Yesterday ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Mark Zuckerberg about his company’s policy of censoring posts that are intended to organize protests of the government’s shelter-in-place orders. Zuckerberg said that Facebook takes down posts that it classifies as “harmful misinformation.” Then he said this: “At the same time, you know, it’s important that people can debate policies, can basically give their opinion on different things.”
Translation: You can debate policies and give your opinions on Facebook as much as you want just so long as you don’t step out of line and disagree with us about the government’s coronavirus response.
Before I go on, let me say this: Facebook is a private company. No one is forced to use it. No one even pays to use it. Mark Zuckerberg is entitled to censor the content of his social media platform to his heart’s content. This post is not a call for the government to “do something” about unfairness at Facebook.
Now to my point: Mark Zuckerberg and people like him are why Donald Trump is the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. There is a growing suspicion among many people that the “experts” really blew it when they stampeded government policy makers into shutting down half the economy and throwing tens of millions out of work. Yet Zuckerberg is so contemptuous of the point of view of these millions of people, he insists on stamping out their voice at least so far as he is able to through his control of the world’s largest social media platform.
I can think of no better example of the the progressive elite chattering classes’ contempt for common people. They say, “We are the experts; we know what’s best; you don’t need to even have a voice, much less a choice.” In 2016, Trump tapped into the masses’ discontent with this attitude and it propelled him into the White House. The chattering classes’ response: Double down.