The once famous basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has called for big tech censorship of conservative celebrities.
As reported by the Conservative Review, the 20 season NBA veteran wrote a piece in The Hollywood Reporter attacking conservative celebrities. In the piece, Abdul-Jabbar called for increased social media censorship of celebrities with differing viewpoints. He wrote:
“Social media companies have begun slapping warnings on some messages that are false, incite violence or cause harm to society. But this needs to be done with more consistency and vigilance.
Studies indicate that when readers see these warnings, they are less likely to read or believe things. However, as another study showed, there can be a backfire effect in which content that isn’t flagged, even when inaccurate, is perceived as true.”
In his article, Abdul-Jabbar targeted such figures as Rudy Giuliani, J.K. Rowling, James Woods, and Jon Voight, among many others. He attacked Giuliani for having a “fall from grace,” Rowling for “anti-trans tweets,” James Woods for being a “cranky geezer,” and Jon Voight for being a “cultural dumpster diver.”
Over the past few years, big-tech censorship has risen as a subject of national discourse. Beginning on Twitter with the censorship of some conservative and pro-life accounts, this censorship has expanded to Youtube, Instagram, Google, and Facebook. Recently, the New York Post was censored over the Hunter Biden scandal.
Right before the election, Instagram purged many conservative accounts from their platform. The issue has become so prominent as to warrant an “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship” from President Trump, issued in May of this year. Some GOP Congressmen have even discussed the potentiality of trust-busting. However, this governmental pressure seems not to have phased big-tech… or the celebrities who are calling for increased censorship.
Abdul-Jabbar believes that conservative celebrities deserve “harsh backlash” for their “irresponsibility.” He wrote,
“The irresponsibility of tweeting irrational and harmful opinions to millions, regardless of the damaging consequences to their country or people’s lives, proves that those stars deserve the harsh backlash.
Unfortunately, the long-term result may be that their professional legacies could become brief footnotes to the memory of their collection of mason jars filled with their excreted opinions.”
Abdul-Jabbar explained his reasoning behind this assertion- an assertion that many would call extreme and intolerant. He explained, “Many Americans imbue stars with political and social intelligence they just don’t have. Great success in one field can lead to the delusion that all your thoughts are great…”
Well, this reporter finds himself agreeing with this statement. Perhaps stars shouldn’t act as if they have the political intelligence which warrants their frequent commentary on current events.
This begs the question: why is a retired basketball player writing a political op-ed, demanding big-tech censorship of his ideological opponents?
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