Dan Klein
Latest posts by Dan Klein (see all)
- Dream Trump on Social Media Left-wing Bias - March 22, 2019
I don’t often dream but I awakened the other morning from a memorable one.
In the dream I was watching the U.S. Open tennis tournament and, between sets, flicked the channel, and heard President Trump. He was giving a speech at a large rally. My interested grew, forgetting about the tennis match. Here is what he said:
The social media giants are taking advantage of us with their left-wing bias, and it’s not fair, not fair at all. If you don’t fit their left-wing world view–many can tell you–if you don’t fit their left-wing world view, you may find your videos suppressed or disabled, your reporting buried. You are removed from search results, or at the bottom, while their fake news friends go to the top, pumped to millions of users.
It’s not right, and we must do something about it. It’s not a level playing-field—and we will do something about it.
Their left-wing bias isn’t even a secret! Some of them admit it openly. And the more it’s exposed the more we can do.
It’s the same thing at colleges and universities, where protesters shout down invited speakers, to shut them up. A horrible violation of free speech, but it’s happening on our campuses, all from the left.
But we love free speech. It’s a beautiful thing. FREE SPEECH. And so American. So, soooooo American.
(The crowd chanted “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” Trump gave a fist-pumped and continued.)
Everyone free to speak. And if you don’t like it you don’t have to attend. If you want to challenge it, you can speak up. Expose the errors and the lies. Beat back bad speech with good speech.
There was a time when the airwaves weren’t free. But the airwaves and cable were opened up—free speech!—and we got radio and TV that gave different opinions, and then we got the internet, and we got real diversity, the most important kind. Ideas challenged other Ideas, opinions challenged opinions. The bad ideas get exposed.
Fake news has to be exposed. Bias has to be exposed, and it is being exposed.
We won’t let ourselves be victims. Too many people play the victim card to get special privileges. Good Americans don’t do that. You know what “AMERICAN” ends in: “I CAN!”
(The Crowd chanted “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”)
Yeah, that’s right: WE CAN!
President Barrack Obama said he didn’t need Congress, because he had a pen and a phone. Well I have a voice and a Twitter account, and I’m ready to use them.
Americans challenge the fake news. It’s time to challenge Google, Facebook, Youtube and any platform that acts unfairly.
There are a lot of people—lots of people, really: LOTS—ready to make a switch. We want platforms that don’t hate. Millions and millions of Americans. A HUGE opportunity! And I can help by letting people know—free speech again!
It’s a matter of trust. We’ve got to know who to trust and who we can’t trust. We need to know what the social media giants are doing. It’s a lot to keep track of, but we need to know what they’re doing.
We need to study what happens to conservative voices, to investigate. To interview people who’ve been mistreated, and to interview people from the companies themselves, should they wish to explain themselves.
If research and investigation show that a company has left-wing bias, Americans can be warned. People who don’t want left-wing bias, they will know to go elsewhere. That’s why we need to know, so people know it’s slanted.
I will raise five million dollars to fund investigations. The five million dollars will go to researchers selected by a few of the leading think tanks back in Washington DC, from across the political spectrum, including the Brookings Institution, which leans Democrat. Those think tanks will be charged with selecting researchers, the best they can find, the ones they trust, and like and admire. It’s up to them.
After a period of study all will come together to report their results, and I’ll be there. It will have the cooperation of the United States Presidency. I’ll shine a light on it. Sunlight really is the best disinfectant.
People will know better what the social media giants are really doing, and whether they are living up to their promises. If Facebook says they treat conservatives equally but really they don’t—well, people don’t like to be lied to—that, I can tell you.
Millions and millions of users will be interested to learn what’s really going on, and who is lying about it. Americans will stand up to haters and liars.
They said we couldn’t do it. They were wrong.
Trump thanked his supporters and asked God to bless America and all Americans, and the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” started, and I turned the channel back to the U.S. Open, and watched Rafael Nadal put the ball in heavy rotation and heavenly arcs, the beautiful performance at which I awakened from my dream.
