Learn to fucking swim….
In recent weeks we have seen the Proud Boys targeting hospitals that provide gender affirmative care to trans kids.
They have been directed there by an entity calling itself “the libs of TikTok”.
We have reached a critical point in society. The point where the intelligent amongst us start humming along to Tool’s Ænema, vainly hoping we make it out of here with some dignity intact.
Here, listen to Brass Against do it justice
Not only are we actively courting extinction with our apathy that has allowed climate change denialism an equal seat to climate scientists at the decision making table. But we are also allowing society to be dismantled brick by brick by social media and billionaires.
We were so eager to protect free speech that we started believing that while we would not always agree with what was said, we should die protecting the right to say it. In this eagerness toward noble principle, we forgot that some things should not be said. We forgot that some people are not speaking from a place of honesty or the intention to improve the plight of humankind. We forgot that some voices are undeserving of a platform. These people speak for only themselves and their interests.
Freedom of expression is a vital component of a free society. However, we are doing it wrong. When the Classical Greeks gifted the concept of freedom of speech to the world, I don’t think they had in mind what we are doing with it. They envisioned a world where the free expression of ideas and concepts could be placed in the public sphere and discussed between vested interests. Free speech would encompass critique of government policies, matters of domestic and foreign policy, societal ills and concepts etc. I believe this is what most politicians and lawmakers had in mind when freedom of expression was codified into the modern constitutions of liberal democracies.
What neither they nor the archaic Greeks had in mind was Alex Jones, The libs of Tiktok, the Terf Island press and right leaning media in general. While those cohorts are certainly freely expressing themselves, they are not expressing much of value or indeed truth. Alex Jones has been allowed to spread the idea that all mass shootings are a “False Flag operation”. This has now led to a position where any mass shooting is presented by the right as a political ploy toward controlling gun ownership. While the entirety of the mass shooting phenomena cannot be blamed on Alex Jones, his rhetoric can be conceivably said to have contributed to both the panic and outrage that drives these events. He can also be directly held as culpable for the nature of the gun control debate and having a hand in preventing meaningful gun control laws from being enacted in the USA.
Joe “the idiot’s shaman” Rogan has been allowed to spread complete crap about vaccines and as a result anti vaxxers are a growing demographic. He has also elevated the profiles of the likes of Abigail Shrier, who obtained interviews with trans people under false pretences and used debunked science to create anti trans propaganda. Joe Rogan has also engaged in direct transphobic attacks on trans people as well. Look at his rhetoric surrounding Fallon Fox.
The Terf Island press has engaged in a years-long campaign of anti trans propaganda and misinformation, resulting in hate crimes skyrocketing. I know people who view Mermaids and Stonewall UK as malicious and predatory organizations as a result of the Terf Island Press. Fucking Stonewall and Mermaids!!!!! The most innocuous two organizations on the planet!! To view those two groups as nefarious, you must either be an idiot of the highest order or so totally misinformed you are in peril of believing tobacco companies as well.
And now we have the Libs of Tiktok and Kiwifarms. One operates as a hivemind dissecting photos and miscellaneous data to dox trans people who have the temerity to be active online. The other that seems to be the black hand that guides the proud boys as some kind of paramilitary strike force dedicated to hunting out the “globalists” or “Groomers” or whatever bullshit they are saying George Sorros is up to today.
The underlying problem here is that companies like Spotify, Facebook, Cloudflare and the Murdoch media empire make a killing off of these social ills. Make no mistake, Joe Rogan, the person who started Kiwifarms, Tucker Carlson and the like are nothing more than useful idiots. They may be typing, saying or singing the bullshit but the real enemies are the sentient turds who own the real estate that publishes the misinformation. Don’t be fooled by the “mom cuts my hair” bowl cut and dull expression of Zuckerberg, he has your number and he knows you engage more with hate and anger than you do with your trans cousin’s millionth selfie celebrating her transition. We don’t consume good news, we may follow happiness but we engage with anger. Don’t think that Rupert Murdoch believes the shit that dribbles out of Tucker Carlson’s mouth. Everyone knows Tucker Carlson is lying. Even your awful conserva-dick uncle who wears a Maga hat knows Carlson is talking crap. But Murdoch makes money from every word Carlson says and your uncle gets to justify his assholery because it’s on the “news”. Spotify knows Joe Rogan is a transphobic anti vaxxer asshole but he is a transphobic anti vaxxer asshole that gets a lot of ears tuned into Spotify. Cloudflare knows kiwi farms is a rotten hate speech hovel, but it’s hovel that brings the clicks.
We live in a world where clicks are a currency. Every click comes with two eyes and an outrage seeking mind. Advertisers don’t care about the outrage, but they do like the eyes. It is no accident that anything you pay directly for doesn’t have advertising and doesn’t foster little hate cultures. For decades now, environmentalists have been warning the world about our rampant destruction of the environment at the hands of industry. Simultaneously the capitalists have fought tooth and nail to prevent regulation and acknowledgment of the problem. The mindset of the capitalist has been to extract everything they can for themselves and fuck everyone else. As long as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch and the like can bank another dollar, your kids can live in a wasteland.
The exact same process is being committed on your mind and our society. The billionaires that run our media, social or otherwise are mining you and me for every penny and they don’t care what damage they do. They hide behind the freedom of expression. They use the shield meant to protect society from predatory politicians and toxic monarchies to shield their greed. They create from whole cloth controversy and outrage with conspiracy theories and fictions like “woke”, “cancel culture” and “critical race theory” that they invented and re-wrought.
They are not fighting for free speech, they are hyenas squabbling over your carcass.
Our environment cannot survive when those who would exploit our environment are allowed a seat at the decision making table. Similarly, free speech cannot remain free when those who would exploit it to their gain are allowed to govern it. Our politicians need to be held to account for the festering hate they have allowed to grow unchecked, for it is the cowardice and avarice of politicians that have granted the capitalists the keys to the treasury and stood guard at the door while we are robbed blind.
