Goodbye Twitter

I deactivated my Twitter account last week. I have grave concerns for the future of free speech in the United States. 

When I was young, the political left made a serious push to make hate speech illegal. They mostly failed, thanks to a robust First Amendment. But, they never gave up. 

I navigated speech codes in college, easily for the most part, because I wasn’t yet interested in politics, nor was I interested in offending anyone. 

I had one run in with the PC police (back before SJWs appeared). There was some question on campus as to my sexuality, and I found it greatly amusing to let it hang there. Upon determining I was straight, the campus lesbian (if you know what I mean) marched straight to the administration and demanded my scholarships be stripped away. I got off with writing a half-hearted mea culpa and continuing to be vague about my preferences. I did, in fact, date several girls in college and no boys, but I think the ambiguity was most of my allure.

I eventually graduated and so did the left. They are now getting corporations and social media to enact speech codes on everyone. They’ve circumvented government and enacted hate speech laws in the form of Terms of Service. 

And the First Amendment stalwarts of yesteryear cheered them on, with cries of “private business can do what they want.” One would wonder if they’d take it as far as murder if it weren’t for the same set issuing nearly the same defense when it comes to abortion. 

Never mind that most “private businesses” are in fact corporations. No, the argument I make is not that they are publicly traded—that’s a different sort of “public.” Rather, I point out that a corporation is a government-created entity. Private-schmivate. Corporations have scads of rules they must follow in order to be. What would be so untoward about making them also uphold the Constitution? 

The corporations are one thing. The mob is another. And they’re who I’m most concerned about. Right now, the corporations are most responsive to the mob, with “private entity” as their shield for taking the unjust actions demanded of them by the mob. In short, cancel culture. 

So, I retreat to my little blog, where no one will read what I have to say. Goodbye Twitter.