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I read something today which I have long thought deep down, but hadn’t really seen spelled out elsewhere.
Namely, the censoring done by the liberal left, while there, is rather mild in the scheme of things and is probably much less than the same left would be censored by the people it currently censors if that group was in power.
The quote that brought it to my mind was from here, on Richard Hannania’s substack. After a post discussing being banned by Twitter, he drops this at the end of the article.
https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/saying-goodbye-to-twitter
The attitude of censoring opponents seemed to have crystallized for the left around 2016, where I distinctly remember the conversation centering around the limits of tolerating intolerant ideologies. (Which seems to have become fully settled by now, interesting to observe an ideological movement update in real time in that way).
Does Hannania have a point here? Is the issue that the right takes offense with censorship itself, or would the right if it actually gained back power censor in a much more strict and comprehensive way?
Power corrupts, and if tables turn, you're right we'll probably be seeing right wing censorship. How do you come to the conclusion that it will be worse?
Every once in a while someone tries to trot out these old censorship controversies, and the most recent are things schoolboard in bumfuck, nowhere, voting to ditch some rat comic in their curriculum, followed by... the Dixie Chick controversy? Explicit lyrics labels? A bunch of Karens screaming about video game violence, and being completely powerless to stop it? The Hayes Code? I can only dream that progressives escalate their censorship to this level.
Just a reminder that no one called for the Dixie Chicks to be censored, and they weren't. Here's George Bush on the topic: "The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind...That's the great thing about America."
Their distribution on country music stations was cut off. That's textbook deplatforming and goes against the cultural value of free expression if not the legal construct of free speech.
Their tour continued, their CDs continued to be sold (though many customers stopped buying) and plenty of radio stations did continue playing them. Their record label also published their next CD which was "Not Ready to Make Nice". When they decided they wanted to speak up about what happened, they were given this platform. Not that bigtech was a gatekeeper at the time, but iTunes kept carrying their music.
Deplatforming isn't when you make your customers mad, but elites still love you and help you get your message out.
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That is bad, though still not quite as bad as what happened to PWR BTTM, who got their discography straight-up deleted.
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