That's a good thing, right? Wide-ranging discussions on a variety of subjects, pitting idea against idea, evidence against evidence, assertion against assertion — it is through learned discourse of this kind that we grow as thinking beings.

But that's not Microsoft's way. Microsoft business-networking site, LinkedIn, can and will cancel you for WrongThink. The latest example? A report by Watts Up With That's David Middleton has the details of a case that involves one David Blackmon, a highly respected oil and gas industry analyst who had the temerity to question Microsoft's sacred cow of alternate (green) energy sources.

David Blackmon is a highly regarded energy and oil industry analyst. His work has often been featured here on WUWT. He is was one of my LinkedIn connections.

Dear LinkedIn: Why Have I Been Suspended? by David Blackmon

Read on Substack

His account has vanished from LinkedIn.  

I reposted his Substack video on LinkedIn.  I’ll let y’all know if I get “disappeared.”

While it is possible that someone hacked his account, I think it’s more likely that a ski instructor,  pilot/songwriter or some other LinkedIn-recognized energy experts complained about something he posted.

David Blackmon’s Substack is very appropriately titled “Energy Transition Absurdities.”  

You can see Mr. Blackmon's video description of this on his Substack.

The sin Mr. Blackmon committed was debunking some of the claims of the green-energy crowd about alternative energy sources; look at the graphs in David Middleton's article, and you'll see information on energy sources from 1776 to 2023, clearly showing the replacement of lower energy density sources (wood) to gradually higher-density sources (coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear.) The primary thing he shows is that there have been no real energy transitions to renewables; the percentage of energy use fueled by fossil fuels has not changed in any substantive way, still making up nearly 90 percent of energy use. At present, renewables are still at less than ten percent of the total energy creation. What's also interesting is that the use of wood as a fuel is more prevalent than all alternative sources except biofuels.

See Related: What Happened to Science Journalism?

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But that's not really the problem; the problem is that Mr. Blackmon's information is all factual, all backed up with references, and Microsoft— LinkedIn — canceled him anyway.

This says a lot about LinkedIn's practices — and their confidence in their own definitions of what constitutes "misinformation." People who have the high ground in a debate don't worry about the other side's assertions; they know that you fight bad information with good information. People who doubt their own arguments don't work that way. You can't counter good information with bad information, so these people try to silence their opponents.

That's what LinkedIn is doing. That's what Microsoft is doing.

There can be an argument made that this isn't a First Amendment issue. This isn't an act of Congress prohibiting any speech by Mr. Blackmon or anyone else. But it doesn't have to be a First Amendment case for users to abandon these social media platforms. Mr. Blackmon is still making his case on his Substack, Energy Transition Absurdities. Some platforms respect free speech and the free exchange of ideas — like X, formerly Twitter, is becoming under Elon Musk's direction. We should seek them out. Dump LinkedIn. Starve the beast. Let them know that we're mad as hell, and we aren't going to take this anymore.

This seems appropriate.