As regular readers know, I’m no great fan of banning online commentary, even the most egregious. On most topics I come closer to being a free speech absolutist than not, something that will likely get me into real trouble one day. However, even I need to draw a line somewhere. And that is why I will shed no tears at the permanent removal from YouTube of the Computing Forever channel, hosted by the Irish neo-right wannabe Dave Cullen. Popular with followers of the amorphous white nationalist movement in the United Kingdom and the United States while being virtually unknown at home, the channel peddled the usual online propaganda and conspiracy theories of the British and American alt-right. Everything from the Brexiting Brits fighting the sinister forces of globalisation to the racialist great replacement theory, with some absolutely crackpot views on the Covid-19 pandemic thrown in for good measure too.
Quite frankly, good riddance to bad rubbish. And if the removal of my own official channel by YouTube in 2019, apparently due to a concerted effort by online activists associated with a now defunct far-right identitarian group in Ireland and the UK, makes the disappearance of Computing Forever all the sweeter? Well then, so be it!
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
Maith thú, a Shionnaigh! Good riddance to droch-bhruscair, as you say. We continue amidst threats from fascists, racists, religious fundamentalists — and from Google or Facebook.
LikeLiked by 1 person
One less pile of defecation on the Internet!
LikeLike
Good on you ASF! Didn’t that start out as a pretty vanilla computing thing originally?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep. And some geekish reviews and fan stuff. It was actually ok. Then the politics crept in and ruined it all. Something I’m familiar with! 🤓 Unfortunately the politics began to drift rightwards as he started to name tick different alt-right figures and sites, beginning at the outer edge and then drifting into the hardcore as he became ever more wrapped in the kray-kray. Following the GO’D route.
I suspect something of a feedback loop. The more he embraced the neo-right talking points on YouTube, the more affirmative attention and views he got from that audience, pushing him towards ever more extreme commentary to gain ever greater in-group acclaim.
LikeLike
I can readily imagine how it works. The affirmation and publicity begins to be its own reward. Doesn’t matter who is doing it. And on it goes from there. Moral compasses are a good thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I used to watch his reviews, then his early political videos. They were mainly just against political correctness, bullying, and the unforgiving nature of cancel culture. For whatever reason I stopped watching and did other things only for him to pop into my head a couple of years ago so I searched for his channel. The guy is now insane, spouting ultra-nationalist conspiracy theories and he’s much more angry. To me his channel was a beautiful demonstration of how someone can become more unhinged over time when confiding in an echo chamber and only seeing what he wanted to see.
LikeLike
As an update to this, the channel is now back up and running again. Chalk one up for free speech.
LikeLike
Chalk one for what is increasingly beginning to look like a temporary suspension that was hyped up into something it was not in order to get people to join fringe platforms to follow Cullen’s “banned” content, with a better fee structure to support his deranged postings. As stunts go, it was pretty clever.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hate speech is not free speech , the clue is laws exist on libel, slander and defamation, hate speech defined by laws is any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin colour sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin.
LikeLike
There is no such thing as hate speech, only speech that you hate
LikeLike
Fascists want freedom for THEIR speech and pretty quickly clamp down on it for others wherever and whenever they get into power. Even saying “Black Lives Matter” enrages them.
But Joe, I have seen attempts to use anti-“hate speech” laws used to defend a monarchy and police so I never agreed with the term though I dod agree that in general your definition of the limits is right. What about foreign troops invading one’s country though? Here in the occupied part of our country one would often hear and see “Brits out!” I never particularly liked the term though supported the underlying sentiment.
I would much rather that restrictions on speech to whip up hatred against the groups you have listed were part of general equality legislation, which would specify more clearly its intention.
As to hate, despite what some (minority) of Christians and most Buddhists say, I don’t have a problem with it — for example I hate fascism and racism.
LikeLike
I stand for free speech, except some speech. Dude, you’re a hoot.
LikeLike
Seems to me that we are all saying that, Joe, you, I, Sionnach Fionn and most others. I don’t see what is “a hoot” about that. Perhaps you have misunderstood me or I you regarding your earlier comment? Dude.
LikeLike