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Censorship is a weapon of tyranny not freedom

By Ray Hanania

Applauding Censorship is horrible. Censorship is a disease that undermines freedom from within.

Oppressors who hide behind the cloak of Democracy use censorship as a means to control the public by limiting what the public sees. Censorship restricts what the public hears and says, and the opinions and information that is censored if often described as “hateful” or “fake news” or “misleading disinformation.”

But in truth, by restricting the information that the public gets, they only see and hear a very narrow slice of the facts and as a result they are forced into accepting a conclusion that may not be correct and may in fact be manipulative and partisan and skewered from the truth.

Image from author George Orwell's dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Image courtesy of Wikipedia — Image from author George Orwell’s dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Image courtesy of Wikipedia

In eliminating censorship, and allowing the public to hear everything, the public is allowed to weigh what is right and what is wrong because they can compare and reflect, and apply commonsense. The people ARE SMART ENOUGH to come to their own conclusions. They don’t need censors to force us down one-way streets or into political cul du sacs of conclusions.

Social media and partisan politicians are behind the latest wave of censorship but social media is also playing a significant role, because most social media is controlled by far leftwing extremists who oppose freedom of thought, freedom of expression and Constitutional freedoms of the people. They include Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

… censorship of any information denies the public the ability to USE THEIR OWN BRAINS to determine what is true or not true, rather than allowing Big Brother to tell us what to think. I’d rather see all the facts and come to the truth on my own, rather than have some extremist activist deciding what I should see and hear

Here is a recent example of how censorship is being used to constrict public thought on a major topic, one that assumes the people are too stupid to come to the right conclusion not heir own. The news media and politician hypocrites are playing this censorship to the maximum to their political background. And the biased news media allows this to happen.

Common Cause Applauds Steps Taken by Twitter to Reduce Disinformation About 2020 Election

Today, Twitter suspended several accounts connected with sham election review proposals in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada.

Statement of Yosef Getachew, director of media and democracy at Common Cause:

We applaud Twitter stepping in to stop the disinformation being spread by these accounts.

The November 3rd election “was the most secure in American history” — according to the Trump Administration’s Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council.

And Trump’s own Attorney General, William Barr, said there was no evidence of “fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election” – after FBI agents and US Attorneys had looked for it.

But in recent months, disinformation agents have been using social media platforms to sow doubt about our elections. These efforts and the calls for sham ballot reviews have largely targeted the ballots cast by Black and Brown Americans. The ill-conceived review in Maricopa County, Arizona devolved into a circus and taxpayers have been left to foot the bill for the mess. The county has been forced to spend almost $3 million to replace the voting machines that were compromised during the Cyber Ninjas review.

But fundraising by those looking to profit from the lies and the unfounded hysteria has only gained steam in recent months. Literally hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised from small-dollar donors who want to believe in a different election outcome.

Disinformation spread on social media has helped convince these people that donating their money will somehow lead to the election results being overturned.

This has inflicted incredible damage on our country’s tradition of peaceful transitions of power. It has undermined many Americans’ belief in free and fair elections.

We applaud the step Twitter took today. We urge Facebook and YouTube to follow suit and remove posts connected with sham election review proposals. Platforms have policies in place to combat the spread of this content among other types of election disinformation, but these policies must be consistently enforced and strengthened.

Republicans around the country have spoken out against these sham election reviews.

We are glad Twitter has finally taken a stand against them, too.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and political columnist. His columns are published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers. For more information on Ray Hanania visit www.Hanania.com or email him at rghanania@gmail.com.)

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.

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