There is a certain intoxication with winning that tends to border on insanity. A sports team, for instance, is much more likely to run risky plays if it has won the last five games; a politician is much more likely to adopt risky proposals if he has won the last several elections; and a political party is much more likely to feel comfortable dominating the cultural and political space if it feels that it has that thing political commentators like to refer as a “mandate” from the people to enact its agenda. The Republican Party and, more broadly, the conservative movement are on the edge of that insanity — if they haven’t already entered into it.
In many ways, it’s a good kind of insanity. It’s the kind that pushes sports teams to win against impossible odds, inspires tiny armies to defeat colossal forces, and puts men on the moon. Unfortunately, it also tends to breed a lazy mental state. There is less introspection among the winners and a general lack of critical thinking.
Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement last week that he is ending strict censorship policies at Meta was very good news, but it should not have come as a surprise to anyone. He spent a good number of hours in a congressional hearing room being grilled by Jim Jordan a year and a half ago, and in November, the entire country had turned decidedly red. To be blunt, he didn’t have a lot of options. (READ MORE: Facebook Ends Dubious Fact-Checking. Biden Objects.)
He did the obvious thing. His five-minute-long video blamed Meta’s onerous speech policies on “complex systems” implemented when “governments and legacy media” pushed to “censor more and more.” He promised to simplify those systems, reduce and weaken content filters, replace fact-checkers with community notes (yes, he stole that from X), and move his content moderation team to Texas (also an idea he stole from Elon Musk). The goal, Zuckerberg informed the nearly 3.2 billion people who use his platforms daily, is to “get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram.”
For many of us, his announcement was another piece of good news in a wave of good news.
Zuckerberg then went on Joe Rogan’s podcast in a two-hour-long episode that aired last Friday to offer an explanation of his actions and to claim victimhood. The Biden administration, Zuckerberg complained, called his employees, bullied them over the phone (evidently those employees never thought to record those conversations), and pressured them in emails in order to censor memes, satire, and any dissenting voices. He claims the company tried to push back, although it eventually caved, for which Zuckerberg apologized.
As Jordan Boyd pointed out at the Federalist, that’s not exactly how it all went down. The Facebook Files, which Zuckerberg continually invokes in his interview, reveal that while Meta was certainly bullied by the government, it didn’t push back all that hard. It certainly had no inclination to admit it was being bullied. It wasn’t until Jim Jordan threatened Zuckerberg by announcing his committee’s intention to hold him in contempt that the company turned over emails proving “that government pressure was directly responsible for censorship on Facebook.” (READ MORE: Farewell Mr. Waugh: Political Correctness and Censorship Continue to Wreak Havoc)
Zuckerberg seems to have been particularly susceptible to being pushed around by the Biden administration. If the government wanted fewer Americans to see posts about potential vaccine side effects, Meta complied. If the Babylon Bee’s satire or internet memes were a bit too on-point, Meta took them down. Now that the incoming government is composed of the same people Meta once censored, Zuckerberg is eager to give them what they want.
The insane feeling of winning makes us want to welcome Zuckerberg to our side with open arms. A more critical — although pessimistic — approach might recognize that he and his social media platforms will be on their best behavior until the next time the cultural winds shift away from conservatives.
Like it or not, economy, culture, and politics are intertwined. Business owners — especially those in the entertainment and social media industries — have a tendency to keep one eye on the way the cultural and political tides are moving. You can’t totally blame them, either. They’re simply implementing best business practices to make the most money. That’s what businesses do in a capitalist economy.
What this means is that when the government shuts down an entire country and Americans dutifully go along with it, social media companies aren’t going to put up a fuss. They’ll censor the voices the government says ought to be censored and promote the voices the government says ought to be promoted. They become one with the herd, and in doing so, they amplify the herd. (READ MORE: Grilling Hegseth: Democrats Expose Their Spiteful Hypocrisy)
But there’s a positive flip side to it, too. When the conservative movement makes the kinds of wins it’s making, and when the entire nation (with the exception of a few counties) flips red, so do these companies. They apologize for past flubs and get in line with the new agenda. They hire people like Dana White and profess to love free speech once again.
Zuckerberg’s flip-flop is good news for now, but if we’re going to solidify these kinds of wins, we have to hold on to the cultural and political reins of power. That’s much easier said than done.