What about another thing...

Because I was curious, I spent a few minutes on Saturday morning watching Newsmax’s coverage of the January 6 insurrection, which I am calling an insurrection because it was an insurrection (and a bloody one), and not a protest, as Newsmax characterized it. Here is a (probably partial) list of things that they did not cover, and images that they did not share: 

• Guy wearing Camp Auschwitz sweatshirt and more than one guy wearing 6MWE shirts (look that up)
• Vandals smashing windows
• Nancy Pelosi’s ransacked office
• Puddles of urine and piles of worse in the corridors of the Capitol 
• A noose hanging from a balcony
• Confederate flags literally everywhere
• Guy carrying zip ties
• People chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”

I share this partial list as a public service, in case Newsmax or OAN might be your primary source of news. They’re not telling the full story. 

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One thing that was particularly telling about the Newsmax story was its reliance on “at least” and “what about” logic. When your argument begins with the words “at least” or “what about,” you’re probably already on shaky factual and rhetorical ground. So I won’t bother with my counter “at least” and “what about” list. 

But it’s pretty fucking long. 

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Donald Trump, soon to be former President and hopefully soon to be current inmate, is very very upset that he can’t tweet, and notably less upset at the deaths of at least five people whose blood is on his hands. Did you hear about what the President said to Mike Pence when he called him in the Capitol bunker to make sure that he and his family were safe? Nothing. He said nothing because he didn’t actually call. He also didn’t call the family of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. I guess he’s too busy calling lawyers to see if he can pardon himself. I guess that some "blue lives" matter less than others. 

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Are you outraged that Big Tech can “silence the President?” Well, maybe you should be. And if you are, maybe you should think about Republican tax and regulatory policy since the mid 20th century. It seems asinine, does it not, to spend decades cutting regulations, cutting taxes, refusing to enforce anti-trust legislation, and fighting labor unions; and then to cry sad sad snowflake tears about out-of-control corporate power? What exactly did you think would happen? “Let’s not ever tax billionaires! They are job creators!” They’re creating jobs, all right. Considering the current pace of growth of the wealth of Jeff Bezos and the rest of that gang, there will be in ten years or so a very small group of men who will have as much money or more than the U.S. Government. And then they’ll employ everyone, and they’ll own everyone. 

The people who are whining about Big Tech’s suppression of free speech didn’t mind corporate excess, back when major corporations (oil companies, banks, agricultural conglomerates) tended to support Republican politicians and policies. It’s a problem now that a corporate sector that makes what we used to call “big business” look like a Mom and Pop shop tends to support Democratic politicians and policies. And it will only end when people come to the realization that unlimited corporate power is ALWAYS a problem, no matter what its political leanings happen to be. 

But meanwhile, do please spare me the “free speech” complaints about social media companies and publishers that are now exercising their own First Amendment rights not to publish or host ideas that they find abhorrent. To paraphrase a widely shared tweet, think of Twitter as a Christian bakery and think of Donald J. Trump as a gay wedding cake. 

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And another thing: He’s still the President, at least for now. He still has some outlets for mass communication, should he need to speak directly to the American people. If he’s solely dependent on Twitter, then that’s his fault, not Twitter’s. 

And still another thing: Too bad for you, Ivanka and Don Jr. and Kellyanne and Kayleigh and Mike Pompeo and Stephen Miller and all of the rest of you who thought that you could just hold on for a few more weeks and then sign multi-million dollar book and media and lecture tour deals. No one will hire you now. “Big Tech” and “the Mainstream Media” are going to “silence your conservative voices” and you have one person to thank for that. You might have to keep working for a living. Sad. Very sad. 

Or maybe not. Maybe Newsmax or OAN will hire the whole sorry lot of you. Maybe you can build a new alternative reality media universe, where you can host your own content and publish your own books and broadcast your own news coverage. I guess that’s your First Amendment right, and Godspeed to you. But the truth will always remain the truth, no matter what.