Today’s entry: Brian, I turned on the radio and just caught the last moments of your presentation and it deeply touched me. I hate the discord and chaos and violence that took place in Washington on Wednesday, and I am not condoning it in any way. I hear people say how un-American it was, but I keep thinking what would our country be if revolutionaries had not done what they did in the 1770s? If it’s true that the fraud was massive and the election was in fact stolen, what’s the line between sedition and patriotism? Of course, I am not talking about Antifa or provocateurs, etc.
Bottom Line: As I’ve said from time to time over years, generally in the context of 2nd Amendment related debates, the reality of the importance of our Constitutional rights is an uncomfortable one for most. It’s not a mistake that the First Amendment to the US Constitution is freedom of expression with the 2nd Amendment being the ability to arm yourself to protect your rights from being taken from you. The uncomfortable truth about the founding of this country is indeed what you’ve referenced. Our founders used guns, knives, cannons, and anything else which proved useful, to kill as many British soldiers as was necessary until they recognized our independence. In this context, and with this critical moment in American history upon us, your point is well taken. That being said, the answer to the revolution that’s being fought right now isn’t one that requires violence to win. In fact, violence will only help those censoring our first Amendment rights.
The war that’s being fought threatening our freedom is happening online. And it’s been building up for a long time. It’s been years that conservative voices have either been silenced on platforms operated by Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. Or they’ve been throttled to mitigate their reach. A few years back, Project Veritas produced an expose using engineers which work at these companies demonstrating how they do it. Aside from specific tests I’ve run, like posting material and checking with followers of mine to see if it reaches their feed, to overt acts of undermining.
What’s been happening with the growth of online censorship is the boiling frog effect. We’ve slowly observed the temperature rising but it had just been uncomfortable. We’re now at the point where if we do nothing... well, you know what happens to the frog in this analogy. Our country was literally founded on first Amendment principles. If we allow them to be taken away through online censorship, we're the frog.
With the actions taken by Amazon to shutdown Parler’s servers, Apple and Google to remove the app from their stores, and Twitter to permanently ban the President of the United States from communicating with the American people, among other acts of censorship over the years, this moment in American history is an important one. This moment in time really is different. Clearly, these tech execs feel emboldened by the incoming Biden administration along with Democrats completely controlling Congress. It’s now sadly safe to say that if you voted for Democrats for federal office this November, you voted for censorship. It’s a warning many of us have echoed for years with the examples we’ve witnessed but now it’s here.
So, how censorship be combatted? The most effective way to exact change at Amazon, Apple, Google, Twitter, etc. is to realize they are all publicly traded companies. It's to be determined what will happen in our legal system, however, they're all held to account by their shareholders. I've never supported boycotts, but I do support voting with my own choices. Imagine for a moment if Amazon, Google, Twitter & the rest suddenly dropped even a quarter of their domestic customer base. What do you think investors would say? I'll not call for a boycott, however, if you'd like to make a difference you may consider doing what I've done as a start.
- I deleted all my Google accounts and deleted Chrome from all computers.
- I will not purchase anything from Amazon. Period.
- I'm still debating what to do with my Twitter and Facebook accounts but for now, they're being used to promote Parler.
Apple's especially complicated for me. There’s not a good action item here yet for me but you get the idea. For those who want to talk in terms of action and revolutionary thoughts. Understand violence isn’t the answer, because this isn’t a physical battle. It’s all happening online.
Submit your questions using one of these methods.
Email:brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Parler:@brianmuddradio
Photo by: NurPhoto via Getty Images