Authored by Ivan Pentchoukov via The Epoch Times,
A growing number of Americans feel that the political climate is preventing them from sharing their views, according to a new survey by the Cato Institute.
The institute surveyed 2,000 Americans and found that 62 percent are reluctant to share their views due to the political climate. In 2017, 58 percent of people surveyed expressed the same opinion.
Republicans are much more likely to be afraid to share their opinions than Democrats and independents, the survey found. More than 3 in 4 Republicans—77 percent—said they are afraid to share their views compared to 52 percent of the Democrats and 59 percent of the independents.
The reluctance to share one’s views appears to grow as respondents shift right on the political spectrum, the survey found.
Compared to 2017, the reluctance to share one’s views increased across the political spectrum. Liberals, moderates, and conservatives were all 7 percent more likely to be afraid to express their opinions.
The increase in reluctance was more pronounced among strong liberals, rising 12 points to 42 percent, compared to 2017. Reluctance to share their views among strong conservatives notched up 1 point to 77 percent.
“This suggests that it’s not necessarily just one particular set of views that has moved outside of acceptable public discourse,” Emily Ekins, research fellow and director of polling at the Cato Institute, wrote about the survey.
“Instead these results are more consistent with a ‘walking on eggshells’ thesis that people increasingly fear a wide range of political views could offend others or negatively impact themselves.”
The self censorship cut across demographic groups as well, with roughly 2 in 3 Latino Americans and white Americans and nearly half of African Americans holding views they are afraid to share. More men (65 percent) than women (59 percent) said the political climate prevents them from speaking their mind.
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Facebook Declares War On Free Speech
Facebook has for some time had a policy of removing text that the majority of people would consider racist. Now the social media site is now deleting and blocking comments that only one person at Facebook decides is “racist.” The sinister, Orwellian reality of a society in which the expression of majority opinion is being turned into a crime has already been witnessed across Europe. Even more disturbing, social media operators such as Facebook and Twitter appear to be collaborating with governments in the suppression of free speech.
Facebook Declares War On Free Speech
Threats to free speech and other civil rights us ordinary punters fought and shed blood for are under threat, not from the extreme right but from the liberal left. The intellectually bankrupt lefties have realised their hundred year old arguments are never going to win the battle for hearts and minds and so have moved to the position in the political spectrum once occupied by Hitler and Stalin. Many people would never dream of questioning authority; others see their interests as being served by supporting the abuse of authority, they are the ones who call the questioners ‘conspiracy theorists’.
Threats to Free Speech
Is Free Speech Being Murdered By The Media And Politically correct Left Wing Activism
There can be no doubt, the right of citizens in the developed world to free speech, free access of information and freedom to express ideas is increasingly under threat as the power elites feel their grip being loosened by increasingly well informed and articulate working and midddle classes. Without any apparent sense of irony the advocates of big government and controlled media call themselves ‘the left’ as though their opponents are not bright enough to know that free speech is one of the foundations of classical liberalism and the suppression of free speech is a hallmark of tyrants.
Is Free Speech Being Murdered By The Media And Politically correct Left Wing Activism
The Self Righteous Minority That Threaten Free Speech</ppp
Until recently Universities were places where any ideas were welcome and any economic, social, or scientific theory, no matter how extreme would be given a fair hearing and debated openly. So where did it all start to go wrong? How did the idea that there is only one set of acceptable answers to society’s problems (the ‘pensée unique’ to use a French phrase I am fond of, redolent of The Borg in Star Trek and much more demeaning than “Social Justice Warriors”) and that those who challenge the orthodoxy should be silenced and prevented from broadcasting their ideas in print or verbally.
The Self Righteous Minority That Threaten Free Speech
The Imporantance Of Free Speech And The Right To Offend
Our right to free speech is under threat from intolerant, authoritarian left wingers or ‘progressives liberals’ as these illiberal reactonaries like to style themselves. The ‘Politically Correct Thought Police’ as I have somtimes called them in acknowledgement of Geoge Orwell’s novel ‘1984’, are determined that in they egalitarian dystopia they dream of (but that fortunately could never be) nobody will be able to say or do anything that may offend s member of any racial, sexual or social minority. This kind of fascistic tyranny is justified by invoking politically correct ideals, but it is having a deeply damaging effect on human society and could eventually result in civil conflict in the developed nations.
The Imporantance Of Free speech And The Right To Offend
Students Feel Pressured To Reflect Uinversities Anti-Brexit Bias In Essays
University students have claimed they are being pressured by political activist lecturers into writing essays which pander to the “anti-Brexit bias”in the higher education system, and fear they will be marked down if their work does not comply with the left wing agenda. Students have alleged that free debate on Brexit, and opinions opposed to those of the “Remain” camp is being shut down by lecturers supporting the movement to thwart the democratic will …
Students censored – An Academic Community In A Crisis Of Collectivism.
