Donald Trump Jr. continues to peddle nonsense about the current state of affairs in the United States. On Friday, he angrily ranted on Twitter about supposed attacks on free speech from social media companies — freely posting this rant on one of the very social media platforms that he insinuates is perpetrating some kind of censorship. There’s no conclusive evidence for conservative allegations of some kind of conspiracy against right-wing interests on the part of social media companies. The very existence of Trump Jr.’s Twitter post on the subject seems to cast doubt on his own premise that Twitter is suppressing conservatives!
Conservatives have plenty of reach through social media. Just look at the outgoing president’s own Twitter account, with over 88 million followers as of this weekend. Nevertheless, Donald Jr. posted as follows in response to a question of “Who gave big tech the green light to tell us what’s right and wrong” (which simply isn’t what they’re doing):
‘We all did with apathy, not because we actually green lit them but by sitting on our asses as they slowly stripped away free speech and thought while we watched and did jack shit. It’s long past the time to stand up against this form of thought tyranny!!!’
We all did with apathy, not because we actually green lit them but by sitting on our asses as they slowly stripped away free speech and thought while we watched and did jack shit.
It’s long past the time to stand up against this form of thought tyranny!!! https://t.co/cbUP08sVb8
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 5, 2020
Social media companies do not perpetrate “thought tyranny.” Besides, if someone can’t hold onto a thought unless they post it on social media, that’s kind of embarrassing. How would social media companies even perpetrate “thought tyranny”? Would they reach into people’s minds and adjust their thoughts towards the liking of the corporate overlords? Obviously, that particular scenario is nonsensical, and Trump Jr. doesn’t seem to be suggesting otherwise — but did he even think for very long about what he was saying before rushing to social media with his apocalyptic rant about the supposed decline of free speech? He posts his own speech… freely… on one of the very platforms that he singles out as supposedly perpetrating censorship.
Amidst his other ranting, Trump Jr. has also amplified Trump World’s lies about the election. The president and his allies claim that the presidential race was “rigged” for Biden, but there’s simply no meaningfully conclusive evidence for this claim. Local election officials of both major parties from around the country, the Department of Homeland Security, and even Attorney General Bill Barr have all confirmed that there’s no evidence of election outcome-altering systematic fraud. Twitter has been placing some very basic, rudimentary fact-checks alongside posts containing election lies, but fact-checking isn’t some kind of nefarious anti-Trump conspiracy. It’s just not.
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump Jr. below:
