This is about as blatant as it gets. New York Times columnist and MSNBC contributor Michelle Goldberg admits that she’s disturbed by how much power the tech giants have. Of course, President Trump deserved to be kicked off of social media and Amazon was right to pull the plug on Parler’s hosting, but imagine if those young idealists pulling the strings went after, say, a liberal?
Look at what this liberal NYT columnist is saying.
She's saying she's "disturbed" at how "dangerous" it is "to have a handful of callow young tech titans in charge of who has a megaphone," but as long as they use that power to censor her adversaries, not her allies, she's happy: https://t.co/bh7XDUmVL5
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 12, 2021
Goldberg writes:
As a non-libertarian, however, I find myself both agreeing with how technology giants have used their power in this case, and disturbed by just how awesome their power is. Trump deserved to be deplatformed. Parler, a social network favored by Trumpists that teemed with threats against the president’s enemies, deserved to be kicked off Amazon’s web-hosting service. But it’s dangerous to have a handful of callow young tech titans in charge of who has a megaphone and who does not.
How about those callow young tech titans taking away the New York Post’s megaphone when it uncovered that incriminating information on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. Twitter refused to allow people to share the story, and then a month later we learned he’d been under FBI investigation since 2018, but the investigation had gone quiet due to a Justice Department policy around “overt” actions that could influence an election. Where was the violent insurrection being suppressed in that case?
That is the authoritarian mindset in its purest expression, right there:☝️
As long as Silicon Valley monopoly power is harnessed to silence those who think differently than I, I support it.
Not a single major USN left-liberal politician has objected to this. Many have cheered.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 12, 2021
For those who didn't see, leaders of democracies around the world — Germany, France, Mexico — are warning that this Silicon Valley censorship poses a grave threat to democracy. They oppose monopoly power over politics.
Only US liberals support this:https://t.co/o33XXn91Sr
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 12, 2021
Silicon Valley defenders: Censoring Trump from all the monopolistic platforms is no big deal. He still has a press room.
The press: we should censor what Trump says and only broadcast and report the parts we want the public to hear, concealing the rest:https://t.co/s2HnySsgDv
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 12, 2021
I don't think this is an inevitable contradiction.
On a personal level, you can be glad to see a dangerous personality kicked out of a social network, while, at the same time, understand (and fear) the greater political and social implications of that decision.— Henry Bugalho (@henrybugalho) January 12, 2021
There's a difference between seeing the benefits of someone being silenced and supporting the silencing. If you cheer the censorship of people you dislike, you have no grounds for cheering it for those you like, because you've endorsed the power, the framework, the principle.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 12, 2021
This is a major difference between a "liberal" and a "progressive." A liberal has principles (like free speech, civil liberties, etc.) A progressive has none. Whatever it takes to get the result they want.
— Tea Party Barbie (Parler: @teapartybarbie) (@laurahollis61) January 12, 2021
We should start putting quotation marks around the descriptor "liberal", as these people stretch what could positively be identified as liberal in thought, act, and behaviour.
— Philippe A. (@Odiloberg) January 12, 2021
Illiberal*
— ?????? ???? ???? ??????? (@TheSuppressed86) January 12, 2021
They ask and push for things they have no idea how dangerous and horrifying in result are. One day, they'll find out. But it will be too late.
It has been too late for a while already…
— Lanternativa (@lanternativa) January 12, 2021
Michele Goldberg’s columns are usually teacup deep.
— Jeffrey Churchill (@chilljat) January 12, 2021
I have found her repugnant since viewing her complete lack of honesty when debating @jordanbpeterson and @stephenfry on @intelligence2. She was disingenuous to an unhinged degree and I was shocked she worked for NYT.
— Civil Disobedient (@Civil_Dsobdient) January 12, 2021
I'm refreshed by the honesty at least ?
— Snowy Da Hausu Cat (@LinearVulture) January 12, 2021
As her ilk say about totalitarian regimes, their main drawback is that the "right people" haven't been in charge of them. Silicon Valley are, apparently, the right people.
— Doctor of Education-Elect (@belize042) January 12, 2021
And this is where all the paranoid privacy concerns come in: now that the power to control who can and who cannot speak has been successfully centralized in private hands, the government will take it from here — and all the “private” data about each user along with it.
— Anna Wellisz (@Anna_unbound) January 12, 2021
Self-righteous people never think it could be them on the other side. To think that the only way to “win” is to silence opposition is telling in itself.
— Lisa Biskup (@lisa_biskup) January 12, 2021
It's all fun and games until you are the one who gets censored.
— Furlan (@furllan) January 12, 2021
That's got to be at least a platinum level of cognitive dissonance.
— Moderaterna 2022 (@_paltschwimen_) January 12, 2021
This was the same argument FOR the Patriot Act, NDAA etc. As long as the "good guys" have the power, and they align with the "good guys". This person is tone deaf to all of history, and most of all, to the darkness in men's hearts.
— Jeremy D. Shepherd (@HisShep) January 12, 2021
That NYT columnist/journalist also provides no evidence of “plotting” on Parler while flippantly saying Amazon should ban it. Not only will they defer to DemTech oligarchy decisions, they won’t even question them. Paper of record.
— MistakenlyMe (@me_mistakenly) January 12, 2021
All Goldberg knows is that “Trumpists” favored Parler, and doesn’t even seem to question why that may be?
Related:
Hey, GOOD LUCK with that! Elon Musk fact-DROPS morons cheering ‘West Coast Big Tech’ for censoring Parler as only he can https://t.co/JpPOZ96eN0
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 11, 2021
Join the conversation as a VIP Member