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The Hidden Cost of Censorship
Mimetic aggression and the necessity of restraint
I wrote an older version of this piece on my Substack in early January of this year issuing a dire warning to those who were celebrating Trump’s Twitter ban. It wasn’t about Trump—it was about the forces that were unleashed under the visible surface.
Now the issue has been rekindled. A recent poll from Pew showing that a full 48% of Americans support government intervention to restrict “false” information online, even if it means curtailing freedoms to access and publish content. That’s up from 39% only three years ago—a 9% rise.
We know censorship is already happening by the Big Tech companies. The important question is what the long-term consequences of that censorship will be—and whether or not those consequences will snowball.
If the contagious infections from Covid spiraled “out of control” before the government (or the people) could understand what was happening, then it will be an even swifter spiraling with the issue that we are about to explore today.
The self-assured arrogance of those who believe they can engineer societal order…
