The last few years have been weird. 2020 was especially odd, and 2021 is off to one hell of a start. The extremes of both the Left ( Wokeism) and the Right ( Trumpism) have dominated the National conversation, even though they’re not the majority of the people. Traditional and Social Media companies dominated the narrative and own the dispersing of the content. These companies were deemed so powerful, that they were thought responsible for influencing the 2016 Election outcome through Russian influence. These companies who got Trump elected, profited from covering him 24hrs a day, have been all too eager to continue fanning the flames of inter-ideological hatred in our country.
In the wake of the US Capitol being breached during protests that became riots, there was a window to get away with an over corrective knee-jerk of censorship in the name of safety. There was no hesitation in doing so. It went well beyond the banning of Trump’s online accounts. The systematic shut-down is coordinated, highly concerning, and hypocritical. When the ideological power balance of one side is so strong to be able to suppress dissent, the historical results are all the same: Pain, suffering, violence: We have all 3 right now, but if we continue down the road we appear to be on, the fear is that we’ll have far more.
In a very short time period after the horrible and unforgivable Capitol breach, the Big Tech Monopolies went to work under considerable pressure. They all know they have antitrust legislation about to reign down from the Democratic majority that was just elected in the US. In hopes to keep their business models going, they caved. First, by permanently shutting down Trump’s Twitter account on Friday, Jan 8th 2021, then by removing access to platforms altogether for many right-leaning figures and regular folks (Not just those on the far Right fringes like Proud Boys, Q Anon). All of the sudden, conservative columnists losing 50,000 followers.. In a day. YouTube ( Owned by Google) is actively removing content from anyone alleging that Election Fraud may have occurred in the US. ( NOTE: I don’t believe Biden’s win was due to a stolen election, there hasn’t been evidence of it…however… like in ALL elections, there was likely voter fraud. It likely wasn’t enough to change the result. Being unable to even question it? That’s suppression.) Parler, a popular social media app among conservatives ( not just far-right fringes) had access in App stores by Apple and Google removed, and without warning, Amazon Web Services removed it’s hosting from their site altogether. Amazon said they gave them warning. Parler’s CEO said they didn’t. Amazon gave their reasoning: that Parler didn’t do enough to monitor dangerous content on it’s platform. This is wildly hypocritical.
Violence isn’t acceptable. Violent mobs aren’t acceptable. However, this is the message the Tech Oligarchs are sending: “some violence is righteous, justified – as long as you think like we do.” Much of the planning for the Capitol breach appears to have been done on Facebook. Guess who does much of the web-hosting for Facebook? That’s right… Amazon Web Services ( AWS). So Facebook’s ( FB’s) monitoring is acceptable, but Parler did a poor job? Over the Summer of 2020, many of the Black Lives Matter ( BLM) protests, turned into violent riots – some targeting Government buildings, police precincts, and police officers themselves. People died. Buildings were burned. Businesses lost. Much of the planning for these was done out in the open over many different platforms ( including Twitter), and was allowed to happen. The incitement of, and the fanning the flames of hatred was not only tolerated, but given priority with hashtags and searches being elevated. Why was this? Was it because the violence somehow seemed justified? How is it that set of extreme and violent behavior becomes acceptable, while the other becomes un-acceptable? Indeed, an invasion of the US Capitol building during the carrying out of policy proceeding where 5 peopled ended up dead is a special kind of awful. Comparisons are dangerous because of context, but violence is violence and is wrong, no matter how you slice it.
Much of the communication between the occupants of CHAZ in Seattle over the Summer, was also done on the major Social Media platforms. It was violent. People died. Guns were used. The folks that occupied the area and perpetrated the violence were politically far Left. They were angry with the Government. ( Sound familiar?) They were not met with the same reaction from the Media or deplatformed from Social Media, though they were openly threatening. They were allowed to do it. One could make the argument that they were encouraged, as some Governments didn’t put up any fight in allowing the rioters and looters; far different from the situation at the Capitol where a fight was mounted by an overwhelmed Police. Indeed, an invasion of the US Capitol building during the carrying out of policy proceeding
In a more potent example of Big Tech’s hypocrisy, Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei is allowed to openly threaten the great “#Satan” that is Israel with Tweet after Tweet, and is allowed to continue without reprimand or censoring. Maybe @Jack can qualify his Tweets by saying “The assertion that Israel is #Satan may contain misinformation.” If we’re going to make a habit out of silencing World Leaders, we can start there, and do it equitably.
( Note: I do not envy the position that Big Tech decision makers find themselves in…having the kind of power they wield was something they maybe never saw coming, and being able to control speech is a task few would be able to do judiciously. But here they are….)
The post Capitol siege bloodlust and piling on of those now in power has become more apparent in the recent days. Some have been blatant about their feelings on close to half of the country’s population. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ( AOC) goes out on Twitter, in a fist-pounding video, had the nerve to call out the GOP saying they “never cared about safety” or “law and order.” There’s plenty of blame to go around in Washington but what she’s saying is not factual and her Statements are hypocritical. Where was this support for “law and order” over the Summer as our cities were burning? Also, Now?? Why is THIS the opportune time fan the flames of division? Or…maybe it’s yet another example of “do as I say, but not as I do”? How does it help to call anyone that voted for Trump a “White Supremacist”? We don’t need another lawmaker eating in a restaurant, getting their haircut, or writing a book about how they saved their State during lockdowns they themselves imposed… We don’t need another lawmaker doing double-talk about a payroll tax-cut only when it goes along with their agenda… We don’t need the Media preaching about kindness then demonizing half of the country for the actions of a small percentage. Trump is gone. But that’s not enough. We have to dance on the grave, talk down to anyone may have voted for the man.
