A few points. I read Kendi’s simplistic, silly book. He is hardly an “intellectual”. As I understand it “the oath keepers” are dedicated to their oath to the constitution. I am not sure why they are so reviled. The “proud boys” seem mostly willing to stand up to the violent antifa cadres.
I have objected to this entire ridiculous concern about “hate”. Hate crimes, idiotic. If you hit or kill me I couldn’t care less if you “hate” me. So very stupid.
They're not going just after "deplorables," but everyone. I'm a liberal who has been thrown in Zuckerberg Jail a half-dozen times for posting things deemed "violation of community standards" by the bots but were, in fact, historical events, points of view not out of mainstream political thought, and, the last time, 30 days for a violation they would not explain or allow an appeal to humans. Next time, I could be banned permanently. This has happened to a number of liberals I know personally, and none of them are radical bomb-throwers, just normal people.
I find this appalling, because censorship is poison to a democratic republic. The social media, PayPal, and the like are not just "private businesses" any more. They have become our postal service, telephone system, and the nearly exclusive choice of political speech and communication in this nation. The definition of fascism is the marriage of government and corporate power. We let the corporations walk right in and take over.
If a baker is considered a "public accommodation" such that he/she/it has to sell to all comers, why isn't PayPal and the general banking system? This is just redlining under another category.
Brilliantly written. Best line IMO, “Silenced voices and empty stomachs are fuel for the very extremism you claim to oppose. “. Like Mr. Sachs, I, too, live and work here in Silicon Valley but was raised in a Midwestern town. The single track way of thinking among Coastal elites is killing this country. I truly believe my neighbors have no regard for “flyover” states & low vaccination rates.
Deplatforming these people is the means to justify the end. This has to be how it begun during the Holocaust too. While I hate to make that comparison, the parallels seem real.
More than a little ironic that the ADL is making common cause with the very people who support the kaffiyeh-wearing thugs cruising the streets and crashing restaurants looking for Jews. News flash to the ADL, the biggest supporters of Israel and the rights of American Jews are conservatives. The very people you curse as nazis or worse. The progressives are all in on throwing Jews under the bus. And when the thugs come looking for you, do you really think your wokeness will protect you?
As with the entire cannon thus far of essays on Bari's substack, this one was worth my time to read. I don't post much, but a couple of thoughts came to my mind reading this one. I make no pretense to connected these random thoughts into a single essay--just random thoughts:
I am a statistician by training. I see the world as a bell curve with those lovely, pinched, asymptotic tails on into infinity on each end. We live in a world where most people are the silent middle. The loudest voices at each end are the ones we can hear too much of---but they are always the smallest groups. I remind myself of this when mass media attempts to gin up hysteria for the next wave of disaster.
In a related vein, I de-platformed myself in January. No more social media. I call or text friends and family I want to talk to. I seek out authors I want to read. I seek out very long articles and book length treatments of topics instead of sound bites. It takes longer to read and that time gives me time to process things instead of reacting to things.
I found an Amish farm to buy fresh vegetables. Such sweet and kind people, and it fits my slower and quieter and less connected life.
So: let the loud people on the coasts fight over social media and online shopping and the high tech world. I love small town life and we need more of it.
Great stuff. When I was watching the capital riot, I wasn’t all that concerned. It was an angry mob for sure, but there was little else. If you could have photoshopped the capital out of the picture and replaced it with Target, it would have translated as a rather benign riot, comparatively speaking - no opting, “target” was still whole and the subject of a lot of wondering and selfies, right along with conversations with some of the internal security. So I wasn’t at all concerned.
