You Have Not Yet Begun to be Silenced

Look, I'm going to be upfront with you all. And some of you already know this about me. My tin foil hat is not well worn. I am not into conspiracy theory at all. But I do have a few things that I will break out my tin foil hat for, and when I do, especially when I feel the need to speak out about the stuff publicly, you can bet that I feel there is real validity there or it is a major possibility. 

Today's tin foil hat chat is going to be about the recent up-tick in online censoring of "wrong think." If you are here, you are most likely guilty of wrong think, at least in some aspects. So this pertains to you, regardless of political party or beliefs. 

You can check out this video here, which inspired me to say something myself, for his aspect on things. 

The big news online right now is Twitter deverifying users they don't like. And that is, basically, what they are doing. If you are discussing things they don't like, you lose your verification. There has also been another issue with Google apparently locking you out of documents in Google Docs because they "violate the terms of service." 

YouTube has been coming under fire for demonetizing - and preventing the promotion of - videos that discuss "controversial subjects." You can still pull nasty pranks on strangers and beat your children for views and keep your monetization, but don't you dare talk about anything that actually makes people think. Don't dare hurt anyone's feelings. And don't dare speak of Google in a negative light. Like I did. 

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They won't even review them. YouTube has a limit of 1000 views before they will apparently review videos, but I have submitted videos for review with less than 30 views that got reviewed. So that's hogwash. 

Now, the video I linked above will go into a lot of details about the latest in online censorship, but I want to take it a step further.

As we all know, Google has known, public leanings, and they aren't shy about censorship. If they don't like your news article, it gets moved so far back it doesn't ever get found, or it never shows up in search results at all. You may get locked out of accounts, or have videos demonetized and unpromoted so they can't be found. 

Twitter actually made a statement about your verification being removable due to bad behavior - even off of Twitter. Meaning, if you say something considered to be "wrong think" somewhere else, they can still unverify you. 

Facebook, Google, etc. are all tracking what you do online. That isn't a conspiracy theory. Google can even use your phone to keep an online accounting of where you have physically been. All in the name of "advertising." And you can "opt out" to some degree from all of this (I put that in quotes, because you actually can't). 

So, how bad could this get? Well, let's see. Even the mainstream media has covered stories about your smart TV listening all the time, your smart home devices listening all the time, your phone listening all the time, the ease of access to your cameras whether they are on your phone, laptop, or even home security. 

Google Fiber is a thing. I actually use it myself. And I'll be honest, it's amazing. I can upload a 30 minute video to YouTube in literally seconds. It's mind blowingly fast. But Google now supplies my internet. At what point can I expect Google to decide they don't like my website here and are going to block my access to the Internet completely for 30 days, then 60 days, then permanently? And with as great as it is, the other options in the area are really struggling. AT&T provides fiber around here, too, but the service and the performance are so bad that most people I know who use it quickly switch. Google teases everyone by slowly releasing their service in chosen areas and then making you wait for them to actually connect you and all this other really elite garbage. 

I could go back to Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable), but then I also go back to uploading a five minute video in two hours. If I can access the site at all. And in reality, they are already struggling, so how much longer is that going to last? Especially when the prices are astronomically high.

I'm looking around at my own home right now. If Google decided to block me for 30 days... I would have no phone. I would have no heat (in the downstairs of my house. The upstairs thermostat isn't connected to the Internet). No TV. And if I wanted these things back, I'd have to conform. I would have to post nothing online that they disliked. And, if we're counting the smart devices, I'd have to watch what I'm saying inside my house. My nightly conversations with my mother about the news would have to be stopped. Even this website. The only real way to support the costs of this website are with Google Ads. It isn't much, but it's the only source of real potential income I have right now. And they can - and probably will - shut it down eventually.

Tech companies are overwhelmingly liberal, and more and more the left side of the isle is becoming less open to opposing views, wrong think, or anything else they don't like. They demand conformity. They demand access to only what they believe. They demand no challenge to their ideas or thoughts. And Google has the power to stop anyone they please easily. 

Our lives are becoming more dependent on online activity as each day goes by. Everything we do is connected to the Internet. Even your car can be shut down remotely. And the more connected we become, the more liberal tech companies demand our conformity or punish us, and the more those punishments actually effect our ability to function. We have a generation of kids coming up and those in college and entering the workforce now who are living in an echo chamber and want to stay there. And they don't have a problem with violently reacting to those who try to pull them from that echo chamber. And companies like Google - who are becoming more and more of a world ruler instead of a utility - are happy to comply. 

We are being removed from society. We are being cast aside as though we don't matter and are just a simple obstacle. We are being punished for not blindly following and nodding along like bobble heads. We are being silenced. Aggressively. And those who claim to love free speech are cheering that on. 

​OK, tin foil hats off. I'm done.