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Today’s blacklisted American: YouTube blacklists U.S. senator for saying things YouTube dislikes

Censored by YouTube
Senator Rand Paul: censored by YouTube

The new dark age of silencing: YouTube has once again removed videos of Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) while also suspending him for a week, because he stated facts about COVID-19 and masks that YouTube dislikes.

YouTube last week removed a video of an interview the Kentucky Republican senator did on Newsmax. Paul discussed his suspicions about the origins of the coronavirus, his feud with Anthony Fauci over what funding for research in China’s Wuhan lab came from the United States, and argued that most face coverings do not help stop the spread of the virus.

Paul, an eye doctor, then recorded, and on Aug. 3 uploaded, a second video chastising YouTube for taking down the video and promoted one of its competitors, Rumble. He defended his comments on masks. “Saying cloth masks work, when they don’t, actually risks lives, as someone may choose to care for a loved one with COVID while only wearing a cloth mask. This is not only bad advice but also potentially deadly misinformation,” Paul said in the video.

YouTube responded by taking down that video as well, saying that it violated YouTube’s community guidelines. On Tuesday, Paul’s office said that the company imposed a seven-day ban from posting more videos.


YouTube has blacklisted Paul previously, in 2019. It has now simply gotten more aggressive and brazen about its censorship policies, which appear more than anything to aimed specifically at silencing opponents of the Democratic Party, using the coronavirus as an excuse and weapon for doing so.

What amazes me is how nonchalant most Americans have become to this kind of censorship. Even Paul excuses it by noting that YouTube is a private company and has that right.

So what? The behavior is inexcusable. It is downright wrong. To censorship the legitimate expression of a U.S. Senator is the act of totalitarians who believe in oppression, dictatorship, and the end of free speech. It also shows us the utter intellectual dishonesty of the left, as it cannot tolerate dissent, out of fear that dissent might expose its many and very obvious failings.

As recently as ten years ago such repressive actions would have been instantly and universally condemned by everyone, on both sides of the political aisle. Now, the left grins and approves, and the right makes excuses for it.

The dark age is no longer coming. It is here, and day-by-day the darkness grows deeper and more all-encompassing.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

17 comments

  • Gary

    I’d be more sympathetic to the “they’re a private company” line of reasoning if all the tech companies they weren’t so clearly taking sides. The policies of Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc. look more like coordinated in-kind political contributions than the actions of independent actors in the market place. Independent actors generally stake out distinct positions, rather march in lock step.

  • Bob

    Sen. Paul posts his videos on the free speech alternative: Rumble.com. They have not been censored there

    Do a search:
    https://rumble.com/search/video?q=rand

  • Mark

    I’m a big fan of Rumble, and when I use YouTube I refuse to sign in to that vehicle of censorship.

  • Kyle

    Remember that Muppet show from the 90s with the Dinosaurs? They had this multifaceted mega conglomerate that owns and controlls everything called the We-Say-So Company. Thats what Youtube/Twitter/Facebook remind me of. Can’t say _______, why because We Say So.

  • Mark: Ah, but are you signed into Google, which owns Youtube? I bet you are, especially because you use gmail.

    You might want to consider a different email service. Otherwise, your protest against YouTube is somewhat empty.

    I meanwhile struggle to find videos for evening pauses that are not on Youtube. It is difficult, to be sure.

  • Mark

    Hey Bob – on my iPad on which have my bookmarks including BehindTheBlack I don’t sign in to google either. And you are right about using another email service – ProtonMail is one alternative. Your evening pauses are much appreciated.

  • Mark: I meant no criticism. However, you very well might be signed in and not know it. Remember, most browsers today have the ability to remember and automatically reuse the log in info so you don’t have to sign in. If you did it once and your settings called for it to remember, then you will be logged in automatically forever.

    This can be overridden, but it is, of course, never made easy.

  • We Are Borg

    I look at this from a different perspective: If everyone knows Facebook, Youtube and Twitter are nothing more than propaganda platforms, why use them at all, especially when better alternatives exist? I don’t get all the whining and hand-wringing over this issue; why not just dump them and move on?

