Ignore Them. But Keep Tabs on Them

One of the worst things that you can do to a person is to shun them.  Ignore them.  At service academies, it used to be a part of the punishment when you violated things like the Honor Code if you didn’t get tossed out.  You became “invisible” to the rest of the cadets.

I think that one thing social media does is amplify crazy things.  All of a sudden people that never had a platform have a platform.

One thing I never thought I’d see is the censorship of one side of legitimate opinion or legitimate data on social media.  For example, yesterday Facebook censored an article on the new Miss USA.  Asya Branch is the first black Miss Mississippi.  She’s from Tupelo, the same hometown as Elvis and near where my family is from.  She went to Ole Miss.  She is absolutely stunning and in her short life, successful.

What’s her crime?

She favors second amendment rights and she likes President Donald Trump.  Here is the banned link on Facebook.  I am going to assume it’s banned on Twitter but since I am off Twitter I wouldn’t know.  I am on Parler, and I did sign up for MeWe.  I am still on Facebook but am rejiggering it.  I got rid of a lot of business and business school friends.  Not because I don’t like them but the odds are excellent we are LinkedIn and if they need me they know where to find me.  There are some groups on Facebook that I value because of the information I receive, but if they moved off the platform I wouldn’t have a use for FB.

Perhaps we are seeing the unbundling of social media.

I think that given the tactics of the social media companies and Big Tech, conservatives need to take action.  Instead of being reactionary and tweeting the shocking tweets and statements from the far left that dominate those platforms, ignore them. Stop retweeting them.  Best of all, just leave the platform.

Who cares what Brian Steltzer, or Chris Cuomo, or Don Lemon think?  Do I care what Rachael Maddow is thinking and broadcasting?  Not really. They aren’t that bright.  They also don’t add anything to the conversation.  There is no nuance.  There is no deep thought.  It’s just clicks. Frankly, I find the same with a lot of the right-wing that is on television too.  We were never big news-watchers, but we don’t watch it at all now, except local news to get the weather and some special interest stories.  Hard news on television is lame.

My advice.

• Shun them.
• Ignore them.
• Don’t link to them.
• Monitor them but don’t engage until it becomes a physical/career threat to you.

Switch to different platforms that won’t censor you.  The left is out for blood.  They are trying to ruin the careers of people that think differently.  It is not unlike things we have seen in other societies where thinking differently, believing in individual freedom and choice, caused you a lot of trouble.

By the way, if you have people comparing you to Hitler, calling you a racist, telling you that you are unhinged and telling people that they shouldn’t work with you because of your individual beliefs, you are better off ditching them.  You have already won the argument.

Additionally, if you are a conservative news outlet, why even have sharing buttons on your website for platforms that will actively censor you?  Put your news somewhere else.  For the hardest leftists, you cannot change minds.  They aren’t interested in debate or learning.  For them it’s indoctrination, and brute force if they don’t get their way.

Initially, I thought going to a platform that was essentially an echo chamber was a mistake.  Right now, platforms like Parler are pretty echoey.  But, Twitter was a left-wing echo chamber and when you had a different opinion you were attacked mercilessly.  Twitter at the outset was just tech bros.  Facebook was just open to elite smug Ivy Leaguers. You have to start somewhere.

I still am very on the fence about the government regulation of Big Tech.  Government never splits the baby correctly.  They are apt to screw it up more than fix it.  However, when you read material from the Stigler Center at Chicago Booth you can understand the rationale behind forming some regulation.  When you see tech platforms actively deplatform one voice after another, it makes you angry because that is un-American and you might want regulation.

I also know the advice I give to startups.  At early stages, focus.  Find one target market that you can get a toehold in.  Then expand.  It pays to be “really pointy” like the tip of a sharp pencil when you start out.

There is at least a target market of 70 million people for any new social media platform.  That’s enough to make a business.

If you believe in the ideas of classical liberalism upon which the country was founded, you shouldn’t be scared to act upon them, and advocate for them.  Be confident that you can win in the end.  When you see companies like Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, and Eventbrite, along with many others, gore those values like a bull in a bullring, you can’t be passive.   Otherwise, you feel helpless.  During the Civil War, many churches in the US broke apart.  No reason that won’t happen with Big Tech.

If you are an entrepreneur that wants to build a competing platform, my bet says there is money out there to fund it if you can find it.  But, don’t go to Silicon Valley or a typical tech venture capitalist to look for it.

My bet is that just like the population movements out of heavily taxed states like California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, the trickle that is leaving the dominant social media platforms will turn into a river, then a gusher.  It will force the dominant platforms to rethink and perhaps embrace diversity.  Or, get competed into being a smaller business.

Competition is good.  We need more competition in America in everything.

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