Sunday’s suspension and banning of antiwar and libertarian Twitter users Peter Van Buren (whistleblower), Scott Horton (Antiwar.com Editorial Director), and Daniel McAdams (Ron Paul Institute Director) is all over the media today, including on Drudge and Zero Hedge. In today’s Ron Paul Institute special report we bring all three together to tell what really happened… and more importantly, what it means to the future of social media and free speech.
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
A great update!
The twin headed serpents of big business and big government have sunken their fangs deep into the veins of social media and poisoned the well of democracy by purging dissident voices from their rolls. This is a sickness called fascism and it’s being used, ironically, in the name of fighting the very disease they are spreading. This isn’t McCarthyism. It’s worse. And it needs to be confronted with lips flexing and pistols blazing. Speak out against this new wave of censorship on every forum it exists. Flood their quarters with the anarchy of unrepentant democracy. They can’t ban us all without going out of business. Either way it’s a win-win for basic human freedom. Fight the power! F**k the beast!
Don’t be ridiculous. This is corporatist Communism. Are you under the impression that Wall Street Banks- and even, to a lesser extent, the great Henry Ford- did not collaborate with the Bolsheviks?
Call it whatever, labels mean little, communism, fascism, capitalism… the fact is that big money has never been too picky about who it sides with, as long as there are profits to be made.
A shorthand definition of fascism is combining state and private sector
Amen.
When someone spreads false news to the point that peoples lives are being threatened that falls into the realm of hate speech and it should be banned from twitter, facebook .. There was a line that was crossed. And those corporations are protecting themselves from lawsuits over that type of speech. And when you think you have that right on corporate software think again.
Brother, I’m a tranny with a six o’clock shadow. I’ve had alt-right jar-heads threaten to rape me. I wouldn’t have any respect for myself if I didn’t learn to stand up to the pricks and bash back. Censorship deprives the truly maligned an opportunity to kick ass and empower themselves. I don’t need Big Brother, I can handle myself, thank you very much.
Spreading false news , laziness in exploring the simple explanation, siding with government versions out of fear, allowing peopel with axe to grind to offe their opinions, shutting down dissidence , and ignoring or suppressing the misinformation have been the staple diets of the MSM- NYT to Guardian FOX to MSNBC for last 17 years. It has killed many people It continues to create the situation and atmospherics for future deaths and destruction. Just last yesterday that 700 Club was spewing the narrative supplied by the war mongers how bad Iran is how long US has endured its bad behaviors how it is spreading instability and how Obama was fooled to give billions away to them This is fake news. This is continuation of the similar fake news from 2001 that crystallized into pro war public position
“When someone spreads false news”
And who, exactly, is to be given the power to determine what is “false”? Are we going to set up our own minitru (Orwell’s “Ministry of Truth”)? Will society get to the point where individual people are not allowed to determine for themselves what is and isn’t the truth?
democracy is what got us here.
Fascism got us here. The corporate scum-bags have tried to re-brand it as “progressivism”, “neoliberalism”, “globalism”, but it all reeks like Hitler to me. I practice democracy like the ancient Greeks, direct and uncensored. Except no substitutes.
The way the ancient Greeks practiced democracy was to hand anyone who said something that pissed them off a glass of hemlock.
You know what I mean, Tom. Stop splitting my hairs. ;-P
Actually, long before I read Izzy Stone, I knew much of Socrates’ legend was just that. The actual Socrates supported not one but two coups by oligarchs against the democracy.
Not democracy, antarcticus, a Constitutional Republic’s what got us here. You see, the true definition of democracy is “mob rule”, and mob rule inevitable devolves into anarchy.
Thank you for being a knowledgeable person!
That’s right, f**k the beast. Delete your facebook account and move to minds.com – the crypto social network.
they have warehouses full of trolls trying to get reactions out of people and set them up…
Great to get an update and hear all sides of the story from those who were banned. The transparency and the discussion was fruitful.
Love a few points that Scott made:
1) The tweaking of algorithms (shadow banning) that determine what’s shared is already censoring information that users want to view.
2) We’re born screaming.
3) The Jefferson quote: “Error of opinion is tolerable, as long as reason is left free to combat it.”
Wow.
“First, they came for Christopher Cantwell, and I did not speak out…”
Three of my favorite antiwar guys!
Screw Twitter dude, thing ends up wasting so much of my damn time. The amount of work I could’ve accomplished…
Their excuse is the hate on the right, but their real reason is to limit the enemies of the Establishment.
This is the next phase of the roll-out of Cold War v2.
They are now clamping down on internal voices of opposition.
They want no internal opposition to what they are marching us into.
That’s exactly what the Bolsheviks did when they took over Russia a century ago. Of course there wasn’t any Internet and/or social media as there is today, but they still censored any dissent, destroyed anti-Bolshevik books, pamphlets and newspapers.
Furthermore, the Bolsheviks exterminated countless millions of people, starting with the Romanov Royal Family. We’re not at that stage yet, but just give it a few years; Trump, even if he wins re-election in 2020, won’t be eligible to run in 2024, due to term limits. It’s in early 2025, after the next President takes office, that the Bolshevik-style takeover has its best opportunity.
