Hey, right-wingers--don't like Facebook anymore? Get off it! Go find yourself some other little platform. Maybe one of your geniuses can come up with a better alternative. Free enterprise, liberty, all that stuff you love--it can be yours. It is beyond ridiculous that this guy, with Mercer cash backing him up, is whining about "suppression of conservative views on social media" when all they have to do is change providers. Free market, anyone? Hello???
3
Here we go again!
These are the same people that try to restrict others' rights and freedoms:
- African-Americans and the poor of their constitutional rights to vote
- Restrictions on what a woman can do with her body
-Restrict people who are gay or lesbian from enjoying the same freedoms others enjoy.
-Restrictions on the unfortunate from access to social safety nets.
And on and on.
Give us a break.
And here's another reminder, white conservatives are not victims, no matter how much Fox News makes them out to be victims.
Whites own 95% of the wealth of this country, what exactly are white conservatives victims of again?
4
Anyone who goes to the Google or the Face Book for the news is a fool. What's wrong with the site you're on right now, the tried and true New York Times? What's wrong with the broadcast networks, PBS, BBC? Why go to dubious places that have no news bureaus and no business being purveyors of news? You read rubbish, you spout rubbish.
DD
Manhattan
2
The Left should not cede defining of this issue to the Right. Rather, it should take the lead in holding these cormpanies and the internet in general accountable for their myriad negative effects. The Free Speech issue is a bit of a red herring, but given the fact that few Americans have actually been taught civics, about such things as the scope of free speech rights, separation of powers, judicial review, and other aspects of our political system, it can become a useful diversion for the Right. This is especially true inasmuch as the Left, especially around college campuses, has been busily advocating for its own forms of private entity limitations on free speech, much as the Right did in the Fifties.
In any case, freedom of speech is Constitutionally only guaranteed from abridgement by the government, not by private entities. Private abridgement only becomes a legal (and possibly Constitutional) issue, when it intersects with monopoly forms of dissemination.
If the Left wants to prevail in promulgating its values, it has to do more than simply react to the Right. It must be out front of the Right's issues. And it has to be willing to give up its love affair with the world of gadgetry, the essential means for the spreading of "fake news" and "alternative facts", more accurately known as lies. It has to stop confusing the way it wishes the world were with the way it actually is. It needs to develop perspective and humility, which it rightly accuses the Right of lacking.
1
These idiots think that Facebook and Google are subject to the First Amendment free-speech requirements. No private actor or private company is required to give a platform to their rantings. And they seem to be making the argument that because these platforms are ubiquitous in society that they are somehow required to allow purveyors of right-wing disinformation access to their websites. They are not government actors so the First Amendment does not apply to them.
1
It is way past the time for verified id’s. No more bots
Harassers, liars and grifters should be exposed and shunned
3
Whiners with billionaire backers including those laundering Russian money are traitors, pure and simple. Watch Vlad's troll army push their agenda.
2
Hate speech is neither new nor news. Neither is killing the messenger, and it's a long standing custom among despots to kill your assassins once they've done their work. It appears the the international fascist right feels they've got all they can from these trojan horses.
1
Notice how conservatives always need to play the victim? What's the term--snowflakes?
3
Oh for pity's sake. If tech is such a problem for ya, I got a mimeograph machine that is free for the takin'.
3
"Global Warming is a hoax."
"Trickle down economics works."
"There is more racism against whites than blacks."
"Taxes must always go down."
"Guns should not be controlled."
"Regulations are bad."
Google and Facebook limit right-wing speech because they limit lying.
3
Just because these guys are crazy, doesn't mean they're stupid. The alarms they're raising are genuine and affect everyone, regardless of politics. Recent articles about China's "social credit" score, a number with potentially tragic consequences and built upon everything that can be ascertained about a person electronically, should stand as a warning to us all. Google and Facebook themselves are already quasi-governmental agencies; there is nothing to prevent them from aggregating everything they know about you with everything the government knows. Anyone who is not worried because they believe they've got nothing to hide is either incredibly naive - or dead.
2
Ah, the right! Brave champions for free speech -- unless, of course, they're passing laws declaring pornography more dangerous than guns, or banning words like "transgender" and "science-based" from being used by the CDC. But yes, "free speech for everyone, as long as they're like us!"
3
Build your own bloody platform! Big tech are not a public service, they are private companies. If they do not like what you are saying tough nuts, it’s their network. Free speech comes with responsibilities, something the alt right does not believe in. Stop whining and get on with it, talk away to yourselves.
2
I’m sorry, but conservatives need to read up on their constitutional law and stop confusing free speech with this quack idea of unrestricted free speech anywhere no matter what. That simply doesn’t exist. The first amendment states that the government cannot limit or control speech - but there is ZERO free speech problem for a private platform like Google or Facebook to censor what can and can’t be posted. If you hate the current social media technologies and platforms so much, go build your own. (Of course, there’s a reason Silicon Valley isn’t in Kansas.)
2
The aim of this strategy is to inoculate conservatives against further revelations that social media was abused by the Russians largely in favor of right wing causes. This play should be familiar to all by now; it's the same play they used when they incessantly accused the MSM of liberal bias, or when they claimed that unfavorable judgments had been handed down by "activist" liberal judges. It is propaganda, nothing more.
Except while Russian "hackers" supposedly pushed Trump, Russia media leans far left, something believers of this ridiculous conspiracy like to conveniently forget.
The Left should not cede the defining of this issue to the Right. In fact, it should take the lead in holding these corporations and the internet in general accountable for their myriad negative effects. The Free Speech issue is a bit of a red herring but, given the fact that few Americans have actually been taught civics, about such things as the separation of powers, judicial review, enumerated versus reserved rights, and other aspects of our history and our present, it can become a useful diversion for the Right. This is especially true inasmuch as the Left, especially around college campuses, has been busily advocating for its own forms of private entity limitations on free speech, much as the Right did in the Fifties.