    You have no constitutional right to these services nor an expectation of fair and equitable treatment, let alone privacy of data. In most cases, you can’t open an account without consenting to a legally sketchy Terms Of Service contract. I doubt few people actually read these TOS agreements in full, you should. If this were a formal business setting, no competent attorney would ever allow you to consent to such ridiculous terms.

  • Steve Richter

    in defense of YouTube, they might not want their platform to be a political battleground. Their concern being that it drives away regular viewers and even content providers. Every time a user opens YouTube on their phone, the latest videos from their feed are listed. If right wing political firebrands are in that feed maybe the user starts to see YouTube as just about politics. So they do not log on as much. Another way to put it is that YouTube is very successful. Each video on the phone runs ads. Must be very profitable. Hard to argue against success.

  • Steve Richter

    the thing that republicans and the country needs is more representatives in Congress who are intelligent, have well thought out ideas, and can express in words what those ideas are. And heck, not be afraid of debate, but welcome it. The only politics show I watch on TV now is Tucker. And even his show does not invite critics on to debate an issue.

    The republican party needs party bosses who are focused on identifying smart, capable people, get them to run for office. Then once in office the party boss puts people on their congressional staff who know policy. Demand that members of congress get out and sell their ideas to the public.

  • Steve Richter,

    Google, Youtube, Twitter, et al. do not censor Leftist. So they are partisan in what they do. The fact that they also are given direction by the Federal Government on who to censor (I am not making this up Pscirling Psaki stated such in a recent White House News Briefing) indicts them as agents of the Federal Government and therefore in violation of the First Amendment. Your premise of them trying to avoid political conflict is incorrect.

  • James Street

    I’ve been watching Mike Lindell’s Cyber Symposium and one of the speakers today, Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, discovered that government bureaucrats have a portal to report to Twitter to have citizens canceled.

    Dr. Shiva told an interesting story of how he ran for US Senate in Massachusetts as a Republican and lost with many voting irregularities. He contacted election officials who blew him off so he posted their emails on Twitter. Within hours his Twitter account was canceled. He sued the government but no lawyer would represent him so he studied law and represented himself. Doing online research for his case he came across the document.

    This will be an interesting case to follow. The government working with big tech to silence free speech. Dr. Shiva’s judge seems supportive of him from the comments he made about the historical importance of this case.

    HUGE: Dr. Shiva Discovers Existence of the Secretive Long Fuse Report — Exposes Twitter-Government Collusion — As Momentous Discovery as Pentagon Papers …Update: Hearing Tomorrow with Link
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/huge-dr-shiva-discovers-existence-secretive-long-fuse-report-exposes-twitter-government-collusion-momentous-discovery-pentagon-papers/

  • Mark

    I agree with James Street that Dr. Shiva’s discovery of the Long Fuse Report which exposes Twitter-Government Collusion could be as important to social change as the revelations of the Pentagon Papers. But keep in mind these techno elites that Dr. Shiva has exposed are true believers, and they believe it is their time to rule. They are Usurpers, and like all usurpers they will proceed first with coverups and obfuscations. Am I being too pessimistic Mr. Z? I know Bob’s ‘blacklisted’ posts are meant to buck us up for the fight. But it feels like this battle has just begun and reminds me of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In Act 2, Scene 2, after murdering King Duncan in his sleep, Macbeth hears a voice and says:

    “Methought I heard a voice cry, sleep no more!
    Macbeth doth murder sleep–“

    Macbeth has destroyed Duncan’s sleep (and life), but he also murdered his own ability to rest peacefully. Likewise, the Techno elites have done in Constitutional free speech, and deep down none of us rest well.

    I recommend the short YouTube clip of this scene – Sir Patrick Stewart’s “Sleep no more!” | Rupert Goold’s Macbeth
    The scene ends chillingly with Lady Macbeth taking control and running her PsyOp to give her husband the throne.

