Kennedy tweeted some interesting comments about YouTube’s removal of his interviews.
“People made a big deal about Russia supposedly manipulating internet information to influence a Presidential election. Shouldn’t we be worried when giant tech corporations do the same?” asked Kennedy, adding, “When industry and government are so closely linked, there is little difference between ‘private’ and ‘government’ censorship. Suppression of free speech is not suddenly OK when it is contracted out to the private corporations that control the public square.”
And it really is interesting how almost everyone seems to be pretty much okay with corporations in the media and Silicon Valley interfering in a US election like this. Everyone shrieked their lungs out about the (now wholly discredited) narrative that Russian bots had influenced the US election with tweets and Facebook memes, but immensely wealthy corporations with universes more influence manipulating the way people think and vote is perfectly fine?
That does seem to be the way of it, though. This past April the Obama administration’s acting CIA director Mike Morell admitted to using his intelligence connections to circulate a false story in the press during the 2020 presidential race that the Hunter Biden laptop leak was a Russian disinfo op, because he wanted to ensure that Joe Biden would win the election. And absolutely nothing happened to him; Morell just went on with his day.
It’s just taken as a given that it’s fine for US oligarchs and empire managers to interfere in an election with brazen psyops and mass media propaganda, even as more and more internet censorship gets put in place on the grounds of protecting election security. If an ordinary American circulated disinformation to manipulate the election, imperial spinmeisters would cite that as evidence that online communication needs to be more aggressively controlled. But when Obama’s acting CIA director does it, it’s cool. Election interference for me but not for thee.
This is where the most election interference will come from in this presidential race: not from Russia, not from China, but from the rich and powerful drivers of the US-centralized empire. The operation of a globe-spanning power structure is simply too important to be left in the hands of the electorate.
I don’t have any strong opinions about RFK Jr and won’t be supporting any presidential candidate in America’s pretend election. But these presidential races do often provide opportunities to highlight the ways our rulers have got everything locked down.
Amen Caitlin. All I can add to this is to make sure everyone votes for one of the candidates our owners select for us to elect.
Don't be selfish, stupid, or wasteful with the only tool our owners give us that we can use to maintain the illusion of choice with. Be a good citizen and wear that "I Voted!" sticker till it disintegrates.
Caitoz is a mind gatekeeper
On Tuesday the Times published an audio essay titled “Why I Regret Debating Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” by opinion columnist Farhad Manjoo. Manjoo debated Kennedy in 2006 about the legitimacy of George W Bush’s 2004 win against John Kerry, believing that Kennedy’s skepticism of the election results was dangerous.
“Disputing elections is just not good for democracy,” Manjoo says, joining the rest of the American liberal political/media class in rewriting history to pretend they didn’t just spend the entire Trump administration doing exactly that.
They depend on gold fish memories.
bucetao6969Im a guest here. Do not take my opinion as of a community member |2 pointswritten 10 months ago ago
I been thinking about this for a while. People sure hate companies controlling speech if they created their own social media. But what's the alternative? You want corporations to control the discourse?
It all just sucks.
Thank God for Ellon, though.