Silencing and Censorship: How The Left Gets Things Done

The new left has become everything that the left used to supposedly hate about the right.  The same folks who railed against Senator Joseph McCarthy for blacklisting and ruining the lives of Communist party sympathizers are now blacklisting and ruining the lives of conservatives. While the left is always accusing the Trump administration of authoritarian behavior, it is in fact the left that exhibits totalitarian tendencies.   

 

One of the latest examples of left-wing censorship concerns a series of yearbook pictures at Wall High School in New Jersey.  Junior Grant Berardo wore a Trump T-shirt in his school picture and was shocked to discover that the reference to Trump on his shirt had been edited out upon opening up his yearbook; giving the impression that he was wearing a plain T-shirt.   Junior Wyatt Dobrovich-Fago wore a Trump sweater vest on picture day but you wouldn’t know that based on looking at his yearbook picture, where he appears to be wearing a plain black sweater vest.  However, the Superintendent claims that the absence of the Trump logo on Dobrovich-Fago’s sweater vest was a result of resizing.  As president of the freshmen class, Wyatt’s sister Montana is allowed to have a quote underneath her picture; she chose a quote from President Trump.  However, the quote she chose was not included below her yearbook picture; apparently some snowflake thought it was a micro-aggression.  Fortunately, the Superintendent has come out against the censorship, saying “There is nothing in our student dress code that would prevent a student from expressing his or her political views and support for a candidate for political office via appropriate clothing.”  Just this morning, the school agreed to reprint the yearbooks with the unedited photo of Berardo.   The school’s yearbook adviser has been suspended pending an investigation into who is responsible for the censorship. 

Left: Grant Berardo’s school picture, Right: The picture as it appeared in the yearbook.

This sure looks like censorship to me.  Source: Business Insider 

 

More concerns about left-wing censorship surfaced after comedian Tim Allen’s popular TV show “Last Man Standing” was abruptly cancelled.  The show, which aired on ABC, was an anomaly in ultra-liberal Hollywood; since it featured a conservative main character sympathetic to President Trump and critical of liberal politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  While the network said that the show’s cancellation was a “scheduling decision”, the show’s loyal viewers are not buying it.  Some believe that the show’s cancellation is a result of Allen attending the inauguration of President Trump. Others believe the show was cancelled because of Allen’s comment that being a Republican in Hollywood is “like 1930s Germany. You gotta be real careful around here, you know. You'll get beat up if you don't believe what everybody believes.”  While the show may not be popular among the Hollywood elite, it remains quite popular with everyday Americans.  A petition asking ABC to reverse its decision to cancel the show easily reached its goal of 150,000 signatures.  Even if ABC refuses to reverse its decision, there is still hope that the fans of “Last Man Standing” will still be able to enjoy new episodes of their favorite TV show.  As of late, it looks like there is a possibility that the show will be picked up by CMT, which already airs reruns of the show.             

 

Even some self-described liberals have had enough of the far left’s attempts to silence those with different opinions. Liberal commentator Kirsten Powers expressed her discontent with the authoritarian tactics of the new left in a book called The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech.  She argues that one of the bedrocks of traditional liberalism is respect for freedom of speech and refers to the new speech silencers on the left as “illiberals.”  However, Powers is a rare breed as the “illiberals” continue to wield a large amount of power and influence in the increasingly far-left Democratic Party. 

 

The left appears to have no intention of scaling back its censorship because, quite frankly, it has been quite effective in shutting down their opposition.  They were successful in their attempt to force the cancellation of the number one cable news show for 16 years and counting by convincing the advertisers to jump ship in the midst of a New York Times article detailing Bill O’Reilly’s multi-million dollar settlements with women who accused him of sexual harassment or verbal abuse.  They tried using similar tactics to shut down Hannity; those attempts were ultimately unsuccessful.  Outcry from Hannity’s fans led USAA to resume advertising on his TV program just one week after deciding to pull out.       

 

 

There should be no reason for liberals to be censoring speech, especially if they are so confident that their ideas are superior to everyone else’s.  They should welcome the challenge to prove the other side wrong. The fact that they do not should tell you everything you need to know about the validity of their arguments.