"The erosion of traditional establishment filters — first by such mediums as direct mail, talk radio and cable, later and most powerfully by social media — has been a primary factor in the rise of potent ideological movements on right and left alike.... [T]he decision Friday night by Twitter to permanently ban Trump from its platform... represents an effort to reassert the notion that filters have a place in political communication.... Twitter’s announcement was made with a righteous air, as the company said it was acting 'due to the risk of further incitement of violence'.... The moves comes [sic] at precisely the moment that his movement looked like it had been fatally punctured, due to the cumulative effects of Trump losing the 2020 presidential election, Democrats winning the Senate in Georgia special elections and even once-loyal Trump Republicans expressing disgust with his culpability in Wednesday’s insurrection.... If there is any unifying thread of the conservative movement from Nixon to Rush Limbaugh to Matt Drudge to Newt Gingrich to Trump, it is its resentment of the establishment news media and determination to make its filters obsolete.... "
Those who think they like this new censorship really need to step back and take the long view. Conspiracy theories about taking down Donald Trump will go on for 100 years. All of these efforts at suppression will be woven and rewoven into these theories. Driving the theories off the front pages of social media will make them wilder and crazier, and we won't be able to see them or argue with them. How many millions of serious devotees does Trump have? What will they do now? Why is depriving them of their Twitter connection a wholesome curative?
