Persecutions & Purges

This has been a trying week for many conservatives.

Despite a deluge of shocking sex scandals involving Hollywood heavyweights and high-profile Democrats, the media has, unsurprisingly, chosen to place an excessive focus on claims of inappropriate behavior on the part of based Christian Judge Roy Moore, who is running for Senate in Alabama.

Most of the claims were that decades ago, Moore showed romantic interest in substantially younger (though not legally underage) women. The most disturbing claim was that Moore had committed an actual sexual assault. Any momentary concern I had that there might be truth to the claim disappeared the moment I learned Gloria Allred was representing the “victim.” Allred, as you probably know, is famous for parading crying women in front of cameras to accuse important men of misbehavior at politically inopportune times.

Our soulless ruling class, who do not know any decent, sincere Christians, tend to believe that all Evangelicals are secretly dark-hearted perverts. (The ones on TV always are, you know.) Alabamians know real Christians exist, and they are familiar with the smear-campaign routine. They will not likely be dissuaded from supporting Moore, and may in fact view the smear campaign as further evidence that he is indeed decent and a true threat to the corrupt elites in DC.

Other events affect many of us more directly. I’m speaking of the Twitter purge of far right accounts. The suppression of problematic (for the left) accounts has long been an issue, but it began to accelerate after the verification of Jason Kessler, followed by quick de-verification after an outcry by the usual suspects. The premise of the complaint was faulty, because verification is meant to serve as proof of a tweeter’s identity, not endorsement of their speech. The controversy served as a catalyst for the purge nonetheless. Several other well-known right leaning people lost their verification or were banned from the site altogether.  Even right-wingers who are not high-profile tweeters are accustomed to frequent account suspensions and shadow-banning of posts. It is taken for granted that term-of-service violations regarding “hate speech” are applied strictly to conservatives, while leftists, even verified ones, may quite seriously call for white genocide with no repercussions at all.

Now the purge efforts have reached a new level of intensity and intrusiveness. The term “Orwellian” is overused, but it is fitting in this instance. Twitter’s new policy for determining who may lose their voice on the site includes tracking what sites other than Twitter users may visit, based on the reasoning that those who visit “extremist” sites may be using Twitter to share a “sanitized” version of their unacceptable views. Twitter even reserves the right to consider real-life (as opposed to online) behavior when determining who may have an account.

Thankfully, there are alternative social media sites, and many conservatives have begun migrating to these sites after being banned from Twitter, or in anticipation of the forthcoming purge. However, these sites do not yet have the power and reach of the Big Social sites. Loss of access to the sites most Americans use is likely to be a big disadvantage for dissident political movements, which is of course the underlying reason for the purge.

I have a great deal of respect and appreciation for the men who are fighting to protect our right to free speech and our ability to communicate effectively. Every day, they face technical, legal, and financial challenges with resourcefulness and determination. The long battle ahead of them is formidable. But I have hope. Our people have done the impossible before.