Liberal Sam Harris Closes His Massive Account to Support Conservatives Patreon Has Censored
A co-worker of mine once explained to me the most important differences between liberals and leftists.
Long story short, and bear with me here, liberals actually have a rare redeeming quality or two. By and large, there is virtually nothing redeeming about leftists.
One of those exceedingly rare liberal qualities that are actually somewhat redeeming? The issue of free speech.
“I disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” has long been a tenet supported by the liberal philosophy that has been lost to hysterical leftism in recent years.
This video from Prager U sums up the differences between liberals and leftists rather nicely. The “free speech” part comes in at No. 5.
Censorship is the enemy of a free people. There’s a reason it is such a beloved tactic of dictators. Liberals should have a major problem with censorship. Leftists clearly do not have an issue with it, and, in fact, embrace censorship so long as the material being censored are views they disagree with.
So as bizarre as this feels to type out, I actually need to give some modicum of credit to renowned liberal Sam Harris, the prominent atheist intellectual.
To be clear, I disagree with the overwhelming majority of Harris’ rhetoric, whether it’s his atheism or his devout anti-Trump sentiments. Harris is referred to as one of the “Four Horsemen of Atheism,” for crying out loud.
But again, to give credit where it’s due, Harris at least has the gumption to actually stand up for free speech rights, which is a far cry from many of his more loony peers.
Harris recently took to social media to reveal why he was getting rid of his account on Patreon, a platform in which artists and creators can be paid directly by fans — or “patrons” — for exclusive content and access.
Sam Harris Deletes Patreon Account in Protest of Corporate Censorship https://t.co/9x6UwoRArS pic.twitter.com/NuNMt2XPLz
— William Collier (@MrBillCollier) December 17, 2018
And Harris is one of the site’s biggest, best-known names — one of the platform’s top-15 contributors.
Laughably, Patreon boldly promises on its front page that artists can “regain creative freedom.” Harris saw that for the farce that it was and said as much in a statement.
— Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg) December 17, 2018
“As many of you know, the crowdfunding site Patreon has banned several prominent content creators from its platform,” Harris began in his statement.
“While the company insists that each was in violation of its terms of service, these recent expulsions seem more readily explained by political bias. Although I don’t share the politics of the banned members, I consider it no longer tenable to expose any part of my podcast funding to the whims of Patreon’s ‘Trust and Safety’ committee.”
Wow. Color me pleasantly surprised to hear any liberal take as principled of a stand as Harris.
And to be sure, Patreon has certainly been purging and banning any creator who doesn’t identify as being from the far left, according to Vice News.
It’s not a small loss for many creators.
According to Vice News, YouTuber Carl Benjamin, otherwise known as Sargon of Akkad, made up to $12,000 a month through Patreon before being removed on Dec. 6, Vice News reported.
So again, kudos to Sam Harris. I think he’s a smug, self-assured liberal, but at least he has principles about free speech.
That’s more than I can say for virtually anyone else on the left.
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