There are some who legitimately feel that some ideas are so morally wrong that they should not be allowed in society – at all. These are the misguided – which seems to translate into ‘college students’ of late. These aren’t the real problem – misguided people can learn the error of their ways like any other human being. These are the folks those of us who believe free speech is a God given right should be talking to – because these are the folks who, if they will listen, have a chance of changing their minds.

They are a part of the problem to be sure – they are the boots on the ground for those who don’t believe that everyone should be able to speak freely. That’s a horse of a different color.

Those who strongly support censorship usually fall into two basic camps (the True Believer falls into either of these):

1. People who are afraid that their deeply held or cherished beliefs are wrong.
2. People who don’t want the public to realize that they are pushing ideas that are wrong

The first group will fight tenaciously – because they are scared. I’ll save the rant about how poorly our education system has taught them to reason for another day but suffice it that they fear new or different ideas because they aren’t confident that their beliefs are correct – or that they can defend their beliefs.

Of course there are subsets of those who simply haven’t thought it through – but they usually aren’t strongly in support of censorship. Confronted the wrong way, they may turn into the first group – but they may also change their views or, most likely, stop thinking about it altogether. These groups aren’t the impetus and aren’t where we need to look at present.

Cancel culture works great for those who don’t want to be confronted with evidence of any sort that their ideas might be wrong. It’s also awesome for the light thinker who simply accepts some idea and runs with it but knows full well that they don’t really understand it well enough to defend it in a fair discussion. These folks aren’t even sure that they are wrong – they just don’t want to take the chance.

Cancel culture is awesome – for those who don’t want to be proven wrong. Guy shows evidence that disproves your claim? Call him the R word and get him banned from whatever social media platforms you can. Yay, no more nasty truth talk!

Collectively, these folks are a pain in the backside. But it’s more from the dogpiles they create than any real substantial power. I say that because people with real power are rarely that afraid of a mere idea. You don’t send the whole team to tackle one little running back if your team is already ahead 35 points in the last quarter – censorship is the sign of a losing team, not a winning one.

That doesn’t mean there is no power behind the throne – which brings us to Group 2: those who don’t want you to know that they are wrong. These are usually the folks with power. Whether they are outright lying or just realized that they are wrong, they don’t want the public to know – almost always because whatever they were wrong about is tied to how they have power, get more power or keep power.

It’s not unique at all to the US, but here for decades the two parties distinguished themselves from each other on just a few key issues. They get donations and votes based on those issues. They have a LOT of eggs in those baskets – and some of those baskets aren’t exactly brand new. An informed electorate isn’t exactly a good thing for someone who’s power and livelihood is tied up in a false ideology – or an outright lie.

But if you can censor those pesky people who ask the right questions or actually look at evidence – or worst of all, are legitimate experts on the subject – well, all the better, right? No more nasty truth talk!

Truth is, censorship isn’t the first club in their bag. They have a bunch of clubs: lies, misdirection, projection, just to name a few. But those only work so well for so long – especially when the public trust in their mouthpiece media crashes. Now they have to resort to censorship to keep their skeletons all nicely in their closets.

Even with Group 2, censorship is the sign of desperation – a team on the brink of losing.

In the real world, only those who are afraid that their ideas are wrong are afraid to hear the ideas of others. Only those afraid of losing their power go to war with the truth.

Censorship, you see, is the opiate of the elite. It let’s them forget, for a moment, that a reckoning is at hand.