I haven’t been doing RedState LIVE! long, but I pretty much suspected that it wouldn’t be long before YouTube got upset with something I said. Sure enough, it happened, and RedState received a warning strike to the RedState YouTube channel.

According to the big tech video platform, I dealt out some “misinformation” about a sensitive topic, namely the 2020 presidential election. During the stream, I didn’t argue for or against its validity knowing that YouTube doesn’t want that kind of talk on its platform and openly punishes people for it, namely the “against it” variety.

What I did say was that there were still questions and oddities hanging in the air around it and that people should be able to express these concerns openly and people should be able to talk about them honestly.

Apparently, that was enough for YouTube to strike the RedState channel with a warning and a deletion of that stream from the archives.

Don’t worry, you can still view it on Rumble where they allow open discussions and ideas to take place.

I made an appeal to the strike, making it clear that the only thing I questioned was the lack of allowance of conversation around it. This didn’t move the folks at YouTube and they swiftly rejected my appeal. The appeal was so swiftly rejected that I have doubts that they even went back and reviewed the footage in question.

And to this I want to tell YouTube…thank you.

Thank you for goofing this big and exposing the absolute lunacy and inflexibility of the big tech bubble. Thank you for shutting down even the mere suggestion that we be able to discuss questions openly. Thank you for showing us the depths of your despotism because it shows us the fear you have when it comes to the free and open exchange of ideas.

Again, I want to make it clear that I didn’t make any definitive judgment on the election, just advocated that we be able to discuss the questions and oddities around it. That was enough to warrant the hammer.

If your ideas are good then you’ll be happy to defend them in a friendly, good-faith debate or conversation. Perhaps you could make others see your way of thinking and explain something you may know that others don’t. The free exchange of information is good for changing minds and correcting falsehoods.

But that’s not what’s going on. It’s just a full shutdown. If you’re silencing anyone from merely mentioning an idea you don’t like, then you must not have a lot of faith in your own idea. As Tyrion Lannister said in Game of Thrones: “When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”

The left likes to talk quite a bit about how they’re on the right side of history, but I don’t know many despots and dictators who shut down speech to be viewed kindly down the line. Perhaps YouTube, and indeed big tech in general should think about that.

Lastly, I want to address a common criticism I received from my own audience when I announced RSL! would be streamed to YouTube. Many people asked why I didn’t want to stream to Rumble where a lot of this would be avoided in the first place.

There are multiple reasons but the short answer is that I wanted to put my stream in a place where these people HAD to deal with me because a larger number of people will see it. YouTube is not friendly territory for conservative and libertarian ideas, that is true, but the vast majority of people are still here on this platform. I’ll definitely find a friendlier and agreeable audience on Rumble, but that’s not what I’m necessarily after. I want to grow a community where I attract all sorts of types, and I want these people to have the best chance of stumbling upon my stream, asking questions, starting conversations, or even debates. At this time, they aren’t going to Rumble.

Whether through eventual choice or because I’m forced to, the chances that RSL will end up streaming from Rumble is high, but not yet and not now. Every RSL live stream can be viewed on Rumble after it’s done, but the live stream itself will, for now, be on YouTube, the second-highest trafficked video platform in the west (right behind TikTok).

If you don’t believe in that goal that’s fine. I hope you watch the show when it goes up on Rumble after the live stream is over, no harm, no foul. But if you do believe in my mission then I hope to see you at the RSL stream every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 12 EDT.

My full comments can be seen on Wednesday’s live stream on the RedState YouTube now. The Rumble upload will be available tomorrow.