I said "speech infringements" because there is, in fact, a whole spectrum of actions at play ranging from minor, such as the deletion of a comment to outright banning. (The former happened to me a couple of years back on Facebook for the sin of linking to a Chomsky interview on Russiagate. There's an "explicitly censorious stance" for you; some programmed dweeb in a cubicle who'd bought into four years of Maddow's bullshit deciding I needed a content slap, though more likely it was the "all knowing" algorithm).

My point was not about whether or not GoFundMe has the right to choose to politicize economic services. They do, obviously - just as consumers have the right to boycott. The real threat here is when government pressures Big Tech to suppress certain views (coincidentally they happen to run counter to their own narratives).

So I was really addressing the broader picture - which is not "bullshit." It's actually happening, as Taibbi's extensive reporting on these matters reveals. If you take the time to get into the weeds by reading or listening to these reports, the interplay between these powerful entities is fascinating, nuanced, even sometimes nonsensical, though the overall trend is towards centralizing control.

This is not about Elon Musk's motives or what one thinks of the Gray Zone. Nor is it about content moderation - which of course is necessary, the law being a good starting point as to when some "speech" should, and often is, deleted.

This is about a labyrinth alliance of government agencies, NGOs and political elites — working in concert with Big Tech — to suppress views that run counter to the accepted "groupthink" on a host of issues.

It's an insidious trend across the West. For instance, as British writer Ricky of Councilestatemedia wrote recently: "Anti-imperialist website Mint Press News has had its TikTok account deleted without warning or explanation. This comes after it had previously between de-platformed from PayPal and had its money withheld, with apparent involvement from the US and British governments." In other words, a censorship industrial complex.

Anyone who cares about ensuring a free marketplace of ideas should be alarmed at this state of affairs. Some care. Some do not. Many have understandably retreated into their own cocoons, which was my other point.