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On Being Disappeared
Hdeges, Chris
http://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/28/chris-hedges-on-being-disappeared/Date Written: 2022-03-28 Publisher: Consortium News Year Published: 2022 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX24541 YouTube has removed the entire six-year archive of the author's show 'On Contact.' This censorship, he says, is about supporting what I.F Stone reminded us is what governments always do - lie. Abstract: - Excerpt: YouTube has removed the entire six-year archive of the author's show 'On Contact.' This censorship, he says, is about supporting what I.F Stone reminded us is what governments always do - lie. The entire archive of "On Contact," the Emmy-nominated show I hosted for six years for RT America and RT International, has been disappeared from YouTube. Gone is the interview with Nathaniel Philbrick on his book about George Washington. Gone is the discussion with Kai Bird on his biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Gone is my exploration with Professor Sam Slote from Trinity College Dublin of James Joyce's "Ulysses." Gone is the show with Benjamin Moser on his biography of Susan Sontag. Gone is the show with Stephen Kinzer on his book on John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles. Gone are the interviews with the social critics Cornel West, Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Gerald Horne, Wendy Brown, Paul Street, Gabriel Rockwell, Naomi Wolff and Slavoj Zizek. ... The most vocal cheerleaders for this censorship are the liberal class. Terrified of the enraged crowds of QAnon conspiracy theorists, Christian fascists, gun-toting militias, and cult-like Trump supporters that grew out of the distortions of neoliberalism, austerity, deindustrialization, and the collapse of social programs, they plead with the digital monopolies to make it all go away. They blame anyone but themselves. ... This censorship is about supporting what, as I.F Stone reminded us, governments always do - lie. Challenge the official lie, as I often did, and you will soon become a nonperson on digital media. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden exposed the truth about the criminal inner workings of power. Look where they are now. This censorship is one step removed from Joseph Stalin's whitewashing of nonpersons such as Leon Trotsky out of official photographs. It is a destruction of our collective memory. It removes those moments in the media and the press when we attempted to examine our reality in ways the ruling class did not appreciate. The goal is to foster historical amnesia. If we don't know what happened in the past, we cannot make sense of the present. Subject Headings |