Anyone that thinks we are not headed for a tyrannical form of government, whether it be a tyranny light (socialism) or tyranny heavy (communism) has not been paying attention. For quite some time our politicians have, at best, skirted around the limitations put up on our federal government by the Constitution and related documents. Now it seems they are completely ignoring it.
Four a couple of weeks, Joe Biden and social media companies have been at odds. It's strange since Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google and other big tech companies have done the bidding of the far left for quite some time. Joe Biden has now said social media is responsible for killing people because they are allowing 'misinformation' to be disseminated upon their platforms. Biden believes that legitimate discussion and publishing of scientific facts about vaccines or the seriousness of the delta variant, is misinformation.
Even though these social media platforms will remove posts or put a Fact Check article with a post that meets the administration's definition of misinformation, it's not enough for the Biden administration. Joe Biden called this past weekend for social media companies to not only remove the articles, but to also ban anyone who shares them. It seems to me that if it's science, then open and honest debate is necessary. If any of that debate is censored, it becomes propaganda.
I have said for quite some time, in response to people who say their First Amendment rights are being violated when a social media company removes a post or takes other action to silence them, that the First Amendment does not apply to private entities. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The key phrase being the first five words of that sentence. The amendment applies to the government and not to private entities.
Private businesses can censor the speech of employees while on the job and even in some cases while away from the job if they deem it to be harmful to their ability to conduct business. Private entities such as social media companies can also censor speech that they find offensive or deemed to violate the rules that they have created for use of their service or product.
The difference now is that we have the federal government telling companies to censor speech and that violates the intent of the First Amendment. When a governmental entity tells anyone that they do not have the right to say what they want, outside of the prescribed limitations, that violates our right to free speech.
It also reinforces my opinion that politicians look down upon the average citizen and our ability to process information, determining whether or not the information is valid, invalid, or somewhere in between. They do not believe we have the ability to use the resources available to us including consulting with our personal physician or family members or others we know and trust to decide whether or not what we're being told is useful or useless. Certainly the government can express their opinion as to the validity of anything and we can process that information just like we do with other sources. Maybe that's why the government doesn't want us to have that information because it goes against their political purposes.
My original point is that we are definitely headed towards a future in which the government controls information, our actions, and so much more. They ignore what has occurred in history even in light of what is going on in Cuba or China right now. Any society in which the government has the control has failed. It cannot be done differently or better. It can only result in misery for everyone except the political elite and their friends in the media. Eventually it will result in the need for another revolution. We can have that revolution now by exercising not only our right to free speech but our power at the ballot box at all levels of government. Or we can wait and be in the same situation that the citizens of Cuba are in, having to look for help from the outside in order to change their form of government.