In angry retaliation for losing the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, many liberals have taken to marginalizing their political opponents – mainly conservatives – any chance they get, including by actively censoring them on social media. And at least one political commentator is saying enough is enough, as he urges society's "social pariahs" to fight back against this tyranny.
In a recent piece for Townhall, Kurt Schlichter makes the case for why conservatives need to boldly and courageously stand up and take back their culture, which includes building their own institutions to counter the existing ones that have been hijacked by liberals, if necessary.
Schlichter points to the rampant censorship tactics taking place on platforms like Facebook and Twitter as evidence that conservatives are being bullied into silence throughout American society. He warns that conservative voices increasingly have no place on social media, which has become the primary medium for public political discourse – meaning they're losing ground in the political conversation.
It's cultural warfare, he says, to intimidate, bully, and otherwise coerce opposing viewpoints into silence. We've seen it again and again on college campuses, for instance, where conservative voices are being routinely driven out by angry and violent "protesters" who hate any free speech with which they disagree.
"From the business world to Hollywood, we are seeing [liberals] react to their utter repudiation in recent elections by trying to intimidate us into silent conformity as the price of us being allowed to participate in the non-governmental institutions of society," says Schlichter.
"We must therefore have a two-part response to this act of cultural warfare – not only must we get right back in their smug little faces, but we must also build our own cultural institutions, ones that they can't control."
Schlichter says legislation needs to be passed that forces social media platforms to clearly outline their speech policies
A common tactic in the online culture wars is for Left-leaning social media platforms to simply suspend or even ban accounts that post information deemed "offensive" or "politically incorrect." But since there's no clear definition as to what this entails, many conservatives are having their accounts targeted, while the accounts of liberals who post similar or even worse content are left unscathed.
It's a double standard that Schlichter believes conservatives need to address at the ballot box. He's pushing for legislative bills to be passed that require social media platforms to clearly outline their content policies, as well as to force them to provide valid explanations whenever they terminate a user account for any reason.
He also says these sites need to include "a rapid, meaningful appeal process" that allows users to contest the removal of their accounts. If it's later deemed that a user was unfairly discriminated against, the social media site in question would also have to cover court and other damage costs, which Schlichter believes would quickly remedy this problem of rampant online censorship by the Left.
"The Fredocons will whine that this is not a conservative solution," Schlichter jokes, at the same time proving a very important point.
"Oh. Well, we tried submission and that doesn't work for us. My conservative principles include fighting fire with a firestorm. Don't want none, don't start none – if you exercise your power, we'll exercise ours. I don't want to do it, but the two choices are 1) open, free, and unregulated platforms, or 2) platforms regulated to protect our rights. Maintaining platforms that exclude Normals is not an option. So, choose wisely Silicon Valley."
Be sure to read Schlichter's full commentary on this critical free speech issue at this link.
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