fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Digital Age Fanatics Meet Bronze Age Fanatics

I have to laugh. The video, “The Innocence of Muslims,” that was wrongly blamed for the death of our Ambassador to Libya is now the reason for massive protests outside of Google HQ in London. Said one protester: “Organisations like Google are key players and have to take responsibility for civility. You can’t just say it […]

I have to laugh. The video, “The Innocence of Muslims,” that was wrongly blamed for the death of our Ambassador to Libya is now the reason for massive protests outside of Google HQ in London. Said one protester:

“Organisations like Google are key players and have to take responsibility for civility. You can’t just say it doesn’t matter that it’s freedom of speech. It’s anarchy.”

Many of my nerdly friends find these protests distressing. They’re not thinking hard enough.

If a major publishing house in New York decided to put out a special edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and made it available for free download on every Kindle on the planet we could expect lots of protests.

Google pretends that it is just a platform, not a publisher. But of course Google does scrub YouTube of videos that break copyright laws or other decency laws. Nerds just don’t think that propaganda against religious minorities, or at least these religious minorities, is indecent. For Google, content from NBC Universal is sacrosanct, The Prophet is not.

The digital-age fanatics talk endlessly of how “revolutionary” their products are. And Google isn’t exactly shy about its own desire to see religiously-inspired laws go down across the world. They shouldn’t be so shocked when the counter-revolutionaries show up to protest them.

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here