In any case, freedom of speech is Constitutionally only guaranteed from abridgement by the government, not by private entities. Private abridgement only becomes a legal (and possibly Constitutional) issue, when it intersects with monopoly forms of dissemination.
If the Left wants to prevail in promulgating its values, it has to do more than simply say a reactive NO to the Right. And it has to be willing to give up its love affair with the world of gadgetry, the essential means for the spreading of "fake news" and "alternative facts", more accurately known as lies. And it has to stop confusing the way one wishes the world were with the way it actually is. And it needs to develope perspective and humility, which it rightly accuses the Right of lacking.
4
Although their ubiquitous presence makes them seem otherwise, Twitter, FB and Google are private businesses with the right to publish, or not publish, anything they want.
Harvard Law School’s Noah Feldman: “There’s no right to free speech on Twitter,” he asserted. “The only rule is that Twitter Inc. gets to decide who speaks and listens—which is its right under the First Amendment. Twitter is a private company with First Amendment rights of its own.”
What Mr. Feldman said regarding Twitter applies to FB and Google as well.
4
There are limits. Speech that causes endangerment is not protected.
Also it’s time for Goofbook Twitter etc to be help accountable, it’s time to abolish FCC section 230
There are definitely issues with the major platforms, not least Facebook. But they will be resolved. What we don't need is to have loony rightwing alternate-reality - plus the lies, bile and willful distortion that are a staple of today's Russian-Republican Party - further warping an already complicated situation. Spend half an hour on the Fox and Breitbart sites and you know you're deep in bubble land. Those sites are fine for the faithful and anybody's welcome to them. But leave Facebook alone. It's bad enough already.
While Big Tech might be accused of demonstrating a liberal bias, I think the Conservatives have yet to prove that they've been subject to excessive censorship. Perhaps BigTech has tried to make it more difficult for Far-Right/Alt-Right/WhiteSupremacists to get published and disseminated on-line. One could argue that that is a sound decision based on public health concerns. After all, numerous FarRight/AltRight/WhiteSupremacists have advocated hate for hate and violence. I would think all reasonable people would support a bias against hate. And I think it's the "hate" that the Liberals are looking to suppress, not the counterarguments. Mr. Schweitzer would be of more service to the Country were he to do what he could to silence the voices of hate, bigotry, and violence that are drowning out rational conservatives and hurting our Nation.
Journalism is supposed to adhere to certain principles, all aimed at exposing the truth, as part of a whole, not partial stop or twisted, not to misinform. As such, I object to any mudrakers and distortionists from either side, right or left, being called 'journalists'. That doesn't mean that there are not reasonable liberal or conservative interpretations as long as the intent is not to misinform, mislead and inflame.
The alt-right has killed so many messengers that there must now be a shortage. Do they themselves believe the climate-science deniers, conspiracy theorists, and the idea that Reagan was the greatest president ever fiction that they espouse?
What do they have to share that is either worth reading (for more than its sad-comic value) and can be backed by data?
I can't be the only one who suspects that Bannon and Limbaugh, or any other right-wing talking head, go home after today's performance, remove their horns and suits, gaze into each other's eyes, and fall into an impassioned embrace. Everybody needs love, right?
2
what the alt-right can't seem to understand is that they truly are the minority... 70% of people are moderate. alt-left isnt much better.
Let's stop these minor groups from whining to control messaging the masses
1
Republicans need enemies because they have no policy to offer that would sustain their party. They need to have their voters feel under a threat.
1
New war cry for the angry, disgruntled, confused, extreme right: "Back to stick messages etched into dirt!"
1
As hard as it may be for journalists to realize, it is possible for there to be a political issue which cannot be adequately explained in terms of "right" versus "left" politics.
The public has widely accepted an almost complete absence of regulation of the internet business, a business highly conducive to natural monopolies. Free from public accountability, that industry has spawned gigantic firms whose success is based largely on addicting users to "free" services, capturing private information from those users, selling it to advertisers, and successfully fooling investors into thinking that growth = profitability.
Over the past couple of years, the public has begun to wake up to the many excesses, abuses, and social downsides of this business: teenagers with shortened attention spans, stunted social skills and stolen privacy, bolstered extremism, corrupted elections, democratic reform and renewal polluted by "clickavism,"etc. If "the right" is moving faster to fight these scourges (questionable) that is probably not because it has some greater affinity for truth, common sense, and the public interest, but because it has more backbones. The "left "has been losing because it has been mired in handwringing, symbolism and political correctness, and feeling good about pursuing token goals almost never achieved. And so here again, with the downsides of the internet, the "right" steps in to fill yet another void.
2
A problem with the progressive argument in the gender war component of the culture wars is that it denies or minimizes female and male differences. There are undeniable physiological, biological and chemical differences between men and women. We shouldn't argue that point; we should argue the spirit in which it is expressed. Despite differences, it is the acceptance and the respect we afford each other that matter. Perhaps there are biological and psychological differences in the female and the male brains that account for the fewer number of women in the IT field. So what? If this argument is an observation, it is harmless; if it is a doctrine to limit or forbid a woman's entrance into the study of or employment in the IT field that is altogether a different matter. So, what if fewer women want to write code? There are plenty of more important things to do, like raise healthy well-adjusted children, safeguard the resources of the planet we all draw upon, define the nature and function of Dark Energy. It isn't about being the same; when we claim that, we discredit our most precious concerns. It's about being equal. It's about treating each other with respect and decency, no matter what our gender, no matter whether we like to design robots or bake cupcakes.
You are making a classic post hoc ergo hoc argument.
Sure, there is plenty of evidence women and men have some differences. There is no evidence those differences mean men do better at tech than women.
And yet Tech sure has a lot more men working and making a lot more money than women.
1
Last time I checked, the use of platforms like Twitter and Facebook were free for consumers. Unless the use of these social media tools violate the terms of service established by the platform providers, I don't see how the right can cry foul. If the right-wing wants it's own platform - build it and see if people will come.
11
No one is forced to read the NY Times or use Facebook. Conservatives have plenty of media, Breitbart, Fox News, Rush. It's just whining. Conservatives aren't happy unless they control everything. They have the House, the Senate, the Presidency, the majority of state houses and governors, yet they still feel they are powerless. It's an enormous inferiority complex.
19
This is hilarious.Right wingers are taking on the FBI, that helped Trump get elected. Now they're taking on Facebook, that helped Trump get elected.
I thought they believed in government staying out of business decisions? Until the internet providers begin their efforts to inhibit freedom of speech now that net neutrality has been removed, these guys can start up their own companies to spread their lies on the internet. Just like Fox News.
Big surprise that the crybaby Damore ended up there with the rest of the misunderstood and poweless white male whiners.
26
Peter Schweizer & Co's most difficult task will be to gain traction with the urban and suburban Millenials (and younger)... in other words, the young, educated, technically-minded, and future leaders of this country. Bigotry, hate, and divisive themes are not attractive to the younger generations... but Schweizer and his ilk can do as they wish (within the law, of course) and find out the hard way!
5
Zeroing in on:
Any industry of sector that has money.
Raiders.Pirates.
Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie.
2
Kind of ironic that the right wing is complaining about the behavior of big businesses engaged in commerce, It is obvious this isn't about free speech but rather that their viewpoints are found by many people to be intolerable. Google, facebook and Twitter do what they do in regards to public outcry over racist, nasty, angry, violent and yes, libelous trash coming out of the ultra right. It is funny that the right wing, who with over the air broadcasting got rid of the fairness doctrine (even though broadcast media is not the same as social media, broadcast media uses public airwaves,something the internet is not), arguing there was no overriding principle to broadcast all views, yet here they are basically arguing that about private business entities that are not public, they receive no benefit from the government (unlike the basically free broadcast licenses that are worth billions broadcasters get from the govenment), yet they are whining...
The real problem is because a lot of what CPAC and the right promulgatates turns people's stomachs and they demand people be forced to see it, their lack of access is more about their refusal to actually discuss things rather than hit people over the head with it.
9
"Viewpoints found by many to be intolerable." We on the right (general, not necessarily alt) are open to many of the (not Antifa) left's viewpoints. We at least listen to them. But you dismiss ALL of our viewpoints as intolerable, and classify them as racist, nasty, angry, etc. when their only "crime" is to not align with yours. You are not even willing to consider our viewpoint, instead shouting us down with your insults. And while I can consider your criticisms as unfair (though I at least read them), the bigger danger is when entire technical platforms are created with your biases. These platforms are created by programmers with your bias, directed by managers with your bias. Hence the backlash against Big Tech.
Yes, and they are all pretty mum when it comes to talking about Sinclair Broadcasting. Funny how conservatives have such picky senses of outrage.
7
Remember not so long ago when the Left was suspicious of, to the point of openly opposing, the power of America’s corporatocracy, from the rallies against GE and Dow during the Vietnam era to the WTO protests in Seattle? When the Left vigorously defended every person’s First Amendment guarantee of free speech, instead of trying to shut it down and shout it down? When only neurotic right wing nut cases like J. Edgar and Joseph McCarthy saw the creeping tendrils of Russia in every aspect of American life? When Democrats were the party of the working class and saw through the con job that is free trade, as when in the first decade in this century, we lost 55,000 factories and 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs?
Fast forward to the Time of Trump where corporations, especially high tech monopolistic companies like Facebook and Google, are now unassailable paragons of virtue, to be venerated and celebrated (as can be seen in the comments here). Free speech now only means speech that comports with one’s own belief system. Russians, of course, have infiltrated every aspect of our government. And the idea of tariffs to protect blue collar jobs? Not any more, we must let the free market rule!
Perhaps when a Democrat is in the White House in 2020, this screwball apostasy will just be an unpleasant memory
9
Oh, please. You act like the purveyors of "fake news" aren't actively trying to undermine our norms and institutions. You carry on as if any destructive, anti-establishment opinion is as good as well-established set of facts. If you had been paying attention, you'd know that Facebook and Twitter and Google are not unassailable and that the left and the right have been taking them to task since the election. Well, the left has been taking them to task about allowing bots and misinformation to flow freely. The right has been engaged in a bunch of entitled whining about how their misinformation is just as good as everyone else's truth. Give it a rest.
1
Another conditioning campaign on the part of the Far Right to deny the majority of Americans a say. Trump bellowed ifhe lost the election it was rigged. Far Right Republican governors with Far Right majorities are using gerrymandering to narrow down the pool of potential voters who don't vote Republican. FOX News (oxymoron), Breitbart, Alex Jones, Limbaugh co-ordinate their conditioning rhetoric to maximize misinformation, myths and fabrications to enrage the Far Right cell of the Republican party. Yet, they have the gall to, always, portray themselves as victims.
1
Schweizer is simply refurbishing his winning formula, and one the Right has refined over the last two decades. It's primitive, exhilarating and all-too effective. And, isn't Republican mega-donor Peter Thiel one of those elitist tech gatekeepers???
Yes, Peter Thiel & his buddy Milo Yiannopolis.
How can this far right bloviators think they can win a "culture war" when they go out without any cultural weapons. Perhaps they are thinking of a hate war?
1
Hey, Mark Zuckerberg, this is what all you guys get for you inviting the 'conservatives' in 2016 to let them intimidate you.
What we got out of that was you fired humans to curate & introduced algorithms that allowed the Kremlin to come in full force and make Trump president.
As a Red state resident, let me explain this to you: give these people an inch & they will take a million miles. They have long been fascist bullies but the bipartisan types thought it wasn't civil to call them that.
