Mike Benz Explains “Whole of Society” Censorship

Excellent presentation by Mike Benz. Topic is "Whole of Society" Censorship.

To Supplement, I asked Grok to summarize "Whole of Society" Censorship. Here is Grok's answer:

The "whole of society" censorship approach refers to a coordinated effort involving government, private sector, academia, media, and civil society to control information and suppress certain narratives. It’s characterized by:

* Collaboration Across Sectors: Governments partner with tech companies, universities, NGOs, and media to monitor and restrict content deemed harmful or misleading, often bypassing legal constraints through informal agreements.

* Preemptive Narrative Control: Instead of just reacting to content, this approach shapes narratives proactively, promoting approved messages while marginalizing dissent through algorithms, fact-checking networks, and deplatforming.

* Broad Scope: It targets not only explicit misinformation but also "malinformation" (true information presented in ways that challenge official narratives), affecting political discourse, science, and public health.

* Examples: Documents like the Twitter Files revealed U.S. government agencies working with social media platforms to flag or remove content. The 2021 Stanford Virality Project, involving academics and tech firms, monitored vaccine-related content to counter skepticism. * Mechanisms: Include content moderation, shadowbanning, account suspensions, and funding "trusted" sources to dominate information ecosystems.

Critics argue it stifles free speech and centralizes narrative control, while proponents claim it’s necessary to combat disinformation at scale. The term gained traction in discussions about COVID-19 policy enforcement and election-related content moderation.

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AI: Exciting and Terrifying

I have personal knowledge that many lawyers and academics are in severe denial about how much AI is turning their professions upside down and inside out. Soon, everyone will be constantly using AI. It's going to quickly get quantum leaps better than it already is and, frankly, a lot of us don't add much value above and beyond the things AI can already do. This is exciting and terrifying.

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FB Rant About the Many People Who Cling to Legacy News

On FB: I offered this to someone:

"If you keep sticking closely to legacy news as your primary information ecosystem, you will stay stuck where you are."

Here's the comment I received in return:

I've read and checked the stuff you cite. It is garbage. It is not factual, it is not truthful, it is not honest. When you first start posting this stuff, I looked under the hood. I read what they cited, including papers published in journals. I googled and found the stuff they screenshot and did not link to. I did my own research. And I found that the folks you are relying on consistently misrepresented the sources they cited. And by misrepresented, I don't mean minor errors. Indeed, a couple of times the author of a work being cited specifically called out the misrepresentation of their work.

Your insistence that I stick too closely to "legacy news" for my information is a statement made without any knowledge about what I read and rely on. I believe that I read a wider range of original sources than you do. I know that I read them with a whole lot more care than you read yours.

So I offered the following:

Did you take a stand against teenage girls being told by "experts" to cut off their breasts or getting permanently sterilized with "puberty blockers"? Did you raise your voice when males started invading women's sports? Where have you been on the issue of all of those Asian students who have been kept out of Ivy League Schools due to DEI? Why were you silent when 51 deep state operatives swung the election to Biden re the Hunter Biden Laptop? Did you shout it from the rafters when it was clear that Joe Biden was completely incompetent to serve as dog catcher? Didn't you sit on your hands during all those Biden pardons, including Fauci? I don't remember you ever expressing concern about the vast censorship-industrial complex that has been exposed by the Twitter Files and beyond, based on a massive factual record discussed in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. And what about "open the gates" unvetted immigration that has been destroying communities--denied by the the same Biden Whitehouse that was allowing it? Where have you been for the BIG issues for the past four years? I know. You've hanging out with your tribe. That's why I say that you cling to legacy news. I voted for Biden, but then I figured what was happening and I criticized the fuck out of him. I went counter-narrative on that story and others. I've been doing what one is supposed to do: Try to make sense of the world regardless of what one's "tribe" thinks. And I don't wait for permission from the thoroughly corrupted legacy news outlets or my tribe before I start voicing my concerns.

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