“The second beast … forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark.”
Revelation 13.
“Hold my beer.” SumOfUs.org
The “Us” over at SumOfUs say their aim is to “hold large corporations accountable” but they’re really a strong-arm racket trying to shut down dissenting opinions on “climate change, workers’ rights, discrimination, human rights, animal rights, corruption, and corporate power grab”.
To that end the organization has recently been pressuring MasterCard for a stockholders’ vote. They want the a company panel to vet clients and refuse service to any who don’t meet SumOfUs’ standards for decency — thus making the SumOfUs Seal of Approval a de facto Mark of the Beast.
Speaking of beer, “We sell beer to everyone.” was brewer and MLB owner Augie Busch’s cogent take on ending the baseball color barrier. Progressive groups like SumOfUs want to keep you from buying beer at all if your political views don’t match theirs.
SumOfUs is just one member of a new, self-appointed Sanhedrin. Say something like “There are only two genders.” in the hearing of these neo-Pharisees, then you are ostracized as “Dangerous!” — Shades of Jesus Christ Superstar!
Such was literally the case with the recent Facebook banning of Paul Joseph Watson, Milo Yiannopoulos, and others by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg threw in Louis Farrakhan to make it seem like less of a purge but it was still a purge.
Raheem Kassam of Human Events commented on the ban.
Farrakhan, like the others, should not have his fate decided by some little nerd in Silicon Valley who has decided his or her feelings are hurt. His fate should be decided in the court of public opinion, with sunlight acting as the greatest disinfectant.
Farrakhan says hateful and hate-filled things about Jews, he should be disrespected for it but not silenced. The same goes for the others Zuckerberg banned, we who write for the Trib, the readers who comment about our columns…everyone.
In America we have free speech. You cannot be actually hurt by it – hurt feelings, perhaps, but not literally harmed.
Paul Joseph Watson commented at Human Events “According to the new left, it is now “progressive” to allow a handful of corporate monopolists to control who has free speech and what opinions they can communicate.”
And it is us and not just them who are being banned. No one is allowed to post content from the banned parties on Facebook unless it’s to denounce them.
And spare me the line about MasterCard, Facebook, whoever being private companies and not the government.
The major film studios were private companies but that didn’t make blacklisting during the Cold War era right. It’s true that the government applied pressure at that time, but zealots acting to silence dissent through corporate catspaws instead of a Congressional committee is a difference that makes no difference to their victims.
Speaking of Hollywood, remember Mr. Smith Goes to Washington? The film’s idealistic hero, having been appointed to finish a Senate term, discovers that the men who gave him the seat are steeped in corruption.
In order to expose the corruption Jeff Smith (Jimmy Stewart) launches a filibuster, tying up the floor of the Senate to get out his message.
However, Boss Jim Taylor’s political machine includes a corrupt media empire that is able to quash the story.
Realizing what’s going on, Smith tells the Senate:
You all think I’m licked. Well I’m not licked. And I’m gonna stay right here and fight for this lost cause. Even if this room gets filled with lies like these. And the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me.
If it was wrong for Boss Taylor to use his media might to silence Jeff Smith, then it’s also wrong for Boss Zuckerberg to silence people.
Journalist and Bernie Sanders supporter Tim Poole described the topsy-turvy state of the Left thus, “When I was growing up it was the religious conservatives that had the moral panic about music and swear words but today the moral panic is coming from the Left — what happened to the left at Berkeley holding up signs saying ‘free speech’? Today the left shows up with torches and burns free speech signs.”
Shame on them.
(this column originally appeared in the Lewiston (ID) Morning Tribune)
One reply on “Free markets, free minds…”
It may be that the Left, having lost the people, the people’s house of representatives and having turned the state’s house, the Senate, over to the people, lost that as well, depended on the courts to rule. Losing that they are now solely reliant on the media and hope to achieve a victory through them, Pyrrhic though it may be. Here is hoping that it is not the desperate attacks of a cornered or enraged animal but the writhing death throes of a dying beast that we see.