The New Censorship
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Heard Dershowitz flogging his latest book on the radio today...
I think he has an interesting take on the First Amendment and free speech in modern society. He thinks that business, in particular Big Tech, has found a loophole in the First Amendment and is using that loophole to censor speech.
He illustrated his point by referring to Trump's speech on January 6th. It is his educated opinion that nothing Trump said in his speech abridges anything in the First Amendment. It is legal Free Speech. He thought the speech was ill-advised. In fact, he said he's been a life-long Democrat and voted for Biden. But he thought much of the post-riot narrative was crafted by media and Big Tech, while simultaneously muzzling Trump and many of his supporters.
He gave another recent example concerning Trump...In the latest ME violence, Trump was barred from Twitter and other platforms, while trying to make the case that his policies in the ME had achieved positive results and Mr. Biden's policies were tearing that progress apart. At the same time Trump was barred, multiple "Death to the Jews" or pro-Nazi posts littered the Twitterverse.
His position is that since one side was censored, Free Speech had been trampled.
I may have to read this one...
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@loki said in The New Censorship:
We all see the censorship in China and what it means to society but are somehow ok when big tech does it. Really weird.
What the culture is ok with is the direction of the censorship, not who is doing the censoring. Most mainstream pop culture lefties would prefer that the government be doing the censoring, but when big tech does it they hold their nose and accept it. And that ultimately is why big tech is doing the censoring - because they are afraid of the cultural backlash if they don’t.
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Few ever complain when it's their side misbehaving, and pushing their agenda.
How many liberals complain about bias at CNN?
How many conservatives complained about bias at Fox, right up until the point when they seemed to turn against Trump?
Censorship is just another aspect of our inherent tribalism.
Currently, the left have the self-righteous indignation down to a tee, but it hasn't always been like that. Religious people have loved censorship for centuries.
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@doctor-phibes said in The New Censorship:
Few ever complain when it's their side misbehaving, and pushing their agenda.
How many liberals complain about bias at CNN?
How many conservatives complained about bias at Fox, right up until the point when they seemed to turn against Trump?
Censorship is just another aspect of our inherent tribalism.
Currently, the left have the self-righteous indignation down to a tee, but it hasn't always been like that. Religious people have loved censorship for centuries.
Fox is hardly the platform that not only controls the narrative but also rights the plot lines for hundreds of millions of people.
He who writes the algorithms on the platform rules the world. At best we can hope to run it but if China wins well you ought to master their culture as good prep.
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It's an interesting conundrum. I don't think ever before has there been a "public square" open to almost everyone but privately owned. On one hand, a business should be able to control who does what in their square. On the other hand, they have become a de facto public forum and to squelch free speech seems to go against our culture.
