CNN, Doxxing And The Suppression Of Speech

Apart from those who dwell beneath rocks, everyone knows about the latest fiasco from the purveyor of fake news known as CNN. An anonymous fella made a pretty funny little gif of Trump attacking Vince McMahon of pro-wrestling fame but superimposed the CNN logo so it looked like Trump body slamming hostile propaganda outlet CNN. Trump himself retweeted it and chuckles abounded from most with a smattering of self-important huffing from journalists condemning it as an "incitement to violence" against journalists, who everyone knows are above reproach and nigh on holy figures in our democracy. We all moved on to other stuff. Except CNN. Their honor was besmirched! Besmirched I say! So they did what any reputable news outlet would do, they went after this anonymous gif maker, discovered his real life identity, threatened to expose him (i.e doxxing) unless he retracted his material and made him apologize and grovel publicly with a lovely little threat reserving the right to expose him if he should dare to offend CNN in the future. Leaving a severed horse head in someone's bed is child's play compared to CNN. "Hey, dats a nice anonymity ya got dere, be a shame is sumtim happened to it".

The world was set right, justice was served, CNN stood triumphant for their noble defense of journalistic standards.

Or not. The attack by a giant globalist corporation on a random gif poster is right in the wheelhouse of the legions of internet trolls and they would not let this attack go unanswered.

The meme retribution was swift and merciless. This is my favorite....

It was funny because it epitomized the sheer ineptness of the "mainstream" globalist media. To paraphrase Sean Connery in The Untouchables, Isn't that just like a globalist, bringing a quill pen to a meme fight. If CNN looked like a bunch of partisan sellouts before, now they look like a bunch of partisan sellouts who got wrecked by a legion of neckbeards on Twitter and Reddit.

Funny though the whole thing was, apart from the actual threat to the original gif poster, what is not funny is what CNN tried to do. They didn't like something and they threatened and bullied someone into compliance. In other words, a private "news" organization singled out someone for speech they disliked and took it upon themselves to threaten his identity and probably his safety and that of his family. The message they were trying to send was clear, speech we dislike will be met with punishment. This guy wasn't a Richard Spencer, a spokesman for the alt-right, or David Duke or Louis Farrakhan. He wasn't Kathy Griffin or some other similarly vulgar and irrelevant "entertainer". He was just a guy who posted stuff anonymously on the web for kicks. CNN tried to destroy him, spent time and effort to figure out who he was and made an example of out him. Fortunately it backfired but the attempt by CNN ought to frighten anyone.

What do you suppose will happen if people are not given the opportunity to publically express their thoughts, even when those thoughts are juvenile or even disgusting? They will go underground even more, in the shadows where there is no public exchange of ideas. They will grow even more resentful. I believe this will lead to the more extremist and yes even the more violent impulses. While obviously extreme free speech can lead to violence like we see so often from leftist "antifa" types and the Bernie Sanders fanboy loon who shot at Republican congressmen, I believe that a free and open exchange of ideas gives people an outlet to express their opinions, their frustration and even their anger. Take that outlet away and the anger and frustration don't disappear, it  just gets bottled up and like anything else under pressure that is bottled up, eventually it explodes.

We need to take heed of what CNN tried to do here and what governments around the world and college campuses here in America are attempting with speech codes. Quashing unpopular and even angry speech won't make the feelings go away, it will simply funnel those feelings into another channel and I fear that channel will end up being violence. Our freedom of speech sets the U.S. apart but it also grates on those who think they should have a monopoly on deciding what speech should or should not be free. Don't ever let anyone, be it a random dude on the internet or a globalist media organization, tell you what you can or can't think. Without the freedom of speech, other expressions will take over and I for one prefer meme wars to real ones.