Censorship in the Age of Social Media: Free Speech Nullified by Hurt Feelings
Written by Teodrose Fikre, March 16, 2017, 0 Comments
Fake news! This is a charge that is levied by the status quo and is now being bandied about by the wider public. This is how free speech is annihilated as those who own information convince us to only accept news and information from only the gatekeepers and to disregard everything else as confederate knowledge. This is also how six companies (read six people) are able to own more than 85% of the news we consume as a society; the market place for ideas is monopolized by a few plutocrats and what we get is a public that is kept in the dark and constantly inundated by lies and propaganda.
In North Korea, free speech is silenced by bullets. In America, free speech is murdered by snowflakes with hurt feelings and snuffed out by a vocal minority. I write this based on an incident that took place yesterday that still has me in awe and utterly confounded. I posted an article I wrote titled “Federalism Sucks: How Consolidated Power Corrupts Absolutely” with the following lead in as part of the status:
Don”t be a partisan parrot. At least Polly gets the occasional cracker, what do you get from either Democrats or Republicans for being their useful stools pigeon? #Think4Yourself
If you read the article, there is nothing that in any away disparages any particular group of people or uses rhetorical violence in a way that rational people understand hate speech or fake news. What I presented was a historical analysis of our modern political system and the roots of factionalism which is leading to a corrosive governance. While people are entitled to disagree with my perspective, what cannot be disputed is the authenticity of my analysis since I can back up my assertions with “credible” sources.
But who has time for truth and veracity when we are in the age of sensationalism and mainstream media drivel. To be honest, I never expect anyone to agree with me fully; I look forward at all times to engage with readers of Ghion Journal in a debate based on civility where people can deliberate without resorting to ad hominem attacks and petty antics. What I did not expect is what took place on Facebook when I logged back into my account a few hours after I posted the status update above. I got a message from the Facebook police letting me know that my post was deleted for running afoul of Facebook’s community standards. I went on to read this Facebook manifesto of political correctness and nowhere in what I read did my post contravene the standards Facebook expects of its users.
I log in today on Facebook and what I am treated to is a litany of status updates which are outright offensive where women are sexually objectified, where some us language that is both hateful and bigoted, and countless pictures are posted that is lewd and salacious. I hope I don’t sound like a prude; in all honesty, I don’t care what people post on their Facebook status. If grown people want to act like teenagers, more power to them. I just choose to focus on the posts that are actually edifying and lead to adult conversations. Never does it cross my mind to act like a rat and report people’s posts to Facebook and in the process silence the right people have to express their thoughts even if I find the thoughts that come from the minds of some to be about as useful as tactfulness is to Donald Trump.
But there are those in this world who love to get offended at any and everything. Unless you act and think in 100% accordance to their myopic logic, then you are a heretic that deserves the fate that befell Joan of Arc. Quick to light the blowtorch and burn anyone who does not think like them, these mental midgets make it their duty to monitor the speech of others and to harass anyone who does not speak from the same music sheet these close-minded fools sing from. The majority is thus being knee-capped by a vocal minority over and over again as a few impose their will on the masses.
By the by, this is why our democracy is being abrogated as tyranny rises in the ruins of a supposed republic. The fringe base of both Republican and Democrat parties are the most motivated to vote and use their passions to push radical agendas. Political zealots and partisan nut jobs on both ends of the political divides thus end up taking the wheel and running our nation to the ground. This is why more than 65% of adults who could otherwise vote choose to stay at home—when the radicals hijack megaphones they drown out reasonable people with their cacophonous bullshit. When only 7% of Americans approve of Congress and less than 40% of voters approve of our president (this number does not take into account 65% of Americans who don’t vote by the way) what you have is a an illegitimate government that caters to the whim of only nihilists and partisan lemmings.
What is infecting our politics with a virulent strain of ignorance and closed minds is likewise sucking the life out of public discourse and civility as a whole. It is getting harder and harder to hold conversations with people about anything these days as any thought that is not about sport or the weather can lead to screeds and tirades. What the hell! What is so offensive about someone who thinks different than conventional wisdom? You know what is offensive? People who are so dim-witted that they only seek the validation of fellow parrots and sheep. Are people so insecure in their knowledge that they are afraid to hear divergent opinions?
We live in an age of militants who sip lattes and the “resistance” that take selfies getting pedicures. What a joke! Real militancy is about seeking knowledge not searching for endless validation from like-minded lemmings. Stop with this nonsense; don’t let obtuse fools impose their will on the masses. We are letting firebrands and demagogues cow the rest of us into conformity and in the process destroying originality and free thought. This is dangerous terrain, tyranny is birthed when a few are able to co-opt public discourse and in the process intimidate the masses through insults and threats. What happened in Nazi Germany can happen anywhere else, when the public allows coercion to dictate speech, incremental compulsion gives way to totalitarianism.
Beware of the thought police for in time the same way the speech of others is monitored will be the way your voice is silenced. We are handing more and more of our freedoms to corporate interests. In case you did not know, Facebook is part and parcel of the corporate agenda as their valuation on Wall Street ranks them in the top 5 of all corporations in the world. When we let corporate entities like mainstream media and social media giants determine what is real news and what is acceptable speech, we lose the essence of Americana and in the process we end up letting a few silence the voices of the masses. #FaceBookCensorship
If you are so fragile to let a divergent thought offend you, how are you strong enough to fight for justice?
Teodrose Fikre
Teodrose was born in Ethiopia the same year Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by the communist Derg junta. The grand-son of Emperor Atse Tewodros Kassa II, the greatest king of Ethiopia, Teodrose is clearly influenced by the history and his connection to Ethiopia. Through his experiences growing up as first generation refugee in America, Teodrose writes poignantly about the universal experiences of joys, pains and a hope for a better tomorrow that binds all of humanity.
Teodrose has written extensively about the intersection of politics, economic policies, identity, and history. He is the author of "Serendipity's Trace" and newly released "Soul to Soil", two works that inspect the ways we are dissected as a people and shows how we can overcome injustice through the inclusive vision of togetherness.
