This happened some time back, maybe a year or more. I subscribe to Climate Discussion Nexus, a Canadian outfit that covers Climate in detail. It’s host, Dr. John Robson, is a very good writer, crisp and often humorous. I really enjoy his work.
I am inclined to comment now and then when the spirit moves me, as you might guess. I did so one time on CDN, and my comment disappeared into the ether. Never having commented there before, they could not possibly know what an asshole I am, and so had no reason to ban me. I contacted them, politely, and asked what might have happened to the comment. I heard back directly from Robson. He had searched for my comment, asked to see it again by email, and suggested to me that my tone in contacting CDN did not indicate any troll-like traits. He simply did not know or understand why the comment did not post. I told him not to be concerned and also that my $8 (Canadian) monthly contribution would continue. “Whew!” he did not say.
He mentioned in passing that his website uses YouTube for its discussion platform, and I realized this to be the problem. I am banned on YouTube. It goes way back. I don’t know if it was the McCartney Twins and Mike Williams, or the alleged virus, but I cannot comment on YouTube on any site they promote. It is a platform-wide ban. (The same is true on Amazon … I am not allowed to write or comment on book (or product) reviews there. I am not clear on that one. It must have been something I said.
Last week I got an email from Instragram wondering why I had not logged in for so very long. I have never used that outlet, but did have an account, and thought … why not! I went to the login site and entered what were surely my credentials, my email address and a password I use for all non-monetary sites. I got the spinning ball, and after a few minutes realized that this was the same response I got from Facebook a couple of years after I offended them and their fake community standards by denying existence of the virus. There I got a lifetime ban, and hence the spinning ball. It will never stop if you are banned. I am also banned for life on Instagram, it appears.
I asked AI if being banned on Facebook means I am also banned on Instragram. Yep, I was told. The same company, Meta runs both. Worse yet, AI repeated all of the lies that Facebook and YouTube told me about having standards, of protecting people from disinformation, blah blah blah. AI has not yet banned me. They will. AI, after all, is part of the structure, merely another brick in the wall of our propaganda system. If Facebook/YouTube/Instagram say that the Moon is a balloon, AI will cite balloon manufactuers and scientists in their certitude on moon ballooness. AI will back up the assertion with lofty jargon and fake science. It’s all the same box of Cracker Jacks, and the prize inside, being deemed worthy of commenting on these propaganda outlets, is as worthy every bit as much as a CJ prize.
OK, poor me. I don’t think am that, not much anyway. There are millions like me. The system of censorship is meant to operate in the shadows, quietly and worldwide. But it got me to thinking about the real intent of the system of censorship that is in place. I am surely not alone in my various bannings, but the incident with CDN told me that the reach of YouTube and its owner, Google, and Facebook and Instagram and Meta extends beyond those platforms. I learned that Facebook and Instagram speak with one voice, of course, but also that YouTube uses its technology to reach far out into the web, so that its censorship on its own platform extends to any outlet that uses its technology to allow discussion on their forums.
I’ve long maintained that really effective censorship is invisible. It is a velvet glove, not a hammer. But the silence they produce, the people who are not allowed to comment on matters Internet-wide, is deafening. I’ve even heard that Joe Stalin contacted Meta and YouTube from the grave, emailing them to say “Hey guys! Ease up! You’re embarrassing me!”
There’s more to it, of course. Anthony Watts is a meteorologist, and founded and runs the web site WattsUpWithThat. It’s a good site, well run, and I have nothing to say about Watts except kudos on his work … except one instance. Another form of intimidation used for really effective censorship is the Conspiracy Theory meme. On its face, it’s the dumbest damned thing I’ve ever encountered. Of course people conspire, and the more power they have, the more they do so. Because they can.
WUWT ran a piece on contrails versus chemtrails. In case you have not noticed, the idea that they are different in that chemtrails contain aerosols while contrails do not, is a conspiracy theory. They are very blunt about that, and brook no dissent. Anyone who mentions “chemtrail” is (immediately) both ridiculed and usually banned, sadly, by intellectual weaklings. They are hiding something, for sure. I have here on the blog a post, About those Contrails, that treats the matter with scientific precision. If offers a list of the various factors that determine how long a contrail should grace our skies. I posted details on WUWT.
t(sec) = ((d(u) * (9.17E-13) * (4.21dT + 335) J cm^3 gm kg m^3 s
m^2) / (Watts * 1E-12 J m^2 m^3 cm^3 gm kg)The key variable is “t”, or time that it takes for an ice crystal to form, liquefy, and vaporize. It depends on the size of the crystal, which can be anywhere from one micron to one hundred. Obviously, most ice crystals in contrails will fall somewhere in the middle of that.
