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In George Orwell’s book 1984, published in 1949, the term “vaporized” was used to describe “unpeople,” or those individuals the government completely erased from society and existence. An unperson would be taken out of books, photographs and articles so that no trace of him or her could ever be found anywhere in the present. Because the individual was considered to have never legally existed, it would be a thoughtcrime to even say an unperson’s name or think of unpeople.
This posts compiles a list of people, companies and organizations that have been banned, suspended, fired or threatened simply for committing thoughtcrimes with their opinions, actions and words.
Week of June 14, 2021
Dr. Naomi Wolf has been permanently banned from Twitter. A life-long progressive Democrat, Wolf has been a sharp critic of coronavirus passports and vaccines lately, telling Fox News’ Tucker Carlson in February that “we’re really moving into a coup situation, a police state situation, and that’s not a partisan thing.”
Former U.S. House candidate and current American Greatness contributor Pete D’Abrosca found out on Tuesday that Wells Fargo had cancelled his savings account “with no explanation.”
Lauren Witzke, who ran as the Republican candidate for the Senate in Delaware in the 2020 elections, revealed that Wells Fargo had completely shut down her bank account, removing all of her money from the system, leaving her with a “zero balance” instead. In a call with the bank, Witzke was informed that the action taken was a purely “business decision,” and that they have the right to close her account down at any time.
Week of May 24, 2021
Emily Wilder, an entry-level employee at The Associated Press, was fired last week after her old social media posts from 1997-2000 went viral. In those posts, she made controversial remarks about a prominent Jew and Israel. AP claims Wilder violated the company’s social media policy for employees, even though the woman was not employed by AP at the time the posts were made. The situation also raises an interesting question. If these posts were so offensive, why didn’t the master investigative journalists at The AP uncover them during the hiring process?
Week of Feb. 22, 2021
Richard Paxton, a former professor at Pacific University was fired for making “transphobic” comments during a class lecture while describing psychological schema theory of how the mind works. Noting that gender is one of the most studied aspects of schema theory in that humans quickly distinguish between male and female, he repeated an often told story about visiting a bar with some college friends. As they approached, their eyes were drawn to some “promising” ladies in short shorts. But, as they arrived at the bar they noticed a sign beckoning “Y’all come in. World’s Best Female Impersonators.” Suddenly, their attitudes changed. By repeating that story, Paxton was accused of making “jokes about the identity of transgender people.”
Theodor Geisel, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss, has the distinction this week of being cancelled posthumously. Even though National Reading Day coincides with his birthday, as it has for 23 years, this year the woke monster called for him to be vaporized — and school districts around the country are only too willing to capitulate to the demand. Why? Because the books which remain popular around the world for their cute story lines, artwork, rhyme and alliteration have been found to contain “racial undertones” that are not suitable for “culturally responsive” learning. Of course. Dr. Seuss joins other famous authors cancelled after their deaths, including Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mark Twain and Harper Lee.
Week of Feb. 15, 2021
David Schoen, one of three attorneys who represented President Donald Trump during the recent impeachment trial, said on Feb. 17 that a law school canceled a civil rights law course he was going to teach and he was suspended from a civil rights lawyer email discussion list.
Paul Sperry, an independent journalist based in Washington, D.C., was suspended off Twitter Feb. 18. No reason was given by the social media platform. “They are trying to push me off their platform and silence my voice through harassment. If they can harass and silence a professional journalist, they can silence anybody,” he warned.
Australian news was banned by Facebook so that users in Australia could no longer share or read news articles on its site and anyone outside the country was barred from seeing anything from an Australian news outlet. The move was made in response to a new Australian law requiring social media companies, like Facebook, to pay local media outlets for profiting off content produced by those outlets.
Week of Feb. 8, 2021
James O’Keefe, and independent journalist and founder of Project Veritas, which uses undercover videos to expose double standards, was permanently banned from Twitter after sharing a video showing Project Veritas journalist Christian Hartsock approaching Facebook executive Guy Rosen on the sidewalk outside of his home. Rosen was originally recorded addressing a conference and stating Facebook “has a “system” of being able to “freeze commenting” on threads that are flagged as containing “hate speech or violence.”
Week of Feb. 1, 2021
Jim Hoft, founder of Gateway Pundit, was permanently banned from Twitter for “repeated violations” of its policy that bars users from tweeting messages “for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes,” including misinformation regarding the outcome of an election. Gateway Pundit was among the conservative media outlets that had advanced “unsubstantiated claims” from former President Trump and his allies of widespread voting irregularities and voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
It’s ironic that whenever someone tries to substantiate “unsubstantiated claims” with video evidence or written analysis about anything, their voices are removed from the discussion — just as our nation’s founding fathers intended.
Week of Jan. 25, 2021
Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, was permanently banned from Twitter on Jan. 26 after he posted a video online providing evidence of irregularities in the November election. His company’s products were later removed from Dollar General, Kohls, Bed Bath and Beyond, ShopHQ, Mattress Firm, Kroger, BJ’s, Wayfair, The Shopping Channel, H-E-B, Affirm, Fingerhut, Kinney Drugs, Colony Brands, Bluestem, Coborn’s, Chewy.com and JCPenney.
Week of Jan. 4, 2021
L. Lin Wood, an attorney closely tied to former president Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter for “pushing wild conspiracy theories about the election and filing frivolous lawsuits on the president’s behalf.” Later, the State Bar of Georgia began proceedings against Wood to determine whether to strip the attorney of his license due to “mental illness.”
Michael Flynn, former U.S. national security advisor, was permanently banned by Twitter for propagating information that creates “physical, psychological, or informational” harm in posting information about QAnon, conspiracy theory believes that former President Donald Trump was working to expose a shadowy cabal of elites in Democratic politics in the media running underground child trafficking rings. Flynn also tweeted that Trump should declare martial law so the military could run a new election.
The “spark”
Donald Trump, former U.S. president, was banned from 16 social media services and other companies for “inciting violence” after he posted this to Twitter on Jan. 8: “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
Trump was later impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives and acquitted by the U.S. Senate for a speech he made at the White House while protesters were breaching the U.S. Capitol building two miles away. In the speech, Trump said this:
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength, and you have to be strong.
“We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing, and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated — lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard today.”
