Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Banning has always been a favorite of the sanctimonious, and always filled with hypocrisy: the Confederate flag is banned but not the ISIS flag; common gestures like an okay sign are now banned as symbols of hate, but not a clinched Communist fist; and classic songs, like “Baby, it’s cold outside,” are banned as encouraging rape, but hip-hop songs that actually include rape are hits. There's a list of 73 books now banned on Amazon, many of which had been on sale for years, because modern readers can no longer be trusted to read them, or their authors to profit by them, except, apparently, “Mein Kampf;” it’s still for sale. Perhaps the money goes to a trendy diversity organization?

However, banning of Speech used to be anathema, considered a pillar of American democracy, seemingly protected in The Constitution. Not anymore; when provocative voices were being banned from powerful, monopolistic Social Media platforms, The Left vigorously defended allowing private companies to do anything they want, even though those same people have a list of things they would like to ban private companies from doing; hypocrisy is obviously immune to cynicism. Often the reason given for the banning is to reduce hateful rhetoric. Ironically, TikTok, the popular Chinese Social Media app for kids, bans “fat, ugly, weirdos” as a means of decreasing hate speech.