However, when Parlor was shut down, completely, by all the supporting actors in Big Tech, my blood literally ran cold. Not since the twin towers fell on 9/11 had I thought that the potential for massive shifts in government powers - going off to war to combat an idea - until I witnessed Parlor’s near destruction. The potential for abuse, i felt, was beyond the pale. If the government, or those ideologically aligned with the government, could engage in activity that would be deemed wildly unconstitutional by the most powerful government in world…we were all headed down a very, very dark and totalitarian path. And in my arguments to friends on FB (I explored my friends to leave SM as it’s pretty clear you’re giving money to those who abuse you), I stated that if the banning of Parlor receives no serious pushback, next step is payment systems. You will be unable to use your credit cards, PayPal, all that when you engage in activity that ALL of tech dislikes. Want to buy a gun with your credit card? Nope. Want to use paypal to organize funds for a anti gun lobby group? Nope. Worse, you, as a private citizen that joins said activity would be banned forever from those systems - to include Amazon services, or streaming services. Everything that we know that is a digital service would deny you service because you’ voted for Republicans, or espoused anti-progressive ideas. Do you think CRT is racist? Sorry, no Disney+ for you. And nobody would know because your voice is also silenced in SM. You become unseen and unheard.
When I first made these arguments at the turn of the New Year my friends, these that remained on SM, told me that it was crazy to assume any of that would happen. It only took about 6 months to become true. What I did not predict was just how bold the government would be in regard to these ideological relationships with Tech. I always assumed they’d just keep it on the down-low. It is not at all comforting to see just how nonchalant Psaki is when she announced the teaming and the demands for censorship. It was further unsettling to hear crickets by the corporate media. And of course, Congress is doing relatively nothing about it. Even Republicans seem mute about totalitarian actions here in the States while screening about freedom and internet access in Cuba!!
I would see combat and lose so many friends during the war on terror. There are signal events throughout history - 9/11, Pearl Harbor, The Declaration of Independence, The Dred Scott ruling - that portend great social and political upheaval. Believe it or not, the total de-platforming of Parlor by the most powerful companies in the world is on that list. It means you’re fucked, no matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on, you’re fucked if you don’t act as responsible citizens and voters and demand that Congress draft laws that make this sort of censorship illegal in the digital space.
Mr. Sacks - You express common sense. Big Tech and our government overlords are lacking any of it now. They are fools who have never read a history book.
So yet again, we tumble towards totalitarian governance and all of the blowback it will surely provoke.
The very people these assholes want to de platform are the ones who use them the most. If the deplorables stop watching professional sports, stop ordering off amazon and stop using PayPal we can make them hurt. The left always wants a boycott so why not us? I can live without any of it, just think about the business we could generate in small town America. They say they don’t want us but they definitely want our money so why give it to them. I’m closing my PayPal account right now. F**k them!!!
This is already happening. A bank, one of the biggest ones, closed all the accounts for a conservative bundler I know, personal and business, soon after the election. The only thing he was ever able to find out was that it was "political". Conservatives are being targeted by campaigns to deprive them of legal representation, which is a civil rights violation to my mind. What's next? Pressure campaigns to keep doctors from treating Republicans?
We live in a very bad comic book. I just want to know why these tech giants ban anything that can be remotely linked to “racism” through revisionist history generations ago giving them justification to cancel and destroy anyone EXCEPT the Democrat party that was and is the party of racism from the KKK to Jim Crow to destroying Black families in the “great society” to the modern day bigotry of low expectations being forced on minority kids with school closures abd victim hood mentalities? I mean if racists systems must be torn down, the Democrat party should go first. 🤷♀️
I wonder, is anyone familiar with the work of @johnrobb? A former military analysts, he's been warning about this collusion between government and big tech for a while. He's usually 2 years ahead of events, and it is scary. IN his latest report (titled: The End of Freedom, btw) he highlights how corporate computers can effectively de-platform an individual to the stone age; and how there's no recourse to this, as these are corporations, they don't have to respond.
Big tech's censors are definitely overreaching. And now they're beginning to affect and irritate even the most ordinary, harmless, unobjectionable people -- people like little old me. Last week I received my first "warning" from Amazon for a review I posted about a dreadful new Amazon movie, The Tomorrow War. Here's the charming message Amazon sent:
"Hello. One or more of your posts were found to be outside our guidelines. In order to help our customers make informed choices, we encourage them to review the product and contribute information about it. However, Community content that violate our guidelines or Conditions of Use will be removed.
