Posted on 11/30/2020 7:23:10 AM PST by SJackson
Say the wrong thing on Facebook and lose your license and your business.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
The National Association of Realtors claims to have 1.4 million members. There will be fewer members before long as the association begins purging conservative real estate agents.
At the center of the storm was an addition to Article 10 which covers various forms of discrimination. But unlike all the previous sections which addressed how real estate professionals interacted with customers, Article 10-5 is catchall cancel culture that controls what real estate agents say on social media on their own private accounts and in their free time.
This goes far beyond being made to bake a cake. Even if you’re at home and you post something opposed to gay marriage or illegal migration, you can lose your business.
As the NAR claims, a realtor's "speech and conduct reflect on the REALTOR® organization whether said publicly on a business social media profile, or privately on a personal one."
When you’re a real estate agent, you no longer have the right to personal opinions.
Article 10-5 immediately transformed 1.4 million people into subordinates at the mercy of NAR brass who have the authority to determine what political or religious views they can hold.
"It means that we never take our hands off, no matter where we are, no matter what we do, we are always licensed and we are always a member of the National Association of Realtors,” New York State Association of Realtors President Jennifer Stevenson warned.
Never taking your “hands off” is endemic to socialist tyrannies and has no place in America.
Jennifer is a Democrat donor. The NAR’s PAC directs a majority of its cash to Democrats. That included $3,000 to subsidize the bigotry of Rep. Ilhan Omar and $5,000 to Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
But that’s the kind of hatred that the National Association of Realtors is comfortable subsidizing.
“No matter where we are,” means never being able to say anything that offends someone like Jennifer without fear of being sanctioned, fired, or losing your business. Jennifer, an NAR board member, and others will be looking over your shoulder every time you post anything on Facebook. Any leftist offended by anything an NAR member posts has an easy recourse.
"Doesn’t this mean that if I post my opinion online and someone doesn’t agree with it, that I can lose my membership and be forced out of the business?" the NAR FAQ asks.
The answer is yes. Anyone can bring an “ethics” complaint which will lead to a “hearing” with “witnesses” and “counsel”. Posting that illegal migration is wrong or that Islamic terrorism is a threat can now lead to a real estate agent facing a hearing. And if they lose that hearing, then not only will they be expelled from the NAR, but the state real estate licensing authority will be told that the agent violated the "public trust" which can lead to the loss of their license.
Say the wrong thing on Facebook and lose your license, your business, and your livelihood.
The NAR is wrongly characterizing personal views that are privately expressed as “discriminating”, treating it as a violation of “ethics” in a commercial enterprise, and then reporting it to state licensing authorities as a violation of the “public trust”.
This is cancel culture on a national level by one of the country’s most abusive organizations which had already been sued by the Department of Justice for multiple antitrust violations.
What constitutes saying the wrong thing?
Article 10-5 bans “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.”
In an era when supporting President Trump is considered “hate speech”, how are these terms going to be defined? Exhibit 2 of Appendix XIII to Part Four of Article 10-5 of the NAR has an easy answer. Everything that some leftist doesn’t like now violates the NAR’s rules.
Hate speech is any speech that is "intended to insult, offend" because of "some trait". Any remarks that can be seen as "disparaging" or "shaming", or can be characterized as a form of "innuendo", about a protected group is covered under "epithets". That would cover the use of the term “illegal alien”, any discussion about Islamic terrorism, or transgender compulsion.
Harassment, for example, includes "inappropriate conduct, comment, display, action, or gesture based on another person’s sex, color, race, religion, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and any other protected characteristic." And that in turn includes, "negative stereotyping" and "the display or circulation of written or graphic material that denigrates or shows hostility toward an individual or group."
That would, as a practical matter, include the Bible. And certainly particular Bible verses.
The National Association of Realtors has, for all intents and purposes, made quoting Bible verses on a private Facebook profile into an ethical violation leading to a hearing and expulsion.
The NAR board falsely claimed that these speech codes stem from fair housing legal obligations. They do not. Worse still, the NAR’s insistence that, “disparaging a particular protected class is evidence of one’s inability to treat them equally” is a troubling argument that would bar traditional Christians and Jews from membership in the National Association of Realtors. Likewise, Americans who oppose illegal migration, would also be banned.
Article 10-5 claims to be fighting discrimination, but is actually licensing discrimination against 200 million Americans, a much larger class than the ones the NAR claims to be protecting.
