*The writings, thoughts and opinions here in are the authors own and represent in no way any organization, group, or service that the author may or may not be a party to. To include any state, federal, or non government entity*
Once “an organization” is commited to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. - Guy that dropped NUCLEAR BOMBS ON A COUNTRY Harry S Truman
(Fully aware he didn’t say organization)
Spooky season is upon us, and what is more fear inducing for many Americans than 2021. Pandemics, political unrest, China threatening a new world war, silencing of dissidents. That last one is where a lot of people are going to get hung up, but let’s talk about it. What we have seen over the last year is a multi faceted silencing, not what one is accustomed to with Germany of old or Russia. It isn’t, necessarily, agents of the government showing up and telling one to shut up or else. It is much more nuanced than that and involves group think, pseudo publishers, and fear that are driving silence.
When it comes to 2021’s version of truth this is a nuanced issue. For people in positions of authority, they are allowed to determine what are and are not authoritative sources, a press secretary can deem the “whoever post” as fake news and “wherever times” the ground truth. If this is the case “truth” is no longer a measure of fact or what is provable, it is a measure by which an organization is in agreement with a person or organizational lead in power. This then allows a measure of control over a portion of the population.
Many people don’t have time to look at an article then dig through sources, so the sources that are trusted have free range and get what the “truth” is. The fact checkers aren’t checked, and the organizations feeding the fact checkers thus aren’t checked as they have been deemed infallible by the authorities or authority. This leads to a litany of problems most concerning of which are people in positions of lesser authority having to bow to external pressures or look no deeper into issues. More troubling, it leads to deeper division among the general population because it now creates a chain in which no link can be questioned or all links are questioned.
An example, a public figure says “vaccines are mandated for X group so transmission doesn’t occur from that group”, concurrently a person of lesser authority but with more understanding of the topic says “the vaccines do not affect transmission”. Immediately we have dissonance within that chain, but to quote the more authoritative source is now viewed as a dissident act, as it conflicts with the individual with more authorities statement.
Now se get into the silencing bit. If a person were to quote the authority with less power they are either fact checked or being told this is misinformation by those who wish to carry favor with the authority with more power. This leads to a dreaded misinformation tag, a decrease in trust by those that don’t have time to go dig through these sources, and ones opinion on such matters is now void. This is happening and is equivalent with silencing individuals.
That brings in the pseudo publishers, content curators that are able to control a narrative through a system of manual review or algorithms. Every social media source is currently taking part in this through “banning misinformation” to tagging ones post to an authoritative source. Well, if that topic is a topic of policy and not or science, why then must there be a trace to that authoritative source to begin with. The mandates are another good example of this.
While we have data, many edicts and mandates have been enforced in lieu of authoritative data for authoritative opinion. Take vaccinating children, there had been a medical consensus of little to no threat to kids, and a lack of safety data to enforce such mandates. To enact such a mandate would be a policy position of opinion not of science, yet we still see the curators of the public square, be it Reddit admins / mods to social media employees, label or take down posts. Those labels are all one needs to be ignored by a large portion of a lay population, I.e. silenced. If an authority can socially engineer a population to believe or disbelieve something, with the assistance of official authority, this is de facto silencing of the person or organization uttering that opinion.
The last bit in this puzzle of silly is the nature in which the lesser authorities operate under a higher authority, this can be within government, academia, or corporations. Those at the top develop the party line, the down lines of that opinion have no choice but to follow that edict. Again, I’m not talking about scientifically proven facts, but opinions and policy. Stepping outside of that offers no upside, other than maybe a moral one, for those people in the down line (I’m very aware I’m using MLM terminology). If the person is lucky enough to have a voice and they step out, they are eschewed into a corner under threat or “promoted” to the realm of inconsequential, if that person is not lucky enough to have a voice they get to choose between saying what they are saying, either in official or non official channels, and losing their livelihood and that of their families (I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard “is it worth your retirement” or “think about your kids insurance”) or simply getting in line. Even getting in line now those individuals must hope they are forgotten about or those they have wronged move on, or their career is now abruptly dunked on.
So yes, while the kgb isn’t showing up on doorsteps, silencing is happening to every day people as well as your normal joe, especially now that everyone has a voice. But with a voice comes the ability for it to be stamped out.