Censorship!

That is what it really is… Trump has learned the carrot and the stick approach. Everyone, and I mean everyone is tied to Washington by their purse strings! 

• Hospital: Stop your treatment and turn over your medical records of trans people or we’ll cut your funding! 
• Libraries: Take down these books and exhibits or we’ll cut your funding! 
• Universities: Strip your diversity programs or we’ll cut your funding! 
• Researchers: Stop this research or we’ll cut your funding! 
• Public broadcasting: We will just pull the strings from you because we don’t like what you say about us. 

There were limits to federal programs before but they were used to make sure the funding was applied equally but now the funding is being used to push racist, transphobic, and misogynistic agendas.

Trump also has a history of freezing news organizations out of the White House Press Room: AP, Reuters, and Bloomberg get the cold shoulder, The White House also changed the way news agencies are picked from the press pool picking them to the White House picking them.

It is all so Trump & Company can control the message.

During World War II Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment controlled:

• Controlling all media, including newspapers, radio, film, and literature.
• Promoting the party's ideology, including antisemitism and Hitler’s cult of personality.
• Censoring dissenting views.
• Organizing mass rallies and public events to influence German opinion.
• Spearheading wartime propaganda to maintain morale and demonize enemies.

Do you see any similarities? 

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But even more alarming is how the media caved in to Trump. They are not Horace Greeley–style defenders of the free press anymore, but now they are defenders of the corporate bottom line.

Case #1: CBS & Viacom

Trump complained about the 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris and agreed to a censor board because of the upcoming merger that needed FCC approval.

Case #2: The firing of Kimmel

To get on the good side of Trump, ABC abruptly cancels Jimmy Kimmel Live. Why? Because Trump was on a campaign to censor anything negative about Kirk. The BBC reported, “The suspension came just hours after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened to act against Disney and ABC over Kimmel's remarks.”

This is indirect censorship but it is still censorship.

They says the cancelling of the Stephen Colbert was financial but, in the light of all the other censorship going on it makes one wonder. Did politics factor into the decision? 

The Guardian reports,

‘Censoring you in real time’: suspension of Jimmy Kimmel show sparks shock and fears for free speech

ABC decision over Kimmel comments comes hours after Trump-appointed chair of US media regulator threatened broadcaster’s affiliate stations’ licenses

By Jonathan Yerushalmy

Wed 17 Sep 2025

Politicians, media figures and free speech organisations expressed anger and alarm at the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show, warning that critics of Donald Trump were being systematically silenced.

ABC announced it was suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely after comments Kimmel made about Charlie Kirk’s killing led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say it would not air the show.

On Wednesday evening, California governor Gavin Newsom called the firing of commentators and cancelling of shows “coordinated” and “dangerous.” He went on to say that the Republican party “does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time.”

Democratic senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said “everybody across the political spectrum should be speaking out to stop what’s happening to Jimmy Kimmel.” His colleague Chris Murphy said it was likely the start of a campaign to “use the murder of Charlie Kirk as a pretext to use the power of the White House to wipe out Trump’s critics and his political opponents”, while Democratic politician Ro Khanna said “this is perhaps the first administration to make comedy illegal”.

But when right-wing Fox commentator said, 

Sharing recent footage of Fox commentator Brian Kilmeade calling for mentally ill and homeless people to be killed, comedian Paul Scheer wrote: “So let me get this straight. Kimmel is off the air for his comments about the politicization of an assassination but this is totally fine.” Kilmeade later apologised for his “extremely callous” remarks.

When I was growing new departments were “Cost” centers and became “Profit” centers, in other words… that is when the newsroom stopped serving the public interest and started serving shareholders, the mission of journalism changed. The truth was no longer enough—it had to sell.

Just look at some of the billionaires who own media outlets;

• Rupert Murdoch: News Corp / Fox News / Wall Street Journal / New York Post / The Sun / The Times (UK) etc.
• Jeff Bezos: The Washington Post
• Patrick Soon-Shiong: Los Angeles Times
• John Henry: The Boston Globe
• Marc Benioff: Time magazine

It all became about the bottom line. The First Amendment and Freedom of the Press don’t mean anything any more.

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Update: 9/19 @ 4:00AM?

Jon Steward speech on censorship in 2022 and "The Young Turks" 

MEDIAite writes back in 2022,

Jon Stewart argued for comedy’s importance to a healthy culture as he warned that authoritarian leaders remain the greatest threat to comedians.

The former Daily Show host was honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. on Sunday night with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. After roasts from Dave Chapelle, Jimmy Kimmel and his old Daily Show colleagues in attendance, Stewart gave a speech while accepting the award, and warned about what comedy’s place in society says about the world at large.

