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Thread: Can a free society survive when its information gatekeepers are activists?

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    Question Can a free society survive when its information gatekeepers are activists?

    Think about it.

    Teachers, professors, journalists, and the Silicon Valley monopsonies have been methodically infiltrated by the left and transformed into a monoculture that regressively suppresses diversity of thought and ideas.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    Think about it.

    Teachers, professors, journalists, and the Silicon Valley monopsonies have been methodically infiltrated by the left and transformed into a monoculture that regressively suppresses diversity of thought and ideas.
    Any evidence of that?

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    Quote Originally Posted by StoneByStone View Post
    Any evidence of that?
    I believe so.

    Follow the money.

    https://www.justplainpolitics.com/sh...-who-pays-them

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    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    So Democrats are more likely to have a government job. And somehow that is evidence that "Teachers, professors, journalists, and the Silicon Valley monopsonies have been methodically infiltrated by the left and transformed into a monoculture that regressively suppresses diversity of thought and ideas."
    Again, those of us who aren't Conservatives care about evidence and facts.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    None of that is evidence proving “teachers, professors, journalists, and the Silicon Valley monopsonies have been methodically infiltrated by the left and transformed into a monoculture that regressively suppresses diversity of thought and ideas,” not even close

    I believe it’s another example why “copy and paste” excels at posting corny copy and pastes and banning anyone who can challenge him

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    Quote Originally Posted by StoneByStone View Post
    Any evidence of that?
    You own a television?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    Think about it.

    Teachers, professors, journalists, and the Silicon Valley monopsonies have been methodically infiltrated by the left and transformed into a monoculture that regressively suppresses diversity of thought and ideas.
    THis society is rapidly becoming authoritarian, and it is the Left that is driving us in that direction.

    Freedom is too dangerous they think.
    This illegal illegitimate regime that runs America is at fault...not me.... they do not represent me and I have long objected to their crimes against humanity.

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    The technology industry is spending big to elect DEMOCRATS in 2020.

    The tech industry, from its leading companies to its liberal-leaning workforce, has long been a major source for DEMOCRAT contributions. Numbers from the Center for Responsive Politics show that trend continuing even as progressive groups push to bar donations from other powerful industries.

    The big four technology companies — Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple — and their employees have given over $5.3 million collectively in campaign contributions in the 2020 cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

    The totals, based on Federal Election Commission data through the third quarter of 2019, include money from the companies, their owners and employees and immediate families, as well as their PACs.

    Facebook and its employees have donated $824,600 so far in the 2020 cycle, and most of that has gone to DEMOCRATS, according to the Center for Responsive Politics numbers.

    Alphabet, the parent company of Google/YouTube and its employees have donated more than $2.1 million so far this cycle, and more than $1.7 million has gone to DEMOCRATS. They gave more than $8.2 million in 2018 to DEMOCRATS, while in 2016, Alphabet’s more than $9.1 million in donations went to DEMOCRATS.

    Amazon and its employees have given more than $1.7 million in the 2020 cycle to DEMOCRATS. .

    Apple and its employees have also contributed in the 2020 cycle, with 96 percent for DEMOCRATS. In 2018, 90 percent of their more than $1.8 million in donations went to the party.

    DEMOCRATS have pressed the tech industry to step up efforts to crack down on right-wing extremist content and over how social media players handle conservative political speech.

    Many DEMOCRATS have hosted high-profile Silicon Valley fundraisers, including events co-hosted by top Facebook and Google executives.

    Joshua Lamel from InSight Public Affairs told The Hill. “It makes sense that they are giving more to DEMOCRATS.”

    Tech company workers have challenged their own employers on a number of fronts in recent months, including over labor practices and contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Pentagon.

    Chris Lewis, president of Public Knowledge, downplayed the impact of tech cash flowing to DEMOCRATS. Lewis said it is not surprising that technology employees’ giving is skewed toward the party, highlighting how many within the industry support progressive policies.

    “I think it’s consistent with the assumptions that people make about the political leaning of white workers in communities like San Francisco and other towns,” he told The Hill.

    Lewis pointed to “the folks that are inside companies looking for reforms ... whether it’s the folks in Google walk-outs or the debate inside Facebook over their politics.”

    The location of many technology companies also plays a role in the politics of its employees, another lobbyist noted.

    “While the numbers are heavily skewed towards Democrats, it’s important to keep in mind that a majority of these tech companies are headquartered in DEMOCRAT-heavy population centers where the workforce tends to be progressive,” Randall Gerard, managing director of Cogent, told The Hill.

