BREAKING: Facebook is Censoring RealClear Investigations Article on “WhistleBlower”

I have personally verified that Facebook is censoring a RealClear Investigations article (which article I discuss in my previous post) that documents that the so-called Whistleblower behind (and hiding behind) the current impeachment efforts was plotting to “take out” Trump mere days after his Inauguration.

On a Facebook page I have as an author, I posted a link to the article with some cutting commentary, of course.  By the next day, without any notification, my post disappeared.

So I decided to post a link to the article again, this time without any commentary to speak of.  (And I regret not doing a screenshot to document it.)  That, too, has disappeared.

So the issue is not my commentary … yet. Clearly Facebook is censoring RealClear Investigations’ article on the “Whistleblower.”  I suspect the pretext is that the alleged Whistleblower’s name is in the article.  Nonetheless, Facebook is censoring and keeping this important and timely article off its platform.

I may say more later.

Matt Kennedy Banned From Twitter

Many of my readers know Matt Kennedy as the Rector of Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd in upstate New York. Along with his wife, the almost famous author and blogger Anne, he is adept at sarcasm and very dry humor. More importantly, he is both measured and straight-spoken in what he says and writes.

But that is not good enough for Twitter. He is banned and is likely to remain so.  I will let Fr. Matt tell the story from his Facebook account:

Well, I've been suspended from Twitter for 12 hours. Remember the man posing as a woman and trying to force poor immigrant women working in spas to give him a "brazillian wax" treatment. 

Yep, that . . . whatever again.  

He tweeted that he had been victimized by women refusing to touch his genitals and I wrote the following under his tweet: "@trustednerd You are a man pretending to be a woman trying to force real women to touch your testicles. It is perverse and sickening. It has nothing to do with love. But you can be forgiven if you will forsake yourself and turn to Jesus who bled and died for sinners. He can heal you." And so, now I am suspended. So fascinating to see "progressives" defend, angrily I might add, an attempt by a man to legally force women to touch his reproductive organs. Here's the note from Twitter: "We've temporarily limited some of your account features. We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically, for violating our rules against hateful conduct. You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease."

It’s not Matt Kennedy who is doing the harassing.  And to his credit, he is not backing down.

Update 1: They said I could lift the ban by removing the tweet or by appealing. I will not remove the tweet. So I appealed the banning. Here's what I wrote. They only gave me a limited number of characters: "a Canadian man is trying to legally force women to touch his genitals. I objected to this. I have no idea why this violates twitter standards." 

Let's see what happens.

Update 2: Here's what happened: 

"Thank you for your patience as we reviewed your appeal request for account, @lambeth98, regarding the following:

Matt Kennedy
@lambeth98
'@trustednerd You are a man pretending to be a woman trying to force real women to touch your testicles. It is perverse and sickening. It has nothing to do with love. But you can be forgiven if you will forsake yourself and turn to Jesus who bled and died for sinners. He can heal you."

Our support team has determined that a violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision.
You will not be able to access Twitter through your account due to violations of the Twitter Rules, specifically our rules around:
Violating our rules against hateful conduct

In order to restore account functionality, you can resolve the violations by logging into your account and completing the on-screen instructions."

Which are….

"By clicking the above button, you are removing the content of your Tweet and forgoing the option to appeal this violation. Please note that the original content will be replaced with a notice stating your Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules."

Now in case you do not already know that Fr. Matt is not one to back down, his conclusion is:

Yeah, no, that's not going to happen. 

I will update if anything new happens. But knowing Fr. Matt’s backbone and Twitter tyranny, I am not expecting any change.

To Combat Hate, YouTube Trusts . . . a Hate Group.

Well, I guess the Southern Poverty Law Center knows about hate.  They see it in the mirror every morning.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is assisting YouTube in policing content on their platform, The Daily Caller has learned.

The left-wing nonprofit — which has more recently come under fire for labeling legitimate conservative organizations as “hate groups” — is one of the more than 100 nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and government agencies in YouTube’s “Trusted Flaggers” program, a source with knowledge of the arrangement told TheDC.

The SPLC and other program members help police YouTube for extremist content, ranging from so-called hate speech to terrorist recruiting videos.

If this doesn’t heighten one’s concern about YouTube censorship, I refer you to this past post about the SPLC.  When it comes to hate and extremism, they can only be trusted to produce and legitimize the same.

The New Intolerance, Self-Censorship, and this Humble Blogger

Probably the best piece I have ever read on the intolerance of the “tolerant” “inclusive” etc. crowd is Mary Eberstadt’s “The New Intolerance” just now published in the March ‘15 issue of First Things.  It is not yet available for free to non-subscribers.  But a video of the lecture upon which it is based is available for viewing.

One of Eberstadt’s points is that the new intolerance is bringing about a poisonous atmosphere in which Christians among others choose to self-censor.

…It makes people think twice about what they say in a bad way.  And it makes some of them press “mute.”

[The new intolerance] is dangerous not only for the obvious reason that it spells censorship, but even more because it spells self-censorship.

To illustrate how strong the pressure to self-censor has become, I am (You may need to sit down now.) considering some self-censorship myself.  Yes, I know.  Me, of all people, self-censoring?

No, there have not been any recent incidents or significant threats, attacks, etc. in retaliation for my speaking the truth (at least none that I know of.  Some recent computer/traffic behavior is strange.).

But, as you may have noticed, I am considering some future changes in my life and focus.  And making myself a fat [Self-censorship there. – Ed.] target for those with a totalitarian mentality does not fit well with those future possibilities, particularly when the totalitarians enlightened are in power to a large extent.  And those not having any official power are all too willing to use brownshirt activist tactics against the BIGOTS.

Admittedly, I am not a particularly big target – for once, I am thankful traffic at this blog is not what it once was.  But it still very tempting to say I have done my duty; now I am going to retire from political/cultural combat and move on to quieter, more rewarding pursuits.

Yes, quite a bit different than this post six years ago.  But life change in the midst of pressure to self-censor can do that to a man, and to a culture for that matter.

Please pray for the West, for the United States . . . and for wisdom for me while you are at it.