How Censorship Does and Does Not Work

[Fishrrman]

https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-censorship-does-and-does-not-work_5337835.html

How Censorship Does and Does Not Work

By Jeffrey A. Tucker
June 16, 2023

Excerpts:
We are watching the unfolding of despotism in real time. It is giving all of us a lesson in how it works. They locked us in our homes, closed our businesses, told us we cannot go to church or to restaurants, restricted our travel, but then a problem began. Many people started objecting and they asked questions. If there is a pandemic, why is there no focus on basic therapies? Why is the sole emphasis on an untested vaccine? How in the world are all these measures going to fix the problem?

There were too many anomalies to keep this up despite the attempt to make the panic last as long as possible, certainly through the 2020 but then longer and longer. Finally, everything seemed to be falling apart for the mainstream narrative even though the media kept broadcasting it daily.

That’s when the despots turned to the one weapon they had left. They tried to shut everyone up.

At some point in this trajectory, it became obvious to close watchers that the public mind was faced with aggressive attempts at curation. All the main channels became closed to debate. Post the wrong thoughts on Facebook or Twitter and you find yourself throttled or canceled. Post a video on YouTube and it is taken down. Write an article and Google somehow cannot find it for anyone to read.

This has been going on for three years now but really longer dating back to 2001 with the misnamed Patriot Act. It authorized an unprecedented amount of surveillance of the American people that mutated into aggressive censorship.
...
I’m often amazed at how naïve people are about information and its means of reach on the internet. Early on in lockdowns, when Facebook did not quite have its act together, I posted a piece about a past pandemic in which there were no lockdowns. Facebook mistakenly boosted it because a fact checker said it was true. I’ve never seen traffic like that. It was many millions in a matter of days. Once Facebook figured out the error, the traffic fell and fell until the article disappeared again.

That was the moment I realized the game. If you say the right thing, you are awarded with influence. If you say the wrong thing, you are buried. This is how it works. The censors are not that bugged about your speech if no one hears it anyway. It’s the tree that falls in the forest that no one was around to hear. The game of curating the public mind involves amplification and minimization. It’s technological wizardry that makes it all possible.
...
For the first time in my life, we all seem to live in two realities. One is that which we hear in public life. The other is that which we know from talking to friends, family, and neighbors. The best example today concerns the necessity, safety, and effectiveness of the COVID vaccines. In private, it seems like everyone has a story that contradicts the media line.

We talk about injury, adverse effects, and even death. And yet you hear almost nothing about this in public life, simply because the media outlets are owned by the manufacturers and government heavily backed the whole program. Even now, this topic is the third rail that anyone successful cannot touch for fear of professional destruction.

It takes a person of bravery and dedication to high principles to break these rules in such times. We are all in their debt. Without the freedom to speak without fear, the rest of our freedoms are in grave jeopardy. Some people today even deny that there is any problem to solve even though the constraints on our ability to speak keep intensifying by the day.

Long run, I’m an optimist on this topic. There are enough smaller venues that are willing to speak and take the risks. I can daily sense that the official narrative on all these topics is starting to crack, and the people who insist on the truth of the lies seem to be weakening. It’s a long hard struggle but it is one that we have to win.

More at URL above...

NOTE: when reading at The Epoch Times, DISABLE javascript in your browser (unless you wish to subscribe, for free)

[bigheadfred]

Good article.

[Bigun]

Good article.

  And one that should be widely read!

[The_Reader_David]

Of course the boosters of the Democrat-Security-State-Media-Tech-Company axis will tell you that since it's a private company actually doing the censorship, it isn't really censorship, it's "content moderation" and doesn't run afoul of the First Amendment. 

Everyone needs to know the quote from the SCOTUS decision in Norwood v. Harrison --
"It is also axiomatic that a state may not induce, encourage or promote private persons to accomplish what it is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish."  (quoted by the majority opinion from a district court finding in an earlier case, Lee v. Macon County Board of Education) -- as a way of shutting up the argument that the First Amendment doesn't apply.  (We know, thanks to Elon Musk opening Twitter's archives to among others Matt Taibbi, that the Feds were inducing not just Twitter, but Facebook, Apple, Google,...  to censor disfavored views.)

[unite for individuality]

Of course the boosters of the Democrat--Security-State--Media--Tech-Company axis
will tell you that since it's a private company actually doing the censorship,
it isn't really censorship, it's "content moderation"
and doesn't run afoul of the First Amendment.

