Last week I had the pleasure to again appear on Tucker Carlson\u2019s popular broadcast. Although the program appears on several different platforms, on X alone the episode has been seen by more than two and a half million people. That does not include the various clips and shorts that people made and posted themselves. It is incredible how the reach and influence of the independent media has grown over the past decade or so.<\/p>\n
As I have often said, while there are many evil things out there on the Internet, at the same time we have the tools to communicate the unfiltered message of freedom like never before.<\/p>\n
Even though Tucker Carlson\u2019s show on Fox News was enormously popular \u2013 number one in the nation \u2013 the network still yanked the show from underneath him because they didn\u2019t like some of the things he was saying.<\/p>\n
Now, Tucker and other independent media figures answer not to studio executives with their own agendas, but rather they answer directly to the American people in the marketplace of ideas. Carlson\u2019s reach as an independent is arguably greater than when he was on Fox.<\/p>\n
And there are many more like him with large \u2013 and not so large \u2013 audiences who are appealing directly to the \u201cconsumer,\u201d without the middleman to tell them what they can and cannot say. Admittedly, sometimes what people say is ugly, but we do not have free speech to only talk about the weather.<\/p>\n
Big media and big government are in bed together and they hate the fact that we can communicate with each other without their filters and influence. They long for the days when they could shovel down our throats just what they wanted us to hear and believe.<\/p>\n
While we may be winning this battle for free expression, we must not fool ourselves into thinking that we have won the war. We must remember just a few years ago during COVID that all it took to have your platform wiped off the face of the earth was to dare question the \u201cwisdom\u201d of Anthony Fauci.<\/p>\n
Even today there are forces seeking to use the power of the state to silence opinions they disagree with.<\/p>\n
In Europe, free speech is under attack by totalitarian measures like the Digital Services Act, which creates a police state in the name of \u201cprotecting\u201d citizens from \u201cdisinformation.\u201d Of course, \u201cdisinformation\u201d is simply information that governments or elites don\u2019t want to get out. You can go to jail for an X post in Europe, while violent criminals are set free.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake \u2013 many in the US would love to have such a system in place to protect speech they like and punish speech they don\u2019t like. We have already seen attempts to intimidate \u2013 or even deport \u2013 people who have protested the recent mass killings in Gaza, for example. And the US government forced sale of TikTok was not a victory for free speech.<\/p>\n
The truth is, \u201ccancel culture\u201d exists in both the left and the right and everywhere in-between. If we want to maintain and expand our ability to communicate freely and grow our voice in the independent media sphere we cannot let our guard down. \u201cFree speech for me but not for thee\u201d \u2013 using government force to shut down unwanted voices \u2013 will result in free speech for no one. And once it is gone, it will not be easy to get back.<\/p>\n