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Deplatformed: How Big Tech Companies and Corporate America Subvert the 2nd Amendment
Anyone familiar with the Bible is familiar with the Mark of the Beast: Without this mark, no man may buy or sell.
Regardless of one’s religious faith or lack thereof, there is an illustrative case in this biblical story: When one cannot buy or sell, one is metaphorically up the creek. Short of producing everything one needs oneself, buying and selling are necessary parts of virtually every modern person’s life.
In our modern world, we can begin to see a sort of Mark of the Beast: While ideas and even objects aren’t banned, they are increasingly difficult to come by, not due to government fiat, but due to the machinations of corporations hostile to the American values of freedom.
One can be in favor of the free market while recognizing a simple truth: There is no way that America’s Founding Fathers would have sat on their hands while five corporations dominated American discourse and commerce. It is hard to imagine, for example, the Founders suffering a single private bank processing most of the payments in the United States and refusing to do business with gun merchants. Alternately, one can scarcely imagine that the Founders would have sat still for three companies – all of them hostile toward American values and the Constitution – dominating political discourse and deplatforming anyone who opposed them.
This is the situation in which we find ourselves as a nation today: Guns are not illegal, but private companies will make it increasingly difficult to buy, sell or own them – up to and including pulling your bank account. You have all the freedom of speech you like, but prepare to be deplatformed or have your voice buried by large tech corporations with their thumb on the scale of American discourse.
As the American economy has become more corporatist – such that the market is controlled by the interrelation between monolithic mega-corporations, Wall Street and the state – and less capitalistic and dynamic, the American press and economy are now being dominated by forces hostile toward the American public and American values.
No less an authority than James Madison warned Americans that the First Amendment alone was not enough to protect free speech. In Federalist No. 47 and Federalist No. 51, he argued that the separation of powers was necessary to protect free speech by preventing one branch of government from accumulating too much power at the expense of the others and, indeed, the rest of society at large.
This is an important point to remember when considering the First Amendment implications of Big Tech and its war on free speech and gun freedom. The Founding Fathers did not live in a world where a few large corporations had more power than the (incredibly limited and power impoverished) government had, either at the federal or the state level. It’s doubtful that they could have conceived of such a thing.
But they did carefully consider the problem of centralized power as it pertained to the rights enshrined in the Constitution. At the end of the day, the Constitution is just a piece of paper with no ability to enforce itself. What’s more, if the Founders did not address the notion that the private sector could meaningfully and substantially circumvent rights for all Americans, it was simply because they could not conceive of such a thing, not because they were writing the private sector a blank check.
Continue reading America’s Deplatformed: How Big Tech Companies & Corporate America Subvert the Second Amendment
at Ammo.com.
“This is an important point to remember when considering the First Amendment implications of Big Tech and its war on free speech and gun freedom. The Founding Fathers did not live in a world where a few large corporations had more power than the (incredibly limited and power impoverished) government had, either at the federal or the state level. It’s doubtful that they could have conceived of such a thing.”
The Founders actually did live in a world where one big corporation, The British East India Co., DID have the sort of leverage. On both the colonies and the British Parliament. The Founders did everything they could to stop the likes of the British East India Co. from having that sort of leverage on their young nation.
It’s an ongoing fight, as both the Teddy Roosevelt “trust-buster” days and our own times attest.
Good point. The Constitution protects our freedoms by limiting government. However, the left has found a way around the Constitution by using “public-private partnerships” with corporations. They hide behind this by saying, “A private company can make whatever rules it wants to. They are not bound by the Constitution.”
Oh really? The Constitution also provides for government to protect our freedoms, and that should include encroachment by private entities. Of course a fast food franchise can require uniforms and prohibit its employees from wearing “Meat is murder” buttons. However, they are required to accomodate religious practices (again, within reason) such as not working on a holy day.
That goes for the Second Amendment. For example, you have some pizza delivery companies prohibiting their drivers from carrying weapons for fear of liability if the employee makes the wrong decision. Over the years, I’ve read of pizza delivery guys getting jumped by thugs, then using a firearm to defend themselves. Although lauded for their actions, thry usually end up fired. Perhaps government should prohibit companies from making such broad sweeping prohibitions on our rights. Again, there has to be a balance between meeting the companies’ requirements against infringing on the rights of its employees (and customers). Of course, this would require Congress to actually do some work, which they seem to avoid at all costs . . .
One of the few bright spots of 2020 about all this is I discovered that amazon was offering to make a small percentage of your purchase a donation to the charity of your choice through Amazon Smile. Guess what charity I found on there?? The NRA Foundation! That’s right, thanks to me and people like me Amazon is donating money to the NRA. Makes me smile every time. haha
I had thought our writer kind of forgot about the East India Company, which was worth trillions when the Founders were still wearing short pants. If they ran our media today they’d probably sneak in a lot of subliminal adverts for tulip bulbs.
That’s the other EIC. The British one just advertised opium (non-subliminally).
It is funny that a few seductive features of a Constitution-destroying firm like Amazon can make it a favorite among Americans. Easy on line shopping; free shipping. Films and TV series to stream.
Jefferson did warn us about the dangers of a centralized bank. But the Left likes “Hamilton” – or so it would seem from the popularity of this popular Broadway item.
The American electorate better get its head straight or it will no longer be the electorate.
And tea.
My daughter works in a small gun store. They can’t keep guns and ammo on the shelves. Dozens and dozens of guns sold every week.
Small, big, thats how they all are. I checked the Academy Sports in Warner Robins GA and the ammo shelves looked like early pandemic toilet paper shelves