Have the revelations that mainstream media and social-media platforms got so much wrong on COVID-19, Biden family corruption, and other topics changed their determination to censor and quash debate? Not exactly. While the form of suppressive tactics has changed, the goal remains the same — to shut down debate and dissent in order to control the conversation and the public square.

Those efforts have merely become more sophisticated. Rather than just issue block lists and advertiser warnings, we have discovered that certain topics result in “reviews” intended to deter links and readers from discussions. These “reviews” now require us to “prove” accuracy to their satisfaction on certain topics before removing ad blocks and demonetization regimes.

Want to guess what those topics might be? Oh, let’s not always see the same hands …

• COVID-19 and vaccines — still!
• Issues relating to irregularities of any kind in the 2020 election
• Climate change
• Trans issues

And those are just the topics we know about. Our team at the Townhall Media corporate office has to fight these battles every day so that we can be free to write, debate, and discuss the issues that matter to you.

And let’s not be coy, either. If we adopted the mainstream media/Big Left talking points on these and other topics, no one would ever bother us. We’d rake in the dough, and probably get all sorts of invitations to The Best TV Shows and cocktail parties. At the very least, no one in Big Tech would demand that we “prove” our arguments — which we do quite well in our articles, complete with links and citations of sourcing — before allowing unfettered access.

This isn’t about “misinformation,” a corrosive concept in speech with only one purpose — to silence dissent. It’s about shutting down debate in favor of a hard-Left political agenda, and to starve all others out of the marketplace one way or another.

Do you feel like shutting up?

Do you want to see us and our sister sites stop discussing the topics above, and others?

Should we knuckle under to Big Tech, or should we keep fighting?

I’m for fighting!

Attempts to quash debate like this is why we developed our VIP/VIP Gold membership programs – to ensure that we can remain independent of mainstream media hostility, Big Tech’s cowardly collaboration with government censors, and periods of advertiser trepidation stoked by activists and extremists. It keeps us free to speak our minds and to bring dissent and debate back to our readers. It also provides exclusive content, such as:

• The Amiable Skeptics featuring Adam Baldwin
• Off the Beaten Path with Larry O’Connor
• The Week in Review with Duane Patterson
• Exclusive columns from Tom Jackson, Duane “Generalissimo” Patterson, and Matt Vespa
• Members-only content from our HotAir team – David Strom, Jazz Shaw, and myself
• Live chats and interactive engagement on all platforms with VIP Gold
• Exclusive access to the comments sections on each post, so that you can join the conversation at HotAir
• And more yet to come!

We talk about this more often now because we see the coming crisis in media more clearly than ever. We hope we can gather as many allies as possible to keep all of these issues in the public square – and indeed to preserve the public square at all.

Join us in the fight. Become a HotAir VIP member today and use promo code CENSORSHIP to receive a 50% discount on your membership.

Thank you, and thank you for standing with us. Because no one can stand alone for long against the Orwellian forces attempting to shut down debate and dissent.