Censorship and ‘Cancel Culture’ Gaining Momentum in America

Cancel Culture is not just inconvenient—it’s dangerous! If you don’t have a voice to speak, if you cannot be heard, what happens when the “bad guys” come to take you away? And if you can’t be heard, the bad guys will be coming sooner or later to get you! You can be certain of it! It happened in Russia, it happened in Germany, it happened in Italy, it’s happening in China and in other places. Who says it can’t happen here? Photo courtesy huckmag.com

 

The censorship of conservatives, independent thinkers, Christians and others by big tech and social media giants has intensified over the past month since now President Biden has taken office and a new administration is in power. The usual suspects of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube among others have consistently censored conservative voices the last several years but that censorship has intensified and gotten worse in 2021. It’s called Cancel Culture.

We’ve seen violators suspended from posting on their accounts for up to 30 days already but now entire accounts are being shut down, thousands of subscribers are suddenly missing and interviews stored on YouTube channels for news organizations like The Standard are being removed These may also be having “irregularities” with their PayPal and other accounts. Somehow these videos that have been posted for months are suddenly in “violation of community standards” and worthy of banishment from YouTube and the cybersphere!

Where does this stop? Or does it? George Orwell clued us into what he already suspected if he didn’t know outright. Former KGB agent, communist and defector Yuri Bezmenov wrote books, gave interviews and tried to warn us 50 years ago what was happening and what was still to come based on what he knew was taking place then.

The posting suspensions stem from account holders posting anything from politically incorrect opinions, photos with disapproved personages the social media giants have on a list, to “fact checkers“ who disagree with the post, often times regardless of factuality or not.

Since the January 6th “Stop the Steal“ rally in support of honest elections and President Trump in Washington, DC the censorship has only gotten worse. In fact there are new censorships taking place.

In December we wrote that Greenville, SC, Tea Party leader Pressley Stutts had his account suspended three days for posting a photograph with who the media calls a “white supremacist” or “racist” group headed by a black man, and where almost half of the organization members are black and Latino. Stutts said “it was an innocent photo” made with the group while he was in DC, but they’re conservative and thus, according to the cancel culture, are not worthy of a voice.

Stutts said then that “we are living in a dystopian world where good is called bad and bad is called good.” Isn’t that what the prophet Isaiah said eons ago? In the Holy Scriptures we are reminded there will come a day, it says at Isaiah 5:20, where it will be said “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” That sounds kind of like today.

Most conservatives are not wild eyed radicals as is being portrayed by the dominant media especially as of late. They are not like those who post radical and destructive photos while communicating their plan, and actually do, cause havoc in American cities. No, they are family people, with jobs and businesses and responsibilities in their communities. That would be like Mr. Stutts: middle America, community leader, retired 30 year chaplain from the Navy.

Americans have always assumed they have had the right to free speech and that that right was protected, like other liberties guaranteed under the US Constitution. The recent “trial” in the Congress against former President Trump is just one example of the rapid erosion of free speech liberties and accusations launched against anyone brave enough to speak up! And that’s what leftists and communists among us are counting on—that conservatives sit back and let it happen, and do nothing to stand against the onslaught against their hard earned—at the price of blood—liberties.

Stutts is an outspoken opponent of the globalist communism rapidly flowing into the US. Stutts says to Americans “you’re being censored and deprived of your first Amendment rights. We cannot allow this to continue!” These liberties are being challenged daily with new forms of “fact checkers” on social media sites, email, and even paid websites.

The Standard reported in December that Facebook owner, Mark Zuckerberg, donated $500 million dollars in the last election cycle at about 10 to 1 for Democrats. We’ve known since 2019 that Joe Biden began his campaign by praising Antifa. Last September what has been called “pranksters” even arranged for donations to Antifa to go directly to Joe Biden’s campaign. No refunds seen as of yet!

And then, you have this message recently seen on YouTube which said:

“…we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections. For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors. We will begin enforcing this policy today, and will ramp up in the weeks to come. As always, news coverage and commentary on these issues can remain on our site if there’s sufficient education, documentary, scientific or artistic context.”

 

Former Florida District Attorney Kris Anne Hall called the “impeachment trial” an abomination, saying “how can you take from someone their future profession, reputation, etc. by punishing them for their speech? The standard they are using in this [impeachment] trial are what they’re going to use to come after you and me.”

Hall continued, “I’m not going to be careful of what I say because that is the fundamental reason for freedom of speech… The general public will enslave themselves by silencing themselves.”