    So in my opinion America will not rest peacefully again until the deed has been fully exposed. Since we are right now knee deep in the equivalent of Lady Macbeth’s coverup-PsyOp, I fear thoroughly exposing the deed will take years and years. I should live so long

  • Max

    Zimmerman said;
    “What amazes me is how nonchalant most Americans have become to this kind of censorship. Even Paul excuses it by noting that YouTube is a private company and has that right”

    It is unconstitutional for the federal government to limit your free speech, but they can hire a private contractor to do it for them? (I seem to remember “flowers”, and a “wedding cake” where private individuals weren’t allowed to limit the free-speech of others, or of different views and were forced out of business)
    If this is allowed to stand, the new method for politicians for violating our rights is by having a subcontractor do it?
    Then there are no human rights in this country any longer.
    Freedom of religion and peacefully assemble? The HEALTH czar says no way.
    Having a money system of gold and silver that we can trust? Just let a private corporation (“Federal reserve” with its own police force IRS agents) issue paper instead, and use/abuse that tax payer money to invest in other private corporations. (including all the media)
    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/blackrock_owns_americas_homes__and_a_whole_lot_else.html
    And use that media holdings to bring on the “great reset” using pharmaceuticals (also owned by Black rock/vanguard)(it’s estimated that 88% of the goods on the shelves americans use every day are in someway controlled by BlackRock Monopoly)
    https://thetruthiswhere.wordpress.com/2021/06/26/the-same-shady-people-own-big-pharma-and-the-media/

    The right to own a weapon to defend yourself? The government cannot take away your right to keep and bear arms, but a “private contractor” can be hired to go door to door and do it for them? Whether it be foreign or UN troops, Loyal to no country, wearing police uniforms to take the place of the defunded police… Or the mental health department busy bodies (with the help of red flag laws) investigating “made up” complaints against registered gun owners, assisted by Capitol police under the direction of the “peoples dictator”, “speaker of the house”.
    Now Capital police have departments in every state to quell the next “insurrection” under “martial law” which is outlined, and fully funded in the new infrastructure bill …
    Or they will just hire “anti-fascist” for the purpose, (good cop, bad cop) ignoring the fascist crimes they commit just as they’ve done in the past because the “ends justify the means”. Brown shirts to commit crimes against the right, burn the churches, infiltrate the schools to destroy the family structure, or any organization that resist their corporate cartel goals. (Some are holding chairman Mao’s red book)

    But it’s OK, it’s not the government… These are private corporations and do not have to follow the constitution.

    When pharmaceuticals can experiment on the population in violation of the Nuremberg treaty, without any responsibility or accountability… a free pass for violating human rights at will, with no compensation, compassion, or limiting oversight in the name of science… Even forcing medical treatment on the general population against your will in violation of a person’s right to life, liberty, and happiness… Then the rule of law is truly dead! We have been regulated and reduced to nothing more than cattle. With universal income, we will be fed, housed, entertained, until it’s time for the slaughter.
    Even as I write this, the news is reporting Arnold Schwarzenegger says screw your freedoms! Everyone must be vaccinated! as they are also reporting “booster shots” for everyone who has been vaccinated! Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results…

    In the dark age “might makes right” and “he who has the gold makes the rules”… Evil Triumphs all. The age of good intentions that will take us all to a place from which there is no return… (It’s for the children, if we can only save one life… we only have 10 years left… We must kill them all and let God sort them out… We must do something, even if it’s the wrong thing, so it will make us feel better… After all, to our betters, humans are just a virus that infects the world and they must sanitize the world to save it)
    German virologist testifies that the vaccinations I meant for depopulation.
    https://thenewamerican.com/covid-shots-to-decimate-world-population-warns-dr-bhakdi/

    Here is Dr stock, who’s extremely powerful presentation has gone viral. The fact checkers are going crazy, but the data and the truth is on his side. About five minutes but you’ll want to listen to it twice.
    https://rumble.com/vkwcb4-dr-dan-stock-specialist-in-immunology-and-inflammation-says-cdc-and-nih-is-.html?fbclid=IwAR2JV4EW1uDxtWeIcdqctqmGbnz8NZ-OSOIt-VRYJF7SQxxYP1dW67x8ZoE

    The studies he references to the committee that the CDC chooses to ignore. 22 of them. (That also backs up Ron Paul)
    https://hancockcountypatriots.blogspot.com/2021/08/dr-dan-stocks-presentation-to-mt-vernon.html?m=1

  • Max

    The preparation for concentration camps and forced DNA manipulations has started.