They have also recently gone after some on the anti-establishment Left, accusing them of being Russian bots. Anyone who questions the regime’s lies will be targeted sooner or later, unless we fight back and win.
Thank you gentlemen for standing up for peace and liberty. I would be proud to be counted among your friends.
The way you three have been mistreated by the net-nanny corporatists and the way people have reacted to it has been a clarifying moment for us all. I feel sorry for all the partisan weasels and opportunist dogs who don’t understand that it is the loser of a civil, rational debate who profits the most from it, while I greatly admire all who have the pleasure of speaking truth to power–especially when that power fears those truths to such an extent that it feels it must stamp them out.
I remind everyone that the CIA created Google AND Facebook…
How the CIA made Google
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-cia-made-google-e836451a959e
And the exact same people were involved with Facebook… Coincidence? No chance.
These two platforms were created to exercise the kind of mass social control that the CIA is not allowed (mostly) to do by itself, at least on the Internet, or at least openly. So these corporations were created to do it under a corporate false flag. See the last “Jason Bourne” movie for an idea of how this actually works in real life.
Facebook – the CIA conspiracy
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10456534
There’s no such thing as bad publicity, right? Twitter and the other social media platforms’ numbers (i.e., profits) have been taking a hit, no? This controversy stirs much-needed clicks.
But more importantly, way back when my ex turned me onto Facebook, I worried about how so much media traffic was being directed to these increasingly powerful entities, fostering such a dependence that their existence could become indispensable to how we digested news. Well, clearly these fears had merit. Because, literally, like left-leaning Democrats yearning for another Bernie, the Hortons and Van Burens of the world have nowhere else to go.
I think it was Alasdair MacIntyre who once quipped, accurately: “Power co-opts. Absolute power co-opts absolutely.”
Private company should be subjected to the same scrutiny which government faces , to the essential values and protection that are offered by 1st Anendment anytime they engage into the activities that are the domain of the government – that covers health ,education,security ,economic , war, and foreign policy .
I have boycotted twitter and facebook since they started. That is how we can make our voices heard.
Good article about censorship. But… Guys what is this “democracy” you speak of? Which nation is having the same problems as those happening within our CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC? Were you all writing for a foreign nation also?
If NOT, then get what type of government the USA has correct. We are a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, and that IS important because those documents – state Constitutions and the US Constitution not only defines our type of government, but it also separates and assigns the DELEGATED powers between the branches and named offices within a branch.
As long as you have participated in government, and/or, in writing and speaking about our government by now you should understand that we, as a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, have but one partially democratic process – elections.
“But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain — that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case it is unfit to exist.” — Lysander Spooner
WHO does the US Constitution say is to
— Enforce the US Constitution (supreme Law of this nation that all legislation is to be in Pursuance thereof) and each state’s Constitution (highest Law of the state),
— Enforce and keep the “Laws of the Union” (which are constitutional laws ONLY),
— Protect the country against all enemies both domestic and foreign, and
— “to suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions”?
It is every state’s Militia that is the ONLY Constitutionally assigned force to do those things listed above. That is found in the US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 15. Clause 16 lists the duties that those who SERVE WITHIN the federal and state governments have to the Militia of the several states.
Basically what Lysander is saying is that the people are too stupid to rule themselves because most do not even know what the contracts that those who serve within our governments require of those that serve. Nor do they understand that the PEOPLE are a big part of our governments, the enforcement part.
Bertrand Russell,1953: “… Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible…” (“The Impact of Science on Society”, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1953)
Clause 15 ‘The Congress shall have the Power’: “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel invasions.“
Clause 16 ‘The Congress shall have the Power: “To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the
Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline
prescribed by Congress”.
“What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to PREVENT THE ESTABLISMENT OF A STANDING ARMY, the bane of liberty….” Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, floor debate over the 2nd Amendment, I Annals of Congress.
Richard Henry Lee, 1st Senate, etc: “A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves …”
George Mason, Co-author of the Second Amendment: “I
ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”
It is OUR duty to hold those who serve within our governments accountable for their actions. But to do so, we must all be trained as the Congress requires the military to be trained, and knowledgeable about the US Constitution and our own state’s Constitution, Have you read yours?
The people today are so “dumbed down” that they do not even know that when they vote on amendments (state Constitutions) they are giving more power to those who serve within their own state’s government. Do you think that those who do serve within state governments are actually writing legislation that take away power from them? /sigh Read the court decision below, it does also mean the internet because it is a source of information for the people. Make sense?
Supreme Court, Red Lion v. FCC, 1969: “It is the purpose of the First Amendment to preserve an uninhibited
marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail, rather than to countenance monopolization of that market, whether it be by the Government itself or a private licensee. It is the right of the public to receive suitable access to social, political, esthetic, moral, and other ideas and experiences which is crucial here. That right may not constitutionally be abridged either by Congress or by
the FCC.”
“FB just deactivated 1.3 billion of it’s 2.2 bn users.”
Interesting claim. Got a source for more information?