Did you ever notice that there are two kinds of censorship? There is stuff you are not allowed to hear (or read), and there is stuff you are not allowed to say (or write). Of course. And, no doubt, there is censorship of what you see, or touch, or smell. Five senses, and all.

Clearly, when a ruling class is conducting a war, then all information that might raise doubts about the glorious advance to victory must be suppressed. If you didn't notice that in the late War on COVID, then I got a bridge…

I mean it. No president or Führer or Great Helmsman can permit you to hear a discussion of the justification of his war, or the conduct of his war, or his inevitable victory. If you got to know of any questions about the progress of the war your dedication to victory might flag, and that would clearly weaken the war effort. Thus, in the late War on COVID, the government could not permit back-talk on the COVID origin, or the COVID lockdowns, or the COVID masks, or the COVID vaccines. Why? Because it might have resulted in defeat in the War on COVID. Thus governments all censor narrative that conflicts with the Glorious Victory Narrative, just as we experienced in the late War on COVID.

And. if any anti-regime narrative sees the light of day, it is simply dismissed as a Lie.

But the other kind of censorship is directed at what people are not allowed to say. Our illustrious Vice President Kamala Harris illustrated this recently when she went to Florida to criticize Governor Ron DeSantis's school history policy. She is outraged that "public school students will now be taught that some Black people received “personal benefit” from slavery -- because it taught them useful skills." You can see the point. Slavery cannot be anything but an absolute evil. Period. And you are not allowed to say "yes, but," because African Americans are both the noblest people and the most helpless victims since nobility and victimhood were invented. So Charles Cooke's 180-point bullet list is irrelevant. And racist.

The current fashion in Narrative Control is weaponizing the word "denier." This started with "Holocaust denier," and it was so successful that anything that challenges the ruling-class narrative is now denier-land, as in "science denier," "climate denier."

Actually, the "denier" pejorative is just the middle-ground in the universe of things you are not allowed to say.

First, there are insults that you are not allowed to say, as in N-word for blacks, and K-word for Jews, the F-word for gays. I once used the N-word on Blogger in a list of pejoratives used to describe White Trash. Apparently, back in the day, people would say "white N-word" to describe White Trash. Okay, Google, I get it. Pejoratives about White Trash are okay, but not if they include the N-word.

Second, comes the fashionable "denier" pejorative. We know all about that.

Third, there is the "lie" accusation, as in the "Trump Lies" article on La Wik. With political lies, I always think of Mary McCarthy's famous line about Lillian Hellman: "Everything she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" If you don't understand that everything every politician says is a lie, including "and" and "the," I got another bridge to sell you, cupcake. And why do politicians lie? Because we the voters insist upon it.

Fourth, there is the "conspiracy theorist" pejorative, as in conspiracy theories about the JFK assassination. You can see that this is not quite as serious as "denier." It's an opinion that no respectable person would ever hold, but, well, what can you expect from the "benighted."

Fifth, there is the associating-with-the-bad-people pejorative, as in the criticism of the Sound of Freedom movie as "QAnon-adjacent" or having a "QAnon taint," or the dismissal of any idea as "far right."

But I want to suggest that all this is not just scandalous, but interesting.

Isn't it interesting how we humans are constantly trying to control the speech of others. Obviously, this is not just the powerful oppressing the powerless; it goes a lot deeper and wider than that. I suspect that at the widest and deepest level it just makes sense that social and talkative animals like humans can't survive if everyone is shooting off their mouths all the time. Especially, when the group is in a fight for survival, and we all have to shut up and get with the program.

I have to say that I have got to the point that, whenever I hear of censorship, or denier, or lies, or conspiracy theory, my doggy ears prick up. What is it that powerful people don't want me to know? And why?

Then there is a whole universe of women censoring each other. But I am not a biologist.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.

Image: Public Domain