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Comment by paxys | Hacker News Reader

So a self proclaimed critic of American imperialism and corporate control is complaining that a trillion dollar American corporation won't help him spread his message.

No, you haven't been "disappeared". Your content still exists. YouTube just doesn't owe you anything. Go find somewhere else to distribute it.

In fact try being a free thinker in your beloved Russia and see how far that gets you.

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TBF, he writes "I was on RT for the same reason the dissident Vaclav Havel, who I knew, was on Voice of America during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. It was that or not be heard. Havel had no more love for the policies of Washington than I have for those of Moscow." Now, of course I didn't know Havel, but while he may have had "no love for the policies of Washington", he did want to make his country more democratic and liberate it from Russian influence. So I don't think these mental gymnastics really justify producing a show that provides legitimacy to a channel that spreads Russian propaganda, amplifies conspiracy theories and promotes Russian imperialism (which, as opposed to US imperialism, he seems to be Ok with).

> Go find somewhere else to distribute it

When all of the major distribution systems exclude anyone that is not aligned toward accepted narratives, this becomes less and less feasible. And so the question remains "Are we a more informed and better society because of this censorship?"

Free thinking means not projecting your prejudices by affiliation and extracting meaning even from biased sources.

Just to clarify.

It also means having the wherewithal to take the source's prejudices and priors into account, as part and parcel of the meaning and intent you glean from the true portion of their argument. Which is to say, any true thing spoken by an American shill for RT has to also be considered for what specific purpose its inclusion on that channel serves. To accept information without understanding the purpose and bias behind it is even worse than not knowing anything at all.

> an American shill for RT

This is absurd. His RT content was in the same vein as his books, and his work published while at The New York Times. His work is consistent with his principles, regardless of the medium, or the source of funding.

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