In recent weeks, attacks on Alex Jones and his self-made media network, InfoWars, have come to a head as tech giants Facebook, Twitter, Apple, YouTube, and Spotify have issued varying degrees of bans to the official accounts of both Jones and InfoWars claiming they are guilty of ‘hate speech.’ Defined by Facebook as ‘a direct attack on people based on what we call protected characteristics – race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious disease or disability,’ and even ‘immigration status,’ hate speech has clearly become the new favorite tool of the anti-free speech Left in their fight to silence those with whom they disagree. Facebook’s definition of hate speech, which is far more complete than other social media sites (though basic themes are similar), claims merely uttering words which some may find offensive or objectionable is ‘violent,’ and of course, must be swiftly dealt with.
The mass banning of InfoWars began with Apple’s removal of five of the groups’ podcasts on August 5th leading Facebook and Spotify to follow suit by banning pages and profiles affiliated with the site, as well as YouTube removing all of InfoWars’ channels, including the famous Alex Jones Channel, which at the time of the ban, had well over 2.4 million subscribers. Initially, Twitter held out allowing Jones and his team to stay online, but caved in on August 15th following a week of attacks from supporters of the bans. Following the bans, InfoWars.com has found itself under constant threat of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, and at times have been shut down by hackers for hours at a time.
For Left-wing media and politicos alike, the banning of InfoWars has been cause célèbre. Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who has garnered fame as one of the most vocal opponents of the 2nd Amendment ever elected to public office, lauded the bans proving his loyalty to the Constitution excludes at least two of its amendments. ‘InfoWars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate,’ said Murphy via Twitter, calling for more bans which he claims ‘the survival of our democracy’ depends on. Of course, Murphy doesn’t have the guts to say in plain black and white that he wants the most sacred rights of the American people vanquished; so much like big tech and his allies on the far left-wing of the Democratic Party, he hides behind buzzwords like ‘hate’ to legitimize his outrage, and paint his adversaries as being completely incompatible with a civilized society.
Much like Murphy, members of the Democrat’s media apparatus have publicly acknowledged how pleased they are see InfoWars get the boot. The New York Times even attempted to paint Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a hero for banning InfoWars, documenting his actions leading up to ban as if he were JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But The New York Times couldn’t just make a hero out of Zuckerberg, they had to ensure everyday Americans who cherish freedom of speech and expression, especially in online forums, that the big tech hierarchy knows what’s best for us; and InfoWars ain’t it! The Times mocked fears of a slippery slope, and insisted the banning of InfoWars is a good thing. ‘In fact, taking action against InfoWars could allow social media giants to avoid future conflicts over extreme content by setting a new, hard-to-beat standard for unacceptable toxicity.’ Wow, what a relief!
Much like The New York Times, The Washington Post, whose slogan (which mysteriously appeared following the election of President Trump), ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’ grows more ironic by the day, held the line for the Democrat media apparatus on the issue of censorship. Launching a barrage of articles profiling Jones and InfoWars, The Post hurled unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism, and bragged of the role mainstream media and Democrat politicians alike have played in the squashing of the free speech online. ‘What has changed since Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s mealy-mouthed rationalizations for keeping Jones on his site just weeks ago is the amount of pressure the media and politicians have put on tech companies to clean up after themselves,’ said Molly Roberts in an August 7th article in The Post. ‘The pressure was enough to prompt Apple to remove almost all InfoWars podcasts from its platforms, and Apple’s decision was enough to prompt Facebook to do the same. Facebook’s decision was enough to prompt YouTube, and somewhere along the way Spotify and Stitcher signed on to the mass exorcism.’ An exorcism. Roberts, albeit inadvertently, sums it well. To the American Left, the sacred rights enshrined in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights are demonic, and must be exorcised. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, the right to peacefully assemble, these founding principles of our republic constitute demons engulfing the bodies of Americans from sea to shining sea, and the power of Marxism must free us from their grasp.
InfoWars does not stand alone in the struggle to combat censorship both online and in American society as a whole. The very principles of American civilization are at stake in a battle that will shape the America in which our children will come of age. In the current year, virtually any opinion to the right of those of Karl Marx is labeled ‘hate’ by the Left, and society must be protected from it’s violent nature. Suddenly, the very concept of constitutional rights, of self-determination, of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the works of a vast Russian conspiracy to bring down the United States. If you question the narrative, you will be silenced. Books no longer burn at a mere 451 degrees Fahrenheit, they are burning with the touch of a finger, with the click of a mouse.
Classical liberals, libertarians, conservatives, populists, and all those in between have been labeled ‘Nazis’ by the Democratic Party and their allies in both big tech and mainstream media. They have been physically attacked, beaten to a pulp in the streets of Washington, Portland, Boston, and Berkeley. When no one is around to disagree with, the Left has targeted police as they did the weekend of August 12th in Charlottesville. Free speech is under attack!
‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’
