Q&A of the Day – Part 1 Censorship. The revolution of 2021 is online.
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Parler: @brianmuddradio
Today’s entry: Brian, thank you for your comments today especially about the message from the village leader in Nairobi. 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 (and that’s another question I’d like to ask you, do you think it’s true?) what’s the line between sedition and patriotism? Of course, I am not talking about Antifa or provocateurs etc.
Thanks for your levelheaded commentary.
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 which 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 (like Twitter stripping me of my verified status after five years while guest hosting for Mark Levin without any warning or explanation).
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 principals. If we allow them to be taken away through online censorship – we're the frog. In the second part of today’s Q&A I’ll explain how to hold the tech tyrants accountable under the law.
Here's a link to part 2: https://ihr.fm/3i3MYPv
Photo Credit: Getty Images