Complicity and conspiracy: Twitter's role in subverting American Democracy
The Democrats have decided that only those who share their beliefs and values are worthy of having a voice. They believe debate in an open and unregulated [social media] market is bad for democracy.
Probably it is true enough that the great majority are rarely capable of thinking independently, that on most questions they accept views which they find ready-made, and that they will be equally content if born or coaxed into one set of beliefs or another. In any society freedom of thought will probably be of direct significance only for a small minority. But this does not mean that anyone is competent, or ought to have power, to select those to whom this freedom is to be reserved. It certainly does not justify the presumption of any group of people to claim the right to determine what people ought to think or believe. ― Friedrich August von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
Democratic leaders and former Twitter executives want free speech regulated and censored. In their view, the great unwashed and unenlightened public is too stupid to think for themselves. The ‘wise and enlightened’ voices support social justice policies that the progressives believe are in the best interests of society. It takes ‘enlightened’ woke progressives in the Democratic Party to pass the social (equity) justice wealth redistribution plans and save the planet with climate change policies that they support. Any voices that don’t toe the Party line – well, they are too stupid or too radical to be heard. Moreover, they believe that “Ultra MAGA” Republicans and their supporters endanger democracy –“semi-fascists” as President Joe Biden and Democrats have repeatedly declared.
The Democrats and their proxies have decided that only those who share their beliefs and values are worthy of having a voice. They believe debate in an open and unregulated [social media] market is bad for democracy. What they mean is that it’s bad for their type of policy set. It should be called the “Democratic Socialist Party of America Policy Set.”
Hence, they attempt to regulate speech via censorship imposed by surrogates like Big Tech and social media platforms. This of course includes the useful idiot liberal main street media. It’s the only way their approved voices and narratives can dominate the disfavored viewpoints that support free speech and free enterprise—a market-based concept in which the best ideas and policies win. In other words, they want to replace a free market of ideas and opinions with a regulated and rigged market where only their narratives are heard. It’s the only way they can gain and retain political power.
Censorship is how they impose their collective will and [falsely assumed] superior morality on the stupid people and MAGA radicals they despise. They are deluded in believing that only they can correct society’s injustices and save the planet from global warming. It’s hubris to say that it is their prerogative to tell us how to think. Their woke progressive policies that promise to transform our country into a socialist nirvana are rejected by most Americans, who prefer to live this side of their paradise. Hence, they attempt to censor and regulate free speech in a futile attempt to control political and social narratives.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called upon social media to use enlightened algorithms to protect users from their own bad reading choices. President Biden called for regulation of speech and discussions by wise editors. Without such censorship and manipulation, he asked, “How do people know the truth?” A federal filing in a 2021 email between Twitter executives and Carol Crawford, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s digital media chief revealed that Crawford wanted to censor “unapproved opinions” on social media; Twitter replied that “with our CEO testifying before Congress this week [it] is tricky.”
Shadow banning and “visibility filtering” are consistent with the policies of ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, who pledged that the company would “focus less on thinking about free speech” because “speech is easy on the internet. Most people can speak. Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard.”
Still, it should have been obvious to him that when you stop people from speaking, you prevent others from hearing.
As Benjamin Franklin said, "Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech."
Philip Nunez, The Solo Dark Lantern