“I Stand By My Tweet”, thunders Erick Erickson and tries to conquer moral heights from the harassed pulpit of his SubStack presence “Confessions of a Political Junkie”. “While left progressives accuse Trump, Trump supporters, Tucker Carlson and anyone they dislike of authoritarianism, fascism, totalitarianism and a host of other isms, the epitome of totalitarianism is to silence and disappear the views of those who which are unacceptable to the rulers. “
The anti-Trump-before-he-pro-Trump’s “evangelical-conservative” blogger and talking head has been suspended from Twitter for violating the platform’s “rules against hateful behavior”. To insist that transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard is “a man, even if Twitter doesn’t like it.”
Unfortunately, for Erickson, the moral height he is trying to maintain is too low to stand on, let alone build a stable fighting position. If it even exists, it is the size of a postage stamp.
The problem is not that his authoritative gender decision of Laurel Hubbard – and that of Caitlyn Jenner and Elliot Page in the Substack post – is kind of stupid, especially when he appoints himself to be God’s spokesman on the matter. He is not really responsible for anything or empowered to impose his will on anyone, and he has a right to his opinion.
The problem is, he thinks he is entitled to someone else’s microphone to announce his decisions on such issues (he isn’t), and that refusing that microphone somehow “silences” him and “disappears” (it not).
In America today there is simply no way to “silence” or “go away” speech. If Twitter doesn’t want to host Erickson’s opinions, there are still a number of social media platforms available to him, not to mention his blog, radio and podcast presences, and “conservative” media breathlessly reporting on situations like his .
The postage stamp of the moral plateau that Erickson enjoys is this:
Twitter and most other social media platforms are designed in such a way that “rules against hateful behavior” are not only unnecessary, they are extremely poor user service.
Anyone who doesn’t want to hear what Erick Erickson has to say on social media has easy access to some sort of “block” or “ignore” button.
Social media platforms that made a point of offering users a wide range of engagement options rather than wrestling their (or the political class) opinion straitjackets on everyone would respond to content complaints with tutorials on how to use these buttons, rather than with Bans and bans.
Ignorance, not regulation, makes a truce in the social media wars possible. You don’t want to read it? Ignore it!
We will always have would-be dictators demanding that this or that bad actor be banned. The platforms that ignore such requirements will send the more compliant ones via MySpace.
Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is the director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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