When Trump got kicked off Twitter last week it wasn’t really a huge surprise to those who have been paying attention to “Big Tech Censorship” over the past 5 years. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram started out relatively free, with virtually no content moderation, except for illegal activity, spam, etc. However, ever since Trump was elected in 2016 these platforms started aggressively restricting content based on viewpoint. Over the course of the past several years, it actually became fashionable to ban and censor Trump supporters.
So what does this have to do with libertarians? Generally speaking, libertarians haven’t been very fond of the Trump presidency. Although it’s been refreshing to not have the United States involved in more foreign wars, Trump’s domestic policies with tariffs and increased national spending put a sour taste in the mouths of many libertarians. But what’s been interesting is to see how quickly the crosshairs shifted from the Ron Paul “Tea Party Movement” to the Trump “Deplorables” in 2016.
For the past four years libertarians have been given a momentary reprieve from the ire of the Woke crowd as the NPC’s attention has been laser-focused on targeting Trump supporters. However, as the first term of the Trump presidency comes to a close, Democrats are poised to seize the reigns of power in the House, Senate and Executive. Without a political strongman like Trump at the helm of the GOP, a great diaspora of Trump voters is about to get underway. Some will blindly stick with the GOP, others may attempt to form a new third-party, yet others may be attracted to the message of liberty from the Libertarian Party. When this happens, the Woke crowd will start hunting for another target to attack, and libertarians should be prepared.
Libertarians owe a debt of gratitude to Trump supporters for their role in exposing the corporate tyranny of Big Tech in the last 4-5 years. Trump supporters took a painful beating (and are still being digitally flogged for wrong-think) and now everyone sees what Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others social media platforms are really about: Woke Fascism. Censorship always starts with the least popular voices in society: Milo Yiannopoulos, Alex Jones, Richard Spencer, etc. But then it spreads to more popular voices that commit wrong-think: James Woods, PewDiePie, Candace Owens, Zero Hedge, etc. Then most recently, they finally came after the President of the United States and thousands of his supporters. The slippery slope of censorship doesn’t stop with Trump supporters. Libertarians will be next. So what do we do?
First, we stop supporting Big Tech platforms and start supporting alt-tech solutions. As libertarians we recognize that Twitter and Facebook are private companies and technically can ban whoever they want. We believe in a free market economy that allows for monopolies to only exist as long as they provide consumers with the best quality product/service for the lowest cost. We also believe in creative destruction and disruptive technology. Enter: Gab.com
Gab started out in early 2017 as a free speech alternative social media network to Twitter and Facebook. Gab and its CEO, Andrew Torba, have been deplatformed by just about everyone. From domain registration, payment processing, cloud server hosting, app stores – almost no one wanted to associate with Gab because true free speech was the third rail. Torba was told that if he didn’t like the decisions of all these private companies that he should just “build his own”. So he did exactly that! Gab has become anti-fragile because of the massive deplatforming it experienced over the past several years.
Although Torba and a lot of Gab users are still huge Trump supporters, libertarians shouldn’t be put off from joining the alternative social network. Diversity of opinion is essential to a society that can think critically. Trump supporters and libertarians can still find common ground in the cause of liberty. We may have slightly different ideas about how to achieve a more free society, or how small the role of government should be, but we both still want to move the needle towards greater individual freedom and away from authoritarianism.
Libertarians need to recognize that the Woke scolds on Facebook and Twitter are not going to be satisfied after they silence all Trump supporters. They will come for conservatives and libertarians next. Voluntarily disassociate with companies like Twitter and Facebook before they forcibly disassociate with you. They don’t have your best interest at heart. Instead, get on Gab and support free speech!
Join the “Libertarians of Gab” group on Gab!
Roger Sherman is a minarchist libertarian who hails from the great State of Connecticut. Although he resides in a big government “Blue State”, Sherman believes that liberty can still prevail. Sherman works “behind enemy lines” to spread the message of liberty to all those who desire to be left alone by the government, provided they respect the rights of others and don’t aggress against anyone unless first aggressed upon.