ungodly profits.

Donald Trump Being Banned from Social Media is a Dangerous Distraction

...the ability of democratically unaccountable monopolies with extraordinary control over communications infrastructure, like Facebook and Google, YouTube’s parent company, to silence political speech is exceptionally dangerous. It also sidesteps the underlying problem – that it’s their dominance and business model that promotes conspiratorial, fake and violent content to millions.
...the driving force behind it is profit: Facebook and Google make billions by fostering it.

 

[applejuice]

I completely agree and thank you for your post.

American people are now being seen as too ignorant, uneducated, and unfit for democratic society.

Odd, now that many more adult Americans born after 1946 have some college education, many more with advanced degrees than in the past. I do not have the percentages nor the numbers, but I am sure that is a correct statement. Furthermore, the colleges and universities that we attend have become bastions of the "liberal elitist" thinking that pervades all of higher education today.

BTW, I put Ben Shapiro in that lineup, and he is a pro vaccinator and spouse of a pediatrician; he is in favor of forced vaccinations, an odd stand for a libertarian type.

Yet, we can all agree on somethings and disagree on others and stay friends. What is currently happening is scary.

 

[applejuice]

I'm reading a book right now about the history of populism ...

What book? I love history books.

 

[idler]

Huge tech monopolies are a bigger threat to democracy than any nitwit in a maga hat or "antivaxxer conspiracy theory". I'm sure they will be quite happy to further distract us by sowing ever more outrage, self-righteousness and fear of our fellow Americans, all while continuing to increase their ungodly profits.

Exactly! Well said.

Donald Trump Being Banned from Social Media is a Dangerous Distraction

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Hyacinthe]

What book? I love history books.

It's The People, NO: A Brief History of Anti-Populism by Thomas Frank. The title is a play on the Carl Sandburg poem "The People, Yes". It's very much straight-up history, with lots of primary source references - somewhat dry, but still interesting, and I'm learning a lot of US History that was only sort of glossed-over in school.

I'm reading the chapter on MLK, now, and his work to unite the civil rights and labor movements: "Our needs are identical to labor's needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, and respect in the community." from "All Labor Has Dignity" MLK's 1961 address to the AFL-CIO convention. But, it seems throughout US history there have been powerful forces at work which see the unification of interests based on class over race as dangerous. The original 1890s People's Party aka Populists (with a capital P) united poor, southern black and white farmers into a formidable voting bloc, leading entrenched Southern Democrats to pass the first Jim Crow laws, etc., etc. etc.

The book Thomas Frank is best known for is What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, which inspired the documentary of the same name. I might give it a go after I finish this one.