Muzzled

 Okay. I admit I did the happy dance when I heard that a certain ex-game show host had been kicked off Twitter. And contrastingly I flinched a bit when I stopped to consider the free speech issues that banning anyone from social media presented. Would it rise up and ring the First Amendment bell? I am pretty sure that our founding fathers did not have Facebook in mind when they starting drafting the rules for talking smack about each other. Unless you count The Reynolds Pamphlet, in which case I leave it to Lin-Manuel Miranda to decide. 

But now we have a herd of angry right-wing types insisting that they are being "cancelled" or "muzzled." Which seems fair and appropriate, since voicing their grievances is that part of the free speech ideal that rings most true. Of course, the fact that we are fully aware of the pain and suffering felt by these individuals suggests that their lack of a platform may be just a tad overstated. For example, I did not intend to purchase a copy of Josh Hawley's book when it was going to be published by Simon and Schuster, and now that they have dropped it and another publisher has swooped in to grab the rights to the nonsensical ravings of a "patriot" like him, I feel that I know at least two more facts about his book than I am completely comfortable. Simply put, if there is no sound in a vacuum, this must not be a very good vacuum. 

Speaking of that vacuum, something else that sucks is Fox News. Business reporter Maria Bartiroma was complaining to media martyr and sedition cheerleader Josh Hawley about how she has lost Twitter followers since that ugly scene at the Capitol. Josh was on her nationally televised show to complain about his voice being silenced, after having his op-ed piece about his muzzling published by the New York Post. The proudly self-announced most read Sunday tabloid New York Post. And how is it that I learned about this? Well, I confess that I had to look on Al Gore's Internet to find it. I had to look for about twelve seconds, because it was a "headline" on my newsfeed. The same Internet that shoves ideas for floor lamps in the margins of the pages I am trying to read because I once thought about purchasing a floor lamp. The same Internet that reminds me about the Kardashians because I once watched David Letterman interview one. Somehow that same Internet, in the midst of a purge of conservative voices, managed to deliver me the sad news about Maria and Josh being unable to be heard. Except by the seven hundred million people who stop by Yahoo each month. Or the billions of people who happen to click on the story on their way to purchase a floor lamp. 

This isn't censorship, folks. This is discretion on the part of the listeners and viewers of America. We can hear you just fine. We are ignoring you.