Control the information and you will control the minds of the people. Despots, tyrants, dictators, and unfortunately politicians, have learned this lesson and used it to maintain control. North Korea might be the best example of this essentially blocking information from every source other than the government. But there are many examples throughout history of how this is done to the benefit of those in control.

it is not just the flow of information through news sources that they control but also through the education system. Countries like Russia and China through the years have used the education system to indoctrinate young minds so that they distrust any source of information but those that are approved by the government. The most common tactic is to stop teaching history and civics. We have seen that happen in America over the last 30 years.

The next step is to use media sources to promote the stories or information that you want the citizens to hear and to denigrate those that disagree with the power brokers. We have watched what has become known as the mainstream media move from reporting the news to editorializing and calling it reporting. I was reading several news stories over the last week in which they described anyone who believed there was widespread election fraud as conspiracy theorists. Of course we know that they hit many of the stories about the fraud or irregularities which further bolstered their attempts to denigrate those that actually know.

Once you have the mind-numbed robots of two or three generations move through the education system, you can see that they begin to believe without questioning that which the media and bureaucrats or politicians feed them. Then you can move to censoring your political opponents. Facebook of course has silenced many conservative news sources as well as our former president. Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms have removed Parler completely. I think some of the companies have heard the uproar over the censorship or complete banning of conservative news sources. So they've changed their tactics.

YouTube has taken away the ability of conservative news sources to monetize their channels. The Epoch Times, Crossroads, and Facts Matter, being the most recent to be stripped of their ability to make money and produce content. Their channels are not being removed From YouTube but without that source of revenue, which is directly tied to their ability to attract viewers, these channels essentially cannot continue to produce content.

I also have failed to mention the scores of universities and colleges who have banned conservative speakers and conservative groups from their campuses.

Now even some boards of directors are caving into the demands of the progressives to silence the opposition. Parler has fired the CEO and co-founder of the social media app that found favor among many Conservatives. Rebecca Mercer is the chairman of the board and primary financier of the company. She is also a longtime Republican strategist who worked for the Bush administration. The disagreement was over Mercer's demand to begin censoring certain conservative voices who had been accused of fomenting insurrection or revolution or hatred towards the establishment. Of course, we know much of this speech is nothing of the sort but Rebecca Mercer is clearly a swamp rat.

This week, the New York times called for an umbrella agency to be created in the federal government to control information. What they actually said was to combat disinformation being put out there by other sources. This is no different than having government sponsored bureaus of information that completely control what we know and find out. This takes us several more steps down the path towards tyranny. Name a dictatorial government that has not had similar control of the news and information. If you can, that dictator did not stay in power very long.

Even more disturbing is the Department of Defense announcing a six week stand down so that they can identify and purge those who might be dangerous to our democracy. They will be searching social media pages and other sources of information to see if anyone believes in the conspiracy theories or has made statements supporting groups that are not approved or ideas that are not approved. The result will be a military that becomes a tool to suppress the citizens rather than to defend our freedoms.

It is sad that so many of our citizens are going along with this simply because they approve of the person or the people that are in power. They clearly do not understand the implications nor do they consider the possibility that someone from the opposite side of the political aisle could take control and do the same thing to them. This quite simply puts the rule of man above the rule of law. We are likely at our last line of defense or opportunity to prevent a full scale assault upon our founding principles. We must be involved not only inundating our elected officials with our opinions including opposition to these actions but also standing up locally. We must demand that our schools educate our children rather than indoctrinate them. We must demand that our local and state governments protect our freedoms. We must also get involved by running for office or supporting actively those candidates that share our values. If you want to see what happens if we don't, look at what is happening in Hong Kong. We might just be further down that road than even I believe.