    “Wow! The guard will be utilized? Involuntary commitment? And construction of quarantine and isolation facilities? Thought all of that was just a silly conspiracy theory,”
    https://www.toddstarnes.com/crime/tennessee-executive-order-authorizes-national-guard-quartines-involuntary-commitment-for-certain-healthcare-operations/
    We know what’s good for you, resistance is futile.
    https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/pub/execorders/exec-orders-lee83.pdf

    The CDC has taken control of the emergency authorization. They just begun to make your life miserable.
    https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/global-covid-19/shielding-approach-humanitarian.html
    Green zones for massive incarceration… It sounds so pretty.

    Locate a FEMA camp near you! and here are the executive orders you’re currently living under so that you know why nothing makes sense anymore. (don’t panic, “no one” was told about this) it’s fun to go down the list and check off each one that has been implemented that were currently living under.
    https://amg-news.com/archives/1988

    Fact check it’s not the cdc but the CDC. I’m confused too.
    https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2021/08/fact-check-cdc-does-not-publish-green-zone-concentration-camp-protocol-preparing-for-mass-imprisonment.html
    Is the CDC a government agency? Or just another private contractor licensed to violate our constitutional rights?
    https://principia-scientific.com/robert-kennedy-jr-cdc-is-a-privately-owned-vaccine-company/
    Even the NIH has skin in the game.
    https://www.axios.com/moderna-nih-coronavirus-vaccine-ownership-agreements-22051c42-2dee-4b19-938d-099afd71f6a0.html
    Remember the vials of technology that was being snuggled out of the country? He received grants from the NIH and the DOD.
    “Dr Lieber develops, among many things, nano-electronics that can be injected into living beings”
    https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/connecting-dots-harvard-the-nih-dod-chinese-spies-21-stolen-vials-of-biological-research-nano-bioelectronics/
    I’ve stuck magnets to coworkers vaccinated arms and we all laughed about it.
    It’s rumored that the charges were dropped.

    Booster shots are on their way as the effectiveness of the shots drops below 50%… And now CDC authorized (for emergency use only) for pregnant women indicating that spontaneous abortion of 13% is acceptable and within natural tolerance. (Yeah right, tell that to a woman unable to have children ever again)

    I feel the need to retract that we will know if the vaccinations work by 2024… that was the plan, but the data has been corrupted. Corrupted by the very company running the vaccine trials.
    https://www.wabe.org/long-term-studies-of-covid-19-vaccines-hurt-by-placebo-recipients-getting-immuni/

    Everything that’s happening is well planned out, and is acceptable, under executive orders. The insurrection has already occurred, welcome to the new dark age.

    (The order to evacuate Afghanistan has just been given, leave your planes and vehicles guns N ammo behind and run… The Taliban is about to become our new national threat to distract us from problems at home… Trillions well spent, 20 years of blood and life wasted. This generations Vietnam. Nothing in politics happens by chance)

  • Edward

    Max,
    Everything that’s happening is well planned out, and is acceptable, under executive orders. The insurrection has already occurred, welcome to the new dark age.

    This isn’t news.

    We lost our freedoms in 2010, when the government decided that it could direct us as to how to spend our own money. In 2014 it implemented that plan, coercing us to purchase products that it chose for us. In 2015, the protectors of our rights, the Supreme Court, decided that government had the right to direct us as to how to spend our money, as to what to say or not say, as to what actions to take or not take, and as to who and what to be — just so long as a tax is associated with it. In 2020, government skipped the step about the tax, and it chose sides during elections — complete with election fraud in order to assure the outcomes.

    The corruption is complete, but the implementations are still rolling in.

  • Edward: Empire takes a long time to fall. What we have now are a bunch of opportunists cashing in on the remnants.

    Perhaps allegorical:

    ‘Wreck of the River of Stars”

    2003 Flynn Macmillan

    I’m looking to implement Aerosmith’s advice:

    “Don’t get mad; get even”

    I am hasseling retail workers about the renewed mask mandate; a little bit. Hey, you volunteer every day to act as an unpaid State enforcement agent; I’m going to make you uncomfortable. Yeah, you have to be a bit of an A to do that, but nothin’s gonna change as long as people ‘go along to get along’.

    And I am totally calling out people who have some mildly subversive bumper sticker, and wear a mask.

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