    While DEMOCRATS have taken a tougher tone on the tech industry, Republicans have also hammered away at Silicon Valley. President Trump has also questioned the companies over antitrust concerns and with Republican lawmakers has accused social media platforms of censoring conservative views.

    Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs at Public Citizen, a left-leaning advocacy group, said that as major economic players, the tech industry would always look for allies, even in the face of criticism.

    “Tech companies understand that they should be playing big in politics, and that means giving,” Gilbert said.

    She questioned if those contributions would dampen efforts to rein in the industry.

    “Money going to DEMOCRATS can certainly have an untoward influence on the strength of the necessary new regulations on issues from privacy to antitrust, and more,” she said.


    https://thehill.com/policy/technology/475221-tech-industry-cash-flows-to-democrats-despite-2020-scrutiny

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    Quote Originally Posted by anchovies View Post
    I believe it’s another example why “copy and paste” excels at posting corny copy and pastes and banning anyone who can challenge him
    Yet here you are.

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    Quote Originally Posted by coldjoint View Post
    You own a television?
    As a matter of fact, I do.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hawkeye10 View Post
    THis society is rapidly becoming authoritarian, and it is the Left that is driving us in that direction. Freedom is too dangerous they think.




    The characterization of mainstream media newsrooms as left-leaning hives indeed has documentary backing.

    Some of the research is narrow and entertaining: In 1990, for example, Washington City Paper — then under the leadership of current Politico media critic Jack Shafer — found that Tony Kornheiser, then a sports columnist for The Washington Post, was the only registered Republican among a sampling of 49 top editors, reporters and columnists at the newspaper.

    And Kornheiser was a RINO. “I don’t think the Republican Party would claim me,” Kornheiser told reporter Christy Wise, adding that he and his wife had registered with different parties so that they could receive mailings from both sides. Upon further reflection, he deemed his party affiliation a “mistake.”

    The Pew Research Center in 2004 undertook a nationwide survey of 547 local and national reporters, editors and executives. The result? Thirty-four percent of national press self-identified as liberal, as opposed to 7 percent conservative (“moderate” was the largest category).

    A 2014 study under the “American Journalist” banner found that 28 percent of 1,080 surveyed U.S. journalists claimed to be DEMOCRATS, as opposed to 7 percent for Republicans.

    Tim Graham, executive editor of NewsBusters, has a different take: “Journalists have gotten incredibly reluctant to identify with a party. I suspect liberals check the ‘independent’ box to avoid being properly identified.”

    That collective lean is the obsession of Graham’s group, which dedicates itself to highlighting instances of bias in the mainstream media — if you’re Dan Rather or Andrea Mitchell, you’re likely familiar with its work. Its parent organization, the Media Research Center, has published a massive roundup of research on the political leanings of U.S. newsrooms. As Graham sees it, the data in some cases understates the tilt in mainstream media newsrooms, with significant ramifications for governance.

    “Conservatives and Republicans know this: It’s a lot easier for a DEMOCRAT to go out and face a room of 96 percent DEMOCRATS than it is for a Republican president to go out and face a room of 96 percent DEMOCRATS,” he says.

    Though the Grahams and the Rosenstiels may dispute emphases, data over the years confirms the contentions of American conservatives that the workplaces of the mainstream media err on the DEMOCRAT side of the ideological/partisan divide.

    “I think over the years that we’ve done these studies, it’s clear that more journalists tend to lean to the left politically than to the right,” says Indiana University journalism professor David H. Weaver.

    Tracy Grant, deputy managing editor of The Washington Post, is familiar with criticisms about the composition of newsrooms — she handles recruitment and diversity at the newspaper. Asked about studies showing a lefty tilt, she says: “I think people are called to this profession sometimes have a sense of mission,” she says. “I think there is a sensibility among people who feel that calling and if there is a commonality of people who go into journalism, but I also think that anybody who thinks that the mainstream media didn’t make Hillary Clinton’s life miserable or Barack Obama’s life miserable by holding them accountable is just not looking at the record.”

    The pipeline for hiring decisions at big media outlets files through colleges that crank out lefty students. Young conservative journalists want to work at mainstream outlets, if only the doors will open.



    https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/01/27/dear-mainstream-media-why-so-liberal/

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    A great post:


    Quote Originally Posted by Sailor View Post
    Article worth a read. By a highly intelligent person. Wonder who will try and refute it on here. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ar...ad_144223.html


    The News as We Once Knew It Is Dead
    By Victor Davis Hanson

    In 2017, the liberal Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University found that 93 percent of CNN's coverage of the Trump administration was negative. The center found similarly negative Trump coverage at other major news outlets.