The NAR argues that, “bias against protected classes revealed through the public posting of hate speech could result in REALTORS® not taking clients from certain protected classes or not treating them equally, which would lead to violations of the Fair Housing Act.” What this really means is that real estate agents are being sanctioned for discrimination that never actually took place while assuming, for example, that because a traditional Christian or Jew opposes gay marriage that they would be presumed to discriminate against gay or lesbian customers.
Barring traditional religious people from a profession because they are presumed to biased is a bias and a much more egregious form of discrimination than the one it claims to be remedying.
The National Association of Realtors is imposing a political and religious test on members. It has moved the bar from policing interactions with customers to policing personal beliefs.
This is fundamentally un-American. Article 10-5 is McCarthyism wrapped in buzzwords.
Around the same time that the NAR was rolling out its speech codes, the Justice Department sued the group for multiple antitrust violations accusing it of anti-competitive behavior.
This isn’t the first time that the NAR has been sued over antitrust violations, but it should lead to action, if not at a federal level, then at a state level. In some states, not being a member of the NAR makes being a real estate agent all but impossible. In many, it makes it difficult.
As a socialist oligarchy squeezes conservatives out of public life, elected officials should fight back before it’s too late against the powerful institutions which have taken over American life. These institutions, financial, academic, corporate, and trade associations are engaging in a sustained campaign of political and religious suppression under the guise of fighting against discrimination. This campaign is the greatest form of discrimination in America in generations.
The only way to stop the squeeze is to squeeze the squeezers. If there’s no room for conservatives in the NAR, there should be no room for the NAR in conservative states.
ping for your list
China’s social scores have come to America
Oh wow.
My guess is that this one should go to the courts as a breach of Freedom of Speech.
Looks like the part of tolerance has become the very thing they constantly slammed, the party of intolerance.
Kinda makes it look like, whether they get the presidency or not, democrats are going to implement tyranny.
Is it time to start playing Cowboys and lefties, yet?
The leftist zombies have just overwhelmed their latest victim—from now on the NAR will be oozing yucky fluids and strange smells.
Who really needs a realtor? The financial institution doing the mortgage for the buys does all of the work. All the seller has to do is let the appraiser and home inspector in, possibly provide a copy of their title insurance. I have yet to use one to sell a house. I suppose in some areas they may serve a purpose but not where I live
After the beginning of the year, I will open an NAR *FREE* house, and use articles like this as a selling point. A lot of agents can't stand the NAR - this is just one more reason to hate them.
They can't blackmail agents with their MLS monopoly like the good old days- the data is everywhere now, mostly because of their malfeasance.
The principle is the same: NAR is 'labeling' these realtors as extremists. If anything, their lawsuits should be much easier than Quilliam's settlement.
Just sue the everlasting shit out of NAR from five different directions, and when they start losing millions they will dispatch their execs post haste. They're greedy and none too bright.
We can start by avoiding any realtors who are represented by this org.
Let them know why as a homeowner why you are selling your property yourself.
I get real estate agent cards in my mailbox all the time.
The new “tolerance” is you are only allowed to say what the ruling class wants you to say.
Bookmark
Real Estate agents/brokers are licensed at the state level. Realtor is a professional designation. An agent/broker can conduct business without having the Realtor designation.
No one is losing a licnese.
In a way it’s good. The more they weaponize social media the more people will turn away from it for all but the most mundane of transactions. It started as an interesting experiment in democratizing mass exchange of ideas until the fascist left decided to weaponize it for the cause.
Who really needs a realtor? The financial institution doing the mortgage for the buys does all of the work.
We are in the final stages of getting a house ready to sell. We are in one of the hottest markets in the country. We are contacted almost every day by realtors wanting to list our home. We have put five years of time, money, and effort into this house... if it is like the other houses in the neighborhood... it will sell in a short period of time. I tell the realtors who contact us that I am going to be taking a bunch of professional quality photos and a 3D walk though, and writing a thorough description and putting a free listing with our phone number up on Zillow. Most of them just hang up at that point.
My only trepidation is my ability to screen the buyers to determine who is most likely to be able to follow through with the sale and what amount and conditions should be attached to a deposit.
The local association controls the lock boxes.
It’s hard to sell a house a prospect can’t readily examine.
Way past time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.