The President hosted conservative provocateurs yesterday at the White House for a 'free speech' summit. One source writes that he "welcomed prominent conservative social media provocateurs to the White House and said that along with himself, they are being treated unfairly by big tech firms, which he says suppress conservative voices." The president was quoted as saying "We're not going to be silenced . . . . Big tech must not censor the voices. The crap you think of is unbelievable. I mean it's genius — but it's bad" as he complained about fluctuations in the number of his Twitter followers and praised the liars who support him.
Another source comments:
President Trump used a White House conference Thursday to applaud far-right social media provocateurs even as he conceded that some of them are extreme in their views. Trump, who has weaponized social media to eviscerate opponents and promote himself, led a "social media summit" of like-minded critics of Big Tech, excluding representatives from the very platforms he exploits, the AP reports. The president used the event to air grievances over his treatment by Big Tech, but also to praise some of the most caustic voices on the right, who help energize Trump's political base. "Some of you guys are out there," he told them. "I mean it's genius, but it's bad."
Trump praised James O'Keefe, whose Project Veritas organization once tried to plant a false story in the Washington Post. In May 2010, O'Keefe and three others pleaded guilty in federal court to a misdemeanor in a scheme in which they posed as telephone repairmen in Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office. "He's not controversial, he's truthful," Trump insisted of O'Keefe. Trump told the friendly crowd, "You're bypassing the very, very corrupt media." The meeting represented an escalation of Trump's battle with Facebook, Google and Twitter. The president has claimed, without evidence, that the companies are "against me" and even suggested US regulators should sue them on grounds of anti-conservative bias. He announced Thursday that he is directing his administration to explore "all regulatory and legislative solutions to protect free speech and the free-speech rights of all Americans." (emphasis added)
This may turn out to be another step toward the deeply corrupt, lies-based tyranny the president is intent on building in the US. Going forward, the president may simply stop talking to all responsible media sources that try to report truth. Instead he may opt to rely on friendly propaganda sites to communicate his dark free speech[1] to the American people. It may be the case that the professional MSM is often or usually unreasonably biased, fails to be honest (comprehensive) enough and/or plagued by other factors that impair its professionalism or the veracity of its content.
That said, our imperfect MSM is far better than the kind of obviously dark free speech-based sources that our dark free speech-driven president apparently wants to deal with. Or is that point debatable?
Footnote:
1. Dark free speech: Constitutionally or otherwise protected (1) lies and deceit to distract, misinform, confuse and/or demoralize, (2) unwarranted opacity to hide corruption (~ lies and deceit of omission), and inconvenient truths and facts, and (3) unwarranted emotional manipulation (i) to obscure the truth and blind the mind to lies and deceit, and (ii) to provoke irrational, reason-killing emotions and feelings, including fear, hate, anger, disgust, distrust, intolerance, cynicism, pessimism and all kinds of bigotry including racism.
B&B orig: 7/12/19
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