Alex Berenson, a former New York Times journalist and author of multiple New York Times best-selling books, has been permanently banned from Twitter.
Berenson is well-known for his opposing views on COVID-19. He is a vaccination skeptic and a lockdown opponent in general. He believes that the vaccine’s harm to the economy and children’s psyche has been under-weighted, while the disease’s impact has been over-weighted.
Let me start by saying that I don’t have nearly enough scientific knowledge to comment significantly on whether he is correct or incorrect. And, despite the fact that I’ve known Berenson since we both started working as financial journalists in the late 1990s, I’m not sure whether his preoccupation with this subject indicates he’s onto something severely wrong with conventional knowledge or if he’s simply gone insane. I can confirm that he has a strong and long-standing interest in health and science. Alex and his wife were among our guests when my then-wife required brain surgery to remove a benign but huge and possibly deadly tumor, and his genuine interest in her diagnosis and treatment was both genuine and moving. As a result, I have no way of knowing whether his conclusions, or even his facts, are correct.
But I can tell you with authority—and you should be screaming with equal outrage—that a monopoly platform depriving his supporters of the chance to hear an opposing perspective is much more harmful than the alleged disinformation he is disseminating. If there is any misinformation at all,
This is terrifying, and it has to end.
more:
According to Twitter, Alex Berenson is not the authoritative arbitrator of this terrifying disease’s science. Twitter, on the other hand, isn’t.
A few months ago, Twitter users were prohibited from claiming that the illness was caused by humans. Disagreeing scientists were severely reprimanded. Our own government came to the judgment a few days ago that a man-made origin is at least as probable as not. Information is always changing. Our perception of science is evolving. It doesn’t help people “believe the science” if reporters are barred from engaging in the open, impassioned discussion that is needed to establish a consensus. It has the exact opposite result.
When one is aware that he is not viewing all points of view, it is difficult to believe the resulting agreement. These repeated analogies — “should we offer equal attention to those who think the world is flat?” — are both deceptive and harmful. We know and believe the world is round because the issue has been hotly discussed for centuries. Let us not forget that during Galileo’s day, the closed-minded side was on the other side of this debate. Our knowledge of this subject could have developed very differently if the operators of Twitter had been present during Copernicus’ time and wiped out the unpopular, lunatic notion that the world was round.
“We have reached a perilous moment,” Berenson told the New York Post. At the request of governments, social media firms with massive audiences are now actively suppressing reporters. I’ll keep fighting to get the truth out, and I’m exploring all legal options. “
I’m not sure if Berenson is correct regarding Covid. I am aware that he is correct in his assessment of Twitter.
Berenson isn’t the only person to be targeted by Big Tech. Amazon stopped selling his book, Unreported Truths About COVID-19 And Lockdowns Part 1: Introductions and Death, last summer. Estimates and Counts The store stated that the book—you can probably guess what it was about based on the title—didn’t follow the company’s rules. This idea should frighten us all: that a monopoly bookstore would only sell books which it approves. Especially on Twitter, where tattletales reply to Berenson’s tweets with phrases like “@Jack, when are you going to do anything about this menace?” It’s a Stasi mentality. Our capacity to accept the presence of points of view that we disagree with has vanished.
Amazon immediately backed down in one case. Berenson is likely to have sold a few more volumes as a result of the dispute. Twitter has repeatedly demonstrated that it is a partisan operation, from massive missteps like banning a President supported by 75 million Americans while allowing the Taliban, to declining to “blue check” the California Globe because the program “closed” while allowing anti-Trump New Yorker writers to achieve that status in minutes. Real competition, such as Gettr, hoped to continue to develop. (Just so you know, we’re @CaliforniaGlobe on Twitter and Gettr.)
However, the core issue persists. We’ve handed up complete control of our data to three or four megacorporations. There isn’t any genuine competition. Over the last 30 years, our antitrust institutions have failed under both Republican and Democratic administrations. This failure has made America much worse. Meanwhile, you may follow Berenson on Substack. Even if you don’t agree with all he says. That’s not true. Especially if you despise what he says.
also source:
