If you control a person’s ability to make a living you pretty much control them.

That was the secret to vaccine mandates. Sure, you could choose whether to get vaccinated or not. But if you choose not to, good luck finding a job. That’s why we laugh every time a politician claims that people had a choice about whether to take the vaccine. “Do what I say or lose everything” isn’t exactly a choice.

Content providers on the internet often face the same choice: write what Big Tech wants or lose your ability to monetize your content. You can write it, but Big Tech will ensure that you can’t get paid to do so. Say something that they don’t like in a column, a video, or a podcast, and your revenue might go “poof.”

That happens to us a lot on Hot Air and all the Townhall properties. In just the past month tons of stories were demonetized by Google, the largest ad server on the internet. Microsoft and Facebook are major players too, and all of them have targeted conservative speech for silencing.

Write about climate change. No ads.

Trans issues? Don’t say the wrong thing.

Elections? Be careful.

COVID-19? You better say the CDC is the sole authority on truth.

You are free to say anything you want, as long as it is precisely what they want you to say. Otherwise, say goodbye to ad revenue. Big Tech serves the ads, funds the “fact-checking” sites that set the standards, contributes to the non-profits that label everything “hate speech,” and suddenly all the money and power are aligned to push a Narrative.

Advertisers don’t scour the internet for sites to support. They use brokers to maximize the number of eyeballs they reach and to ensure that the content their ads appear next to is “safe.” Big companies don’t want their ad appearing alongside pornography or Nazi propaganda, so they use the Big Tech tools to place the ads.

That means that any content Big Tech doesn’t care for just gets labeled “hate speech” or “misinformation,” and it’s banned.

Those ads you see on our websites? We love our advertisers and they help keep us afloat, but they are the few who have chosen to buck the system. It is a small and hearty crew who do so. And not enough to keep us publishing.

In China, the Communist Party decides what you can and can’t see using a Social Credit Score.

In the West it is Big Tech, using pretty much the same criteria. Say or do the wrong thing–or even just be accused of doing so–and your access to much of modern society can be cut off, and your ability to make a living ripped away.

Hot Air and Townhall writers and podcasters refuse to buckle to Big Tech. Generally, because we are a stubborn lot who refuse to be told what to say. We were the kids who annoyed the teachers by not repeating what they wanted to hear. We don’t go along to get along.

I don’t claim we do so because we are more high-minded than our MSM peers–although I, for one, am better, stronger, and more moral than the lot of them!–but in some way or another, we are misfits who refuse to be told what to do.

We are the child who yells “The Emperor has no clothes!” Somebody has to do it, and for whatever reason the hodgepodge of writers and podcasters here are inclined to do so. It’s a valuable societal function.

But not one that gets rewarded by the naked Emperor and his minions. They get seriously annoyed.

I know you value what we do because you are here reading this. You see the value. You seek out our content. Now I am asking you to do what the elite refuses to: help us making a living doing it.

It costs money to keep Hot Air and Townhall up and running. We don’t get government grants as PBS does. Corporations don’t throw money at us as they do the MSM. Pfizer doesn’t buy naming rights to our podcasts and columns.

Hundreds of billions of dollars flow into the Establishment. We keep things running on a comparative shoestring.

Your membership dollars keep us publishing every day. The ads help, but don’t pay all the bills. It’s VIP members who do.

If you are a VIP member, thank you! Seriously, thank you. You have no idea how much your subscription helps.

If you aren’t a VIP member, ask yourself why not. Many of you visit Hot Air every day, many times a day. Some a few times a week. No matter how often you do, it’s because you get something of value from us.

Cashiers at burger joints are now asking for tips as you pay your outrageous amount for a burger, and they just took your order. I am pretty sure we provide more value than that to you. You probably have subscriptions that you have forgotten about or use infrequently. I know I do.

Signing up is simply committing to a few dollars a month, especially if you use the code SAVEAMERICA and get 40% off. You get exclusive content, but even if you didn’t get a bonus you should do it anyway. It keeps us going, and that matters. A lot.

Big Tech isn’t going to stop working to shut us down. They call our content “harmful” and even “dangerous.” I’m serious–they use those words to dissuade advertisers from using our sites. Without the small number of independent media organizations out there you would see nothing but propaganda.

If you think the MSM is biased beyond recognition then you owe it to yourself and to your fellow Americans to keep independent publishers churning out alternative points of view. Hot Air and Townhall deserve to be on that list.

So sign up today, use the code SAVEAMERICA, and feel good about yourself.