Censorship Comes Home

“The name’s Francis Sawyer, but everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you guys call me Francis, and I’ll kill you.” – Stripes

Yes, YouTube® gave themselves a free speech award. It’s not parody – this happened.

The Mrs., Mark (LINK) and I have a little podcast we’ve been working on for a while. It’s not very big, but I don’t advertise it much, either. We livestream every Wednesday at 9pm Eastern. You can find it here (LINK) if you’re interested. It’s a lot like The Grand Tour® (or old Top Gear©) with me as Clarkson, Mark as May, and The Mrs. as Hammond. Note: The Mrs. does not wreck nearly as often as Hammond does.

What we have been doing with it is practicing – we’ve practiced format, and types of stories, and even how we interact. I like to think that in the last few months we’re getting better on all points. I think we’re getting better, because more recently after completing the podcast I feel “up” and excited, like we did a good job and I know we did. The podcast content is pretty lightweight, mainly commentary on the news and making fun of The Powers That Be.

One thing that has always been in the back of my mind was that we would (at some point) be censored.

Our first strike was a copyright strike.

Why?

How does a polygamist hippie count his wives? “One Mrs. Hippie, Two Mrs. Hippe, Three Mrs. Hippie . . .“

The Mrs. used a bit of Rockin’ in the Free World to make fun of Neil Young and his blatant attempt to gain publicity in order to censor Joe Rogan’s ‘Rona commentary that differed from The Narrative. The irony on that one is hilarious. It’s obvious that Neil’s idea of an ideal “free world” would probably make Stalin red with envy.

So, that was the first censorship. The Mrs. replaced the now-verboten Rockin’ in the Free World with a public domain music bed and that podcast was re-uploaded. The fact that we were using only a snippet of Neil’s music and then criticizing him for being a hirsute hippie hypocrite of questionable personal hygiene would probably have made a claim of Fair Use quite defensible.

But, whatever. It was easy enough to cut out that bearded road apple’s music.

This time, however, I accidently touched one of YouTube’s® third rails – an absolutely verboten opinion. Here’s what I said in the podcast:

“There is a theory that I’m working on: Wilder’s Theory of Greatest Amusement. What would be the most amusing 2016 election? Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. What’s the most amusing outcome? Donald Trump winning. Let’s go to 2020: what’s the most amusing opponent for Trump? Joe “Dementia” Biden. What’s the most amusing outcome? Biden stealing the election.”

That’s what I said, more or less. I can’t give you the exact quote because YouTube™ nuked the podcast not only from external view, but we can’t see it ourselves. When Google® is serious about putting something in the memory hole, they are serious.

They did highlight the offending bit: “Biden stealing the election.”

Out of a fifty-minute podcast (more or less) it was a throwaway line. The Mrs. appealed the strike. It turns out of you appeal a strike and the strike is upheld, the appeal is a second strike. The end sentence in her request for an appeal? “Lighten up, Francis.”

When I played baseball we couldn’t wear Adidas©. Three stripes and you’re out.

I’m not sure that the millennial who is in charge of determining if we violated “community standards” will get the reference. But if his, her, or xirs name is Francis? Maybe he’ll lighten up. I don’t think they’ll accept the appeal – and in that case we get an immediate suspension.

But if we get three? They delete our channel forever.

That’s okay. Our channel has an approximate net worth of . . . zero. There are literally an infinite number of channel names we can come up with, and an infinite number of email addresses we can us to create those channels. It’s not like the podcast team is worried about losing out this name. Heck, we’re not even a streaming channel that investors spent $250 million putting together.

Here’s the policy that they say we violated:

  • Election integrity: Content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches changed the outcome of select past national elections, after final election results are officially certified. This currently applies to:
    • Any past U.S. Presidential election
      • The 2021 German federal election
      • The 2018 Brazilian Presidential election

Free and fair elections?

So, the result is simple: if there is ample evidence that there was fraud that impacted the 2020 election, (and there is) you can’t make that claim on YouTube®. Why? Because they have already determined that those claims are “false”. 2,000 voters all registered to one address in Georgia? One person committing multiple felonies on film by delivering votes to boxes? Stacy Abrams eating the votes that had “Trump” marked on them?

I did searches of those very serious stories, and there were no hits on YouTube®. Zero, despite evidence on film of these things having occurred. Obviously, according to YouTube®, those things never happened. They’re facts (well, not the Stacy Abrams thing), but facts that YouTube® suppresses like a 1915 woman voter.

The classroom even had a duck. They made it wear a mask. It was strange looking, but it fit the bill.