"Please consider this a first warning.Before submitting your next post, please refer to our Customer Guidelines. Failure to comply with our policies may result in your account being banned from taking part in Community features. Thanks for your understanding in this matter."
And what, Dear Reader, was my sin? Amazon didn't say. But I'm sure I know what happened. My review contained a "verboten" phrase. Was this phrase the N-word? No, Dear Reader, it was not. The phrase I used was the not quite slur adjacent "Magical Negro," a phrase first used by Spike Lee, the Oscar winning black movie director in a presentation he gave to film students back in 2001. Since this phrase is listed in Wikipedia and describes a supporting black character who saves he day for the white lead, I figured it was fine. But apparently Amazon's algorithm or some young woke fool on their payroll didn't think so.
In the past, I've written dozens of reviews for products I've purchased (books, art supplies, furniture, beauty products, etc.) and have likely helped move tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff. And what was the reward for all my unpaid labor? An obnoxious, high tech slap on the wrist.
Amazon, your actions have consequences, and you have just shot yourself in the foot. I now solemnly swear, on a stack of defaced Amazon Prime boxes, I will never write another review for your greedy, ungrateful company again. Let those revenues sink until your company drowns in red ink.
>> "As with the censorship of speech, financial deplatforming often begins as something that seems narrow and reasonable — who wouldn’t want to ban the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys?"
Quite a few of us wouldn't, Mr. Sacks. Would you like to be unpersoned for having written this article? I'm sure I can find someone it seems narrow and reasonable to. Maybe make sure you're permanently delisted from employment, ineligible for ACA marketplace plans- guess you'll be paying that tax penalty every year... let's see what else we can do.
A few points. I read Kendi’s simplistic, silly book. He is hardly an “intellectual”. As I understand it “the oath keepers” are dedicated to their oath to the constitution. I am not sure why they are so reviled. The “proud boys” seem mostly willing to stand up to the violent antifa cadres.
I have objected to this entire ridiculous concern about “hate”. Hate crimes, idiotic. If you hit or kill me I couldn’t care less if you “hate” me. So very stupid.
They're not going just after "deplorables," but everyone. I'm a liberal who has been thrown in Zuckerberg Jail a half-dozen times for posting things deemed "violation of community standards" by the bots but were, in fact, historical events, points of view not out of mainstream political thought, and, the last time, 30 days for a violation they would not explain or allow an appeal to humans. Next time, I could be banned permanently. This has happened to a number of liberals I know personally, and none of them are radical bomb-throwers, just normal people.
I find this appalling, because censorship is poison to a democratic republic. The social media, PayPal, and the like are not just "private businesses" any more. They have become our postal service, telephone system, and the nearly exclusive choice of political speech and communication in this nation. The definition of fascism is the marriage of government and corporate power. We let the corporations walk right in and take over.
We need to stop it.
If a baker is considered a "public accommodation" such that he/she/it has to sell to all comers, why isn't PayPal and the general banking system? This is just redlining under another category.
Brilliantly written. Best line IMO, “Silenced voices and empty stomachs are fuel for the very extremism you claim to oppose. “. Like Mr. Sachs, I, too, live and work here in Silicon Valley but was raised in a Midwestern town. The single track way of thinking among Coastal elites is killing this country. I truly believe my neighbors have no regard for “flyover” states & low vaccination rates.
Deplatforming these people is the means to justify the end. This has to be how it begun during the Holocaust too. While I hate to make that comparison, the parallels seem real.
More than a little ironic that the ADL is making common cause with the very people who support the kaffiyeh-wearing thugs cruising the streets and crashing restaurants looking for Jews. News flash to the ADL, the biggest supporters of Israel and the rights of American Jews are conservatives. The very people you curse as nazis or worse. The progressives are all in on throwing Jews under the bus. And when the thugs come looking for you, do you really think your wokeness will protect you?
