I've certainly never objected to any of that. But there are thousands of businesses that operate in these same "spaces" and no one cares that they are as biased as they want to be. Furthermore, FB is as sociopathic as any business in the world. I'd bet my last dollar Zuck would happily serve the Nazis in that era if he thought doing it made FB an extra 10 cents a share. He's shown us that many times, so the idea that they are 'liberals' etc. is just stupid. If the company folded tomorrow, I'd laugh.
So what they do they do to maximize their profits, and part of that is responding to public pressure, which includes censoring toxic presences on the platform. That is the "free market" at work, actually. No one is mad they censor neo-Nazis, just the MAGA contingent, and only a very few of them, and Trump. That is the problem - that they censored the personification of the state at that time.
For awhile I did a lot of reading on the
POCLAD website where I was introduced to the question of
Quo warranto. "By what authority?" It is a compelling idea: that the people through their representatives grant the right of existence of a private corporation by granting them a charter to operate as a *fictitious third person* with perpetual life. Simultaneously, I was also reading books like
The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom (David Kupelian).
His (Kupelian's) perspective is Christian and his critique of what goes on in the marketing world is scathing. If you read the blurb on the Amazon site it describes quite directly what concerns him. Essentially, I share his orientation. I mean, at a foundational level. So my critiques -- the entire reason I even participate in political and sociological discussion -- is because of my metaphysical, spiritual and cultural concerns.
So on one hand I am aware of an entirely legal argument, grounded in US Constitutional principles, which constructs a platform for the right of people to determine their affairs (an idea foundational to the US obviously), and describes the degree to which private power has usurped this right, or has developed ways and means to get around 'proper democratic controls' through legal machinations, and on the other hand an argument against basic corruption (spiritual and moral and social) which is an issue pertinent to the individual (if one accepts, as I do, the soul's and God's existence).
So what I say, and I think it is the only true thing that can be said, is that people do, beyond any doubt, have a right to question the corruption that subverts genuine Constitutional principles (and again I mention that all rights granted to a corporation are rights that can be retracted at any moment -- if such mechanisms were actually respected, and they are not).
But the other side of this issue, for me, is clearly Christian, metaphysical, moral and ethical. And as you can easily discern I have concerns and issues that are definitely and unmistakably Christian-Conservative. It is the central area of my own study.
So like anyone who participates on this forum and any given citizen of our nation I have a right to say and think what I believe and to align myself with those people who share the values I define as fundamental. The reason I say this is because (as I say) the quality of the communication that goes on here (on this forum) is often very low. Bickering,
stooooopid commentary that does not advance the communication of ideas at all, constant misinterpretation of what people say by redefinition and restatement, etc.
My efforts, which do not often get much appreciation (and I could not care any less!) are to try to bring the core ideas, the important ideas, out into the open for reasoned discussion. There are some people so badly prepared that they genuinely do not understand the very ideas and principles at stake. That is why I refer to the phrase "The dumbing-down of America".
I know it is not a bad objective, and I assume you know this as well, so the 'flak' I get is -- referring to an old idiom --
like water off a duck's back.
I am describing to you my orientation because I feel it is the proper -- even the ethical -- thing to do. You have to establish a *ground* where genuine, honest, good-faith conversation can take place.