But Hate sells. They know it. We’ve fallen for it. Media reaps ad dollars as we tear ourselves apart. The environment has us complicit in violating our own principles of “right and wrong.” We’ve violated our own code of ethics. We’ve felt forced to compromise our commitment to our morals for things we know that are untrue. We’ve all seen the people who excused the violence of the Summer 2020 riots, and participating in cancel culture. We’ve seen those become apologists for what happened at the US Capitol. For What? How is the cognitive dissonance making our lives better?
We keep making blunder after societal blunder. We’ve gone full bore with identity politics. We create language that continues to divide us into sub-group, after sub-group, to enrage ourselves when one of those sub-groups doesn’t comply with the prevailing social media virtue signal of the week. This is so prevalent, that Third Graders in Cupertino ( so so oppressed) were asked to write short essays describing which aspects of their identities “hold power and privilege” and which do not. We’ve gone so far afield from Dr. King’s dream based on the content of character by creating a never-ending list of superficial identifiers to pre-judge one another. Here we are, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and it’s hard to not wonder if he would have been “cancelled” in today’s environment with his love of Jesus and having been complicit with some unsavory actions. Would he have been allowed to speak at college campuses, or would him being Christian be viewed as a “micro-aggression from the patriarchy”? It’s hard to tell.
I’ve thought long/hard about whether I should publish this. I don’t feel it’s my best writing, and was put together quickly. It leans heavier on criticism of the Left, ( There’s plenty of blame to assign to the Right) and is no way meant to come across as excusing the actions at the Capitol perpetrated by those who appear to be on the Far Right. I’m sure some will see me as an apologist. I am not, but will be taken as such without truly reading. That’s fine. I’ve made no bones about my feelings on Trump and those that blindly follow his ideology. I don’t get the “I would die for him” cult-like loyalty. It’s insane. There’s also the risk of being cancelled myself, or losing friends over this. There’s a risk to my family who may not share my views ( now or in the future), who could be “guilty” by association; a sad reality of today’s touchy climate. I also know that some are going to excuse themselves from looking in the mirror and asking if they’ve applied their principles without bias? It’s not fun. We all view ourselves as “good people” and often justify our and other’s actions to conveniently allow for violations of our own moral codes. I’m asking that we apply our standards equitably and to not throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to Free Speech.
I’ve purposely spoken less about politics out in public over the last few years, save an article blasting both Biden and Trump in the 2020 election for the loathesome characters that they are ( Seriously, HOW did we get here with our National leadership?) The absence of my political talk was to NOT add to the growing division. I get that pointing out of what I see as an assault on public speech may bother many; including those people who I hold in high regard despite our differences. ‘Speech’ is what I view as the highest priority. Thus, I’m disturbed by the actions of monopolies to impose censorship and suppression of dissent as an opportunistic reaction of the disgraceful actions of a few ( Yes, the Capitol stormers were WRONG! I hope I’m clear on that). If the political Left were systematically being silenced, it wouldn’t and SHOULDN’T be tolerated. I’m disturbed by the overtures of our media and their vengeful satisfaction that came after ( and continuing) conservative censorship.
Our ability to speak up with our disagreements is what separates us from other countries. Just yesterday ( 1/17/2021), Russian opposition leader, Alexie Navalny returned to Moscow after recovering in Germany from being poisoned. One can guess who was behind the poisoning and why. The second he stepped off the plane in Russia, Navalny was arrested. According to him, he was told he was going to a meeting with his lawyers. Instead, he had an impromptu court hearing and is going to be jailed for 30 days. This is what happens when one side controls the narrative. We can learn from history. We can not make our ancestors mistakes. We’re not there, but we have to make sure we’re not Russia, China, Venezuela, the PRI/Drug cartel controlled Mexico, which all came about due the power to silence.
“Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ( The Gulag Archipelago).
“Unity” has eluded every Nation, throughout history. Unity has always been a pipe dream. We descended from apes, and they’re a warring animal. So are we. Every human narrative involves conflict. And when we don’t have a serious one, we’ll create one out of boredom. The conditions over the last year, the rise of Trumpism being portrayed as the prevailing religion of the right, and Wokeism as the religion of the Left, along with lockdowns, racial tension, our mistrust of institutions, and economic despair have us in living on the edge. There seems an opportunity for conflict at every intersection of ideas.
These next few days will be telling. The conditions with the change in power in Washington happening will give us a good idea what path we’re going down. President Trump is going to pardon and commute sentences of people he shouldn’t. It’s going to make news, and make people angry. We’ll forget the President Obama did the same, including violent insurrectionist, Oscar Lopez Rivera who in 1981 had a federal court in Chicago sentence him to 55 years for seditious conspiracy, armed robbery, interstate transportation of firearms and conspiracy to transport explosives with intent to destroy government property. Lopez Rivera even challenged the court’s legitimacy to try him. Again… sound familiar? We’ll have our opportunities to be hypocritical or to call a “spade a spade.” These next few days and weeks will be a barometer of where we’re going with dissident speech in the US. Will we go down the path of authoritarianism? As of now, we’re able to call “bullshit” on our own side, and that of the opposition. Even if our Tech overlords have made it more difficult. The only way we enjoy that Freedom in the FUTURE is to speak up NOW. My hope that this made you think. That’s the goal. To think about something, and if you don’t agree, to have the ability to say “why.” Let’s be careful with that freedom as it allows all of the others.
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ( The Gulag Archipelago).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/13/facebook-role-in-capitol-protest/
https://www.city-journal.org/identity-politics-in-cupertino-california-elementary-school
Andrew L Hamilton 