Persecuting prominent Trump supporters
The gloves are off: those who support Trump openly and effectively are being persecuted. The academics (including me) who signed a letter of support for Trump are dismissed as “hacks” by a New York Times columnist touted as a conservative (see this rebuttal). Those without tenure will pay a heavy price in the future.
Non-academics are not exempt, of course. The intellectual and cultural establishment has ways of getting to them. Scott Adams, the creator of “Dilbert” and an out of the closet Trump supporter, explains how even a well-to-do famous cartoonist can be made to pay a heavy price:
This weekend I got “shadowbanned” on Twitter. It lasted until my followers noticed and protested. Shadowbanning prevents my followers from seeing my tweets and replies, but in a way that is not obvious until you do some digging.
Why did I get shadowbanned?
Beats me.
But it was probably because I asked people to tweet me examples of Clinton supporters being violent against peaceful Trump supporters in public. I got a lot of them. It was chilling.
Stealth censorship is chilling, but Twitter has a right to conduct its affairs however it wishes. And the company appears anxious to drive itself out of business with its political biases. Adams has been subjected to a hit piece from Slate and vicious trolling on Twitter. But that is the least of his worries. Check this out:
The one and only speaking gig I had on my calendar for the coming year cancelled yesterday because they decided to “go in a different direction.” I estimate my opportunity cost from speaking events alone to be around $1 million. That’s based on how the rate of offers went from several per month (for decades) to zero this year. Blogging about Trump is expensive.
I think I will go out and buy a Dilbert book or two.