FOLKS: I had published this over at c99 and wanted to hear what you guys thought of this issue. Presented without edit.. OK, one edit in the first sentence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_LlMmL6Ylk
This video (edit to clarify it is the video, not the picture that I am referring to), then, is Jimmy's first reaction to the wave of Alex Jones banning. I've heard hours of him talking about this, both on his show and on Rogan, so his position is clear, and IMHO thought-provoking.
He is arguing that because de-facto monopolies such as Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook etc (and "etc" is quite pregnant) have so much power to influence the world and events in real time that they must be considered monopolies and "commoditized" and regulated. "etc" is pregnant: what about DKos? What about 4chan? What about c99%? There are serious implications for governmental regulation of defacto monopolies: traditionally, phones, electricity, water, garbage pick-up, etc are often (always in some cases and rarely in others) private enterprises that get their charter from the government. The Federal Government had to break up Ma Bell, but first they had to simply regulate them - deeply and often - for a hundred years. Why? Because the technology barrier was too high for the next up-and-comer as the lines were mostly already installed in big cities, and also because you didn't want several contractors putting in competing telephone poles throughout the American cities. Too much digging, too many wires. So the FCC (I assume) stepped in. The argument is that the internet is host to 5 or 6 (or 600, who knows?) monopolies whose technology barrier is already prohibitive.
reductio ad absurdum:
"Why don't people like Alex Jones just demand TV air time?" I don't have a snappy answer to that. That's why I'm not rich and famous like Jimmy Dore, I guess. Or Alex Jones.
Free-market types believe that someone who owns his site has the right to ban people he finds objectionable. Think Markos Moulitsas; I'm pretty sure he would object to government regulation of TOS. So, we don't have to go very far to find that opinion being held by members of the left.
So, if you aren't informed of Dore's stance on this, please, by all means, watch this video, or google your own, and tell me your opinion. I think it is important, even as Brett Kavanaugh is being fought over.
I once took the Clifton Strengths Finder Test. My scores came back that my #1 Strength is Input, so no surprise I haven't made up my mind yet. But Dore makes a compelling case here.
Let me know what you think. Thanks!!
P.S. @jack still hasn't banned Alex Jones..