Saturday morning brought some interesting tidbits of news.
For one, Barron Trump is apparently now a giant, having sprouted overnight to tower over his mother and father.
I didn't realize it was possible for someone to grow that tall, that fast. https://t.co/FpsACxHFuk
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) January 18, 2020
Wasn’t he just a small child, like…yesterday? He’s only 13!
But I digress.
The other piece of news is that hate preacher Louis Farrakhan is now suspended from Twitter.
Twitter suspended @LouisFarrakhan pic.twitter.com/rYYR09RK2c
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) January 18, 2020
A part of me is happy about this. Farrakhan is an evil guy and the less ridiculous hatred I hear about Jews and Christians the better.
Remember that this is the same guy who called Jewish people “termites.”
“I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite,” Farrakhan had said during one of his “sermons.”
At the time, Twitter didn’t see that as a reason to ban Farrakhan. Calling Jewish people “termites” was completely fine despite the fact that it violated their “hateful conduct” rule:
Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. Read more about our hateful conduct policy.
Oddly enough, around the same time as the “termites” quote that Twitter was okay with came out, people who used the NPC meme created by the gaming community were facing suspensions over it.
(READ: Why Twitter Banned the “NPC Meme” Being Used Against Social Justice Warriors and the Hard Left)
As I wrote at the time as well, gay conservative Bruce Carroll was banned from Twitter for reasons we’re still trying to figure out to this day:
It doesn’t stop there, though. Twitter user Bruce Carrol, also known as “GayPatriot” was banned on Twitter because…well, no one is sure. Even Carrol doesn’t seem to know any specifics. What is apparent is that Carrol was good at making fun of the left and that he had amassed quite a few fans. He didn’t seem to do anything that broke the rules of Twitter, and so his banning is something of a mystery.
Twitter had also banned or suspended other people considered right-leaning like Alex Jones and Lauren Southern. Jones was suspended, not for violating any rules on Twitter, but for confronting a CNN reporter in person. Apparently, asking a CNN reporter questions outside of Twitter will result in a ban, but breaking Twitter’s rules will only result in a suspension.
But here’s the thing.
I might dislike Farrakhan with every fiber of my being just as people on the left hate Jones, Carroll, or Southern, or…I guess everything for that matter, but the difference between me and them is that I would rather have Farrakhan continue to speak out in the open.
The funny thing about crazy people who are capable of making a platform is going to amass followers regardless of what you do, and maybe even in spite of what you do thanks to things like the Streisand effect. Jones had a rabid following long before Twitter ever found its legs, as did Farrakhan. Silencing them won’t stop them.
The magic of Twitter is that it exposes people’s thoughts. Farrakhan might be a raging antisemite, but that’s something I’d rather the world see. I want them to bear witness to his hatred, and what’s more, I want the world to see everyone who agrees with him hate along with him. It makes it very easy to draw lines and see who is who.
I’d much rather bad guys operate out in the open than in the shadows. Next time Farrakhan does something that could be considered “good,” like donating money to a shelter or something along those lines, those unfamiliar with him will consider him a nice man. They’ll only have the word of those who dislike him to go by, but it’ll be his actions vs their words.
I’d love for people to see his words as well. The hatred of Jewish people and the promotion of race wars. I want the crazy exposed.
Twitter thinks it might be doing a service by sheltering its users from mean things, but the truth is that they aren’t putting a gag on people so much as putting blinders on everyone else, and at the end of the day that may be far worse for our society.
