Before I take off down the road on this one I want to stress that a technophobe I am not. I have been professionally involved in the digital sphere from a time before GUI, Mouse and LED. The idea was but a glint of nerdy vocabulary in some Harvard dorm room when I began. What I am however is a person that is savvy to the power of the technological universe. For decades it has been my professional charge to look from the inside of the monitor out.

The potential of benefit from technology for humankind is mind blowing. Just the fact that mankind can now have a bible available from every computer makes Gideon’s reach seem small. (Not insignificant, relax). We can know how to DIY a [fill in the blank]. You get the idea. The internet has given us tools to make those things we do in our day to day more efficient and more content rich. There is nothing wrong with having better and proper tools for the job.

I do not mind the idea of a website consolidating a play list of music and offering streaming genre to specific tastes in music. Even if it means the mega contract superstars fade away too. I applaud it if new voices and talent can have a platform for discovery and exposure. (Jango.com) I say this even if it means that the old radio stations of the day will become museums. I was there as a part of the radio generation and my father helped build it. So, I get it.

I do however want to find a way to transfer those protections built into the old communications model that we placed there for the sake of having a way to ensure foundational constitutional freedoms and rights in manner equal to the same. Meaning, we have a government elected by the people that has on our behalf regulated communication in a (I may cough here) transparent way so that censorship or one side gaining the voice stands less of a chance of occurring.  Those control processes seem to be lacking, in both realms. May I suggest we correct the real world before we high dive into the digital.

What is not lacking though is the erosion of real world infrastructure and model of communication at an alarming rate. We at least have built in defense of freedom for all into it, which can be challenged and must be responded to when we see it becoming too slack or too strong, The FCC has their skeletons and detractors, but at least we know who they are when things go out of bound. That is what the real difference is.

The difference is not in the information and application of the internet vs. the real world. The difference is our real world ability to have a handle on it as a people not as a few handlers making the decision of what is good and what is evil. We as individuals need to have the ability not to allow the few to control the many. Which is about to happen.

There is a digital cultural dragnet being run over the world.  While something more suited to our wants wins in the end, there is going to be a real push for singular control at the top.. Our methods are different yet the same, sort of.

In the real world model we are discussing here the FCC has regulatory oversight of certain public interest in broadcast as a good for the whole of society. That simply means that government, as elected by the people, decides the rules on our behalf. You know, little things like, you cannot openly ban and censor voices. They call it equal air time. One voice must be allowed equal to another. Specifically, in non-paid political broadcast time equal and opposing time must be given for unpaid political discussion. Not quite the same on line.

As we lose books, newspaper delivery, magazine racks, broadcast radio and other modern era media and means of communication to the digital sphere we find ourselves in a somewhat paradoxical situation. To whom and how will equality of idea and opinion be given proper balance for the good of humankind if a handler platform chooses otherwise? What happens when the primary handler platforms ban together in the same effort? Who is there for you then?

To the religious of this Nation, here is a question for the American Christian Church Community in fair challenge to ideal.

Question: What happens to the concept of our First Amendment Right, freedom of religion. when our church, in our neighborhood, can no longer find means of Cesars gold to sustain operation.  Fortunate for them, Caesar is dead and we have the web. We will just go on line. Bibles everywhere, except china and …….

Right, well sort of. Because you see. You have no protection or freedom of censure and censorship on the WEB. Just sayin. Like the Political Philosopher, GOD can too be subjugated in digital print by Tyrant. It used to be called State Censorship and has happened again and again. This time it is corporate digital censorship. So back to Freedom of Speech.

Let me explain. Netflix, Amazon, Tubi and others have replaced Cable, Dish and Broadcast modern era viewership. All that is left is for the legacy stations to rust away and crumble. Facebook, YouTube and subscription service are replacing traditional news media. The New Media is completely changing the face of media today.

Again, I get it. I love it. I see a lot of potential in the technology. Still it is just a bunch of wires, we are just doing better at what we can get the wires to carry. As a person involved it is kind of cool to watch history being made in front of me. A humankind shift of era is not a generational occurrence, so I get it.

