The February 17th Sunday Extra Edition of The Morning Wire highlights a U.S. government trend that the U.S. Constitution sought to eliminate. The United States government has taken to pressuring social media platforms and Amazon to remove content and text that the U.S. government does not find favorable to their agenda.
For years many have joked and several have warned of the developing oppressive force of governments around the world. However, the United States in particular has boasted itself to be a free country. Its citizens would like to believe that too. Yet there is growing evidence in contrast to this thought. The U.S. government will censor and criminalize free speech while it has already criminalized the digital sharing of books and other media.
Anyone who shares an opinion that is in contrast to the U.S. government agenda has the potential to be censored to protect national security, prevent misinformation, or whatever other bogus reason they decide to adhere to on any given day. Even this text here could qualify as it does not support trusting the U.S. government.
U.S. Government Antics
According to an article published in the Washington Times, “White House officials “spent a week berating Amazon” in March 2021 over books related to “vaccine misinformation” and asked what steps company officials could take “to reduce the visibility of these titles,” according to Amazon emails released Monday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican.” The article goes on to report, “On March 9, the same day Amazon officials agreed to meet with Biden administration aides at the White House about its COVID-19 books, Amazon enabled a “do not promote” policy for “anti-vax books whose primary purpose is to persuade readers vaccines are unsafe or ineffective.”
There is a difference between free speech and sin. Hateful speech is sinful. Informative or opinionated speech about vaccines is not sinful. It could be helpful. The U.S. government does not believe its citizens are capable of deciding on their own what is most healthy for them. Or perhaps it does and IT does not agree. Therefore the U.S. govt will not tolerate any sort of “wrong thinking”. Effectively the authors of these suppressed books and those willing to read them are thought criminals. These are people who participate in wrong thinking. Yet for there to be wrong thinking, there must be a correct way to think. I consider the measure of truth to be the Holy Bible, the U.S. govt would call it “policy”. Policy changes, the Word of God will never change.
Fighting Censorship
So the question remains, how do we fight censorship? That is a slippery slope. Romans 13:1-7 reads, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.“
We need to be aware of what is actual law or just simple policy and governmental pressure which a few men decided was for the greater good on any given day. We can fight censorship by being sensible. Sharing information is very important. We will do well to share in our social circles our books, documents, files, media, recipes, etc. There are laws and policies against the mass broadcast of copyrighted information. However, we can still share information among our smaller circles.
Sharing Information
We can endeavor to collect and share information via email, personal websites, and sneaker networks. Staying away from storing important information on social media platforms can help us to preserve knowledge. Also, be diligent to verify information and do not simply accept information just because it was shared by someone you know. Share whole collections where possible. Leverage RSS feeds to distribute when possible and mirror great information from others. When information has mirrors (identical repositories with the same information) it becomes more difficult to shut down.
Down with Big Brother
Join your fellow thought criminals in the fight against sinful oppression. Take up your pens, pencils, and keyboards and start sharing knowledge and information. Share publications in the public domain and those obscure out-of-print titles as well. Share information from reputable experts. Download information before is it stricken from existence. Down with Big Brother.
