I signed up for it almost two years ago, but I spent more time on it this weekend than I had total up to this point.
Why? It’s just Twitter, redone. And I don’t like Twitter. It’s a time sink. Nothing useful comes out of it.
Perhaps I am being too harsh on Parler. Time will tell, I guess.
No, it’s not so much Parler I’m defending as it is freedom of speech. I find the attacks on free speech that we’ve seen so far in 2021 to be terrifying. Maybe I’m being Chicken Little. I hope so. But I fear not.
Free speech and the ability to express political ideas is a societal pressure-relief valve. That relief valve is being slammed shut, and the consequences are entirely predictable, particularly combined with organized efforts to get Trump supporters fired and made unemployable.
Democrats and their tech oligopoly friends are drunk with internet power, and feel all-powerful. If history shows us anything, it is that those who seek to repress free expression inevitably increase the repression, and the people repressed find a way to push back. In China, The Communist Party has increased repression through internet control and deplatforming dissenting voices through extensive social media monitoring. It can happen here, and it is. Tech oligopolies have learned well from the Chinese Communist Party.
Parler is the canary in the coal mine. Whether it surives or not, internet repression by tech oligopolies is making the national atmosphere more toxic by the day.
I think that’s very right.
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