Everyone needs to know the quote from the SCOTUS decision in
Norwood v. Harrison - 413 U.S. 455 (1973) --

"It is also axiomatic that a state may not induce, encourage or promote private persons
to accomplish what it is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish." 
(quoted by the majority opinion from a district court finding
in an earlier case, Lee v. Macon County Board of Education) --
as a way of shutting up the argument that the First Amendment doesn't apply. 
(We know, thanks to Elon Musk opening Twitter's archives to among others Matt Taibbi,
that the Feds were inducing not just Twitter, but Facebook, Apple, Google,... 
to censor disfavored views.)

More info at -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwood_v._Harrison


The government is just ONE ARM of the Octopus Of Oppression.
The Octopus has four arms that control what people do -
    Government, Finance, Business, and Medicine
It also has four arms that control what people think -
    Education, Media, Religion, and Internet.

The Octopus has less than complete control of each of the eight arms.
We the People still have some control over parts of the eight arms.
And if we remain silent, we would be surrendering what control we do have.

All eight arms interact with one another.
The Octopus uses each arm to reinforce what the other arms are doing.

Just like a natural octopus, there is no one arm that controls the others.
All eight arms are controlled by the head.
In this case, the Global Octopus prefers to keep its head hidden.
It wants its victims to see only the arm that is seizing it,
and sometimes deceives its victims into believing that
one or more of the other arms are the victims' savior!

In recent years, we've heard about The Swamp,
as in, "Drain The Swamp!"
The DC Swamp is a branch office of the Wall Street Swamp,
which, in turn, is a branch office of The Global Swamp.
The Global Swamp is the head of The Octopus.

The Global Swamp may also be called  The Ruling Clique,
The Global Corporate Collective,
The Global Corporate Dictatorship,
or any of several other names.

In the case of censoring information about COVID,
a MANUFACTURED CRISIS,
the "news" media and the internet media
were all told by the government  and by  the drug industry
(notice how much money the media are paid to run drug company advertising!)
to censor the fact that,
in JANUARY 2020, two months BEFORE the lockdowns began,
researchers in France proved that
a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin
COMPLETELY ANNIHILATES the COVID virus!
One of several CURES for COVID was announced BEFORE THE CRISIS BEGAN!

But The Ruling Clique does NOT want any problems solved!
The Ruling Clique wants to USE such problems
to INCREASE THEIR CONTROL!

There is much more at stake than just forcing We the Taxpayers
to pay many billions of dollars to the drug companies
for vaccines that kill more people than they save!

The entire COVID crisis was DESIGNED IN ADVANCE
to increase The Global Swamp's power in ALL EIGHT arms of The Octopus!

[bigheadfred]

More info at -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwood_v._Harrison


The government is just ONE ARM of the Octopus Of Oppression.
The Octopus has four arms that control what people do -
    Government, Finance, Business, and Medicine
It also has four arms that control what people think -
    Education, Media, Religion, and Internet.

The Octopus has less than complete control of each of the eight arms.
We the People still have some control over parts of the eight arms.
And if we remain silent, we would be surrendering what control we do have.

All eight arms interact with one another.
The Octopus uses each arm to reinforce what the other arms are doing.

Just like a natural octopus, there is no one arm that controls the others.
All eight arms are controlled by the head.
In this case, the Global Octopus prefers to keep its head hidden.
It wants its victims to see only the arm that is seizing it,
and sometimes deceives its victims into believing that
one or more of the other arms are the victims' savior!

In recent years, we've heard about The Swamp,
as in, "Drain The Swamp!"
The DC Swamp is a branch office of the Wall Street Swamp,
which, in turn, is a branch office of The Global Swamp.
The Global Swamp is the head of The Octopus.

The Global Swamp may also be called  The Ruling Clique,
The Global Corporate Collective,
The Global Corporate Dictatorship,
or any of several other names.

In the case of censoring information about COVID,
a MANUFACTURED CRISIS,
the "news" media and the internet media
were all told by the government  and by  the drug industry
(notice how much money the media are paid to run drug company advertising!)
to censor the fact that,
in JANUARY 2020, two months BEFORE the lockdowns began,
researchers in France proved that
a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin
COMPLETELY ANNIHILATES the COVID virus!
One of several CURES for COVID was announced BEFORE THE CRISIS BEGAN!

But The Ruling Clique does NOT want any problems solved!
The Ruling Clique wants to USE such problems
to INCREASE THEIR CONTROL!

There is much more at stake than just forcing We the Taxpayers
to pay many billions of dollars to the drug companies
for vaccines that kill more people than they save!

The entire COVID crisis was DESIGNED IN ADVANCE
to increase The Global Swamp's power in ALL EIGHT arms of The Octopus!

Everybody should remember what Fauci said at the start of the Trump presidency.

