Political correctness has escalated out of control. It used to be you were criticized if you said something that the left didn’t agree with. That was political debate. Now, the left will come after you with a vengeance and destroy your career, your life and often your presence on social media. The number of regular conservatives being censored on social media is growing; almost every day there is another report of one being banned or suspended from one of the major platforms. Many of them lose their jobs.
The only way to survive this type of witch hunt is to water down everything you say. References to violence are out, even if they are clearly meant allegorically. This includes statements made by revered historical figures. Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!” will likely get you suspended or banned from social media. The actor James Woods tweeted in response to the Mueller report, "If you try to kill the King, you better not miss. #HangThemAll." It is a line from the TV series The Wire, which was paraphrased from a line by the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was an obvious allegory but Twitter decided to treat it like a real threat of violence, no doubt because Woods is a brilliant conservative mind whose tweets go viral they’re so clever.
David Clarke, the former sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, was suspended from Twitter over a tweet that was an obvious allegory. He tweeted about the media, "Punch them in the nose & MAKE THEM TASTE THEIR OWN BLOOD."
Comparisons to evil tyrants are also risky. A friend of mine posted an image featuring dictators like Hitler supporting gun control on her Facebook page, and was promptly suspended for three days. Merely pointing out the negatives about a tyrant is enough to get suspended.
Criticizing LGBT and feminist issues is dangerous. Feminist Meghan Murphy was banned from Twitter for using male pronouns to refer to a transgender who was born biologically a male. Robert Stacy McCain was banned from Twitter in 2016 for his witty takedowns of feminists.
Posting on social media about race is also risky. Conservative activist Candace Owens, who is black, copied tweets from New York Times editorial board member Sarah Jeong. Jeong viciously attacked white people in her tweets, so Owens changed them around by swapping out the races and religions. Twitter temporarily locked Owens out of her account.
Terrifyingly, sometimes it’s not even clear what posts get a conservative banned. Outspoken talk radio host Jesse Kelly was permanently banned from Twitter without explanation. He was later reinstated.
The censorship is getting more and more ridiculous. Earlier this month, Twitter banned the parody account AOCpress, which mocks Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, merely for its posts mimicking the congresswoman’s idiotic statements. The account was clearly marked as a parody account. Twitter also just suspended MAGAPhobia, an account run by One America News host Jack Posobiec that tracks acts of violence against Trump supporters.
President Trump frequently retweets funny memes by Carpe Donktum. But Twitter locked the meme creator out of his account after he posted a parody clip of an Old West gunfight between Trump and the mainstream media.
It’s worse in other countries. A journalist in Germany was given a 6 month suspended jail sentence and 100 hours of community service for arguing that Islam is a fascist ideology. He also compared the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
The left is boxing the right in. Little by little, our allowed speech on the big tech platforms is shrinking. But too many conservatives aren’t sounding the warning bells. They think it won’t happen to them. However, we’re no longer talking about those on the fringe like Alex Jones of Infowars, Milo Yiannopoulos and Tommy Robinson. The censorship is happening to regular conservatives. It’s here, and shows no sign of letting up. Unless you want to limit your speech to milquetoast posts, it’s time to take a stand against the erosion of speech. Like it or not, speech now takes place on the platforms of the big tech giants, so ignore them at your peril. Until the right creates viable alternatives to the big tech giants, we’re stuck with them.