You people will have to stand up to them. Just remember that every 'libertarian' in your midst is one of them...authoritarian Koch business libertarians & they will sell you out in a minute, like Thiel.
1
As usual conservatives show their hypocrisy with every word they say. While they have a point about the impact of tech companies, especially facebook, who aren't acccountable to anyone and who have helped drive misinformation campaigns and also who are out to shift opinion, primarily to make even more money, they also are being really disingenuous. If we were talking about corporate America, if we were talking about the Koch corporation, if we were talking about a case where a business fired an employee who espoused negaitve things about the company on social media or who advocated a social position they didn't like (for example, a Koch brothers employee advocating climate change), they would say "those are private businesses, they have the right to do that". Worse they once again bring up the first amendment and 'free speech" as if that covers private affairs, and it doesn't, it only covers the government...you hear this all the time, a right wing agitator says something stupid and gets called on it, their company loses business,and it is about 'freedom of speech" suddenly, they don't grasp the concept that freedom fo speech is not freedom from consequences. Worse, how come they don't talk about entities like Fox News who basically only allow single viewpoints and are the house organ of the far right, how comes that isn't a problem.
2
Simple solution: ban these whiners from all social media platforms. Everybody wins!
2
When Breitbart begins publishing Post and Times originated articles, and Alex Jones screams about right wing conspiracies, perhaps conservatives can ask for quid pro quo. However, to the extent ANY news outlet can make editorial decisions about what to and not to publish, there is no legitimate complaint here. I guess they will just have to start a Facebook-Right.
I thought the core belief of conservatives was private enterprise and the free market fixes everything. Deregulation is their God. Google, Facebook et al are private companies beholding, as we know, only to their stockholders. Not to Breitbart News, not to the Koch brothers, not to trump. President Obama was correct that "they're shaping our culture in powerful ways." but that has nothing to do with the 1st amendment.
38
Let the right wing hate mongering white supremacists come up with their own facebook page format or any other social media platform to spread their crap amongst themselves. Decent Americans don't want or need to hear their anti-semetic rants. Good for silicon valley. Shut these right wing pigs down.
7
What a joke! Conservatives love their conspiracy theories!
5
Why do I find these people so boring? If they don't like tech as it is, they can go out and do their own. Truth is, they can't they don't have the brains, moxie or curiosity. No one with half a brain wants to go to 'their' party.
Now go away, you are making pests of yourselves.
11
Since Fox Entertainment, Breitbart and fright wing AM radio barely avoid being obvious propaganda media outlets, What conservative medias does Mr. Schweizer feel provide news using journalistic standards?
<...crickets...>
3
the author shows his bias by not mentioning conservative web site PragerU. The fact that any of Pragers non-controversial videos were removed from Youtube shows clear bias.
So conservatives will continue to ignore common sense gun and public safety regulations like universal background checks.
Social conservatives showed no "family values" and lost any kind of moral high ground by allowing Roy Moore to make a run in Georgia and failing to question President Trump's behavior in his own words, ignoring his women accusers while proving themselves hypocrites since tried to crucify President Clinton.
Fiscal conservatives showed they are hypocrites after screaming about deficit spending and raising the debt ceiling during the Obama years yet letting a GOP-led Congress and Trump slam through $1.5 Trillion tax giveaway that may actually cost $2.3 Trillion.
Neoconservatives are still in the proverbial dog house for the never-ending and groundless Iraq War and failure to conclude the never-ending Afghanistan War.
Social, neo- and fiscal conservatives have no platform other than ludicrous levels military spending that could never "guarantee absolute safety", and may simply make more international terrorists, while defunding any societal care for low and middle income Americans. And they sure seem to love giving money to the 1% that has not trickled down making fair wage American jobs equal to the Trillions given away.
Conservatives are a failing, hypocritical political system that cannot take the Republican party back after being hijacked by nativist TeaPublicans, white supremacists and Neo-Nazis.
5
Right wing nonsense. They own or control almost all media. All talk radio. All local news. The churches. Even CNN and MSNBC would not interview David C Johnston about Trump before the election. Even the Times did not dare mention Trump's crime friends. The only things left are the colleges and now they attack their own google and facebook. Nonsense.
1
Snowflakes.
3
Dear Conservatives,
You lost any and all credibility on January 20, 2017. Please whine about mainstream-whatever somewhere else.
Sincerely,
'Merica
6
This guy is nothing but a leech who's mommy didn't love him enough. Unfortunately there are many such people in the US these days - they're angry, they don't know why, but if you're enjoying something then it must be stopped.
1
The non-struggle by angry lonely male tech workers is hilarious. Take that specimen Damore. I guess he must have a judge and jury tell him that while you can share your useless views, that does not guarantee one can keep one's job. That's free speech. Free to speak, not free from the consequences. Grow up! Maybe it's time to move out of mommy & daddy's basement, sport.
1
Freedom of speech is Constitutionally only guaranteed from abridgement by the government, not by private entities. Private abridgement only becomes a legal (and possibly Constitutional) issue, when it intersects with monopoly forms of dissemination.
The Left should not cede the defining of this issue to the Right. In fact, it should take the lead in holding these corporations and the internet in general accountable for their myriad deleterious effects. The Free Speech issue is a bit of a red herring but, given the fact that few Americans have actually been taught civics, about such things as the separation of powers, judicial review, enumerated versus reserved rights, and other aspects of our history and our present, it can become a useful diversion for the Right. This is especially true inasmuch as the Left, often around college campuses, has been busily advocating for its preferred forms of private entity limitations on free speech, a mirror image of the Right in the Fifties.
If the Left wants to prevail in promulgating its values, it has to do more than simply say a reactive NO to the Right. And it has to be willing to give up its love affair with the world of techogadgetry, the essential means for the spreading of "fake news" and "alternative facts", more accurately known as lies. And it has to stop confusing the way one wishes the world were with the way it actually is. And it needs to develope perspective and humility, which it rightly accuses the Right of lacking.