Intellectual freedom in our universities is under threat from … intellectuals. So overbearing have the left wing screechers of bourgeois politically correct leftism now become that even the universities have surrendered to the intellectual control freakery of cultural Marxism. But if universities are now dedicated to turning out dull minded conformists, what hope is there for western society?
Poor white pupils put off school by multicultural timetable
Education, should it be about learning to read, write, spell and calculate? Or should it be about feminism, gay rights, black history and ‘gender awareness’ whatever that is? For many years we have had multiculturalism and politically correct thinking rammed doiwn pupils throats but noe a study by a local education department suggests this obsession with politically corret diversity is responsible for the failure of white working class pupils.
Education, Education, Education And To Hell With The Kids
Teaching used to be a vocation and education a high minded calling for those who wished to prepare young minds for adult life by making the process of learning, in the classroom, by discovery and through osmosis, an exciting and fulfilling lifelong process
The Degree Factory: The Decline Of University Education
The decline of university education in parallel with dumbing down of the general population is contributing to the economic and social problems of the industriaised democracies. But why have standars been allowed to slip so far and can the trend in university education towards theraputic and politically correct courses be reversed?
Where Is Bicycle Repair Man When The World Needs Him
A superhero whose superpower is repairing bikes? It was a sketch in a Monty Python’s Flying Circus show. But forty years on is it as crazy as it sounded then? We seem to have plenty of people with degrees in things that are not every practical and shortages of people who can do useful stuff. And when we have health and safety officers stopping people from climbing ladders unless they have been properly trained, people are discouraged from learning those everyday skills by themselves.
Jeffrey Epstein; (R) Virginia Roberts (Giuffre) © Reuters / New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and Shannon Stapleton
The Original Boggart Blog 
Yet another ‘conspiracy theory’ has been proved true. (Picture: Sipa, AP images)
For years, conservatives, from bloggers and news sites to companies and political candidates have complained that Google, the dominant internet search engine, adjusts its search algorithms in order to manipulate results and ‘blank’ certain organisations and shades of opinion. Google has always denied the allegation charge, claiming there is no bias in the way that search results appear even though whistleblowing former employees have leaked documents showing it does, and tech analysts have offered statistical proof of malfeasance in listing search results.
According to the Wall Street Journal, (WSJ) Google’s protestations are as phoney as their search results.
The WSJ has published a report based on the findings of a major and far reaching investigation of Google’s search operation that involved interviews with hundred witnesses and examination of the tech corporation’s internal documents from the company. Investigators found that Google changed its search result listing algorithms 3,200 times last year (2018) with the aim of controlling what information users are offered links to. Much of that alteration was done in favor of promoting big business over small, as well as showing favor to big advertisers like eBay. But there were instances in which the company’s well known liberal and left wing political stance led to its weighting the algorithm against conservative and libertarian news and opinion too.
CNBC commented:
The company also blacklists one – issue campaign sites, as well as what it calls “hate sites,” (‘hate’ being whatever Google’s senior execs say it is, thus suggesting transgendered women are not ‘real’ women will be penalised, according to the investigation. They soft-pedal issues like abortion — which almost certainly hurts anti-abortion sites – and penalise Christian and Jewish religious sites while boosting sites promoting Islam.
Now a respected organisation such as the WSJ has recognised Google’s unethical corporate policy making, lack of credibility could quickly become huge problem for Google. Not only is it bad PR, but some Google executives may have perjured themselves in testimony before congressional committees.
National Review reports that Google also skews its search algorithms in other ways.
Ed Morrissey in PJ Media sums up the damage to democracy and independent businesses Google is doing.
When a powerful private company like Google, which through ill – considered political actions has been handed for too much influence over our access to information, trades neutrality for political influence and invites politicians to influence the way it does business, our many of our basic freedoms are put at risk .But Google’s parent company, Alphabet, like Facebook and other Silicon Valley behemoths, seems more intent on creating a global, cultural Marxist utopia than in doing honest business with the goal of making a modest profit. The founders and leaders of tese companies seem to believe they are above the law, and the fact that they can do something justifies doing it.
The WSJ investigation will no doubt give a boost to efforts by the EU competition commissioner, the governments of China, Japan, Russia, India and Philippines, and the 50 US state attorneys general currently looking into an anti-trust action against the tech giant. Perhaps Google’s fear of being broken up in accordance President Trump’s pledges to ‘drain the swamp’, or excluded from certain large and lucrative markets outside the US with will bring about a rethink of its policy, but I’m not betting on it.
More likely Google will continue to play dirty and try to defy attempts to apply some discipline to its activities which too often seem to stray outside the law and are always on that gery area on the edge of ethical behaviour.
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