    The election year 2020 has only accelerated that asymmetrical bias -- to the point that major newspapers and network and cable news organizations are now fused with the Joe Biden campaign.

    Sometimes stories are covered only in terms of political agendas. Take COVID-19.

    The media assure us that the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic has been a disaster. But their conclusions are not supported by any evidence.

    In the United States, the coronavirus death rate per million people is similar to, or lower than, most major European countries except Germany

    When the virus was at its worst, before the partisan campaign of this election year heated up, the governors in our four largest states had only compliments for the Trump administration.

    Democrats Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California and Republicans Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida effusively praised the administration's cooperation with their own frontline efforts.

    The most recent conclusions of impartial heads of federal agencies responsible for coordinating national and state policies are about the same.

    Dr. Deborah Birx (adviser to both the Obama and Trump administrations on responses to infectious diseases), Dr. Anthony Fauci (director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) and Dr. Scott Gottlieb (former head of the Food and Drug Administration) have not faulted the Trump administration's overall COVID-19 response. They attribute any shortcomings to initial global ignorance about the origins and nature of the epidemic, incompetence at the World Health Organization, or the initial inability of bureaucracies to produce easily available and reliable test kits.

    Prominent progressive Trump critics such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized the necessary Trump travel ban, yet Pelosi told people there was no reason to cancel planned travel to San Francisco's Chinatown.

    However, the real warping of the news is not just a matter of slanting coverage, but deliberately not covering the news at all.

    In the last two weeks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has achieved the most stunning breakthroughs in Middle Eastern diplomacy in over half a century.

    Countries once hostile to Israel, such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, now formally recognize it. Other Arab nations may follow. Ancient existential enemies Kosovo and Serbia also agreed to normalize their relationship with Israel by signing economic agreements.

    Yet none of these historic events have drawn much media attention. All of them would have been canonized were they achievements of the Obama administration.

    In 2017, the media suggested that Trump's plans to get out of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, to confront Chinese mercantilism, to forge new alliances between Israel and moderate Arab regimes, to isolate an ascendant Iran, to close the southern border to illegal immigration, to jawbone NATO alliance members into honoring their defense expenditure commitments, and to destroy ISIS and weaken Hezbollah were all impossible, counterproductive or sheer madness.

    And now?

    An embargoed and bankrupt Iran is teetering on the brink. Its international terrorist appendages, including Hezbollah, are broke.

    China is increasingly being ostracized by much of the world.

    The U.S. has cut its carbon emissions, often at a rate superior to those nations still adhering to the Paris climate accord targets.

    Cross-border illegal immigration has been reduced, according to many metrics.

    ISIS was bombed into near dissolution. Moderate regimes in the Middle East are ascendant; radical cliques like Hamas and al-Qaeda are not.

    More NATO members are meeting their commitments. The alliance's aggregate defense investments are way up.

    Is any of that considered news? Not really.

    Instead, every three or four days the public is fed a series of fantasy "bombshells" much like the daily hysterias of the Robert Mueller investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump team and Russia -- a two-year, media-hyped dud.

    In recent weeks the media warned us that Trump was dismantling the Post Office to disrupt mail-in balloting.

    Trump, we are told, has decided never to concede his sure loss in November and might have to be forcibly removed, perhaps by the military.

    We read that Trump defiled the memory of fallen American soldiers in cemeteries abroad. We are lectured that Trump supposedly never took COVID-19 seriously.

    All of these stories were either demonstrably untrue, were supported only by anonymous sources, or were the sensationalism of authors hawking books.

    Yet such concocted melodramas will continue each week up to Election Day, while fundamental geostrategic shifts abroad brought about by American diplomacy will by intent go unnoticed.

    The news as we once understood it is dead.

    It has been replaced by the un-news: a political narrative created by partisans who believe the noble ends of destroying Trump justify any biased means necessary -- including destroying their own reputation and craft.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    Think about it.

    Teachers, professors, journalists, and the Silicon Valley monopsonies have been methodically infiltrated by the left and transformed into a monoculture that regressively suppresses diversity of thought and ideas.
    That was the plan back when the 45 communist goals to take over America were documented.
    The Truth Does Not Need To Be Supported With Censorship.

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    Quote Originally Posted by StoneByStone View Post
    Any evidence of that?
    https://rense.com/general32/americ.htm
    The Truth Does Not Need To Be Supported With Censorship.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    Think about it.

    Teachers, professors, journalists, and the Silicon Valley monopsonies have been methodically infiltrated by the left and transformed into a monoculture that regressively suppresses diversity of thought and ideas.

    Did you flunk out?

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