In very recent days the President of the United States (POTUS) was fact checked by his favorite social media platform, Twitter. In doing so the company, and other social media platforms, have been threatened by the POTUS with new regulations, or Presidential orders, that would limit their ability to fact check the POTUS, or outright shut them down. While the man cannot do this single handily, he is poised to order the Department of Justice, and the Federal Communication Commission, to investigate social media platforms. This action is yet another sign of how dangerous of a man the current POTUS truly is. The question is, why is he, and why are members of the GOP, so eager to silence voices of opposition?

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Conservatives is this nation, be they Democrat’s of the 19th and early 20th century, or the Republicans of today, have a long history of trying to marginalize the voices of those that they see as other. These ‘others’ classically being those that are not white, at least middle class, men. In the 1800’s these others where slaves and “undesirable immigrants” that were major targets. In the first half the the 1900’s it was women and minorities in general that were being marginalized. Today, we have seen the return of ‘undesirable immigrants” to the list of people that conservatives that they wish to silence, while women and minorities are still a favorite to target. But why would conservatives attempt, and very often succeed, at silencing theses people?

The answer is very simple. Control. While every political party, organization, or individual, wishes to have control over certain aspects of a conversation, conservatives have done the most harm historically. By limiting the voices of people that are ‘other’, to include who can vote and where and how, one has the ability to maintain control. That is why today, as they did and continue to do with women and minorities, conservatives are attempting to make it difficult for people to vote via mail in ballets in the kind of numbers needed to meet the challenge of voting during a pandemic. They do this because they understand that many of these people that would vote would like vote against the POTUS.

It is also why the POTUS is threatening those that call out his misinformation. It is an authoritarian move to control those that wish to ensure that there is truth, or as close to truth can be had from the current POTUS, in what is being disseminated to the people. For what is being released by the POTUS is not truth, it is an un-truth. That is, it is lies and misinformation designed with the intent to confuse and foment chaos with the ultimate end of control. It is the use of violent speech, from himself and his supporters, with the end of controlling and quieting those that oppose his authoritarianism.

That leads back to the first questions: why does the POTUS, and members of the GOP, wish to silence voices? They do so to support an authoritarian control that marginalizes vast swaths of citizens in support of a most dangerous ethos: the supremacy of the few, chosen few, over the many. Where the few fit a mold as old a bigotry and patriarchy; a mold made for white men that hold power and wealth. Where the many are the poor, the minorities, the women, those not lucky enough to be born correctly. Where if successful, and voices are silenced, it could mean the very death of democracy and with it the death of the body politic.

We are nearing a point where we must bring into reality a true revolution against those that wish to destroy us. A new Social Revolution must begin.