If journalism was ever about reporting current events and providing us with the facts, those days are over now. The purpose of journalism in 2020 is to silence dissent. And now that anybody with a keyboard and an Internet connection can express their individual views about the world — Hi, guys! — the people who control the Internet are working with these journalists to control what we say. They really don’t want to hear any lip from us peasants. Journos and tech companies, self-appointed gatekeepers, are desperately struggling to remain relevant long after the gates were trampled down.
That’s why we keep seeing nonsense like this. Kathleen Miller, Bloomberg:
Republican Senator Tom Cotton said a “low-level” Twitter Inc. employee called his office several weeks ago and threatened to permanently lock his account unless he deleted a tweet that advocated using the military to quell unrest throughout the U.S. and used the term “no quarter.”
“We asked for an explanation of why that was and it was not really forthcoming. They cited a policy that didn’t apply to my situation,” Cotton said in Fox News interview early Wednesday…
Cotton said he ultimately won the standoff with the Twitter employee… “We waited them out, we called their bluff, for 30 minutes they didn’t lock down my account and within about 2 hours they got back to us and said, ‘OK, you can keep your posts up’,” Cotton said.
Here’s the “offending” tweet:
And, if necessary, the 10th Mountain, 82nd Airborne, 1st Cav, 3rd Infantry—whatever it takes to restore order. No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters. https://t.co/OnNJmnDrYM
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) June 1, 2020
Two days later, the New York Times published an op-ed from Cotton that expressed the same views. Then the feral children now employed at the NYT staged an internal revolt because the op-ed hurt their feelings. The same thing is happening at newsrooms across the country. If somebody says something they don’t like, they don’t need to form a counterargument. They don’t have to explain why they’re offended or why it’s wrong. They’ve never had to do that in their entire lives, so why would they start now? They’re activists, so they’re using activist tactics to get what they want and shut down anybody who disagrees.
Now they’re even trying to get The Federalist demonetized for printing things they don’t like. They claim the comments at The Federalist are offensive, which makes me wonder if this is the first time they’ve ever seen a comments section. (Sorry, commenters, but you know it’s true.) Plus, Google owns YouTube. Have you read a YouTube comments section lately? Do you think Google wants to be held responsible for it?
It’s not about logic or reason or facts or any of that stuff. It’s about power. Attaining it, maintaining it, and most of all exerting it. For people who like to call themselves “anti-fascist,” these kids sure are self-evidently fascist.
You don’t have to like Tom Cotton, or The Federalist, or anybody else being targeted this way to see that it’s wrong. Today it’s those guys. Tomorrow it could be you. For any reason, or no reason at all. And the people making these decisions aren’t accountable to anyone. Either the rules apply to everybody, or they apply to nobody.
If you’re in league with the rioters and looters who are plaguing American cities right now, you have the right to be a blinkered idiot. But if you work for a “news” outlet or a tech company, and you use your power to silence people who would rather not watch America burn to the ground, then we have a problem. We’re not going to shut up, we’re not going to do what we’re told, and we don’t recognize your authority over us. You can go to Hell and give ’em our regards.