"There is no question that there will be a challenge to the coming administration in the arena of infectious diseases," Fauci said during his "Pandemic Preparedness in the Next Administration" speech, which came shortly before Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20. He added, "the thing we're extraordinarily confident about is that we're going to see this in the next few years".

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/07/29/fact-check-2017-anthony-fauci-warned-potential-outbre.ak/5494601002/

[Smokin Joe]

More info at -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwood_v._Harrison


The government is just ONE ARM of the Octopus Of Oppression.
The Octopus has four arms that control what people do -
    Government, Finance, Business, and Medicine
It also has four arms that control what people think -
    Education, Media, Religion, and Internet.

The Octopus has less than complete control of each of the eight arms.
We the People still have some control over parts of the eight arms.
And if we remain silent, we would be surrendering what control we do have.

All eight arms interact with one another.
The Octopus uses each arm to reinforce what the other arms are doing.

Just like a natural octopus, there is no one arm that controls the others.
All eight arms are controlled by the head.
In this case, the Global Octopus prefers to keep its head hidden.
It wants its victims to see only the arm that is seizing it,
and sometimes deceives its victims into believing that
one or more of the other arms are the victims' savior!

In recent years, we've heard about The Swamp,
as in, "Drain The Swamp!"
The DC Swamp is a branch office of the Wall Street Swamp,
which, in turn, is a branch office of The Global Swamp.
The Global Swamp is the head of The Octopus.

The Global Swamp may also be called  The Ruling Clique,
The Global Corporate Collective,
The Global Corporate Dictatorship,
or any of several other names.

In the case of censoring information about COVID,
a MANUFACTURED CRISIS,
the "news" media and the internet media
were all told by the government  and by  the drug industry
(notice how much money the media are paid to run drug company advertising!)
to censor the fact that,
in JANUARY 2020, two months BEFORE the lockdowns began,
researchers in France proved that
a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin
COMPLETELY ANNIHILATES the COVID virus!
One of several CURES for COVID was announced BEFORE THE CRISIS BEGAN!

But The Ruling Clique does NOT want any problems solved!
The Ruling Clique wants to USE such problems
to INCREASE THEIR CONTROL!

There is much more at stake than just forcing We the Taxpayers
to pay many billions of dollars to the drug companies
for vaccines that kill more people than they save!

The entire COVID crisis was DESIGNED IN ADVANCE
to increase The Global Swamp's power in ALL EIGHT arms of The Octopus!

[Bigun]

More info at -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwood_v._Harrison


The government is just ONE ARM of the Octopus Of Oppression.
The Octopus has four arms that control what people do -
    Government, Finance, Business, and Medicine
It also has four arms that control what people think -
    Education, Media, Religion, and Internet.

The Octopus has less than complete control of each of the eight arms.
We the People still have some control over parts of the eight arms.
And if we remain silent, we would be surrendering what control we do have.

All eight arms interact with one another.
The Octopus uses each arm to reinforce what the other arms are doing.

Just like a natural octopus, there is no one arm that controls the others.
All eight arms are controlled by the head.
In this case, the Global Octopus prefers to keep its head hidden.
It wants its victims to see only the arm that is seizing it,
and sometimes deceives its victims into believing that
one or more of the other arms are the victims' savior!

In recent years, we've heard about The Swamp,
as in, "Drain The Swamp!"
The DC Swamp is a branch office of the Wall Street Swamp,
which, in turn, is a branch office of The Global Swamp.
The Global Swamp is the head of The Octopus.

The Global Swamp may also be called  The Ruling Clique,
The Global Corporate Collective,
The Global Corporate Dictatorship,
or any of several other names.

In the case of censoring information about COVID,
a MANUFACTURED CRISIS,
the "news" media and the internet media
were all told by the government  and by  the drug industry
(notice how much money the media are paid to run drug company advertising!)
to censor the fact that,
in JANUARY 2020, two months BEFORE the lockdowns began,
researchers in France proved that
a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin
COMPLETELY ANNIHILATES the COVID virus!
One of several CURES for COVID was announced BEFORE THE CRISIS BEGAN!

But The Ruling Clique does NOT want any problems solved!
The Ruling Clique wants to USE such problems
to INCREASE THEIR CONTROL!

There is much more at stake than just forcing We the Taxpayers
to pay many billions of dollars to the drug companies
for vaccines that kill more people than they save!

The entire COVID crisis was DESIGNED IN ADVANCE
to increase The Global Swamp's power in ALL EIGHT arms of The Octopus!

Yes! @unite for individuality and there were some here sounding the alarm from day one. I was one of them. @Smokin Joe was another.