Prepare to be cancelled

Michie

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The ominous trend toward censorship, in the news and especially in the social media, is now unmistakably clear. At this point the question is when—not whether—Christian voices will be silenced.


Unless, of course, we can do something to reverse the trend.

In the digital era, information is king. If you control access to information—and can choke off access to information that you dislike—you can consolidate rule of the world. How can skeptics challenge you, if they never receive accurate information about what you are doing? How can your opponents organize, if they lack any way to contact like-minded people?

By now you have heard the ominous stories. To cite just a couple of egregious cases:

  • A respected social scientist, the president of a Washington think-tank, learns that his book on the “transgender” movement has been banned by Amazon. The author, Ryan Anderson, has received no explanation for the move; presumably some Amazon employee, acting behind a veil of anonymity, was offended by his views. (BTW Amazon continues to sell Mein Kampf.) Anderson remarks:If you fear what Big Tech can do if you dissent from gender ideology, just wait to see what Big Government will do if the so-called Equality Act becomes law. Second, a lesson: If you fear Big Government, don’t turn a blind eye to Big Tech.
  • An An Irish Catholic bishop is blocked by Twitter because of a comment opposing assisted suicide. Twitter offered the ridiculous explanation that Bishop Kevin Doran had violated its policy against promoting suicide. Eventually Twitter recognized the blunder and restored the bishop’s account. But again a faceless employee had censored an important voice.
Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, and Google form the unassailable elite of the internet, and all four of those powerful corporations are increasingly prone to censorship of opinions their leaders consider misguided. But who guides the censors?

The Italian sociologist Gaetano Mosca, writing early in the 20th century, argued that all societies are dominated by elites, in one way or another. The test of a society’s justice, Mosca said, is what he called “juridical defense”—does the system provide a way for ordinary people to defend themselves against damaging decisions by the elites that rule them? In the cases mentioned above—and the reader could probably mention many other cases—the answer is a resounding No.

Continued below.
Prepare to be cancelled
 

Halbhh

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If Bill owns a billboard, on which I displayed a message, and then Bill removes my message from his billboard, Bill has not 'silenced' me. He has instead refused to help spread my message.

I can still convey my message. I'm not 'silenced'. For instance, I may find a far better way to convey my message than Bill's billboard.
 
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Lawrence87

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If Bill owns a billboard, on which I displayed a message, and then Bill removes my message from his billboard, Bill has not 'silenced' me. He has instead refused to help spread my message.

I can still convey my message. I'm not 'silenced'. For instance, I may find a far better way to convey my message than Bill's billboard.

I think the only problem with this analogy is that it understates the power and monopoly that these tech companies have. So you get banned from Twitter and Facebook... Go to another platform? The problem is that Google etc. can control what other platforms appear in search results, and on the app store. Essentially meaning that they have the power to stop you from finding a better means to convey your message if they want to.

Of course its not a complete silencing, you can always walk down the street with a placard or whatever, but it's still quite a powerful monopoly that these companies have on the most frequently used, easily accessible platforms.
 
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Halbhh

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I think the only problem with this analogy is that it understates the power and monopoly that these tech companies have. So you get banned from Twitter and Facebook... Go to another platform? The problem is that Google etc. can control what other platforms appear in search results, and on the app store. Essentially meaning that they have the power to stop you from finding a better means to convey your message if they want to.

Of course its not a complete silencing, you can always walk down the street with a placard or whatever, but it's still quite a powerful monopoly that these companies have on the most frequently used, easily accessible platforms.
Perhaps I underestimate how significant Facebook or Twitter is, as I simply don't rely on them for more than 1/2 of 1% of my information and articles (and it would be even less, about 0% outright, but for 1 friend that sent me several tweets by a good epidemiologist in the last few months) -- generally I never look to facebook or twitter to find out anything. If someone we know does rely on those, it would be like....they only watched MSNBC, or only listened to Limbaugh (past tense now I guess) -- as an analogy.

It might not even matter if we gave them more choices in other words! Their filtering is their own they are doing without facebook or twitter to cause it.

In other words, if a great book is on Amazon, it won't help -- because those individuals are creating their own echo chamber, and having a great book available won't help them!

Except in this one known bad way: Facebook does tend to feed people stuff that is like what they already look at -- a terrible reinforcing of the echo chamber effect. So, in that way, Facebook is highly harmful to everyone that uses it, if they rely on it much.
 
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Dave G.

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If Bill owns a billboard, on which I displayed a message, and then Bill removes my message from his billboard, Bill has not 'silenced' me. He has instead refused to help spread my message.

I can still convey my message. I'm not 'silenced'. For instance, I may find a far better way to convey my message than Bill's billboard.
But using that anology, Bills billboard is up on every expressway in the world saying Biden and Harris for president. Bill orders that news cancelled and not to be shown anymore, so now Biden and Harris have a little piece of cardboard with the same message but it's on a back dirt road someplace where next to nobody sees it.. You can say the message is not cancelled all you want but the change is profound. And we've already seen it in action. If they can cancel the president of the United States in an election year they can cancel you or me or adds for your pastors new book. Always when you crack a door open to Satan he comes rushing in like a flood.
 
