Censorship and loneliness always go together because political censorship is always designed to cut us off, to stop us from speaking openly to others. Let’s ponder that connection as we await the Supreme Court’s ruling in Murthy v. Missouri.
But first, let’s dispense with the formalities and the legalese. The Murthy case is supposedly about whether or not the government has a right to try to “persuade not coerce” third parties, including social media companies, to shut down content it claims is incorrect and/or potentially harmful.
This is not a narrow case that stops at allowing government actors to talk to third parties about content they deem “misinformation” affecting national security or public health. Murthy is ultimately about enabling an enormous censorship-industrial complex to control individuals’ conversations — and by extension, individuals’ relationships — at the behest of government actors.
Any SCOTUS ruling in favor of the government would blow the door wide open to undermining the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech for hundreds of millions of individual Americans.
Even if you don’t believe that, you should at least consider the connection between such political censorship and social isolation. We cannot think of free speech as an abstract value or an outdated convenience.
Ultimately, at stake is the right to communicate openly, which translates into your right to build families and your right to make friends without state interference.
Ultimately, any ruling for the government in Murthy would correspond to the proverbial camel’s snout spitting its orders into the tents
