What is 'Truth' and How Is This Related to Censorship Culture

“You’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” / “The truth is often what we make of it; you heard what you wanted to hear, believed what you wanted to believe.” – OBI WAN KENOBI from The Return of the Jedi (1983).

During this Christmas season, it is time to wax philosophical about our culture. There is no better quote to help find perspective on this incredibly chaotic year than this Obi Wan speech from a beloved science fiction film franchise. So what is Obi Wan trying to tell Luke Skywalker here? From my perspective, it is the foundational understanding that the unique cultures, families, and regions that impact and influence us during our lives is what develops us into the individuals that we become. This includes a diverse range of personal beliefs, ethics and morals that help frame the human point of view. Because human beings develop these wide range of perspectives, something that one person finds to be ‘true’ can be perceived as ‘false’ information by different individuals. Our culture is supposed to debate, study, and analyze these differences and make the best choices for our society. The important aspect that is often forgotten when debating these type of personal morality and social issues is that even if you disagree with someone about these topics, it is always better not to ‘force’ your belief onto these individuals. If you are correct in what you believe, the person will either discover the ‘truth’ in time or will continue to live their life with this delusion. But also, maybe their point of view is the correct one and you are stuck in the delusion. But a third possibility especially when it relates to ethics is that there is no proper answer or solution.

As a person who grew up in the Catholic Community and walked away from it at 18 due to personal dissatisfaction with the church, I understand the atheistic and often liberal point of view about the ‘evils’ of religion. The Catholic Church did not do itself any favors with the child sexual abuse scandals which engulfed the entire world. The problem is institutional and may never be fixed. For people who despise the church, the Catholic religion is self-destructing on its own. But the one thing that our government has difficulty emulating is the sense of community that the church provides. Even considering my own personal problems with the church, many of the people that were part of this community are still part of my life almost 30 years later. Many individuals of the more ‘conservative’ political persuasion still find importance in these local institutions which also include organizations like Freemasonry, the Boy and Girl Scouts, local sports like the AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization), various organizations that fit your personal interest like the Audubon Society or Hiking Clubs, and charities. These organizations and charities help frame an individual’s morals and is why many conservatives are inherently more distrustful of governmental institutions that often expect compliance over social and moral issues that make many of these individuals uncomfortable. This love of community can also be seen as the reason for the strong nationalistic feelings that have captured conservative politics during the Trump era.

Another example that serves as a generalization of many individuals that define themselves as left-wingers (With exceptions of course) is their faith in government and belief in full equality which represents their own ‘form’ of religion. This writer analyzes in this article how the modern system of progressivism is obsessed with eliminating systemic tools of oppression and creating a culture of moral righteousness and equality in a socialized utopia which is similar to the 18th Century Puritan’s belief in individuals participating in their society for collective ends.

Per this quote about Puritan culture, “The individual was free insofar that the individual consented to enter a covenantal union to be guided by law so to build a just community that could last forever.”

This progressive belief in social and economic equality enforced by the government is the 'religious' belief for many of the best left-wing thinkers. This also explains why corporations are a primary target of progressive anger. When an economic system creates massive inequality among the financial overlords at the top compared to the workers at the bottom, the corporation can be seen as the ‘Bond’ villain that must be boycotted at all costs.

Considering these two divergent perspectives (And there are many others), there is a strong ‘puritanical’ belief system that impacts American’s thoughts which leads individuals to strongly defend their personal ethics. This strong belief system has existed and evolved since the immigration of the Puritans from England back in the 17th Century. This is one reason why the United States can be considered one of the most individualistic and meritocratic countries in existence since its founding. This is also why many Americans have utopian dreams about creating a more perfect community and country. Every ideological group in the United States can be perceived as radical. Our country became independent from the United Kingdom because of radicals. This could also be directly blamed for why many individuals in this country are consumed with their own sense of moral righteousness which leads to the inevitable closed-mindedness towards perspectives that differ from their own. Both sides of the political aisle are guilty of this behavior. Conservatives often have difficulty embracing cultural and social changes in our society that bring them personal discomfort. This causes them to reject certain realities about our ever-changing culture. But liberals often believe in their own moral superiority and arrogance due to their personal quest of improving society while ignoring the fact that not everything they preach can be supported by reality. Liberals have difficulties with individuals like libertarians that reject the values that they promote with their facts and prefer to opt out of their utopian ideals.

This leads me into my main point. Why is there hardly any anger over the increased censorship that has been occurring on the internet by our largest technology corporations? Specifically, Facebook, Google, and Twitter seemed to be aligned with the opinion of the Radical Center. The Radical Center promotes itself as the ‘realistic’ and ‘pragmatic’ solution to the insanity of the left and the right. Another proper description for the Radical Center is a political fusion of corporate and government power. During this COVID-19 lockdown, there has been a tremendous rise in online censorship that has devastated many conservatives and other thinkers from a far-left perspective. Tom Woods, a prominent libertarian thinker, got removed for questioning the narrative of the “Covid Cult”. Popular socialist websites have also seen the ban hammer from Google. J.P. Sears, a person I follow on YouTube who makes satirical videos about our present-day society with 1.5 million followers, was recently threatened with being de-platformed from the website. J.P. Sears did a TED talk a few years back that has over a million views. So what has changed? Why is censorship becoming a massive problem for anyone who thinks outside of this ‘Radical Center?’

If we look at the idea of truth from the perspective of the multiple viewpoints mentioned above, it definitely appears that the ‘Radical Center’ or the technocratic industrial government complex is enforcing their version of the ‘truth’ on everyone else. But are their facts actually the ‘truth?” The CDC tells you that wearing masks is necessary for slowing the spread of a disease. A recent study from Denmark informs us that masks have no impact on preventing the spread of COVID-19. Reason magazine even did an analysis on a flawed study that found mask wearing causes a decline in COVID-19 cases. So who is telling the truth here? To follow up that question, why is the only point of view getting censored online involve the people who are opposed to mask wearing? The same goes for people who oppose the lockdown. The mainstream media is in full support of these lockdowns which are having an unbelievable cultural impact on our nation. The WHO (World Health Organization), which is an organization that the United States supported until recently, has never supported the lockdowns since April of this year. So why is the only point of view being censored online revolve around any medical professional calling for the end of lockdowns? Don’t we have the right as American citizens to evaluate both points of view and make the decision on our own without government bureaucrats choosing the ‘truth’ for us? The problem also seems to impact anyone who believes that November’s election may have had some instances of fraud. According to the Boston Globe, only 60% of Americans think Joe Biden won the election fairly. News outlets keep telling us that this is the case. But many news organizations are also compiling massive amounts of evidence telling us that fraud occurred primarily in the six states that were undecided after Election Night. So who is getting banned? Well, the tech companies have picked the side of a free and fair election. Any questioning of this narrative gets you banned from YouTube.
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I can not tell you how dangerous this type of censorship has become. Based on the political issues that have been getting removed and banned online, the tech companies are specifically banning any ideas outside of the narrative that the government is promoting. When it all boils down to it, the tech companies, and their government enablers maybe accurate with their facts. But as a citizen that supposedly lives in a free society that likes to question any perspective with an open mind, can I not come to this conclusion on my own? Because when it comes to censorship, history has proven that authoritarians and governments that engage in this activity usually have something to hide. So because of this, I hope that MeWe, Parler and Rumble succeed. Because our country needs these platforms to succeed if we are concerned about censorship.
 
Help the EFF fight censorship here. This is unacceptable to allow this as a society in the 21st Century.