1
Well, you've got to give credit to the First Lady when she said her husband (as the embodiment of today's unhinged conservative movement) hits back hard.
It took the Georgia legislature no time at all to deny Delta Airlines a sales tax exemption on jet fuel for refusing NRA discounts to group members, a benefit used by just 13 fliers to date.
Dick's Sporting Goods and Wal Mart are both being sued in Oregon for refusing to sell a 20 year old man a rifle under their new policies in effect since the Parkland shootings. Oregon state law permits 18 year old to buy rifles.
Now, this.
There is a reason it is called movement conservatism.
It's pretty easy to make a convincing case that Google, Facebook, and Amazon are terrible for America and for American democracy. Sure, conservatives don't like them much, but I don't think liberals do either. They are hard to love, mostly because they do so much damage to anything they touch.
17
It’s just one assault after another for these people. Who will remain standing?
Oh good lord. Maybe they could try to present their IDEAS and POLICIES instead of this constant culture war stuff.
Oh wait--most people don't like them when they truly understand them.
1
Because their ideas and policies are dictated by their wealthy sponsors for their own benefit and all they have to offer the rest of the electorate is wedge issue nonsense.
2
As an individual, Mr. Schweizer and his fellow conservatives have a right to their own viewpoints and have no duty to accommodate opposing viewpoints.
Guess what? Google and Facebook also have this right. Why? Because they’re also “individuals”.
Think that’s absurd? Maybe conservatives should rethink their support for Citizens United.
3
The thing Republicans, all Republicans hate more than anything are facts. Logic, science, factual information. They hate it with a passion because it's all completely antithetical to what they stand for.
2
Let's strike a deal with the right. They shut down Fox, Alex Jones and Breitbart and then we'll talk about tech companies.
Put down your typewriters, GOP, there's a new world out there. Or, we can look backward. Compliments of writer Ian Anderson and the group Jethro Tull:
Happy and I'm smilin', walk a mile to drink your water
You know I'd love to love you and above you there's no other
We'll go walking out while others shout of war's disaster
Oh, we won't give in, let's go living in the past
Once I used to join in, every boy and girl was my friend
Now there's revolution but they don't know what they're fighting
Let us close our eyes, outside their lives go on much faster
Oh, we won't give in, we'll keep living in the past
Oh, we won't give in, let's go living in the past
Oh no, no, we won't give in, let's go living in the past
1
The right-wing entertainment complex always welcomes a new "enemy" who can serve as scapegoat and rallying point. Of course it's a little absurd to be railing against the evils of the "liberal agenda" when the entire Federal government and a majority of states are controlled by the GOP, but never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
3
Always looking for enemies to blame is something right-wingers have become particularity skilled at. They currently run the U.S. government, but somehow they are besieged by dark, sinister forces, the "other."
The media, Hollywood, academia, science, now tech.
These people are professional whiners.
Hmm, I wonder if there are examples in history where scapegoats were blamed by autocratic regimes?
64
Correct. It’s right out of the playbook.
1
I'm trying to think of an example, perhaps even in the 20th century, of a political movement that rose to power at least partially on the basis of telling people whom they could blame for all their troubles. Oh wait, now I've got it...
7
The challenge with this discussion is that these "right-wing" publications are for-profit and are seeking the ability to corral as many viewers as possible to their sites to monetize them. This is not about free-speech, they are free to say what they like, this is about making money, and please spare us all the ridiculous "First Amendment Issues" claim. Private companies remain unregulated, there are no government laws preventing any speech at this point. Being distasteful is not a protected right.
They put out an inferior product, and they're judged for it. Simple as that.
12
The First Amendment just means that the government itself can't compel or suppress speech. Tech companies can do what they want. These conservative folks saying that this is a First Amendment issue just underline how ignorant they actually are about the rights they pretend to want (for themselves, obviously, not anyone else).
27
If the current law suit before the US Supreme Court regarding agency fees collected by public service unions, which is being argued on first amendment grounds, goes against the unions, then ALL speech in the work place may be subject to constitutional review.
The alt-right and their alternative facts continue to present a grave threat to democracy. Their my-way-or-the-highway philosophy is geared toward those who latch onto a “group-think” mentality. Come to think of it, that mentality is why these people normally get more press than the left. Those who follow the Alex Joneses of the world, and believe the type of rubbish-portrayed-as-fact that Jones and his cronies perpetrate, have difficulty forming their own opinions. They need their Joneses to lead the charge and to tell them what to think and believe. Case in point; the relatively
short lived Democracy Now radio and TV programs were largely unsuccessful, not for a lack of like minded listeners and viewers, but because liberals make up their own minds on where they stand on issues. They don’t need a drummer boy to do it for them. Facebook, Google, Instagram and other social media giants should flag the content of organizations bent on spreading hatefulness, half-truths and outright lies. There is a wide gap between flagging something for what it is and outright censorship.
20
Have you read the TRUE BELIEVER by Eric Hoffer? it explains what you are saying. The first time I read it was when I was a teenager. It has to be ordered on line as last printing was 1951.
So well said. Everyone should read this post.
1
to understand the right-wing mindset, read this:
http://theauthoritarians.org/Downloads/TheAuthoritarians.pdf
This sounds like good news to me. Does this mean that conservatives are going to leave the internet alone? Will they all abandon facebook, Reddit and other online platforms? Will they convince Trump to stop tweeting? I love this idea. Have at alt-righters. Frankly it sounds like the whining of Christian conservatives like the Duggars. The Duggars decry the evils of Hollywood from the perch of their TV show.
14
If liberal or conservative media companies can't get their word out except through Facebook, then their support is from casual viewers only and their product is a commodity. Stop whining and produce content people will go to your site for, or download your app for. Facebook is not the internet; not even close.
