The Patriot Post® · Who Wants to Control What You Know?

“Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” —Benjamin Franklin (1722)

The Patriot Post was among the earliest publications on the Web and, from our humble beginnings¹, we are now the longest-running and most effective advocate for American Liberty². To that end, our mission has been, first and foremost, protecting against both the subjugation of your First Amendment³ rights and the infringement of your Second Amendment⁴ rights.

Regarding the latter, James Madison wrote in Federalist 46⁵, when he was advocating for passage of the Constitution he principally authored: “The ultimate authority … resides in the people alone. … The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any.”

Almost 50 years later, Justice Joseph Story, appointed to the Supreme Court by James Madison, affirmed in his magisterial Commentaries on the Constitution Madison’s assertion about the preeminence of the Second Amendment⁶: “The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium [safeguard] of the Liberties of a Republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the People to resist and triumph over them.”

While generations of statist American politicians have advocated for rule of men⁷ (tyranny) over Rule of Law⁸ (Liberty), the irrevocable fact remains that the Second Amendment is the First Civil Right⁹ because it assures the protection of all others. It is for that reason that the current cadres of socialist Democrats¹⁰ devote so much political capital to the infringement of those rights.

But the strategy they are using most effectively to achieve that goal is not legislation, it’s shaping public opinion. While deconstruction and repeal¹¹ of the Second Amendment is the Demos’ goal, their methods are to flank public opinion by suppressing speech that does not comport with their political agenda. And the frontline propagandists of that strategy are their Leftmedia platforms¹² and Big Tech¹³ oligarchs.

Joe Biden¹⁴ and his leftist information managers have become masters of manipulation¹⁵ by way of censorship¹⁶ and free speech suppression³ on social media platforms. And while you don’t get most of your information from those dullard sources, a very large percentage of young Americans are using these Demo-controlled social media outlets¹⁷ for the “news” that ultimately dictates their opinions and their votes.

How dangerous is that to the future of Liberty?

Their indoctrination efforts are succeeding by way of the systemic “redlining” of free speech¹⁸ on those platforms.

You may not be one of the estimated 240 million¹⁹ Americans who have an account on Facebook²⁰, which is the federal bureaucracy’s largest collaborator²¹, but that is now where most Americans are getting the “news that shapes their views.”

Can you say “media monopoly”?

Republicans in Congress are largely oblivious to the threat posed by these behemoth opinion shapers and the Section 230²² umbrella that gives them free rein over what opinion they can systematically suppress. It is for this reason that, among our other initiatives, The Patriot Post is leading the charge for state laws that make speech suppression illegal.

Republicans must pass legislation modifying Section 230²³ of the Communications Decency Act of 1995²⁴, itself an amendment to the antiquated Communications Act of 1934²⁵.

Two years ago, among the most egregious speech suppressors was X²⁶ (Twitter), with its 90 million²⁷ American users. But then Elon Musk²⁸ acquired the platform and revoked²⁹ many of its censorship policies. Consequently, the self-appointed leftist “arbiters of truth” are doing everything in their power to take X down³⁰ — primarily by choking down the platform’s main revenue source, commercial advertisers.

Recall before Musk arrived the massive cover-up of the Biden/ChiCom pay-to-play schemes³¹ that were detailed on Hunter Biden’s³² laptop just ahead of the 2020 election? That manipulation was grossly overt and was a significant factor in the election outcome.

But the vast majority of speech suppression by social media and Big Tech platforms these days is covert, the so-called shadow-banning content³³, which is invisible to consumers. If you don’t know what you are not seeing, you don’t know what you are missing.

It’s imperceptible unless you operate a Patriot Post page³⁴ on Facebook, and can clearly document³⁵ both the fraudulent shadow-banning and the resulting inability of our 750,000 users on that platform to see our content — despite the fact they have asked to see it. The leftist commissars of public opinion made that decision and did not consult our users about it.

Yes, we are fighting Facebook speech suppression, but it is a steep uphill battle with little recourse against these “protected” platforms. Some ask, “Why not just vacate the platform?” The simple answer is that we must take the voice of Liberty into every marketplace of ideas, particularly the largest of those markets, and we must fight to be heard.

The reality is, social media platforms are now the primary influencers of public opinion and, by extension, elections.

But the threat of advertiser-induced free speech suppression is not just a Twitter problem. The threat of losing advertisers resulted in the sudden Fox News drop³⁶ of its biggest audience draw, Tucker Carlson. As National Review’s Jim Geraghty observed³⁷: “Carlson’s high ratings were somewhat offset by the effects of the advertiser boycott. He attracted a huge audience, but apparently most of America’s biggest companies just didn’t want to be associated with him.”

Advertisers are, ultimately, the “invisible” influencers who control the news you read and see.

So, what can YOU do to effectively fight leftist censorship and suppression of free speech, while we fight against the social media fascists?

What can you do to support the free speech necessary to ensure Liberty?

The most important investment you can make right now is to support the nation’s leading conservative news and policy media outlet that takes NO commercial advertising and consequently is at no risk for advertising blackmail.

One incoming question I see perennially when asking our readers to support our year-end mission and operation campaign is, “Why don’t you take advertising to offset your expenses like other conservative publishers?”

First and foremost, as we explain on our Mission page³⁸: “Our website pages and emails are certified ‘Ad Free’ to ensure our advocacy and editorial content is not restrained by commercial influence — as is the case with all mass media outlets. Thus, you will note our website and email editions are free of the offensive advertising which clutters commercial news websites.”

Long before Big Tech and social media outlets existed, we understood the invasive but silent role of commercial advertisers in editorial decisions. Thus, back in 1996, we chose to be ad-free at our inception³⁹, and our mission and operation budgets⁴⁰ are not and never have been sustained by third-party commercial interests.

Nor are we sustained by any political, special interest, or parent organization.

Your Patriot Post team relies 100% on the goodwill and generosity of those who support Liberty — that’s you.

Like many mission-based organizations, we raise over half of our annual budget in the last two months of the year.

Please support our 2023 Year-End Campaign today. It’s the most cost-effective investment you can make to keep the light of Liberty burning bright!

Thank you for all you do on many fronts in support of freedom.

Mark Alexander

Publisher, The Patriot Post
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

https://patriotpost.us/alexander/102662-who-wants-to-control-what-you-know-2023-12-06

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Please join us in prayer for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team⁴¹ and our mission³⁸ to support and defend⁴² our Republic’s Founding Principle of Liberty², in order to ignite the fires of freedom in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.