This week Facebook removed hundreds of pages for what they claimed was violation of Terms Of Service (TOS) and some other claptrap. Then things got really interesting when Twitter removed many of the same users on the same day.
This time it was not Alex Jones being removed. Many of the pages targeted were Progressive sources. Antimedia, Police The Police, Cop Block, Rachel Blevins and The Free Thought Project. If you recall, in the last round of purges, some of the sources silenced were from AntiWar and several people from the Ron Paul Liberty Report.
In each round of censorship, voices being removed are voices against corporate control and very strongly anti-war.
Timing is everything. Notice that these voices are being silenced immediately before the midterms. Not to mention shortly after the latest massive increase in the military budget and just as the US government has been pushing for war against Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela concurrently. Some of these voices have been highly critical of centrist Democrats for failing to speak out against these increased military tensions. Notice that the “Resistance” has not bothered to say one word calling for diplomacy or reduction in military aggression. They scream how Trump wants war but when he literally suggests war, they are silent. Instead, they hand him AUMF powers and the largest military budget in human history.
You were warned. When Alex Jones was censored, I wrote a number of articles raging against his silencing. Not because I have any interest in what he has to say. Seriously, do I sound like I like him? I warned against what it was leading to. Many alleged Progressives fought against me for their emotional hatred of him, unable to grasp what was being said. I joined a chorus of voices including many Progressives like Jimmy Dore, Glenn Greenwald, Caitlin Johnstone, each of us saying the same thing in our own way. We warned of the dangers this was foretelling.
Alex Jones was a test case. Corporate media and the government were not testing the Conservative right, as their reaction was predictable. No, that was to test the reaction of the neo-left. Once again, the reaction was predictable.
Conservatives. Conservatives have a basic need to be led. They live their lives that way. From family traditions never questioned to religion to school to military with the government and corporations making decisions for them, they never stop to doubt. They claim they will stand up to authoritarianism and then beg for the very authoritarianism they claim to oppose. You can kill their children and leave them starving but hand them a gun and a Bible, tell them they are free and they believe you. Campaign against regime change and peace, then change that to a massive push for global domination through military force. They never even notice the difference.
Neoliberals. Neoliberals like to call themselves liberal yet are anything but. Less religious than Conservatives but still led with no ability to question. Tell them gay people can marry, that a woman can be just as much of a fascist as a man and nothing their cult does is wrong, they will fall in line. Give them the right to make pennies owning stock from the corporations that destroy their savings, bomb other countries while smiling and winking and they will fall all over themselves to let you rig the next election in favor of another billionaire. Vote for skin color or body parts, it’s all good if we murder children or threaten nuclear war. Just don’t talk about issues and policies. Predictable, controllable, will march any direction to follow a blue banner.
Progressives. Progressives are the wild card. The ones not easily controlled. We demand evidence of claims, something that can be verified, not “high confidence” opinions. We want defined policies, not vague promises. We want to know the how of anything done or anything that is being proposed. We want media that asks questions and elected officials that offer answers. We do not offer loyalty to parties that offer no loyalty to us. We want nothing to do with prejudice, religion in politics or voting for body parts. Even if we occasionally fall for propaganda, we have no problem admitting we were wrong if we learn that we were indeed wrong. Our loyalty lies with each other. We know that freedom of speech must include voices we don’t like to hear. We know attacks on those voices will become attacks on our voices, our rights.. our freedom in actual fact.. our lives. That knowledge makes us dangerous. We are the ones to control, to silence by any means possible.
What happens next? Obviously, none of us really knows what will happen next. What we do know is that midterms are in only a few weeks. That censorship, rhetoric and outrageous behavior will be amplified in these last days. We know the march to war will continue unopposed. We know our voices will be suppressed. We know that the RNC will push legislation that helps corporations and strips our rights. We know the DNC will claim to resist while confirming nominations and offering no policies that do anything for the people. We know that nothing is going to change after the election no matter which way it goes. Nothing will change until WE make it change. Which will NOT happen by electing the same people with the same policies in the same parties over and over and over. We cannot keep doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.
What can we do? The only thing that we can do is keep sharing information. Be informed on election day and vote for policies, not parties. Write, call, protest, march. Do anything to get the attention of elected officials and push for actions. If one Progressive media source gets shut down, find others and support them however you can. Donate, subscribe, connect, share, converse. Don’t just hit “like” and think that’s enough. Do not just keep complaining about “the other guys”. Focus on solutions, not blame. Blame never solved any problem in all of human history.
And STFU about Russia. Russia did not censor anyone in this country. Once again, that was the corporations.