[January 4, 2021] There is a wise saying that goes something like this, “Censorship reflects a lack of self-awareness in the agent.” Over the past several years, social media companies have been exercising censorship over speech with which they disagree. Those who censor the ideas of others are themselves practitioners of moral cowardice.
“When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.” – George R.R. Martin
Like so many other social media platforms, Twitter has taken to using its near-monopoly to use various technological tricks to suppress ideas. They do this through outright blocking of content, selective message tampering, search bias, “fact” checking, warning messages, and more that can still be found on the Internet.
The censorship has been incorrectly called “biased reporting” but has reached the U.S. Congress and the President’s attention. Little has been done. Each time Twitter or other media companies tighten their grip on people’s thoughts, Congress calls the CEO in for hearings, garnering a lot of hype, but nothing is done.
Let’s be blunt. This is modern-day book burning. The 1930s Nazi Party was not the first to use it, nor will they be the last. Twitter executives hold themselves out as virtuous, the vanguard against evil forces, and the classic hero who slays the dragon and saves the girl. They are, however, none of these. Their self-delusion is severe and dangerous.
It is an open secret that social media is anti-Conservative. Twitter has not been subject to government intervention because it enjoys a hyper-liberal bias and because it has U.S. law under Section 230 as protections against being sued for content, not within their control.
It can be argued that if the U.S. Government conducted itself in the same way as Twitter, it would violate the First Amendment to the Constitution.
In late October, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Capitol Hill to give his side of the problem. He denied any bias against conservative thought. Texas Senator Ted Cruz slammed Dorsey by noting that Twitter is editing and censoring and silencing specific news stories.2
The stereotype military officer is seen as an inflexible, narrow-minded, knuckle-dragger with little education or even a creative thought. It’s looking more and more like the stereotype fits Twitter executives who have prostrated themselves to leftist causes in America.
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Punks. 👍
Tyranny of the media. And what is so scary is that good people support it.
Just heard that Twitter “permanently” banned US President Trump, Gen. Mike Flynn, and Sydney Powell. Fascism is alive and thriving in America and our politicians are too cowardly to do anything about it. Wow. Crazy.
Fascism. In all its glory!.
If you can’t “see” it, then you need some deep help, baby. Fascism is a creeping evil that pervades much of our society and all it takes are folks to ignore it for it to grow stronger. Tyranny is that evil wrapped in pretty colors. It will destroy us.
Such a timely article about the oligarchs of social media. They stink. Their hypocrisy shows such a high level of a lack of self awareness that it is mind boggling.
The evil empire of social media. These men and women are the real enemy of the people. Too many Americans are too blind and stupid to realize it. Sad.
… and they follow like sheep to the slaughter without even batting an eye. After what I saw yesterday on tv about how our politicians bowed to the political, socialist leftists, I’m saddened by the fact they have no backbone. The social media are indeed a major evil in the world. They are corrupted by too much money and too much power.
Evil continues to March in the name of progressivism.
There is a difference in cowardice and evil. They are not mutually exclusive.
Go go go! USA. USA. USA. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Former Twitter CEO Calls Trump a “Coward” and “Two-Bit Punk”
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/twitter-ceo-calls-trump-a-coward-two-bit-punk-988811
Cowards all….
👍👍👍👍👍
Evil spreads easily. The biggest problem for us Americans is that so many cannot see evil. The Bible talks about this very issue … evil disguises itself. An educated people should be able to ‘see’ evil for what it is but our educational institutions has only made things worse.
Evil is among us.
… and yet this same Twitter CEO called Pres Trump a ‘coward.’ How ironic that the CEO of Twitter is so anti-American values and projects his own cowardly stance on someone else.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/twitter-ceo-calls-trump-a-coward-two-bit-punk-988811
And with the “elect” of Joe Biden as president, men like him see a green light to attack ideas they don’t like with their anti-American values.
I don’t think it’s cowardice but totalitarianism from the media and democrat party.
Cowards all.
Nothing much else to say, Teeter. Thanks for your fast work. 👍
BLM and antics are domestic terror orgs. Political dumbasses are too cowardly to call them out. Cowards are running the country. Don’t trust em.
Gen. Satterfield, excellent article and timely.
No one should be surprised at the lack of bravery by senior social media execs. They exist in a liberal bubble and spend all their time being reinforced by sycophants.
Something for us all to note is that our schools have been practicing censorship, not unlike Twitter and Facebook, for since I can remember and I go back a long way. They did this largely by omission. For example, if you wanted to read a book that was seen as “immoral”, you could not find it in the library. They simply wouldn’t buy the book and put it on the shelf. Today, you can access almost anything on the Internet (altho with a price). Censorship has a long history. Not all of it is good for us.
As usual Max, spot-on comment. Censorship by the govt is one thing however, censorship by your parents or local school is another. Let’s be careful here. Large companies that censor is something that is not entire new but should be debated. And that debate is now ongoing.
This is true, Dead Pool Guy and I’m happy you’ve pointed this out. Censorship to promote one’s political viewpoint is evil to the core. I support the USA and reject censorship. 🇺🇸
“It can be argued that if the U.S. Government conducted itself in the same way as Twitter, it would violate the First Amendment to the Constitution.” Your quote tells us a lot that should not be ignored.
Remember that people like this consider themselves ‘exempt’ from the rules of polite society.👍
The beginning of totalitarianism.
Great comments here, Gen. Satterfield. They should be called out for their ‘values’ that are clearly anti-American. Sadly, they won’t even notice.
Yep, true enough but that doesn’t mean we should ignore their behavior. There will always be folks who do not know enough about the American culture, history, or norms of behavior. As long as we ignore them, their evil will continue unabetted.
There is a serious lack of American values here. It should not be what is legal or illegal but what is right and what is wrong. What these social media companies are doing is evil, even if it is just a little evil. The slippery slope has begun. Congress should take up this problem and deal with it now. But they won’t do it due to their own fears.
Good comments here on Gen. Satterfield blog. I like this webs more than other leader sires. Those are just too commercialized.
Interesting article, thanks Gen. Satterfield. Yes, there is a lot of cowardice out there.
Moral Cowardice or just plain old cowardice that puts us all at risk. And, they believe deeply that all the rest of us are inferiors to be walked upon. They do have censorship power and are loving it all the way. The fact that many support their suppression of ideas makes me wonder what happened to our education system.
Our educ system failed a long time ago. The decline began in the 1960s with the infiltration of communism. I don’t say that with a knee-jerk, stereotype view but from reality. Just look at how Walter Cronkite turned into a communist without us realizing it.
Yes, that is a topic for another long discussion. The destruction of our educational system was first, now the political system, and of course the social media. They are “superior” to all of us in fly over country. This will not end well.
All a sad commentary. Joe, you are spot on with this comment and Gen. Satterfield has once again shown us that ignorance and evil are often connected.
Good point Purse 5. Thanks.
Cowardice is contagious, freedom is contagious as well. The struggle in the US is between those who want to be cowards (easy) and those who want to be free (hard). Twitter executives are stupid is as stupid does.
Ha Ha… as always Forrest, you are on target. And STUPID is part of the problem but I think evil is the real culprit here. It is easy for evil to disguise itself (as the Bible states) and we are too narcistic to realize it.