A Guest Post From Jack Seney, on Big Tech Censorship

Lately there has been much talk about how people should abandon Facebook, You Tube, Twitter and such because of their "censorship of Catholics," and go to "more welcoming" platforms like Telegram, Gab, MeWe and what have you.

This is a fine idea at its core. I am on Telegram and MeWe myself already. And I have criticized Facebook right here for censoring the very public which allowed it to exist in the first place. But I am still waiting for someone to convince me why it is necessary to LEAVE Facebook and such as well.

If the "conservative" goal is to melodramatically "bring down" Facebook and company, it's probably not going to happen. They are going to be around prominently for a while just as the GEs and Con Eds of the past were. So why not keep a traditional Catholic presence on them to the greatest extent possible?

"But they're making that impossible!" radtrads will scream, "They're shutting down all of our venues there!"

Well, no, they're not. They have shut down a few venues there. But they're not shutting down anywhere remotely near "all" of them. There is still loads of traditional Catholic content on Facebook and You Tube. Twitter is really only for brief messaging and I still don't see how it is greatly important, but a Catholic presence is there as well.

Even some "shut down" people like E. Michael Jones continue to appear on these services, simply guesting on other people's venues. I just watched Jones on You Tube last night in a brand new appearance on a Catholic show in Slovenia, for example!

Furthermore, these well-known people's own venues are there for anyone to visit. Jones' Culture Wars magazine is always present online. The pro-life Lifesite News has its own extensive and beautiful site. And so on. Facebook and company could not shut down Catholic and pro-life venues no matter how much they wanted to. So why not continue with the witness of a Catholic presence on these wide-ranging sites for as long as possible, which I think will be a continuous "possible."

Some people effectively get themselves kicked off of Facebook by compulsively posting things that common sense should tell them would be frowned upon. They would likely still be there and relaying the same basic messages they want to if they had learned to use words creatively and carefully instead of just screeching out opinions like juveniles.

Personally, I have not yet been attacked by Facebook at all despite five years of writing "controversial" opinions here. Facebook has even warmly "shared memories" with me of some of those controversial opinions! This is why I think that in many cases it is more a matter of how one states their opinions than anything else.

Liberals also complain about being unfairly censored by Facebook. Not to the same degree as conservatives, but they as well cry out about being suspended from Facebook activity. Facebook will surely use this to defend itself against accusations of partiality.

No one, especially "conservatives," seems to want "total free speech" on Facebook or You Tube. "Total free speech" could mean allowing pornography there, and what would be "conservative" about that? We are arguing about WHAT Facebook censors and what it doesn't and the reasons for this, not WHETHER Facebook should censor. It is interesting to talk of the possibility of a "total free speech" platform. But that is not what anyone is talking about regarding Facebook or You Tube.

I myself couldn't care less about Facebook's "fact checks" which seem to target "conservatives." I generally ignore these "checks" as I know they are themselves coming from a biased source, and usually find them to be weak when I do read them. I simply judge the conservative posts for myself positively or negatively on an individual basis.

There is no reason not to keep witnessing for traditional Catholicism on Facebook and such while belonging to alternate platforms as well. Here's a news flash from the sky: one can be on Facebook and company and be on the alternative platforms too. A Catholic presence is also needed on places like Telegram, as many "conservatives" there merely seem to be globalists of a different stripe (cough, sellouts to Israel and Saudi Arabia, cough) and some others seem to be stupid white supremacists.

One will have to start one's own platform if one wants a "perfect" site. But one can easily use and contribute to those many that exist now as well. If they kick us off, they kick us off, and we move on to other pastures. But one does not abandon their first pasture until it is truly barren.