As with the entire cannon thus far of essays on Bari's substack, this one was worth my time to read. I don't post much, but a couple of thoughts came to my mind reading this one. I make no pretense to connected these random thoughts into a single essay--just random thoughts:
I am a statistician by training. I see the world as a bell curve with those lovely, pinched, asymptotic tails on into infinity on each end. We live in a world where most people are the silent middle. The loudest voices at each end are the ones we can hear too much of---but they are always the smallest groups. I remind myself of this when mass media attempts to gin up hysteria for the next wave of disaster.
In a related vein, I de-platformed myself in January. No more social media. I call or text friends and family I want to talk to. I seek out authors I want to read. I seek out very long articles and book length treatments of topics instead of sound bites. It takes longer to read and that time gives me time to process things instead of reacting to things.
I found an Amish farm to buy fresh vegetables. Such sweet and kind people, and it fits my slower and quieter and less connected life.
So: let the loud people on the coasts fight over social media and online shopping and the high tech world. I love small town life and we need more of it.
At the core of this Constitutional crisis is our dysfunctional Education Industry.
MOFA - Make Orwell Fiction Again!
Great stuff. When I was watching the capital riot, I wasn’t all that concerned. It was an angry mob for sure, but there was little else. If you could have photoshopped the capital out of the picture and replaced it with Target, it would have translated as a rather benign riot, comparatively speaking - no opting, “target” was still whole and the subject of a lot of wondering and selfies, right along with conversations with some of the internal security. So I wasn’t at all concerned.
However, when Parlor was shut down, completely, by all the supporting actors in Big Tech, my blood literally ran cold. Not since the twin towers fell on 9/11 had I thought that the potential for massive shifts in government powers - going off to war to combat an idea - until I witnessed Parlor’s near destruction. The potential for abuse, i felt, was beyond the pale. If the government, or those ideologically aligned with the government, could engage in activity that would be deemed wildly unconstitutional by the most powerful government in world…we were all headed down a very, very dark and totalitarian path. And in my arguments to friends on FB (I explored my friends to leave SM as it’s pretty clear you’re giving money to those who abuse you), I stated that if the banning of Parlor receives no serious pushback, next step is payment systems. You will be unable to use your credit cards, PayPal, all that when you engage in activity that ALL of tech dislikes. Want to buy a gun with your credit card? Nope. Want to use paypal to organize funds for a anti gun lobby group? Nope. Worse, you, as a private citizen that joins said activity would be banned forever from those systems - to include Amazon services, or streaming services. Everything that we know that is a digital service would deny you service because you’ voted for Republicans, or espoused anti-progressive ideas. Do you think CRT is racist? Sorry, no Disney+ for you. And nobody would know because your voice is also silenced in SM. You become unseen and unheard.
When I first made these arguments at the turn of the New Year my friends, these that remained on SM, told me that it was crazy to assume any of that would happen. It only took about 6 months to become true. What I did not predict was just how bold the government would be in regard to these ideological relationships with Tech. I always assumed they’d just keep it on the down-low. It is not at all comforting to see just how nonchalant Psaki is when she announced the teaming and the demands for censorship. It was further unsettling to hear crickets by the corporate media. And of course, Congress is doing relatively nothing about it. Even Republicans seem mute about totalitarian actions here in the States while screening about freedom and internet access in Cuba!!
I would see combat and lose so many friends during the war on terror. There are signal events throughout history - 9/11, Pearl Harbor, The Declaration of Independence, The Dred Scott ruling - that portend great social and political upheaval. Believe it or not, the total de-platforming of Parlor by the most powerful companies in the world is on that list. It means you’re fucked, no matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on, you’re fucked if you don’t act as responsible citizens and voters and demand that Congress draft laws that make this sort of censorship illegal in the digital space.
