The role of the internet is still not entirely clear to me. But let’s do some aloud thinking.
The Chinese government controls Chinese internet. I imagine there is a dark Chinese internet, but your average Li has no choice but to surf the internet as if he were sitting in an office space shared with 3 colleagues.
The West has free, anynomous internet. Not for the lack of trying by the government, sure, but look at their attempt to ban DailyStormer. It’s back. It’s Googable! If the deep state can’t even censor loud and self-proclaimed nazis, what are they going to do about sane rightists?
The problem with bioleninism is that while the weak are always willing to play game and suck up to the strong, a significant portion of the strong has to be bamboozled for the plan to work. It is a religious game after all. Experts, journalists, academics and politicians hand out sacraments to the masses, and their privileged role in handing out the sacraments to the masses reaffirms their position as moral authority. It’s a positive feedback loop.
But the internet cuts the loop short.
Imagine that in the story ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, the kid gets banned by one of the emperor’s mods. But, suddenly, another kid with a frog mask materializes behind the emperor and repeats what the first kid said. Then, another kid with a V for Vendetta mask shouts from the rooftop. And another with a troll face, and another, and another.
The priests of the old order see their status crumble before their eyes. Of course beyond the age of 30, 40, men’s brains are generally too crystallized to change religion, so currently the priests are retreating to the safe bunkers of their 40+ audience. But make no mistake: the left is losing the youthful strong and it is driving them nuts.
The only answer to internet blasphemy is to shut it down. Censorship works. People blab about the Streisand effect, but the Streisand effect is as fictional as the notion of guerrilla warfare. Per Jim, if the rebels are hidden by the villagers, you kill the villagers. Simple as that. The only way you lose is if you are not allowed to kill the villagers, but this has nothing to do with guerrilla warfare. Similarly, if you as an outsider are reliant on the judicial system to suppress photographs of your villa, you aren’t allowed to win. What you are supposed to do, is send the military to occupy Digg Headquarters, track down some 4chan trolls and publicly execute them to send a message.
But how could the deep state have known that Barbara Streisand would be the turning point in the meme wars?
The Streisand effect did not show that censorship fails, because we know censorship works. Instead, the Streisand effect showed the inability of the deep state to effectively censor the internet.
They are trying, and maybe one day they’ll be effective. In the Netherlands, the secret services are pushing a ‘drag net’ law to legally install spyware and hack into all computer devices. Chinafy the internet.
But for the priests of the old order it seems like it is too late. Too many kids making fun of the emperor, and the emperor depends on not being made fun of. Isn’t the internet fun.