However, if we are dealing with aerosols, suspended solid particles in jet aircraft exhaust, then they linger. Aerosols do not dissolve naturally. What are they, how do they get there? We don’t know, as the matter is banned from study. It’s a conspiracy theory, your see.
My post quickly disappeared from WUWT, much to my disappointment. But I knew why. Anthony Watts and his people are highly sensitive to criticisms that they are “climate deniers,” a propaganda term used to herd and corner conscientious skeptics and others of intellectual merit. For me to post on his website something branded as a conspiracy theory opens him up to criticism, and he does not have either the fortitude or intellect, or both, to fight such slurs.
I regard the conspiracy theory meme as one of the most powerful and clever thought control devices ever invented. That it’s modern-day use originated in a CIA memo from 1967 speaks volumes about the true nature of that organization. It is clandestine, for sure, and also subversive. I doubt they go around killing people. Their game is mind control. Think about the power of the conspiracy theory meme, and tell me they are not good at what they do.
Piece of Mindful 
You my empathy and a little sympathy.
About 10 years ago, on buttfacebook, I posted a variation of “hands up, don’t shoot”, in response to a poc. My take was, “pants up, don’t loot”. That same day, after getting home from a 12+ hour day (unlike the protesters, I have to work), my neighbor came to my house and told me channel 2(nbc houston) showed up about three hours before I got home. They went around the neighborhood, asking where I was. Or would the neighbors care to comment about my comment. He, the good friend he was, had no comment. Other sheeple bayed, ba, ba, ba. So, I was logging on to buttfacebook and, low and behold, I was banned for 180 days. This not being my first disconcerting comment”, and my third 180 day ban. I made a mental reminder as to the end of the ban. When it ended, I logged in again and repeated said comment along with the word nigger to the poc who reported it. Another 180 day ban! Big surprise! Waited another 180 days, said the same thing and called the poc nigger twice. Didn’t wait 180 more days. Got on and removed everything. Never been a member of the other “social platforms”. This blog and your writers are enough for me.
If you choose to ban me for a word you may find offensive, so be it.
If you edit out the offending word, I’ll humbly find another blog.
Good day
Pete from Texas
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There’s a comedian, Anthony Jesilnik, who I like. You can tell when he’s on his stride that his audience is laughing hard in the sense that they are thinking they should not be laughing at this shit but can’t not laugh. There’s just that hard edge in the laughter.
Anyway, he talks about his grandma, and how he loved her, and how as a young boy she would read to him, which he really liked. She read some of the popular works, including Huckleberry Finn by Twain. Later he realized that the only reason she read Huck Finn to him was that she loved to be able to say the word “nigger” out loud.
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Being band by Farceborg and the like seems more like a “a consummation devoutly to be wished” and treated as an “imprimatur” when bestowed, ha ha.
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Easy to say. MM will describe how FB came to be, $3 million in CIA funds, Zuckerberg nothing more than a Betty Crocker pinup, like Jobs, like Gates, maybe even Musk, fronting for DARPA technology.
Chomsky did a good job describing this … Einstein said it is not research if you know what you will find. Real research is highly risky and usually fails, so investors will not touch it. That takes government funding. DARPA is once source. When they do hit on something, it is at first proprietary, used for military or Intel, but after a period of time when it has served its clandestine purpose, it is turned over to the private sector, and some schmuck, like Gates, is selected to front as a “genius” inventor to market it. Jobs too … have you ever wondered by Apple and Microsoft each independently came upon the same screen format? it’s the same technology!
And then MM goes into another oddity, the fact that the Beatles and Apple used the same brand, Apple. Ever wonder they there was no copyright infringement suit? Same owners.
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Have you tried another device and email to resign up on FB and Youtube? Different IP addresses so no way to know it’s you.
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Not yet … hesitant to reenter that world.
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Yes thats because you’re on double secret probation Mark.
I got in trouble several times in my youth for using expletives or otherwise not PC language in front of classmates. This new version of censorship it much worse because there is no appeal to the machine that runs all these websites. I believe a common denominator is there is no phone line to call customer service for google, you tube, facebook etc if want some kind of personal communication. As an example my address in google maps gives my address with the wrong town- I tried for several years to get it corrected through googles customer service portal got nowhere. Including help from a director who is a friend of a friend.
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