Stewart referenced Will Smith’s infamous slap of Chris Rock at the Oscars as he argued that audience sensitivity is still less of a threat to comedy than authoritarianism.

“It’s not the fragility of audiences. It’s not the woke police that are going to be an existential threat to comedy,” Stewart said. “It’s not the ‘Fresh Prince.’ It’s the crown prince. It’s not the fragility of audiences. It’s the fragility of leaders.”

Stewart went on to describe the role of comedy by saying it “doesn’t change the world, but it’s the bellwether. We’re the banana in the coal mine.”

The handwriting was on the wall.

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@1040AM

Here is Richard email that he mentions in his comment,

What falls, in order.

Authoritarianism does not come all at once. It advances step by step, cutting away freedom until nothing remains.

1. Truth: Already Fallen / Severely Eroded

Propaganda floods every channel. Disinformation overwhelms facts. Expertise is smeared as elitism. States normalize the idea that only their controlled voices are the holders of "truth". Reality itself is bent to serve power.

2. Free Speech: Partially Fallen

Attacks on media grow. Lawsuits and intimidation campaigns silence critics. Now comes the organized snitching campaign: workers reported to their employers, fired for exercising their First Amendment rights. Neighbors are weaponized. Speech on paper becomes punishment in practice.

3. Minority Rights: Already Fallen

Trans rights rolled back. DEI dismantled. Civil rights protections stripped away. Forced deportations and even street kidnappings carried out openly. Minority communities are the testing ground for authoritarian cruelty.

4. Rule of Law: Eroded / Partially Fallen

Executives seize unchecked power. Courts are defied. Laws applied only to enemies. Lawmakers and judges bent to partisan control. The rule of law erodes until justice itself is just another weapon of the regime.

5. Democratic Institutions: Under Threat / Partly Fallen

Elections delegitimized. Voter suppression escalated. Institutional norms weakened. Absurdity and incompetence at the state level are normalized until democracy itself looks like chaos, by design.

6. Civil Society: Threatened / Partially Fallen

NGOs, unions and advocacy groups attacked through defunding, stigmatization, harassment. The building blocks of civic life are being stripped away so no organized resistance can stand. Billionaire and state controlled social networks offer an illusion of freedom.

7. Personal Autonomy: Eroding / Fully Fallen

Minority rights repealed. Gender identity erased from recognition. Reproductive health restricted. Surveillance creeping deeper into private life. The main demographic still believes itself safe, but it is next. Laws passed to control "annoying" minorities are easily rewritten to control everyone. What begins as an attack on the few always becomes a weapon against the many.

8. Economic Independence: Fallen Further Than Acknowledged

Markets stay quiet to avoid triggering a domino effect. Tariffs and trade wars backfired (by design), crippling red-state farmers and manufacturers. Ordinary families face higher costs for groceries and essentials. Billionaires profit from the collapse, thriving in an economy deliberately weakened. Buying what you love on discount. The global market bends under forced instability. The silence is intentional.

9. All Remaining Freedoms: Still Standing / At Risk

Religious freedom. Artistic expression. Academic freedom. Freedom of assembly and protest. Freedom of movement. Privacy in personal life. These freedoms can still be protected but under full authoritarian consolidation, they too will collapse.

This is the order of collapse. First truth falls. Last freedom falls. Everything in between is broken to wear people down until nothing is left but obedience.

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Fascism is not the same as conservatism or simple authoritarianism.

It is a system where the state demands total control over society, crushes individual rights and uses violence and propaganda to enforce obedience. You know this is what he wants.

It thrives on:

Ultra-nationalism: framing the nation or people as under attack and in need of "purification".

Suppression of opposition: silencing dissent, banning unions, jailing critics and eliminating political rivals.

Cult of strength and order: glorifying the military, violence and a strong leader who claims to embody the people's will. But their will is under artificial control.

Scapegoating: blaming minorities, immigrants or other vulnerable groups for social and economic problems. Making us weaken each other.

Control of truth: replacing facts with propaganda, declaring only the regime can define reality.

It is not a free democratic government with a few bad actors hiding inside. Fascism is a hungry beast. Fascism consumes democracy from within until nothing remains but power, obedience and fear.

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While this happens, they front jesters, clowns and senile old men to keep us laughing, memeing, distracted and underestimating them. The absurd theater lowers our guard while the real power moves quietly behind the scenes. What looks like chaos is strategy. The circus is the cover for the knife that is coming for all of us.

Only knowledge will dull that knife, and now you know.

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Update: 9/20 @ 10:15AM

The  circle is now complete.