 

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is another person who is being censored because she won’t ‘sit down and go to the back of the bus’. Greene has been removed from official House committees because she refuses to go along with proposals that violate her principles. She demands that her constituents have a voice and she won’t be quiet. Isn’t it the American way to speak up?

Another freshman Congresswoman is Colorado Representative Laurie Boebert. Boebert has endured much harassment by House Democrats for standing firm for the Constitution and against big government expansionist and socialist legislation. She said that she lost over 100,000 subscribers on her Twitter account. She switched to Telegram as are more and more conservatives.

John Di Lemme’s Conservative Business Journal was shut down by YouTube. The letter said,

“We have reviewed your content and found severe or repeated violations of our Community Guidelines.”

Suddenly, thousands of subscribers and untold videos are gone. Content censorship! Free Speech anyone?

Di Lemme said, speaking of YouTube, that “the socialists simply control voices by shutting [them] down…” Di Lemme continued to say that “we are NOT STOPPING…”

Others are being censored on social media like Mike Lindell and his company My Pillow, where Twitter totally removed his voice and that of his business. The Epoch Times newspaper is another voice that was recently defunded, so now their videos are no longer making money to support their work. Even the popular MustangMedic has had video reports removed from YouTube!

These professional organizations and people depend on various platforms to earn their living. And how hard is it to shut down these voices if they don’t have the available money to speak so others can hear?

Cancel culture by any other name is strictly content censorship of speech. Heretofore that was anathema in the United States of America where brave men fought terrible wars to assure all Americans would continue to have the liberty to speak their minds on whatever topic they chose. The truth is that freedom to speak is available to those who exercise that freedom regardless of whether it is popular or approved. Former boxing heavy weight champion of the world Mike Tyson once said, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

The right to free speech comes with a potential price to pay in aa a traditional public setting and goes right along with having the testosterone flowing through your veins to speak up. Apparently, two women in Congress—Green and Boebert—have more testosterone than many men in Congress, and in public, and they are not afraid to use it!

 

“The general public will enslave themselves by silencing themselves.”

— Former District Attorney Kris Anne Hall

 

The purpose of free speech is to have a voice to speak when the message may be unpopular. You don’t need free speech if everybody agrees with or likes what you have to say. Thus the framers made it possible to criticize the governor or anyone else and not risk going to jail for it. We can thank Peter Zenger for the cost of that liberty that the framers and patriot fathers secured for us in the united States of America.

 

Commentator Dennis Michael Lynch said, “Thus, the days of free speech are over on Youtube.” Those same rules apply to Facebook. Lynch further said “These platforms are changing, rapidly removing the ability to be heard unless they like or approve what you have to say.”

What most of these social media outlets probably don’t realize is that freedom to speak is like effervescence in a bottle. You may bottle it up, but the more pressure that it builds, the more likely you are to be holding a bomb and not just a bottle with a stopper! Sooner or later those who cannot speak freely Will speak—and it may not just be with their lips!

This censorship is common place in totalitarian regimes like Communist China where a social credit system is in place to watch over social media. The Chinese Communist Party uses this pressured censorship to assure that citizens don’t express thoughts or ideas that deviate from the party line or that may incite others to venture exercising any liberty not permitted by the party.

Violation of those guidelines is enforced by limiting the choices those citizens have on what they can purchase, sell or places where they are allowed to live. In dramatic cases where citizens continually violate the Chinese Communist Party dictates, food and travel may be cut off from the violator. This could result in a ‘forced slimming’ diet or a permanent ‘toes up’ position. As always beatings may take place whenever the party deems appropriate.

Just imagine if a government could mandate the closing of restaurants and retail stores, or the limiting of who and how many people could come into those stores under any pretense they chose. Draconian measures such as these are a violation of basic human rights, but go unnoticed and unchallenged by western nations and the United Nations. By the way, the United Nations is filled with CCP members. Read The Standard newspaper past issues to find out more.

The measures taken by American social media outlets are tending toward the same policies as exhibited by the Chinese Communist Party and have no place in any freedom loving country. They especially have no place in America. The Americans of yesteryear were willing to stand and deliver for the liberty to speak their mind. The question is, do American’s today still have the stomach for, and that spirit of, liberty within them?

 

Michael Reed is Editor and Publisher of The Standard newspaper and TheStandardSC YouTube channel. Please share freely and donate to The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is too often ignored by the dominant media.

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