Nationally syndicated radio host Chris Plante has a lock-down, gold-standard observation of the Left:
“If it weren’t for double standards – the Left would have no standards at all.”
It was of this truism that I thought – as I watched unfold a couple of recent Silicon Valley Mogul stories. You know the Silicon Valley Moguls – Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
The first story was the Facebook-Columbia Analytica mess. In which many, many more Americans became aware of Facebook’s MASSIVE data collection – and its oft sloppiness when selling access to it.
And the second was the European Union (EU)’s new, much-more-tightly-restrictive privacy laws imposed upon all of the Silicon Valley Moguls.
These developments – unfortunately for the Silicon Valley Moguls – have shone light more brightly and broadly on all the Silicon Valley Moguls…and their MASSIVE data collection.
And caused average folks to begin to ask a devastating question:
“How are the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter each worth hundreds of billions of dollars – if they give everything away for free?”
Which leads average folks to begin to realize:
“If something on the Internet is free – YOU are the product.”
Facebook Isn’t the Only Tech Company with Too Much of Your Data: “So Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal has you freaked. The social media giant’s appetite for your personal data combined with its ability to exploit it for profit regardless of societal cost has soured many on the company. But as we collectively reckon with the havoc Facebook has wrought, it’s important to take stock of the other 800-pound gorillas in the digital room: Google and Amazon.
“The two companies, to varying degrees, both collect massive amounts of data on the people who use their services, and yet they’ve largely avoided the public scrutiny falling on Facebook in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It’s time that changes.”
That scrutiny-free zone – has begun to shrink, per the EUs new privacy approach.
For its part, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has engaged in…I believe his nineteenth apology tour. First in America. And then in Europe – as he tried to head off the EUs looming privacy law beat down.
If none of this seemed sincere – especially to conservative, free market and less government folks – it’s only because it was Zuckerberg’s…I believe nineteenth apology tour.
The first eighteen were all to apologize to conservative, free market and less government types – for time and again blocking and banning them from his platform.
Social sharing Twitter has repeatedly found all sorts of new and innovative ways to expel conservatives from and silence conservatives on its platform – including the magic of “shadow banning.”
Google is, of course, the King of Web Search. And they have time and time and time again been caught manipulating search results – to assist Leftists and damage conservatives. Which has a more than a little effect on our elections.
Google Search Manipulation Can Swing Nearly 80 Percent of Undecided Voters
Certainly WAY more than say…Russian bots and their ridiculous memes.
In a long-overdue-acquiescence to the reality of its entire existence:
Google Drops ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Motto
Google’s anti-anything-to-the-Right-of-Karl-Marx has now become…less-than-subtle.
Google Listed ‘Nazism’ as the Ideology of the California Republican Party: “Less than a week before the California primary, Google listed “Nazism” as the ideology of the California Republican Party.
“In the ‘knowledge panel’ that provides easy access to information next to search results, Google was showing ‘Nazism’ as an ‘ideology’ of the party as of Thursday morning.
“The word ‘Nazism’ was hyperlinked to a secondary page that shows ‘Nazism’ alongside other ‘ideologies’ of California Republicans like ‘Conservatism,’ ‘Market liberalism,’ ‘Fiscal conservatism,’ and ‘Green conservatism.’”
First…an historical correction. “Nazi” – was a contraction of “National Socialism.” The full name of the German Party in question…was the “National-Socialist German Workers’ Party.” Prior to joining the Nazis – Adolf Hitler was…a Communist.
So “Nazism”…is the polar opposite of things like “conservatism,” “market liberalism” and “fiscal conservatism” – the alleged GOP “synonyms” Google lists alongside “Nazism.”
So ideologically, Google is wholly inaccurate and incorrect.
Politically – Google is scandalously libel.
When called on it, Google responded:
“This was not the result of any manual change by anyone at Google. We don’t bias our search results toward any political party. Sometimes people vandalize public information sources, like Wikipedia, which can impact the information that appears in search.
“We have systems in place that catch vandalism before it impacts search results, but occasionally errors get through, and that’s what happened here. This would have been fixed systematically once we processed the removal from Wikipedia, but when we noticed the vandalism we worked quickly to accelerate this process to remove the erroneous information.”
Here’s a question to ponder:
How come NONE of these very many Silicon Valley Mogul “errors” – redound to the benefit of conservatives?
Every single one of the very many Silicon Valley Mogul “errors” – reflect very negatively…only on people to the Right of Karl Marx.
That’s really weird….
Meanwhile, how does Google handle…actual modern-day Nazis? Like, say, international anti-Jew Islamist terrorist outfit ISIS?
Groups Say Google Plus Ignored Flagged Posts of Extremist Content: “Google has ignored warnings about pro-ISIS content on its social media platform, Google Plus, according to users who flagged posts to the company and an expert who said he flagged the content directly to Google.
“Despite those actions, a trio of pro-ISIS communities were active on Google Plus on Wednesday after the company was notified of them more than nine months ago.
“The company removed the groups from Google Plus between Wednesday and Thursday after The Hill asked about them.”
Google has a long history of defending its serving as an ISIS platform. This from 2015:
Here’s Why Google Doesn’t Censor ISIS Beheading Videos: “Despite the Islamic State’s reach online, (Google policy director Victoria) Grand and her colleague said, censorship is not the answer.”
Get that Silicon Valley Mogul double standard?
With ISIS – censorship isn’t the answer. The answer…is more speech. Counter ISIS – with facts and reason.
But with a wide array of conservatives, free marketeers and less government types – censorship, banning, shadow-banning, “fake news” accusations and lying search manipulations…absolutely IS the answer.
No attempt to counter conservatives with facts and reason should be made.
Which is a very interesting – if inadvertent – admission.
The Left is confident they can with facts and reason counter Islamist terrorists.
The Left is supremely unconfident in their ability to with facts and reason counter conservatives.
So this may not be a double standard.
So much as it is an acknowledgement of Leftism’s limitations.
And conservatism’s correctness.
This first appeared in Red State.