The ability of Las Vegas to pop up in big far-away stories never ceases to amaze me. The same crew of White House plumbers caught breaking into the Watergate building for Richard Nixon in 1972 also may have tried to crack a safe in the offices of the Las Vegas Sun. Remember those two Eastern European cronies of Rudy Giuliani indicted in New York in 2019 on Ukraine-influence charges? They were also accused of campaign finance violations in Las Vegas concerning efforts to get a marijuana retailing license.
Now, in light of last week’s deadly invasion and riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald J. Trump, we have Apple, Google and Amazon shutting down access to Parler. That’s the right-wing version of Twitter/Facebook that may have been a platform for organizing and inciting what some are calling an attempted coup.
The Las Vegas connection? Why, Parler is headquartered here in the suburb of Henderson, in the Las Vegas Valley just a few miles from the New To Las Vegas world headquarters. Parler was started there in 2018 by two young University of Denver alums, John Matze Jr. and Jared Thomson, with help and money from Rebekah Mercer, the Republican heiress and Trump supporter who now owns part of the right-wing Breitbart web operation.
But what also amazes me is the belief held by many–particularly, it seems, on the left–that shutting down a platform of free speech is a good policy idea after something bad happens. To me, the solution to objectionable speech is simple: more speech, not less. Continue reading
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