It actually gets worse. If a person’s YouTube™ videos are nothing but, oh, I don’t know, hairstyles for squirrels, but it turns out that you actually write and perform disco music? Okay, that might be justified. But the reality is that once a person becomes “unpersoned” it happens across all platforms at the same time. Facebook™, Twitter©, and YouTube® (and others) will permaban you.

And you’re done. There’s no appeal. And if you have information stored on their services? Gone. Where do you do your recovery passwords? Records? Past email files?

Strangely, this cast of characters is very familiar . . .

From the trends that I’ve seen, eventually, all media on the Right that questions The Narrative will get banned. One website I try to visit regularly has been under DDOS attack for weeks. Others, like Western Rifle Shooters Association, were deleted (and came back, thankfully!). But tonight, I tried to hit one of WRSA’s links and found . . . .

No such page. There are tons of reasons other than censorship, but, let’s be real. It’s censorship. Some of my most popular posts led to unwanted attention, to virus attacks, and to being taken offline.

The momentum is headed towards more, not less censorship right now. The Digital Services Act recently passed by the EU parliament increases censorship. Expect more here in the United States.

If Hillary wins in 2024, I’m moving to Benghazi. At least I know she’ll leave me alone there.

They say that it’s darkest before the dawn, but sometimes it’s darkest before things go pitch black. I fear the times will get even darker. That’s okay. It just makes some of us search ever harder for the Truth, and we all know: the signal can’t be stopped.

Author: John

Nobel-Prize Winning, MacArthur Genius Grant Near Recipient writing to you regularly about Fitness, Wealth, and Wisdom - How to be happy and how to be healthy. Oh, and rich.

38 thoughts on “Censorship Comes Home”

  1. One of the best posts ever, John, and, I love the polygamist hippy joke. Keep them coming!

  2. This is where the blockchain could make an impact. Many (most?) people confuse Bitcoin and blockchain as being the same thing. No. Bitcoin is an application that uses blockchain technology to make a new type of money. What we need is an application that uses blockchain technology to make a new kind of library – one that once an information deposit has been made, it can never be erased. But this has its dangers and dillemas – what when, not if, child porn gets logged on the Bitcoin blockchain? Does that mean every miner continuously processing and adding data to the Bitcoin blockchain file (currently 324 GB) is a sex offender and goes to jail?

    https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47130268#:~:text=Images%20of%20child%20sexual%20abuse,by%20using%20a%20payment%20processor.

    So, currently no good answer to censorship…er “content moderation”. Help us, Elon, you’re our only hope?

    1. I’ve been thinkling about this some more and the ultimate solution is not “blockchain” but another cryptocurrency buzzword, “decentralization”. The real problem now is that millions of people upload ONE copy of their work to ONE monolithic controlling “content moderator”. We need a system where ONE copy becomes MANY copies stored in MANY locations under NOBODY’S central control. What is needed is an updated, extended version of the original (shortlived and now forgotten) Napster from 1999-2001…

      https://history-computer.com/napster-guide/

      This will eventually happen again, it just needs an organizing presence. Look at the Helium Network – a organization of (greedy, self-serving) volunteers setting up a grid of LoRaWAN hotspots. They only have enough bandwidth to forward IoT (Internet of Things) smart-sensor messages and they are “funded” by the Bitcoin model of anybody-can-join-this-network-to-make-a-quick-buck (by “mining” Helium cryptocoins)…but this technology and system, scaled up and combined with the original Napster model, is the key to breaking up the “content moderation” chokehold that exists today.

      https://www.helium.com/

      https://www.helium.com/mine

      https://explorer.helium.com/

      1. Or, an open system that can interact across platforms . . . choose your moderation to choose your system?

    2. I hope Elon does help. Again, I’m concerned. You don’t get where he is without a lot of compromises along the way.

    1. Exactly. Just as “dangerous to our democracy” means, “someone other than a Leftist has an opinion.”

  4. If Bombs and Bants goes away, I will need to order a new mug for my desk. Keep up the good work.

  5. The last Clinton screenshot made me wonder what would happen if we started to refer to anything transatlantic as tranny.

    Good post. Spot on. I still haven’t figured out why people who do podcasts or youtube channels don’t back everything up. I have a youtube channel just to post AP Calculus teaching videos. Nobody looks at it but my students and I joke to them that my goal is early retirement if all ten of them watch all my videos each year. Occurred to me when I started that if I left that school district I’d have no access to my stuff because I’d lose my email so I started downloading and backing them all up. And that’s without any expectation that I might get cancelled.

