Posted on 11/24/2020 5:43:47 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Parler has been in the news quite a bit over the past year. The social media company has seen a remarkable increase in users as conservatives face increased censorship on other platforms. Oddly enough, the corporate press has taken a bizarre interest in Parler and its increased membership.
Left-leaning news outlets would have you believe that their objection to the social media site is related to misinformation and conspiracy theories. But it seems that it might be something else that has motivated their hysteria over the app.
Politico recently published a piece noting the rise of Parler acknowledging its recent success. But they took issue with the site’s growth. “The rapidly expanding social-media site has given Trump backers a platform to simply dismiss the post-election reality and reinforce baseless voter-fraud conspiracies,” Tina Nguyen, the author of the piece, wrote.
The author complained about Parler users expressing their belief that the election was stolen from President Trump and disseminating various conspiracy theories. She wrote:
“Hashtags on Parler denoting Trump’s favorite conspiracy theories — #Dominion, #Sharpiegate, #QAnon — trend freely, without the restrictions Twitter and Facebook have instituted to suppress them. Stories from fringe sites pushing baseless allegations of voter fraud are not flagged as disinformation, as they often are elsewhere.”
The author also repeated another frequently used trope: Parler is a conservative echo chamber. “There is now a robust, consequence-free echo chamber for them that confirms a worldview in which a rigged election system falsely gave Biden a victory, and leftist thugs are taking to the streets to ensure the outcome isn’t overturned,” she insisted.
Nguyen even went so far as to interview Angelo Caruson, the president of Media Matters, a far-left self-proclaimed media watchdog that maintains relevancy by blatantly lying about conservatives.
“It’s fitting that it offers disaffected Trump supporters the allure of the safest of safe spaces,” said Angelo Carusone, the president of the progressive-leaning group Media Matters, which monitors far-right media across platforms. “It’s perfect because Parler provides a place free from constraint and heavily stocked up on like-minded [MAGA] heads.”
USA Today, which endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for the White House, also published a piece criticizing Parler for its lack of censorship. It was one of several that the outlet has put out whining about the social media app. In the piece, author Nathan Bomey argues that Parler is dangerous because it does not crack down on extremists or hate speech.
He also intimated that it would contribute to division. “Experts on political polarization say it’s a natural outgrowth of our divided culture for Americans to begin choosing their social media services based on the political identity of those platforms,” he wrote. Later in the piece, he insisted that “confirmation bias and groupthink can be harmless in the case of fairly innocuous issues. But it can be harmful in the case of dangerous conspiracy theories like QAnon.”
Bomey argued that allowing conservatives to have a space to express their views without fear of retaliation will enable extremists to become more dangerous. He wrote:
“That has certainly happened on Gab, a social media site that has largely become a gathering place for extremists from neo-Nazis to the militia movement known as the Boogaloo Bois. Spurred on by founder and CEO Andrew Torba, who regularly posts conspiracy theories and shares posts from extremists, the site has gained a reputation as a repository of toxic content.”
These two articles are only a drop in the Atlantic ocean of pieces from progressive media outlets waxing hysterical because a social media platform dares to allow people to express their views without suppressing their voices.
But are they really so bad? After all, they’re just trying to crack down on hate speech and stuff, aren’t they? They’re just trying to decrease the amount of misinformation that gets peddled on social media, right? These folks don’t want people stuck in echo chambers where they are exposed to only one viewpoint. What’s wrong with that?
Here’s the reality: Their arguments amount to a Mt. Everest bovine excrement. The bottom line is that progressives and their media outlets aren’t concerned about hate speech, echo chambers, or conspiracy theories.
They are worried about conservatives voicing their views on a platform that they do not control.
To be fair, it’s important to note that conspiracy theories are quite popular in the world of conservatism. For some reason, many of us love speculation regarding the shadowy forces that could be lurking inside our government.
But the notion that the left doesn’t enjoy conspiracy theories as well is absurd. It was they who dragged the nation through a Russia collusion farce that lasted for four years and cost taxpayers $30 million.
At least our conspiracy theories aren’t expensive.
But what about the echo chamber issue? Nobody thinks it is healthy to only see views that align with their own, right? But it is Facebook’s and Twitter’s biased censorship against conservatives that has motivated conservatives to use social media platforms like Parler and MeWe. If they applied their terms and conditions to both conservatives and leftists, there would be no need to look for alternatives.
As far as extremism goes, it’s not the issue the left wants it to be. There is absolutely no way to prevent white nationalists and other hate groups from speaking to one another. While banning them might feel good to some, it doesn’t address the problem. Moreover, Parler has not experienced the same issues with hate groups on its platform that Gab has.
The best way to combat their horrific ideas is by offering better ideas to compete. The fact that these people are not part of the mainstream shows that this is already happening.
In the end, far-left progressives desire control over all else. It is why they love a strong government that they can use to impose their will on the rest of the populace. As long as this is the case, conservatives will have to find other ways to push back against their attempts to dictate what we say and do.
Sorry, not your zombies today, suckers.
That is the way it should be. Free speech means unpopular views can be expressed.
The author should mention that radical views on the left are *encouraged* and not suppressed on Twitter and the old dominant Media.
It is hard to get more radical and evil than the BLM and Critical Race Theory.
what I find funny...
These places are welcome to head over to parler and post their stories “facts” and whatever.
They won’t because we can reply without fear of getting zucked.
Lmao they’re scared. Stay mad! I don’t have a Parler but I think I’ll go sign up today.
Revolution or Capitulation?
“...simply dismiss the post-election reality and reinforce baseless [fill in the blank] conspiracies....”
What the F***!!!!
The Democrats and their MSM enablers have done this for the past 4 years straight.
As a student in the 60’s the principle of free speech was one of the dominant issues of the day. Essentially liberals were rebelling against the constraints of societal norms based upon Judeo-Christian religious teachings and laws based on the same ethics. Now, these same liberals dominate academia, media, politics and law and have become the establishment, an establishment that is both convinced of it’s own righteousness and committed to holding their power. Already free speech has been limited by the passing of hate speech laws that are applied to conservatives but not, say, antifa or BLM.
“Sorry, not your zombies today, suckers.”
Love that! Am on Parler, and if someone writes a screed, or trolls, the masses are not kind. And works just fine for me.
Bookmark.
I don’t have a Twatter account and never will. Parler has the same problem - millions of uninformed and disinformed opinions add up to a bucket of warm spit. It’s nice that the opinions that are censored from Twatter have a place to be heard, but they’re still opinions - and like buttholes, everyone has one.
Just my opinion, of course....
As always, Leftists are guilty of everything they accuse others of. Conspiracy theories, echo chambers in which only one point of view is tolerated, etc. They would know it better than anyone.
Later.
May Facebook, Twitter, and Google suffer the same fate as Fox News.
Future NEWS FLASH. USA Today to change its name to either “USSA Today” (”United Socialist States of America Today”) or just “US Today”(”United Socialists Today”).
You can take it to the bank!
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