How can someone being banned from marching in a parade lead to everyone being legally censored online?

Sean’s Monologue: Censorship Industrial Complex

Our guest today is here to tell us about a secret form of online censorship that is happening every day to people like you and me – and we don’t even know it. Robert Hawkins is a social entrepreneur and founder of Reveddit, a website that shows people where they have been censored on Reddit’s media platform. Robert became passionate about restoring free-speech values online after discovering his own comments from past years had been secretly removed, and he’s here now to blow the whistle on a practice called “shadow banning."

Robert explains how shadowing banning is a person-to-person form of censorship, not a silencing imposed by a company or a government, then he walks us step-by-step through what a person sees – or rather, DOESN’T see – when their comment has been shadow-banned. Sean and Robert talk about what Reddit promotes itself to be vs. what Reddit actually is.

They go on to discuss the intent behind shadow banning, who does it, and why. Are there good uses for shadow banning? What type of content is most frequently shadow banned? Robert tells us the justifications used to perpetuate this practice that Sean describes as “counterintuitive to democracy.” Are these justifications valid? Robert argues that they are not and tells us why.

Robert describes how bots are created, how they operate, and how they are (in some ways) smarter than humans. He tells us that he does support “transparent content moderation”, and he explains the difference between shadow banning and censorship practices that actually help users learn the rules of the platform where they are posting.

What happens when a user discovers they are being shadow banned? This practice has gone largely unchallenged, so is there any recourse to fight against it? Robert explains why there is a lack of awareness surrounding shadow banning. He tells us about his experiences at LibertyCon, and his attempts to bring shadow banning into the light. What about enacting laws against online censorship? Is it a good idea to involve our government? Robert talks about legislation that is currently in the works … in places like Texas and Florida.

Robert shares practical tips for what everyday people can do to save America from the complexities of censorship. Should people who don’t even use social media be concerned? Robert feels that even those who understand the scale of online censorship don’t acknowledge the harm it can do. He tells a story of a hidden government practice was eventually revealed to the world, and he hopes the same will be true of shadow banning.

Sean and Robert conclude the episode chatting about why political figures are unlikely to have censored comments on Reddit, which social media platforms don’t permit shadow bans, and wondering if decentralization is a potential solution. Will Robert expand his Reddit tool to encompass other social media platforms? And what was it like living in Taiwan for the past ten years? Listen to find out!

Check your Reddit account for shadow banned content at: https://www.reveddit.com/

Check out Robert’s newsletter at: https://RemovedNews.com

Watch more about shadow banning videos at: https://www.youtube.com/@robert.hawkins

When a fundamentalist Christian is preaching against abortion, don’t point out how many babies God killed in the Bible!

Sean’s Monologue: Book Banning in America

Our guest today is Mark Alsip, a computer scientist, freelance science writer, and the founder of Bad Science Debunked, a skeptical science blog. Mark is here with us today to talk about a personal history that is quite unexpected for a man of his profession - being raised in and indoctrinated into a fundamentalist Young Earth Creationist sect. He went through decades of trauma due to the conflicts between pseudo-scientific church teachings and the world of reality that was revealed to him through his love of science. After Mark left religion completely, he thought he’d be able to leave his past behind him and move on, but then fundamentalists insisted on forcing religious dogma into our government, our laws, our schools, and other secular places. Mark felt it was his duty to fight back, so he wrote the book Journey to Reason: Walking Away From Young Earth Creationism and Religious Fundamentalism.

In this episode, Mark and Sean discuss critical thinking vs. religious thinking as they swap amusing stories about growing up under the tutelage of Bible-thumping adults. They talk about how prayer is like “flipping a coin and calling it after it lands” and how religions quell logical questioning when they label disagreement with doctrine as a “sin.” Mark explains the beliefs of his childhood religion and how it sucked him in with scare tactics, such as a propaganda movie that made a whole audience of little kids cry.

Sean and Mark agree that religion is not abusive in general, and that there are many wonderful and compassionate believers in the world. They share Mark’s assertion that religion is fine, but “we just don’t need it” and people should not push it on one another. They talk about how the religious and non-religious could live together in peace and harmony if the fundamentalists weren’t such a fundamental threat to our democracy.

The conversation turns to impending legislation that supports narrow Christian viewpoints, and how such influence has come about. Mark and Sean wonder where religion is headed in America and speculate on what our future will look like if Trump wins the presidency.

Mark talks about his professional history and how it taught him critical thinking skills, he explains the relationship between capitalism and religion, and bemoans the hypocrisy of Christians who claim to believe in love for mankind while exhibiting little actual compassion for their fellow human beings. His conclusion is that we should focus on the good parts of religious teachings and reject the parts that hurt and condemn others.

You can find Mark Alsip’s book Journey to Reason: Walking Away From Young Earth Creationism and Religious Fundamentalism on Amazon, and follow him on social media:

www.facebook.com/BadScienceDebunked

www.twitter.com/markaaronky

Is economic disenfranchisement the main force fueling toxic Internet subcultures and online movements?

Sean’s Monologue: The Phenomenon of QAnon

We are joined today by Mike Trigg, a former Silicon Valley start-up guru now turned accomplished writer. Mike’s first corporate thriller Bit Flip was lauded with 5-star reviews, and now he’s on our show to talk about his newest novel, Burner, available on April 16th, 2024. Billed as a "fascinating thriller in which an online movement swallows up the person who started it" by Foreword Clarion Reviews, the novel dives headfirst into political disinformation, toxic internet subcultures, and our need for belonging and purpose in an age of distorted online personas.

Sean and Mike discuss the creation of Burner, and how it is written from a centrist point of view (even though the author is left-leaning). The stock manipulation and kidnapping elements of the book were inspired by news headlines like GameStop and January 6th. Sean praises the likability of the lead character, Shane, who Mike has dubbed “the Forest Gump of the Internet generation.”

The rest of the conversation centers around how online movements take flight – the use of Internet algorithms to normalize beliefs, the self-reinforcement, and actions driven by the underlying idea of “I am a victim, now who do I blame?” Mike and Sean talk about their election concerns and how to deprogram someone once they have been sucked into a toxic movement. The end conclusion is that – both on the Internet and in politics – people behave much better when others know who they and there is some level of accountability.

Other topics include: Mike’s time on Capitol Hill, elected officials as Internet trolls, how the Democratic Party disenfranchised blue collar America, ID verifications online, the impossibility of the TV show The Last of Us, the looming threat of AI, and the fun of recording audio books.

Find Mike on his website and all social media platforms:

https://www.miketrigg.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MikeTriggAuthor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/triggmike/

https://www.instagram.com/mike_trigg254/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVvHXnTHvExzKghoWXejT9w https://twitter.com/mike_trigg

https://podmatch.com/guestdetailpreview/17027555998711651707240ae