But, if you are to take away my physical world ability to provide for mass communication and mass media in the traditional model, and you want me to assume that the digital sphere is the same, then we need to talk.  Because, it is not the same at all. Anyone or any thought can be consumed and never heard in the digital sphere. Digital walls can be built around idea.

In the real world a book, The Bible, is distributed in print and therefore to date has not been eradicated from existence. If we, as a species are to cede knowledge and communications platform for life to a digital realm, then we should as digital person be able to have a certain ability to protect our anonymity and our right to publish, print, video and speak ideas that are no more opposing in the real world than they are in the digital.

Problem is, if the handler, Facebook decides my thoughts, or the thoughts of Jesus Christ , as fanatic or inflammatory they will exclude them from rank and even try to swerve you in a different line of thought away from me.

Campbell Brown, a former anchor on NBC and CNN who now leads Facebook’s news partnerships team, told attendees at a recent technology and publishing conference that Facebook would be censoring news publishers based on its own internal biases:

“This is not us stepping back from news. This is us changing our relationship with publishers and emphasizing something that Facebook has never done before: It’s having a point of view, and it’s leaning into quality news. … We are, for the first time in the history of Facebook, taking a step to try to to define what ‘quality news’ looks like and give that a boost.” (Emphasis added.)

If you expect me or anyone else to transfer our life into this sphere of global hyper mass communication, then expect us to push back when you violate our equal right to have opposing view. That is not happening though. Instead the handlers are learning it is easier to just silence the voice of those they do not think to be worthy of hearing or those things that are not common of the handlers mind. So, there is a real big difference in the “old fashioned” world we are allowing to be ripped out from under us. Make sure you know this though. Life is lived in the world, not online.

PragerU has already been hit with similar censorship-like action from YouTube. Other conservatives such as Diamond and Silk were previously flagged as “dangerous” by Facebook, while Candace Owens was recently banned by Twitter for calling out another person’s racism.

The list of evidence goes on and on. If these are honest “mistakes,” why do they seem to only happen to conservative voices?

“Removing two videos, marking them as ‘hate speech’ and then subsequently censoring over 15 of our following posts to reach 0 of our 3 million followers is not a mistake,” PragerU chastised. “It’s deliberate censorship of conservative ideas.”

When you allow your social involvement and immersion into the digital sphere, you have to be more attuned of violation of your human rights. Like freedom of speech. There is no judicious or balanced method of resolution as there is in your rights in the physical sphere when you are censored or have other freedom violated. When those same protections of freedom do not exist, there is an issue.

When a person can lose an entire life career because of 144 character Twitter assassinations, there is no safety in social media. Unless of course you are part of the mob that is lynching someone for thought different than the plurality of the day. This is not social and is not living a life.

I pay the effort to socialize culture in the digital sphere and eradicate the physical creepy and dangerous. Just ask the Chinese about their Social Credit score and if you are lucky, find one with a low score if they survive re-education.

There are so many amazing things that this matrix of knowledge and “instant on” can do for us all in an effort to elevate mankind.

This is why adults need to regain a control over the tools that assist us in our daily effort to be a stronger people. Instead it seems that a pervasive ideological Marxism is demanding control of the digital political narrative. It seems too that a delusional postmodern crowd all the way into their late 40’s seems to think the physical world is something other than real. When a Georgetown admissions officer and his vegan lover decided to bicycle through ISIS controlled land because in their words “Violence does not really exist” you end up saying, they are dead now.

Nature’s outcome and history do not lean in a favorable place for this lunacy and socialist grab of the narrative. There is a big difference when you live life, in the world, not on a screen.  It seems that there is a younger class amongst us that never learned that lesson. That will in the end mean that either we adults quickly corral the children in the room or everyone, young and old, will soon experience that one thing that brings us all back to the ground and reminds us of our similar nature. PAIN.

Water is wet & Fire is hot.

May God Please Bless America

~ Eric D. Miller – 2018