By now, you've heard about political cartoonist Michael Ramirez and his cartoon about Hamas using innocent civilians as human shields. The Washington Post took it down after pressure from the left; editor David Shipley had the gall to say that the paper made the decision in the interest of "understanding the bonds that hold us together."
Ramirez's case is just the latest — and probably the most egregious — example of how censorship is rampant in our culture today. We're used to social media outlets and search engines censoring "unacceptable" opinions, but the federal government is amping up its efforts to combat "disinformation," which we all know means information and opinion that diverts from the Biden administration's talking points.
There's a new poll from Issues & Insights and TIPP Insights that provides us with some fascinating information about Americans' attitudes toward government and Big Tech censorship. The poll of 1,400 adults shows that 43% of Americans disapprove of censorship (26% "strongly" and 17% "somewhat"), while 36% approve of censorship (evenly divided between "strongly" and "somewhat").
Those results are awfully close, but when you dig deeper, you'll see some interesting trends. I&I's Terry Jones writes that "the relative closeness of the response is deceptive. When broken down by demographics and political affiliation, surprisingly sharp differences between and within different groups emerge."
That's putting it mildly. Democrats overwhelmingly approve of government and Big Tech gatekeepers reining in unapproved opinions. A whopping 57% of Democrats surveyed are down with censorship, with 35% strongly approving. Only 25% of Democrats disapprove.
By contrast, Republicans and independents are of similar minds when it comes to censorship. Fifty-four percent of Republicans disapprove of censorship compared to 52% of independents, while 26% of Republicans and 21% of independents approve.
Breaking the results down into further groups by gender and age reveals more interesting stats.
The fact of the matter is that we shouldn't be surprised at all that the push for censorship comes primarily and overwhelmingly from the left. Authoritarianism is the modus operandi of the left, but leftists took this tendency to new heights during the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 election, and the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Related: Outwitting, Outplaying, and Outlasting the Left
The trend continued throughout the Biden presidency. This administration attempted to set up a "disinformation board," and the president has made multiple speeches and comments blasting those who disagree with his policies as enemies and threats.
Willing accomplices and useful idiots in the mainstream press play along. Opinion journalists disguise themselves as "fact-checkers" and slap anything that bucks the left's narrative with a scarlet letter "D" for "disinformation." Outfits like NewsGuard appoint themselves guardians of the narrative and do so with the blessing of the Biden administration.
Conservative media has paid the price for the left's commitment to censorship. Outlets like PJ Media face an increasingly steep uphill battle to report the truth and share a perspective that doesn't exist in too many quarters of the media.
On a regular basis, advertisers demonetize some of our articles, making it difficult for us to make the money we need to pay our writers and editors. Social media algorithms bury our stories, which means that people who might be interested in reading us have a harder time finding our content.
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