The first time you see it, your eyes go wide.
I wanted to share a YouTube video of one of my favorite scholars, Thomas Sowell. When I added the link to Facebook, a “Politi-Fact” box was superimposed across the screen. In no uncertain terms, I was told “Fact Checkers” would be reviewing this content, my participation with it, and that I may have my postings limited, or my page taken down, altogether. 
Chills ran down my spine. Again, I was just posting a video about a Black scholar, Thomas Sowell. The video is a documentary made of his life, work, and beliefs. And my application of the video was about to be monitored. On February 8th, 2021. I’m not sure if there is any more obvious connection to Rod Dreher’s fourth chapter on “Woke Capitalism.” One of the last sentences in his chapter says it all,
“Data harvesting and manipulation can and will be used by woke capitalists and social justice ideologues in institutional authority to impose control” (94).
If this statement, and my personal experience, is not unnerving, I’m not sure what might be more distressing in a free society. Dreher asks the question, “Can It Happen Here?” and the answer is “of course it can” (89). Just over the last week of January and the first week of February (2021), YouTube has demonetized The Epoch Times, Twitter has banned numerous conservative voices without warning, and Antifa critic Andy Ngo has had to move out of the country because of threats on his life. The New York Times, Washington Post, and National Public Radio are silent.
And if those news outlets are silent concerning conservatives (“perennial preservatist,” my definition from Part 3), we should not be surprised that a whole Muslim people group – the Uighurs – are being held in Chinese concentration camps without a word of concern from our major media outlets (84). [See an overview from PBS here, which is careful not to condemn.] Who will speak up?
“My students say they haven’t got time. . . . They’ve been perfectly manipulated by their education and the Party’s propaganda: my students devote their lives to consumerism and ignore everything else” (88).
Citizens neutralized (87) through a “techno-totalitarian state” (85) cannot depend upon laws for protection. “If the government is determined to take you out, it will manufacture a crime from the data it has captured, or otherwise deploy it to destroy your reputation” (83).
Another important question arises, “Who decides who crosses the line?” (80). “Harvested information” (79) will “manipulate the public” to reject a person like me who speaks out, who speaks up. How have we come to this place? Dreher highlights Shoshana Zuboff’s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism concluding in her comment
“Once I was mine. Now I am theirs” (76-77).
And why have we allowed ourselves to be duped? “Convenience has overcome privacy concerns” (76). “Consumer expenditures [are a] part of creating a socially conscious personal brand identity” (75). “Corporate social responsibility” upended the attempted protection of religious freedom in my state of Indiana in 2015 (73). [The picture to the left is the front page of the Indianapolis Star against RFRA.] And where will the trend go from here? What happened in East Germany can happen in the United States of America.
“Citizens, with no prompting by the government, volunteered negative information about their friends and neighbors” (70)
Convenience, personal peace, and self-preservation is at the heart of neighbor-against-neighbor. Dreher begins his chapter with an interview with Eastern Europeans who lived under the hobnailed boot of Communism. The interviewee is aghast that Americans “are so gullible” when it comes to allowing a “commercial device” such as “Alexa” into their homes (69). I do not have “bugged” devices in my home, but my smart phone may be enough for nefarious actors to invade my life.
Which brings me back to my own personal experience up against a Facebook “Politi-Fact” check of a YouTube video about Thomas Sowell. Thomas Sowell is a “conservative” thinker as am I. If Facebook is warning against disseminating information about a conservative scholar whose views go against the accepted cultural narrative in February 2021, how long will this website – MarkEckel.com – be allowed to operate freely on “the net?” 
A series of questions have always arisen from dissidents with divergent viewpoints:
- Who watches the watchers?
- Who are the faceless, nameless “Fact Checkers?”
- What is the future of freedom?
- How are cultural rules chosen, then dictated?
My last question is perhaps best addressed by George Orwell, in his introduction to Animal Farm,
“At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas of which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that, or the other, but it is “not done” to say it . . . Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the high-brow periodicals.”
A few biblical principles round out some of my thinking on the subjects mentioned here.
- Biblical commands demand the authority of multiple witnesses (Num 35:30, Deut 17:6, 19:15, 2 Cor 13:1, 1 Tim 5:19). Truth-telling matters in every human sphere, especially journalism, where what people read, they believe. Those who speak, write, and opine bear great responsibility.
- All things should be considered. Every side of an issue should be fairly represented. Objectivity and accuracy is paramount. Accusations against individuals should not be ascribed to “unnamed sources.” Witness and accused must confront each other. [Deut 19:15-18, Prov 18:17]
- The camera can lie. Cropping a picture and framing a headline do the same thing–highlight the point of view of a journalist. Here are some questions to ask: Who was behind the story? Where was the story placed? How much time or attention did it receive? Who benefited and who was damaged by the story? Perspective and prominence sway viewers and readers. Instead of making someone look good, the journalist should give everyone a good look. [Gen 3:9-12; Ex 20:16, Prov 19:4-6]
- Christian ethos is an attitude or disposition reflecting the way a person thinks about a matter (Rom 8:5-9; Gal 6:1). “The spirit of an age” (Eph 2:2; in German, zeitgeist) may come in various worldviews (pragmatism, utilitarianism, consumerism, individualism). An ethos can include “seducing spirits” (1 Tim 4:1). All spirits should be tested (1 John 4:1, 4, 6).
- Jesus condemns the powerful elite of his day in Matthew 23:31-35 because they killed the prophets: from Abel through Zechariah. Since Abel was killed by Cain in Genesis 4, the murdered “cry out to God” (Gen 4:10-11; Isa 26:21; Matt 23:31-35; Rev 6:10; Heb 12:24). In the end “the earth will disclose her blood and will no longer cover her slain” (Isa 26:21; Heb 12:24; 1 John 3:12-15). But The Rider whose robe is dipped in blood will avenge all the Christ-following messengers, prophets, and wordsmiths returning to earth with Him (Rev 6:9-11; 19:14).
Amen.