    1. You are right about making sure that you have multiple ways to access your work. I’ve been looking at my blog posts, and getting them downloaded and saved in multiple locations and formats.
      Same with my email addresses, archived mail, and other things I might want access to, should I finally trip the switch that causes TPTB to shut me down.
      I’m using multiple platforms – Blogger, WordPress, Smashwords, and Substack. But, I’m also saving my work offline, on portable storage systems.

    2. If we were Joe Rogan, we’d save everything. We’re still learning, having fun. I think we might do the podcast with zero listeners. Unlike your content, ours probably has only transient value – once a week or two is gone? The value of the content is greatly diminished.

  7. I miss Bombs and Bants only when I’m away from home, or when I forget (tragically, that latter happens a LOT). Seriously, folks, give it a look. It’s fun and interactive. A minor and tentative correction for our host: I believe it goes live at 9 pm Eastern, not 7. Maybe it’s 9 where you are? Not that I’m being inquisitive about your location. I want to maintain a substantial distance. To be truthful, I might be crushing on Mrs. the Mrs. just a little bit, and I don’t need John kicking my elderly butt.

    About the online censorship, there are answers, although they tend to be temporary and thus unsatisfactory. But even a poor response is much better than none at all. Currently, you might give Odysee some consideration. I’m a follower of Dr. Sam Bailey, a delightful source of medical heresy against the medical establishment’s Received Truths, and she (mostly) decamped from ThemTube to Odysee. What she now does about her “controversial” videos, which is practically all of them, is to run a tiny little one-minute trailer on YT urging the viewer to follow a provided link to the real video on Odysee. Might be worth a try for B&B.

    Assuming that the First Dementia Patient, or his puppet-masters, don’t manage to get the REAL WW III kicked off and we’re not all radioactive ash, I’m thinking that into the online future, dissidents may be like desert nomads, camping at one free-speech oasis until the water dries up, then moving on under cover of night to the next.

      1. I’m not at all computer techisized, but I was wondering – is there anything (from a computer operations/functional standpoint) that would prevent Elon from adding a video section to Twitter? He wouldn’t have to buy YouTube, he’d just put it out of business in one swell foop.

        Just askin’ for thousands of friends.

        1. The big problem is computing power – Twitter itself is already a huge database, and probably costs a billion or more a month to run.

    3. The Mrs. is a gem.

      I’ll give Sam a listen to!

      The end result might be local. Library at 9am on Saturdays, or something like it. We’ll find each other.

    1. It’s hilarious that people who are so invested in her creastion that they buy wizard hats and wands now want to kill her. It’s like Kahleesi all over again.

  10. Love your work, John. I think that you may be taking Neil’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” a little out of context. The song, written in 1989, was (of course) social commentary and a not-so-flattering look at the America of that time. I was a real fan of Neil Young’s music, but for me he peaked after the release of “Harvest”. Anyway, check it out if you are so inclined.

    “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” And I’ve lived long enough to see it rhyme in music. Take a look at the lyrics of the song “Monster/Suicide/America” from the 1969 Steppenwolf album “Monster”, specifically the lyrics of “Suicide”. It’s like it was written for today’s America. Weird.

    1. You’re right! I only listened to the repetitivie bits. He’s not a big fan of anything I’m a fan of, and vice versa. Except we probably both like money.

      A lot of people saw this coming.

  11. Speaking of awards, I’ve been awarded the coveted “Sexiest Man Alive Award”. The award, sponsored by sigmadog is the leading sigmadog indicator of sexiness according to the top sigmadog analysts after an intense and rigorous evaluation of a worldwide base of entrants, followed by a cursory look in the mirror.

  12. Your YT travails regarding the patently oxymoronic notion of Democratic ‘election integrity’ got me to wondering if it works both ways. What would happen if, say, instead of the blatant theft on the part of the Demo’s in 2020 you used the exact same phrasing retooled to accuse Trump and the GOP of election theft back in 2016? Would the ‘Tube flush that one, too? If not, that sounds like real evidence of 1st amendment suppression and discrimination, and might be something for SCOTUS to take up.

    I can see it now, Wilder vs. YouTube, the landmark decision handed down by none other than newly-minuted Supreme Court Biologist, Jumanji Clown Jackson.

    1. I did check – there were many, many legacy videos indicating there was effective Russian interference in the 2016 election.

    1. We’re trying to go to multiple platforms with the finished streams. The lazy answer is that The Mrs. now knows how to run the YT software.

      1. That possibility crossed my mind as well, especially if they can’t short Tesla stock sufficiently to force the desired ‘reaction’. :-/

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