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2021-03-13 -Land of the Free

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Posted by 746 2021-03-13 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 Standard Oil was a private company.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2021-03-13 04:05|| 2021-03-13 04:05|| Front Page Top

#2 /\ Yes, it was eventually broken up, divided into smaller companies. Standard Oil's owner was permitted to retain small, partial ownerships in the newly established firms. Those firms grew and prospered, making Standard Oil's founder even wealthier.

Posted by Besoeker 2021-03-13 04:14|| 2021-03-13 04:14|| Front Page Top

#3 I'd forgotten about Boris...unlike Aris, or JUSTICE, or...

Posted by Frank G 2021-03-13 06:50|| 2021-03-13 06:50|| Front Page Top

#4 Woolworth's in Greensboro, NC is a private company. Who they allow to eat at their lunch counter is their call.

Posted by Procopius2k 2021-03-13 07:00|| 2021-03-13 07:00|| Front Page Top

#5 ...sorry did I need to put a /sarc on that?

Posted by Procopius2k 2021-03-13 07:01|| 2021-03-13 07:01|| Front Page Top

#6 Fine. Tie this in with the discussions of firearms bans. The gun grabbers operate on the principle that "because a nut got ahold of a gun, anyone who gets ahold of a gun may well be a nut." They want to punish the innocent for the actions of criminals. They want to put firearms manufacturers out of business because a lawfully made and sold product was intentionally misused.

By that logic, all the social networks should be shut down and every person who has ever participated in any forum where icky speech has occurred should have their fingers cut off and tongues ripped out. But that would be absurd and unjust, of course.

Posted by M. Murcek 2021-03-13 07:13|| 2021-03-13 07:13|| Front Page Top

#7 One reason the GIVERnment encourages large centralized companies is to more easily manipulate them for social justice. Recent examples include manipulating and controlling social media companies to censor citizens that would clearly be against the law if the GIVERnment did it directly. Federal bank regulators do the same with big banks in lending with payday lenders, gun & ammo manufacturers....

Posted by Airandee 2021-03-13 07:33|| 2021-03-13 07:33|| Front Page Top

#8 The beloved (by many, but not all) internet blogster who banned me some time back for "being a jerk" (calling some Elon Musk fans cultists) says his blog is "like his living room" and he can decide who gets in there. I don't know how he runs his house, but getting in my living room is not something you can do via the internet. However that may be, it seems blogs and social media straddle that goopy grey area where "private business" meets "public accommodation." Note that the requirement for the baker to bake the ghey cake was rooted in the court's determination that the bakery is a "public accommodation," that is to say, anyone can walk in off the street. What that amounts to is, if I require people to register to interact in my site, am I now a private club as opposed to a "public accommodation?" Or is it just whatever the court decides, devil may care?

Posted by M. Murcek 2021-03-13 09:10|| 2021-03-13 09:10|| Front Page Top

#9 Big Tech and the legacy media companies suppressed news and facts that undoubtedly would have sunk Biden well before last November.

They threw an election for their candidate.

If we still want to be a Republic, we must eliminate any risk of this crime of the century happening again. Enforce 230 and also break them up.

Posted by Solomon Pheremble2579 2021-03-13 09:42|| 2021-03-13 09:42|| Front Page Top

#10 Economic in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt is a classic, if not THE book to read.

Thomas Sowell is an incredible author with an incredible mind.

Posted by Clem 2021-03-13 10:08|| 2021-03-13 10:08|| Front Page Top

#11 Big Tech buys politicians all over the place. They have unprecedented power. And if they don't like you, they ban you. Good luck getting your message out when you can't use the world's defacto platforms for communication like Facebook and Twitter.

Anyone here hear of the SuperStraight movement? No? Yeah, that's because it got censored real fast. Now it's gone, and a powerful weapon against the trans crazies is gone and probably won't resurface. It's been banished to web forums with 2000 users instead of 200 million.

Posted by Sheger Thromotch7944 2021-03-13 11:36|| 2021-03-13 11:36|| Front Page Top

#12 I'm "just straight enough" to be a danger to mass media's "anything goes" version of society. There's no meeting in the middle on that and I'm not moving in their desired direction.

Posted by M. Murcek 2021-03-13 12:16|| 2021-03-13 12:16|| Front Page Top

#13 The fundamental issue is size. R'burg doesn't shape elections; If you've reached the level of more than 20-30% of internet traffic to your site, you're not just a tech company or a blogger anymore. You're now an information gatekeeper-- a political player with the ability to shape election outcomes in a democracy.

R'burg or whatever blog you like -- Substack or Slate, Townhall or Jacobin, doesn't matter which way the little site leans-- these don't shape elections.

But Google, FB and Twitter absolutely positively swung the last election to their candidate by suppressing the extraordinarily vast amount of evidence, testimony, and witnesses who established that Biden is a lying POS and compromisedby the CCP. Most voters had no idea that Biden's family has been selling access to Biden for Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian illicit money.

If CNN, NPR, NYT WaPo etc suppress this, that's a problem, but these companies have a small market share. They compete with the NY Post and Tucker Carlson in a fragmented market.

But GOOG FB and Twitter have no serious rivals in their respective markets. Their political power is immense, and not tolerable in a democracy. They need to be broken up.

Posted by Jeremiah the Slender9785 2021-03-13 13:16|| 2021-03-13 13:16|| Front Page Top

#14 The channels of communication should not be subject to some "percentage" litmus test. You should be free to speak your mind at any level. Witness "celebrities" using their megaphones.

Posted by M. Murcek 2021-03-13 13:20|| 2021-03-13 13:20|| Front Page Top

#15 "Should not be" -- sure. But aren't. When it comes to the flow of information, market dominance brings political power.

Posted by Jeremiah Prince of the Esquimeaux5557 2021-03-13 14:29|| 2021-03-13 14:29|| Front Page Top

#16 Speech and the right to self defense both transcend market power. Corrupt politicians and oligarchs may move to deny that, but the truth remains whole.

Posted by M. Murcek 2021-03-13 14:35|| 2021-03-13 14:35|| Front Page Top

#17 It has become increasingly obvious and annoying over the past twenty years or so that the left actually believes in "capitalism" for themselves but no "capitalism" for anyone else.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2021-03-13 16:36|| 2021-03-13 16:36|| Front Page Top

#18 Rantburg is the Finest publication on the Internet.

CURSE anyone that comes after US.

Thank you Fred and 786 for the Only safe haven anywhere!

Posted by newc 2021-03-13 17:37|| 2021-03-13 17:37|| Front Page Top

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