Speaking to Carlson on Thursday, after YouTube demonetized hundreds of accounts for posting content even remotely linked to controversial topics, Greenwald excoriated Vox journalist Carlos Maza, whose clamoring against conservative shock-jock Steven Crowder triggered the crackdown.
"YouTube caved in defense of the powerful," Greenwald claimed. "That's what they will always do. Defend the mob and the powerful at the expense of those who are marginalized."
"It would never occur to me to run to social media companies to beg for censorship," he said. "In part, it comes with the territory of being a public figure. I don't want to live in a world where our discourse is policed and determined by overlords who run Silicon Valley companies and will always cater to the most powerful faction."
A gay Latino journalist with the ultra-liberal outlet Vox, Maza's year-long feud with Crowder was the genesis of the latest round of deplatforming and demonetizing. Crowder had publicly insulted Maza with homophobic slurs, calling him a "lispy queer," among other schoolyard taunts. Maza demanded YouTube take action, and although the streaming giant said Crowder didn't break its rules, Maza tweeted up a storm and the company eventually complied, stripping his channel of ad revenue on Wednesday.
The demonetization didn't satisfy Maza, who called on YouTube to fully ban Crowder from the platform. Though Crowder's videos are still online, scores of other controversial figures had their videos deleted - including perpetual liberal bogeymen Milo Yiannopoulos and Gavin McInnes.
Though Maza is a particularly loud advocate of censorship, he is not the first journalist to demand Silicon Valley blacklist people whose opinions he finds offensive. CNN spearheaded the campaign to hound right-wing polemicist Alex Jones off virtually every social media platform last year, and just last month BuzzFeed's Joseph Bernstein rallied a Twitter mob to force YouTube to block a 14-year-old vlogger who said mean things about Muslims.
Greenwald made a point of mentioning his own same-sex marriage and homophobic insults he faced while living in Brazil, calling Crowder a "contemptuous cretin," but he defended his right to free speech and slammed the journalists pushing tech companies to restrict it.
"In reality, this power to censor was not one they (the companies) wanted," he explained. "It was one that was foisted upon them largely by journalists who were demanding that they remove voices from the Internet. Imagine going into journalism and begging corporations to silence people."
Seemingly unmoved by Greenwald's defense of free speech, the same liberal journalists took issue with the outlet where he chose to present it, calling him out for appearing on Carlson's show, which Vox's Aaron Rupar described as "the white power hour."
Greenwald himself hit back on Friday, tweeting, "Liberals are so attached to their fantasy about the goodness of authority that they actually convince themselves that Silicon Valley giants - who they're otherwise willing to malign - are exercising censorship powers in defense of marginalized people against the powerful."
Reader Comments
As for complaining about YT, why not just go elsewhere? is that too difficult? Why doesn't these two white guys mention the alternatives? Or did they? I don't bother with them anymore... too bothersome to listen to the chatter that seems but the usual distraction of a different sort for the other sheep near the fences.
The vlog no-one has spoken about is Owen Benjamin G'd up that he can prove that Crowder is gay. (LOL from - 10:16)
[Link]
RT, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, blah blah blah ... no matter which legacy news outlet it is or how far they have fallen, they still cannot bring themselves to provide information that the public needs to be properly informed. The end game is to control the conversations on social media by controlling the content provider ecosystem - sometimes to great affect such as de-monitizing specific channels, and this acclimatising is true for ALL manner of social media platforms. YouTube possesses "externally" paid opposition to capture conversations and what is the truth of this story? That this is another "paid opposition" war that fought to change a collective perception of reality; it is a proxy war that is being used to immense effect and the public is barely adequate to recognise that this is going on. It is individualistic, it is communalistic and it (the instigator) has used the LGBTQI+ community to the same effect that was used in the love movement of the 60's only this time the demonstrations prevalent then have been replaced with the spells of speech craft that are used today. The traditional news outlets, whether print or visual got stitched up a long, long time ago and is well under the control of our handlers. The internet however, is an open platform and this is where the new battle for controlling community perceptions is being held and It must be won if our handlers are going to continue to sway and control the collective herd.
What needs to be asked is; who does this benefit, who is providing the money to support this movement and who has the power to make this happen? Does one handler fit the bill?
Another George perhaps?
Ted Cruz nails it:
"Sigh. This individual claims to be a 'journalist.' Then he throws a fit & demands that YouTube CENSOR views he doesn't like. Here's a crazy idea: if you don't like what @scrowder says, ARGUE AGAINST HIM."
How would anyone like to have their revenue stream cut just because of whining assh*le Mazar? Or any other person? Despite his working for Vox, I doubt Mazar's blog/twitter accounts have four million subscribers as did Crowder's, which subscribers each and all got screwed - to a far lesser degree, but screwed nonetheless.
How does that stupid point of "it's only some of his income/revenue" deal with the issues involved? Answer: It doesn't . It's simply an unproved, irrelevant and logically fallacious point known as circular reasoning/begging the question, et alia. It's amazing that an idiot like Mazar - and countless others like him - have been coddled into believing that their definition of what is 'beyond the bounds of reasonable discourse' = IS THE ONLY ALLOWABLE ONE. And all the little PC Asswipes at Google, et al.,, fall in line, or get fired for having open minds.
I bet there's a Black Google Workers' Group, a "Hispanic Google Workers' Group', or a 'Women's G.W. Group', but woe unto any Google Worker who tries to create such an organization for the minority of White Males, or 'Whites in General." I know that the Florida Medical Association, and the Florida Bar Association have such groups. (I wonder if the Black Google workers' group even allows white folks to join it. It certainly has a racist presumption behind it, and if they go on a 'field trip', are the Whites, (Honkies/White Trash/White Boys and Girls, et al) - who are now three and more generations removed from Jim Crow laws, - required to sit in the back of the bus? It's unlikely, but certainly wouldn't surprise me, these days.
R.C.
"Listen up, baby girl ... if you didn't want the silent treatment, you shouldn't have asked me about the role of Israel in American foreign policy" - Steven CrowderEvery time I use YouTube, they are recommending Crowder's channel ... why's that?
I have no interest in what he says and have never watched any of his videos ...
The fact that he is now being promoted by YT suggests to me that he is part of the problem
Credit for the "quote" goes to Marty Leeds - Here he goes off on Crowder - from 23:00 - [Link]
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