In the last few weeks, we’ve seen a surge of media stories claiming that “anti-vaxxers” pose a unique threat and that this threat is vectored through social media platforms, which have a moral obligation to take action.
We’ve seen this same deplatforming rollout before aimed at conservatives. It was interesting to witness it aimed at a group that is not conservative.
My aim is not to debate vaccines. It’s not my subject. Censorship however is.
The outcome of the media campaign has been predictable. A variety of platforms, most recently GoFundMe, where anyone no matter how noxious can raise money, as long as they aren’t conservatives, have followed suit.
The latest deplatforming campaign should serve as a warning that the use of tech platforms and media to promote censorship won’t end with conservatives.
Any group can be portrayed as socially unacceptable, if they fall afoul of the media a handful of tech monopolies, and then face blacklisting.
This is a bad and very dangerous phenomenon.
We now live in a world in which Islamic terrorist groups are more acceptable on social media platforms than Americans whom the media despises.
This is not about right or wrong views.
A liberal society is one where people can debate ideas. A totalitarian society decides which views are acceptable and suppresses everything else.
What began with conservatives will not end there. Totalitarianism has its own terrible and implacable logic. That of human nature.
Totalitarianism does not end of its own accord. It is either defeated from without or within.
Conservatives are still the best hope for defeating leftist totalitarianism from without. If they fail, then America, like Cuba or China or the USSR, will have to hope for a revolution from within.
And that is a dark tiding.
The alliance between tech monopolies and the media poses a grave threat to human freedom. If we fail to fight it, we will be silenced.
Article posted with permission from Daniel Greenfield