Mr. Sacks - You express common sense. Big Tech and our government overlords are lacking any of it now. They are fools who have never read a history book.
So yet again, we tumble towards totalitarian governance and all of the blowback it will surely provoke.
The very people these assholes want to de platform are the ones who use them the most. If the deplorables stop watching professional sports, stop ordering off amazon and stop using PayPal we can make them hurt. The left always wants a boycott so why not us? I can live without any of it, just think about the business we could generate in small town America. They say they don’t want us but they definitely want our money so why give it to them. I’m closing my PayPal account right now. F**k them!!!
This is already happening. A bank, one of the biggest ones, closed all the accounts for a conservative bundler I know, personal and business, soon after the election. The only thing he was ever able to find out was that it was "political". Conservatives are being targeted by campaigns to deprive them of legal representation, which is a civil rights violation to my mind. What's next? Pressure campaigns to keep doctors from treating Republicans?
We live in a very bad comic book. I just want to know why these tech giants ban anything that can be remotely linked to “racism” through revisionist history generations ago giving them justification to cancel and destroy anyone EXCEPT the Democrat party that was and is the party of racism from the KKK to Jim Crow to destroying Black families in the “great society” to the modern day bigotry of low expectations being forced on minority kids with school closures abd victim hood mentalities? I mean if racists systems must be torn down, the Democrat party should go first. 🤷♀️
I wonder, is anyone familiar with the work of @johnrobb? A former military analysts, he's been warning about this collusion between government and big tech for a while. He's usually 2 years ahead of events, and it is scary. IN his latest report (titled: The End of Freedom, btw) he highlights how corporate computers can effectively de-platform an individual to the stone age; and how there's no recourse to this, as these are corporations, they don't have to respond.
Big tech's censors are definitely overreaching. And now they're beginning to affect and irritate even the most ordinary, harmless, unobjectionable people -- people like little old me. Last week I received my first "warning" from Amazon for a review I posted about a dreadful new Amazon movie, The Tomorrow War. Here's the charming message Amazon sent:
"Hello. One or more of your posts were found to be outside our guidelines. In order to help our customers make informed choices, we encourage them to review the product and contribute information about it. However, Community content that violate our guidelines or Conditions of Use will be removed.
"Please consider this a first warning.Before submitting your next post, please refer to our Customer Guidelines. Failure to comply with our policies may result in your account being banned from taking part in Community features. Thanks for your understanding in this matter."
And what, Dear Reader, was my sin? Amazon didn't say. But I'm sure I know what happened. My review contained a "verboten" phrase. Was this phrase the N-word? No, Dear Reader, it was not. The phrase I used was the not quite slur adjacent "Magical Negro," a phrase first used by Spike Lee, the Oscar winning black movie director in a presentation he gave to film students back in 2001. Since this phrase is listed in Wikipedia and describes a supporting black character who saves he day for the white lead, I figured it was fine. But apparently Amazon's algorithm or some young woke fool on their payroll didn't think so.
In the past, I've written dozens of reviews for products I've purchased (books, art supplies, furniture, beauty products, etc.) and have likely helped move tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff. And what was the reward for all my unpaid labor? An obnoxious, high tech slap on the wrist.
Amazon, your actions have consequences, and you have just shot yourself in the foot. I now solemnly swear, on a stack of defaced Amazon Prime boxes, I will never write another review for your greedy, ungrateful company again. Let those revenues sink until your company drowns in red ink.
>> "As with the censorship of speech, financial deplatforming often begins as something that seems narrow and reasonable — who wouldn’t want to ban the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys?"
Quite a few of us wouldn't, Mr. Sacks. Would you like to be unpersoned for having written this article? I'm sure I can find someone it seems narrow and reasonable to. Maybe make sure you're permanently delisted from employment, ineligible for ACA marketplace plans- guess you'll be paying that tax penalty every year... let's see what else we can do.
You sure we're on the same side?