The Left’s control of the communications industry – education, entertainment, news media – privileged them politically for several decades. They still command the heights in those three areas. However, they don’t want dominance; they want total, unblemished control:
Staff are protesting against a new US imprint of global publisher Hachette Book Group (HBG) specialising in conservative books, launched in the wake of Donald Trump’s election win.
A letter from an anonymous group of HBG employees has been published on social media, criticising the launch of Basic Liberty. It also expresses concern at the hiring of executive editor Thomas Spence. Spence is the former president of conservative publisher Regnery and a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, the rightwing thinktank that coordinated the Project 2025 initiative, which sets out plans to reshape the US government and strip minorities of legal protections.[Applause to Mike Hendrix.]
Hachette is responding to a market condition, to wit: conservatives buy books. To one who prefers reason to wishful thinking, this seems normal, even natural. But Leftists are not reasoning creatures:
“We condemn HBG’s decision to put profit before its own people,” the letter goes on to say. “We are calling on HBG to recognise the responsibility it has as one of the world’s leading publishers, to act with empathy and compassion for all people, and to re-evaluate its decision to move forward with the creation of Basic Liberty and the hiring of Thomas Spence.”
Corporations exist to do business – to make money. That appears to offend the unnamed letter-writers. But then, normality always offends the abnormal. One more spoonful:
[Alex DiFrancesco, a US-based editor at Jessica Kingsley Publishers (JKP),] who is transgender, said that “the placement of Thomas Spence in a prominent role in the company feels like a direct threat not only to my work and livelihood, but to my person, and to many other minority workers within the company … I can only hope that others will make choices like the one I am currently making instead of rolling over to the forces that would destroy our nation, our neighbours, and ourselves.”
It’s utterly pellucid that this isn’t about “empathy” or “compassion.” It’s about denying an outlet to thinkers and commentators in the Right.
The Left is similarly enraged that X (formerly Twitter) has been purged of its censorious “Trust & Safety” department, which before the takeover acted to silence conservative and libertarian sentiments. The denunciations being heaped on Elon Musk for his actions in defense of freedom of speech are mind-boggling. There must be no outlets for the Right!
Does anyone else remember the Sturm und Drang that erupted when Fox News turned moderately to the Right? It was a symptom of the same disease. Even today, with Fox having drifted somewhat leftward, the condemnations of Fox and owner Rupert Murdoch are deafening.
The Left’s could only succeed in stifling the Right as long as its control over the communications media was total. Once cablecasting and the Internet opened un-censorable channels for private Americans to enjoy – and to participate in! – the jig was up. Market forces took over. Americans discovered that there are indeed more ways to view politics, economics, and social matters than the one dictate to them from the Left… and it developed that majority prefer the one emanating from the Right.
This, Gentle Reader, is why the Soviet Union banned the private ownership of copiers. A crack that lets in a glimmer of light will hearten and embolden those who have dwelt in unbroken darkness. After they’ve glimpsed it, they can no longer be controlled.
Perhaps a new day really has dawned. Stay tuned!
