Censorship Tactics in Free Societies

How to turn a free country into a censorship state.

Step 1. Soft censorship.

There are countries that like to present themselves as free,

but that still kind of want to control what people can and cannot say.

Typically, they use the media to slowly change the way certain language is presented.

The goal is to make something socially unsayable.

That's how over the course of a decade or so, the term colorblindness,

so treating everyone the exact same regardless of race,

was turned from a common sense thing first into a problematic stance

that supposedly ignored systemic issues and eventually into covert racism.

So its meaning was completely turned around.

Through sufficiently vague and repetitive messaging,

specific language can be socially tainted.

Certain things then become harder to say.

Step 2. Guilt by association.

Once language is stigmatized, people will begin to tiptoe around it

so as to not cause trouble or offense.

Now it can be weaponized.

So the next step is to widen the terminology to include more unwanted narratives

so they too become contaminated.

Fascism was a descriptor of a particular form of authoritarian government.

It is a heavy term because of the dictator-

leaderships we associate with it. But over the years it was applied more and more liberally,

in such a way that the underlying connotation never went away, so it remained the kind of

thing that nobody wanted to associate with, but it began to encompass more and more things.

So what if suddenly criticizing the media was also fascist? What if supporting a certain

candidate was fascist?

Step 3. Contagion

Perhaps the most sinister thing about soft censorship is that after a certain point it

spreads by itself. Because most people want to be good, they will avoid what is considered

bad. And while step 1 requires constant media bombardment to program negative connotations

into people's minds and subliminally change their behavior, at some point people start

to see those around them adapt to the new paradigm. Social self-preservation kicks in

and people's behavior changes at scale. Censorship then goes mainstream.

Step 4. Social Exile

Once certain language becomes socially accepted, breaking that new taboo can basically get

you cancelled. It's not bad by any means, but you'd do better to fit in when those who

don't might lose their friendships or they might even lose their jobs.

their jobs. Step five, write it into law. Up until very recently most people did

not think this was possible because it's dystopian and so unlike the free world.

But once soft censorship has gone mainstream the political cost of taking

it further sinks dramatically. The state can now come and label unwanted

narratives as hate speech and hate is bad and the state wants to protect its

people from hate and I don't need to tell you that this is no longer theory.

So beware of those trying to tell you what to say and what not to say.

If you catch it early maybe you can prevent worse.