Oliver Bateman Does the WorkVerified account

something i've thought about for a while, and taught about in the past, concerns "free speech." i'm a legal historian by training, so i suppose i could, like "NPR legal analysts," take umbrage at people not understanding what protections the 1A affords them. I don't care abt that

two reasons: 1) the first group of people polled on this issue are usually just the typical hobgoblins the NPRerati will cite for any ol' "ignorance quotient" stat (sun orbiting the moon, angels, aliens) 2) the second group perceive that private sector threats to speech matter

this second part, setting aside "1A jurisprudence properly so-called," reflects well-founded folk suspicion that the "HRificiation of the world" (a topic of one of my @whatisleftpod mini-eps) is underway. they see all the trainings, the deplatformings, etc. they "get it"

ofc you can't "shout fire in a crowded theater" and so on but that *isn't* what this is about, though the television "talking heads" don't focus on this because it's vague, and besides, They Work for a Company Too. But ppl know the world is becoming a Privately Owned Platform

they can't say it in so many words - why would we expect them to? - but having been spoon or forcefed loads of reprogramming and J Saccoing and so on, they know, deep down, that more is coming. this is laughed off by the ppl who deep down expect to rule this new world.

ow holmes, the "fire in a crowded theater man," also wrote that "you can't argue a man into liking a glass of beer." soon you won't even be about to argue about the taste of a beer if the beer holds all the right positions and you hold no positions at all, right or otherwise

and it's not lost on me that these words, which i'll likely recapitulate in a mini-podcast sometime in the future, are right now consigned to a privately-owned platform that doesn't even employ me (for free, the only work I do "pro bono" anywhere)