6
A battle between the alt-right and high tech? I wonder which side has more brains and money and will win that war (not).
19
Good one!
Those in the media should have file financial disclosure forms just like members of Congress.
1
The subtext to the case being made by Schweizer and his Breitbart proxies is this: "The total freedom that Facebook and Google gave us and our Russian buddies helped us win in 2016. Don't ever think about taking our best tools away or we will cry censorship." The irony here is that Facebook and Google aren't doing this to be good corporate citizens--they just don't want to lose ad dollars on their platforms when a Breitbart fan posts nut-job conspiracy videos on YouTube. So this isn't right-versus-left, it's how will a libertarian business model survive attacks from those who want regulation AND the flim-flam men like Schweitzer who don't?
2
I have no idea why right-wing cranks would think social media "censorship" is a First Amendment issue. Haven't these people read the Bill of Rights? The thing begins with "Congress shall make no law..." It doesn't say "Private services shall adopt no policies..."
The Internet is the freeest communication medium in human history. The government couldn't "censor" your political views if it tried. This is an entirely invented issue.
5
GOP and Russia are in bed with the tech giants. No matter what they say they will use Google/Facebbok/Twitter etc to spread their hate and fear. The tech giants get richer so they will never make meaningful changes until the government forces them to. The Govt is GOP so; NEVER. Ray Sipe
2
My intellectual freedom has suffered for years with all the stuff coming from the minds of conservatives. What they want is a one way media that they can control. I will uphold my right to ask real questions, expect real answers and listen to whom I choose. I also choose where I spend my money, and I do not choose places that assoicate with such nonsense.
8
The "culture wars," again.
Funny, but I get a bit jaundiced over another round of faux outrage designed solely to bring weirdos attention and stir up folks who don't realize they're being manipulated.
Oh, and folks pretending to tell me how to live my life.
If this really was about the power of Google and Facebook to amplify Russian and other efforts to undermine our country, fine. But that's not what it is.
1
Won't work. Unless they get the Russians to help this will be dead in the water. We're on to them. There is too much blowback for them to push against. Maybe Trump gets the credit that he has ripped off the scab of white nationalism for all the country to see.
#MeToo, #NeverAgain, women candidates and voters, healthcare concerns in the deepest Red states. What will they run? The Hillary and Barack dog and pony show is getting real old. Abortion? Those numbers are steadily declining, mostly because of the tireless work of groups like Planned Parenthood.
But not for me to tell them to stop. I won't want to deprive the Kochs a bottomless hole to throw their money down.
5
This is fascinating. The right argues that America works best when corporate America is unregulated -- that what is best for all of us is what is best for the winners of unrestricted competition. That the optimum outcome occurs when competition is able to operate without restriction.
So the current outcome is that the right feels abused by its corporate heroes. And the right thinks that corporate America should be regulated or the market should be manipulated? Or that their heroes have feet of clay?
Free market capitalism is the right's world and if that world rejects the right, isn't that an important message? That racism, misogyny, and ethnocentrism do not work in the marketplace of goods, services, or ideas?
77
I suggest we have to think of the right as a two-headed monster--fiscal conservatives, and social conservatives; and we have to think of those two heads as relatively independent. Indeed they do not belong on the same body. And yet, the GOP manages magically to hold those two groups in a single party.
The "fiscal conservatives" are the rich and those who expect to become rich through their religion of unfettered capitalism. They are a principled lot whose personal self-interest match perfectly with their capitalist religion.
The "social conservatives" are a much looser grab bag. Traditionally, we are talking about fundamentalist Christians (anti-abortion, sexual prudery), but a whole lot of other stuff has become grafted on--racism, xenophobia, white supremacy; and disaffected blue collar workers whose expectation of high paying jobs for life on the factory floor have been overturned.
The amazing thing, in my mind at least, is that best economic self-interest of many in the later group is being destroyed by unfettered capitalism of the first group. The astonishing thing is that the later's anger has been directed at the innocent intellectual professionals (in particular the media), labeled the elite; whereas the true elite, the true wielders of power, the super wealthy, are given a pass. At any other time and place, these disaffected social conservatives would be at home in a left labor party, and the GOP hyper-capitalists, would be their natural enemy.
Go figure.
2
Hold up though, I thought the white men of the far/alt right "built the modern world" as they are so fond of reminding the rest of us? Does this NOT include our tech infrastructure? I mean, how did you build the modern world and forget to bake in instant bias toward your point of view?
Something is wrong here. I'd say, either these people are just whingeing about their world-view not being as palatable to "others" as they would like, or...GASP...maybe they didn't actually build the modern world as they like to claim. In either case, I would suggest either cultivating a more realistic perspective on your own movement or building your own media and communications infrastructure. If these people believe as much in themselves and their ability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, should be a cinch.
40
The right has mastered the art of whining and playing perpetual victim while controlling everything. The right controls all branches of federal government and significant number of state governments (we can debate the legitimacy of that control elsewhere). They control at least one major cable news network, and dominate a number of smaller ones, not to mention all the right leaning newspapers and magazines; they force their extremist agenda down everyone's throat regardless of public opinion (taxation, regulation, and gun control being just a few examples); they bully and lie their way to power and then use corrupt means to keep a strangle hold on it. It is asinine to argue that somehow the right is stifled or deprived of free speech platforms, or being victimized by the "tech giants". The right will not be satisfied until that have destroyed or co-opted every public and private institution in America. Lets get out the world's smallest violin and play a dirge for the poor, suffering, downtrodden right wing. Ridiculous isn't it?
121
what I have found, after paying for advertising on Facebook for my tutoring agency I find my clientele is able to read and discern and does not try to haggle with the price as advertised to come to your home to tutor and algebra or teach piano. But those more conservative constantly want to haggle over the advertised price they want some three for one deal if I have to teach three of their children why can't they just pay one price. and then I have to point out when you go to the grocery store or the private school your children go to do they only charge you one price for three children? So why are you asking me to do the same?
That's my personal experience with my Facebook ads. There is an obvious conservative clientele that is very irrational and discriminatory to not pay an educator and does not value education nor their children.
And I applauded Twitter when they did a new filtering system to get rid of all fake accounts. And we find our so-called celebrities and politicians lost the majority of their followers because they were found to be fake accounts. It certainly help my self-confidence because I always wondered how the principal of our school had 3 million followers that there's not that many people in our community. And I only had 300 followers? Then the filter came through and it found out he only had 52 real life followers... He paid to prop himself up to look like he was well-liked... no more fake accounts! Dont engage w extreme views- clickbait!
2
Every once in a while, when confronted by a partly reasonable argument by a self-proclaimed conservative, one need not go much further than saying to oneself: Do you seriously want to be on the same side as these guys?
1
We should ALL be very worried or concerned about the theft of our personal data and lack of privacy. This is not about conservative/liberal ideals at all.
And we should stop crowning tech boy wonder billionaire, media darlings as such. Facebook, Google, et al are not our 'friends'. Beware of what these monsters er I mean people are up to, always. If it is within their best interest (mainly more money) then it is not within ours. Trusting them is an enormous mistake. Getting Google Chromebooks out of our schools would be prudent for starters.
2
If the conservatives were correct and tech companies were censoring right-wing content, then we wouldn't have to deal with Trump's embarrassing, juvenile tweets.
6
Please stop calling these people "conservatives." Just because they conserve wealth for the wealthy and guns for themselves doesn't make them conservative. There is such a thing as responsible conservative thinking, and this self-serving dogma is not even in the ballpark.
2
Trump loves Twitter to get his unfiltered messages to American citizens. New communication methods level the playing field for the equitable distribution of messages. The marketplace of ideas is bigger and fairer than ever using high technology.
More evidence that these "conservatives" are closet reactionaries.
2
if the right think they're so Superior, and like the Google engineer that was fired because he thought women were biologically incompetent to be engineers, why don't they just be superior?! Create their own social network platform?! Confirm how Superior you are on the alt right
3
Conservatives are zeroing in on a new enemy in the culture wars: facts.
21
They just have to have someone or something to hate. They have no real plans for progress, they rarely even have any real legislation.. it's just - you have to hate THEM and give US money.
7
Right wing needs to learn the Constitution and form a corherant viewpoint. They think private companies can refuse service based sexual orientation but don't think Google or Facebook should let politics affect their business decisions? Have they heard of Fox news?! Also newsflash... Probably abbad idea to complain about two competing companies by calling them monoplies... There is a hint in the label... "mono".
2
Fox News uses technology to spew it's brand of confusion - is that who peter schweizer means?
2
Well, you know, all these gun-toting tough guys and gals also have to be perpetual victims of something or other. It's the only way they feel alive.
2
If it is Silicon Valley’s desire to stifle ignorant right-wing banter - GOOD!!!! And it’s about time. Shutting the ignorant right up is tantamount to shutting up “flat earth’ers” and those who believe Earth is 60,000 years old. There comes a time when we absolutely MUST silence the woefully ignorant and ill-informed to further our species - this is definitely one of those times. If the stakes weren’t so high and right-wing diatribe was little more than a cute exhibition of childhood innocence...perhaps it could be excused - but it’s not. The indescribable and single-minded selfishness, sexism, racism and homophobia of the right-wing exists in numbers enough to elect a president. This is “all hands on deck” time for those of us not in league with Republican buffoonery, including and especially the Mecca of innovation and intelligence - Silicon Valley, to do what has to be done to declare once and for all that the Earth is NOT flat!!!!
1
If a company like Hobby Lobby gets to have a religious belief, companies like Apple, Google, and the like can support things like gay marriage and civil rights. One set of rules please.
1
Conservatives see an enemy lurking around every corner and they play the victim card so often it no longer has any meaning. But WE'RE the snowflakes!
2
Why?
Personal technology is designed to make people stupider and lazier and, therefore, easily to manipulate.
Social media has made us into a tribal society (think Afghanistan or Iraq).
Google, Facebook and Apple are THE best friends a conservative could have.
I guess it just shows how stupid most conservatives are.
3
‘We don’t care what you want to see — we know what you should see. We know better."
How good is it that an editor of a news website finds fault with this? And isn't joking?
1
The Right just cannot handle the fact that their lies and misinformation (Fox, Breitbarf, InfoWars, ad nauseam), are being exposed just as soon as they are bleated out and that their base is increasingly being exposed to the truth.
This is how cults work - demean and condemn anything that contradicts the message you are trying to form.
Shades of Jim Jones... an original right-wing, evangelical martyr...
Wake up America, these people ARE the enemy.
9
RE: “This could end up being the free speech issue of our time,” said Alex Marlow, editor in chief of Breitbart News, which has published articles accusing Google and Facebook of, among other sins, political bias."
It is near impossible to define a pure standard for bias-free information, hence it seems unlikely Peter Schweizer can provide constructive answers, and more likely his project is out to wield a freshly-ground axe to 'tear it all down.' Instead I'd re-listen to podcast On The Media's segments titled "Breaking News Consumer's Handbook," and also to their series circa Sept 2012 asking the question "Does NPR have a liberal bias?" Speaking of creepy (and creepy lines), Fox News under Ailes led the charge and exceeded that creepy line long ago, perhaps starting (?) with the run-up to the Iraq war and the neocon agenda, and cheerleading for the breakdown of the elections system in 2000.
