The crowd shouted “kill him with his own gun” as they attempted to break into the Capitol building and force elected officials to illegally install Trump as a de facto American dictator. Let us not mince words, what happened on January 6th has no precedent in American history. But whether Trump is legally responsible for the insurrection is ultimately beside the point. The real question is what drove these individuals to rebel against the very nation they claim to cherish so dearly.

The Big Lie

It’s easy to blame the “Big Lie,” the false notion that the election was “stolen” by Biden, for…

The Trump administration ushered in the era of alternative facts, aka misinformation. From space lasers, lizard people, Qanon, and the “stop the steal” movement, the Trump administration embraced this new post truth “reality.” While conspiracy theorists have always existed, this era has brought insanity into the mainstream. But why does misinformation spread so easily in the digital age, and what can we do about it?

The post truth era is perhaps no better embodied than in the “Stop the Steal” movement that resulted in an insurrection attempt on Capitol Hill. The Stop the Steal riots were motivated by a conspiracy…

We hear it every day. The American Right claims that the government should get out of the healthcare industry and place the “free” market in the driver’s seat. If the government steps aside, proponents argue, the cost of healthcare would go down and the quality of care would improve. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the American Left attacks the profits of insurance companies, big pharma, doctors…etc as proof of the evil capitalists profiting from your illness. They advocate total government control and removal of profit incentive entirely. …

Tesla’s current cheapest vehicle, the Model 3, starts at a fairly lofty price of $38K. It would not seem that Tesla has the ability to launch a car that would substantially undercut this price…yet that is precisely what Tesla says they are going to do. Details about this more affordable $25K car are virtually non-existent, but if we watch current trends and examine prior announcements by Tesla and Elon Musk, we can piece together how they intend to make good on their promise of a truly affordable electric car.

Smaller Size

When describing this new vehicle, they have used the “compact” classification…

What if I told you that there’s a way to reduce some healthcare costs in America by as much as 75% without the need for Congress to pass politically hazardous policies like Medicare for All? While I have advocated Tort Reform in the past, Tort Reform would not go far enough to solve the problem of unaffordable healthcare in America. No, we need to engage another tool in the toolkit: transparent pricing coupled with Health Savings Accounts.

Misusing Insurance

One of the core problems with medical insurance in the United States is that we don’t utilize insurance in the way it’s intended…

In the Matrix, Morpheus offered Neo two pills, giving him a difficult choice. The blue pill would keep him in the Matrix and in blissful ignorance, the Red pill, on the other hand, would “wake” him into a true but uncomfortable reality. America faces a similar dilemma today. Do Americans choose to remain in blissful ignorance of what is happening around them? Or do they confront the ugly demons that lie within? The Capitol riots exposed deep flaws in American society, and while the perpetrators deserve punishment, it behooves us to understand what motivated their actions.

The Trump administration has…

From Spotify, to Youtube, to GoFundMe, right wing voices are being shut out of the internet, their accounts banned, and digital groups disbanded. The sweeping crackdown in the wake of the Capitol coup attempt has sparked the Twitter hashtag “#1984ishere,” which was repeated and amplified by right wing pundits claiming that “conservative speech” was being “censored” online. It is not my place to make a judgement as to whether or not the actions of tech companies is right or wrong, I do think we need to ask ourselves, however, if the premise is true. Is conservative speech is being censored?

…

The removal of Donald Trump and a number of right-wing conspiracy theorists from various social media networks follows an entirely predictable attempted coup at the Capitol. The bans engenders questions of free speech and the role of big tech companies online. These are serious questions with no easy answers. Nonetheless, even those who are sympathetic to the cause of free speech, shouldn’t look to Trump as a victim, and here’s why.

Not Public Forums

It is important to remember that Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms are not public forums. They are private platforms that are not subject to First Amendment protections…