What’s coming has been absolutely clear for quite some time. And it’s coming fast now. If they can do it to me, they can do it to you. And they will.
“Second Class Citizens: The 5 Stages of Financial Blacklisting,” by Allum Bokhari, Breitbart, July 27, 2021:
After years of censoring conservatives without admitting to political bias, PayPal appears to have formally abandoned political neutrality, entering into a partnership with the far-left Anti Defamation League (ADL) and law enforcement to track and suppress the activities of the alleged far right.
Breitbart News first sounded the alarm on the rise of financial blacklisting in 2018, an opinion which was then shared by liberal organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Since then, progressive activists have launched well-funded campaigns aimed at payment processors, and credit card companies, aimed at cutting the political right off from payment and banking services — essentially an effort to reduce them to the status of second-class citizens.
Here were some key stages on the road to financial blacklisting.
1. Crowdfunding Sites Target Conservatives
The first sign that conservatives were going to be financially blacklisted came in 2015, when GoFundMe — a major platform for raising small donations online — shut down a fundraiser on its platform for a Christian bakery in Washington State, which was facing a large fine due to its refusal to serve a gay wedding. Later examples of conservative crowdfunding campaigns being shut down include Kickstarter’s decision in 2018 to ban a fundraiser for Swedish academic Ann Heberlein over her book examining the correlation between mass immigration into Sweden and a steep rise in sexual assaults in that country between 2012 and 2017.
2. Patreon cracks down on independent creators
Patreon, a service that allows people to charge recurring subscription fees, was once the gold standard in an ecosystem of online creators that sold content directly to their fans without going through any third party. Its descent into political bias became widely apparent in 2017, when it banned independent journalist Lauren Southern in 2017 over her work documenting left-wing NGOs smuggling immigrants into Europe via the Mediterranean. In the following two years, reportedly under pressure from credit card companies, it would purge even more conservative and independent creators, including the British critic of progressivism Carl Benjamin. In response to Benjamin’s ban, top Patreon earners Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin announced plans to boycott the platform.
3. Mastercard and Discover blacklist Islam critics Robert Spencer, David Horowitz
The theory that Patreon was banning creators due to pressure from credit card companies attracted some more evidence in late 2018, when Visa and Mastercard cut off payments to David Horowitz’s Freedom Center. Horowitz later had the service restored, but Islam critic Robert Spencer reported that he too was blacklisted by Mastercard, blaming it on pressure from far-left activists. In 2020, Visa also blacklisted Gab, the free speech friendly social network that offers users an alternative to the far-left content moderation of mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter….
Check Burry says
So who knows which is an alternative to Paypal, or Mastercard, Visa. So I can ditch em both.
Infidel says
Where does American Express stand? Since Mastercard and Discover are woke? And is Visa woke as well, or just some of its members? Diners Club is unfortunately a part of Discover now
As for Paypal alternatives, how is Payoneer, Fondy, Xendpay, Intuit, Wise, 2Checkout, WePay, Paysera, Square, Venmo…? There are other alternatives as well, such as Stripe, Skrill, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, but these are known to be woke. Google & Amazon are obvious, Stripe tried to ban someone I forget, and Skrill is the company that the Green New Deal author Saikat Chakrabarty came from.
PMK says
I just write them a check.
Infidel says
We are fast heading to a point where we’ll have to have 2 parallel economies – one red, other blue. Once that happens, talking about keeping this country together is moot
Given these facts, I have long advocated boycotting platforms where conservative alternatives exist, and rewarding those who’ve done their homework. Gab is an obvious one: in 2018, they went thru what we’re going thru now, and defined their entire business model from scratch. Since Microsoft Azure did to them what AWS did to Parler last year, Gab started by buying their own cloud servers and last year, added to them when there was a sudden spike in demand following Twitter’s crackdown on Trump and Parler going off the grid
In addition to the basic service, they have Gab Pro, where if one is a content creator, then it’s a paid service where they get things like their own TV channel for video feeds, create groups, schedule posts, eliminate ads, schedule posts, have self-destructing posts and create rich texts. They have that, and they have a constant stream of donations every month. But in return for all that, they don’t bombard you w/ ads, and they certainly don’t censor you. Their only downside is the lack of big names that one finds on Twitter, Parler or Gettr
At the top right of this page, JW has links to YouTube, Facebook & Twitter. You have no idea how long that’ll last, so why not have content on Gettr, Rumble and Gab instead? Deprive YouTube, Twitter and Facebook of the power to censor you, and provide your material on alternate sites
Exit question: does JW have its own servers, or is it hosted by a woke company who’d be perfectly happy to censor us?
