YouTube has now joined Facebook and Twitter in deleting Alex Jones’ InfoWars channel. Alex Jones is a controversial conservative-libertarian whose objectivity and accuracy are sometimes questioned even by those who share his views.
Nevertheless, the decision is not about accuracy. CNN and The New York Times are forced to retract on a daily basis for the falsehoods they spread about President Trump and other Republicans. Imagine all the falsehoods they don’t retract. You won’t see YouTube deleting their accounts any time soon.
Because it’s not about accuracy and integrity. It’s about ideology.
Companies like Apple and Google have made it clear. They shut down dissenting opinion — i.e., any non-leftist opinion — in the name of fighting “hate speech”. They’ve all but admitted it: “If we don’t agree with you, then you’re hate speech. We’re shutting you down.”
I call non-leftists “dissidents”. Why? Because the gigantic companies we have come to depend on for the dissemination of news are all operated and run by leftists and Democrats.
It starts with Alex Jones, although there have been others. It will end with — who knows? — President Trump’s own Twitter account. Why not?
A reader of mine summed it up beautifully:
“It’s not censorship. It’s just vile. First the loons, and then everyone who doesn’t toe the party line. Who needs the government brownshirts when the private sector produces so many?”
It’s not censorship. She’s correct. It’s only censorship when the government openly jails or fines people for their speech. Private companies or entities may censor whatever they wish. Of course, if right-wing companies censored left-wing speech, the lawsuits and even criminal penalties would be swift and forceful. It’s too polite to call what we have a double standard. As my reader said, it’s just vile.
Indirect censorship is all around us. Remember that most education in America — even colleges — is government-financed education. That’s why the majority of corporations are run by socialists. They’ve been trained to think that way. Government teaches socialism because government has a vested, power-based interest in socialism.
Just imagine if Coca Cola controlled and operated all primary, secondary and post-secondary schools in America. You wouldn’t find Pepsi products on campuses, that’s for sure. Government likewise watches out for itself. It teaches its children well.
Fortunately, we still have a First Amendment. Young people brainwashed by government-run schools and colleges are still free to think for themselves — at least off campus. They are free to read Ayn Rand, the U.S. Constitution, Adam Smith, Milton Freidman, Ludwig von Mises, Frederic Bastiat and all kinds of other people ignored by our schools. They’re free to watch Fox News and read Breitbart. They’re even free to watch Alex Jones.
But increasingly, without competition in the social media industry, that will change. News is now disproportionately disseminated by social media outlets. That was a market phenomenon. But the market is run by people who espouse the leftist party line. We don’t need a totalitarian government to establish state-run media. Why? Because our private sector media already acts like one.
Unless or until conservatives, libertarians and other dissidents find the equivalent of their Fox News in social and Internet media, they will experience a chill not all that different from a country without a First Amendment. It’s happening now. Right before our eyes.
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