Let the media mogul / upstart who hasn't filtered cast the first stone (or petabyte, what have you).
https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm/handbooks
https://www.wnyc.org/story/235596-does-npr-have-liberal-bias/
2
Love " ...least they can do as buy us a drink" presents the total the total lack a self-awareness and hypocracy. But also they took the bait. The Koch brothers do the same exact thing With the left. They underwrite PBS programs... Put ads in the Oprah Magazine...
reminds me with the history of politics in America, while Richard Nixon was under investigation he passed the title 9 law for women to have equality in sports and education. I'm a crook but I'll disguise my crimes by doing some good....
1
Schweizer's effort is nothing more than the repetition of a script read innumerable times by both conservative and liberals as well as extremists of all sorts: I am a victim of ____ and I deserve to have my victim status lifted by doing the following (fill in, please) to ____.
The reality is that Facebook, Google, Youtube, and Twitter are privately-owned organizations that can make their premises available to whomever they want. They can be ignored by anyone not interested in them - I have no account with any of these companies and do not feel as if i am missing anything.
2
I often see the use of "right wing" as an adjective in the Times. I rarely if ever have seen the use of "left wing" in the same manner. Does the Times editors believe such people do not exist?
Perhaps you should read more? I've seen both terms used.
2
Well, of course. Photography and publishing were two of the irresistible forces that helped to bring down the Confederacy, and that vast spin zone was the forebear of today's Right Wing. They hate documentation and irrefutable evidence because freedom, for them, is the right to say four and four equals seven if it suits them. And as we come into the age of the Internet of Things, the sort of fuzzy-mindedness that lets the average Conservative lie to himself is being eradicated from processes, decisions, business cultures, scientific cultures, and places. They don't like that. They want some place left on the map where they can retreat; they want to step on a scale and weigh what they want to weigh, not what it tells them; they want to look in the mirror and see themselves lithe, strong, and as the "real" America. Access to fact and common sense doesn't make that any easier.
12
Entirely predictable because conservatism is inherently a reactive force. Conservatives are constitutionally unable to take the long view of human progress which never has and never will move in a straight line nor in any predictable way. Of course, conservatives are a necessary countervailing voice in the wonderful messy, loud, and often entertaining debates in the political world of representative democracy. Today's "impressive" technologies that have developed so rapidly right before our eyes will elicit similar questions one or two hundred years from now: Why did it take them so long to figure that out? Today we're not that smart.
1
Freedom of speech is Constitutionally only guaranteed from abridgement by the government, not by private entities. Private abridgement only becomes a legal (and possibly Constitutional) issue, when it intersects with monopoly forms of dissemination.
The Left should not cede the defining of this issue to the Right. In fact, it should take the lead in holding these corporations and the internet in general accountable for their myriad deleterious effects. The Free Speech issue is a bit of a red herring but, given the fact that few Americans have actually been taught civics, it can become a useful diversion for the Right. This is especially true inasmuch as the Left, often around college campuses, has been busily advocating for its preferred forms of private entity limitations on free speech.
If the Left wants to prevail in promulgating its values, it has to do more than simply say a reactive NO to the Right.
8
just in case you were not aware, the Democrats in u.s. Congress have presented bills they created the net neutrality law that now is overturned by the Republicans. Under Obama justice department went after Facebook and Google about having fake accounts and promoting fake news.
And brought up the anti-monopoly laws and concerns that even lost in court.
and for some reason the right do not realize that because of Facebook and Twitter they got their power in the White House and Congress. and now they get angry because they have to play by the same rule book everybody else does?
1
Not content with undermining scientific research, international free trade, our public education system, and skilled immigration--four pillars on which the American economy rests--the alt right now goes after internet technology companies. We can't all work for investment banks and coal mines, you know.
59
There are legitimate regulatory concerns about Google's and Facebook's adverse impact on society and their quasi-monopolistic power, but what Peter Schweizer and his alt-right sunshine band are really fighting for is the unrestricted ability to peddle psychopathic garbage like the Washington DC Clinton pizza parlor pedophile conspiracy that sustains the political nihilism and anarchy favored by alt-right psychopaths.
The alt-right is a threat to reason, discourse, thought and decent society.
Joseph Goebbells would enjoy Peter Schweizer's company.
The alt-right is a deeply disturbed group of human beings.
106
Alt-right conservatives are free to move their outreach to platforms that won't filter them for content that's meant to incite violence or mislead the public.
But they won't because moderate and liberal users won't follow, and the nonstop online bickering is a big part of what feeds traffic.
And seriously folks, stop arguing with these people online. They're just baiting and you aren't going to change them.
116
And many of those you might argue with are bots or hired hands, some Russian, some not.
7
I agree. Just leave them in their echo-chamber, yelling at clouds.
6
This is great news. It's a two-for: the public needs more transparency and education regarding algorithms and their impact, and the alt-right needs a new foe--and big tech won't go bankrupt fighting back. The alt-right trolls have to have somewhere they can direct their hate speech. Better Facebook than academics or reporters.
26
This is precisely what I was thinking as well. They probably won't be able to mount any kind of serious offensive against giant tech companies either. Sounds like a great way for them to distract themselves into obscurity.
1
If only it were either-or. They'll just direct it at all three. They've got no shortage of hate and fear mongering.
1
Clearly Google and Facebook are monopolies, with too much power. Just because the Right happens to think so, doesn't mean we should deny the fact, or stop trying to reign them in.
20
Monopolies? I don’t know. There are other search engines besides Google, and I find I get by quite nicely without FaceBook. If you don’t like them, just say no.
How can Facebook and Google both have a monopoly? They are both successful competitors.
1
Google and Facebook are privately owned companies. They have grown so big and so fast by occupying new niches with very little credible competition. As private companies, they are not required to live by the First Amendment, and every right to establish their own terms of service.
Right wingers are not really interested in free speech as such; they live to troll the rest of us and disseminate mis- and dis-information to cloud issues and persuade the mentally challenged to act against their own interests. My feeling is that any stifling of this is a Good Thing.