James Lincoln says
Infidel,
I would also recommend that Jihad Watch have links to Mike Lindell’s frankspeech.com.
Infidel says
Yeah, that too!
gravenimage says
JW has links to YouTube, Facebook & Twitter.
……………
Infidel, I think that JW is intent on reaching as many people as possible–and that means using mainstream platforms as long as they are available.
Infidel says
And empowering the people who can cut us off!
Brilliant strategy
tom parry says
Yes an alternative please, an unwoke normal business person can make a killing by offering a non political service.
I abandoned paypal in 2018 because they cut off Tommy Robinson. I also try to boycot any woke blm trans supporting company.
Infidel says
I normally don’t boycott companies based on who they support, but more if they try to work against us. So a company endorsing BLM was one thing, but when they cancel people on our side, that too me is a declaration of war
I never buy Nike, given how overhyped and overpriced they are, so that boycott is automatic, and same goes for Ben & Jerrys. However, when Coke denounced Georgia’s election laws, I finally stopped having coke or any of their other drinks. Yesterday, when I saw the Coke executive refuse to state that his company would not sponsor the Beijing Olympics next year, I felt even better about my decision. I used to think that it was too addictive and therefore impossible to give up, but once I stopped buying it and had my own prepared lemonade instead, I was really happy w/ my decision
James Lincoln says
Infidel,
John Belushi was right:
“No Coke, Pepsi”
Infidel says
James
Rob Schmitt last night quoted a gastroenterologist who (talking about coke) said, “If you see a liquid that can completely clean a penny, you’re better off not ingesting it”
Dunno whether that applies to pepsi
gravenimage says
PayPal, MasterCard, banks act against dissenters from Leftist agenda, including foes of jihad terror
…………….
Scary, scary stuff. This is a political witch hunt.
mortimer says
The woke corporations are planning to help the implementation of a globalist GLEICHSCHALTUNG … a Leftist ‘CONSOLIDATION’ of power by demanding complete ideological conformity. Dissenters will be made non-persons by them.
Richard James says
I can’t understand how big money corporations are backing the left? They are always poor, never produces as much as the capitalists. What a strange world we live in.
PMK says
Big companies have been scared into submission by the Left. Political correctness and the threat of violence are weapons utilized by the Left to get companies to get ‘woke’ and support BLM and Antifa. The Left dominates in big cities and in some of the richest states. The billionaires are shutting down conservative viewpoints and trashing people who don’t share their views. We can try not to do business with these companies, but that’s easier said than done.
gravenimage says
Good analysis, PMK.
Infidel says
This one is easy to explain. It’s easier to buy off the Left: after all, they need money to, and it’s not like they have real marketable skills. So they pay huge amounts of cash to the likes of BLM, AOC, Pelosi, Schumer et al so that they ensure that those companies are protected in government. And they’re counting on Republicans to never turn on them b’cos of the latter’s commitment to capitalism!
Right now, within the GOP, there’s an attempt by the America First crowd to break up these monopolies, and take down some of the laws that have empowered them in the first place. What I’m expecting one day is a new breed of Conservative anti-Corporatists i.e. conservatives who’d share a platform w/ the socialists on abolishing big companies and leaving things to the little guy. And also make mergers and acquisitions very difficult, and reinforce anti-trust laws
James Lincoln says
Infidel,
Woke companies are paying big bucks to BLM, etc., almost as a form of jizya.
They then conduct business as usual…
gravenimage says
I have a real problem with these companies. But I am uncertain that allowing the government to seize and break up these companies will lead to anything better–it might actually make things worse.