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Halbhh

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But using that anology, Bills billboard is up on every expressway in the world saying Biden and Harris for president. Bill orders that news cancelled and not to be shown anymore, so now Biden and Harris have a little piece of cardboard with the same message but it's on a back dirt road someplace where next to nobody sees it.. You can say the message is not cancelled all you want but the change is profound. And we've already seen it in action. If they can cancel the president of the United States in an election year they can cancel you or me or adds for your pastors new book. Always when you crack a door open to Satan he comes rushing in like a flood.
Twitter didn't really cancel Trump in any way that matters before the election -- he got his messages across hundreds of times to most everyone.

But it was significant that Twitter canceled Trump's account after everything was decided, on January 8th.

You could argue, reasonably, that the election was truly over at that point, Biden was already set to be President by Congress, the final step, and it was past tense.

So, now, if Trump wants a giant platform for 2024, he'll have to go elsewhere, and there's plenty of time to do so. (though I estimate Trump has alienated too many voters in the middle, people that actually ended up voting for Republican representatives and Biden, when they voted, way back in November)

Basically, I don't really believe it's possible to 'cancel' anyone in any real way that truly matters, though. Not really. If a person has a powerful message, it will get across, even if just by word of mouth.
 
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Jesse Dornfeld

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There is something very twisted about the progressive movement.

Ex. Equality Act. Any Christian on board with this bill has lost their mind.

"Do not be conformed to this world." It does not get any more clear than that.
 
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eastcoast_bsc

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If Bill owns a billboard, on which I displayed a message, and then Bill removes my message from his billboard, Bill has not 'silenced' me. He has instead refused to help spread my message.

I can still convey my message. I'm not 'silenced'. For instance, I may find a far better way to convey my message than Bill's billboard.



So according to your logic if Verizon or AT&T doesn’t like my conversation then they can refuse me service.

Do you see my point? If a company controls or has a monopoly on a mode of communication than they should be forbade from introducing a political litmus test as to who gets to speak .
 
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Lion IRC

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Thanks for the link.
Here's my 2 cents.

Firstly, the world is run by those who show up. (The secular world.)
We have to show up. Unapologetically and fearlessly. If I have to 'tolerate' views which I find offensive/objectionable, if its a part of WOKE culture to let people identify and express themselves anyway they like, then I claim the equal right to identify as pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-God, pro-heterosexuality, pro-salvation....
If I dont show up and speak up and defend my (equal) rights, then I can't complain if the public square contest of ideas gets dominated by views contrary to my own.

Secondly, censorship and cancel culture actually creates publicity for competing world views. The more Big Tech Atheism tries to censor people like Ryan Anderson and Lila Rose the more publicity they attract for the causes they are trying to silence. Everybody wants to read the banned book...Salman Rushdie is more famous thanks to the powerful people who wanted him censored. Jordan Peterson rose to fame why?

Thirdly, I think there's a strong argument to try and leverage Big Tech's Orwellian overreach against it. Forget about their rights as owners to implement whatever content policies they like. (Remember, we are the people who argued that a cake bakery shouldn't have to cater for SSM weddings.) Rather, we should challenge WHY they are acting like Big Brother instead of their entitlement to act that way. Why, in the age of enlightenment, is Facebook acting like a modern day Torquemada and trying to control the thoughts of people who can think for themselves? Why is Twitter banning more content than the Taliban? Why is Big Tech insulting the intelligence of its audience by acting like some Nanny filter? Certainly, there are many of our ideological opponents among the liberal, atheist left who dislike being told by Big Tech who they can and cannot engage with on the internet.
 
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iarwain

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Without getting into the political aspects of the conversation, I agree with the original poster. It's only a matter of time before Christians are the target for cancellation.

It's not like Christians have not faced persecution before, but it is sad to see the country come to the place it has. The US has been very prosperous as a nation founded on Christian principles, will that be taken away from us as the country becomes more sinful, humanist, and increasingly denies God?
 
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Halbhh

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So according to your logic if Verizon or AT&T doesn’t like my conversation then they can refuse me service.
Then I would go to a competitor and buy phone service from them instead, as none of the phone companies are even slightly like monopolies.

But next you ask the good question:
Do you see my point? If a company controls or has a monopoly on a mode of communication than they should be forbade from introducing a political litmus test as to who gets to speak

In the United States no company has any manner of monopoly on speech as mode or method of speech.

Not even one.

But, I'm sympathetic to the idea that there ought to be an electronic public square. It would need to be publicly owned. Like in Socialism. Public ownership of a common place/thing/service is called "Socialism", and all countries have at least some of it.

There is no socialistic type free speech electronic platform here in the U.S., as all electronic platforms are free enterprise businesses.
 
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