Build (and Patronize) Alternative Structures While We Can

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Commentary

Fed up and/or frustrated with mainstream methods and companies, not to mention governmental interference, our fellow and gal Americans have been building alternative structures as long as we have been alive.

Some have been useful, some not. Some lasted, most didn’t.

But now, in this time of vaccine passports and similar growing intrusions and regulations in our personal lives, you might even call them “traditional citizen lives” in the increasingly nostalgic Constitutional sense, that threaten to, indeed very much are, turning us into drones in an autocratic state, they have become more necessary than ever, even mandatory.

As in so many incipient autocracies—that’s what I’m calling it for now because it’s a state-managed capitalism and, like China, not really communism, bad as that is—fear stalks the land.

For what other than fear, bordering on terror, drives executives at our major corporations like Coca Cola to kowtow to the current racially-obsessed, politically-driven tripe as if they were sophomores buzzed on weed at some dormitory bull session? (The unintended benefit of this reactionary eyewash is some of us, myself included, may finally get off Coke Zero, definitely an improvement to health.)

The blog revolution at the beginning of this century is one of the alternative structures that has lasted, although it has morphed in various ways. So it shouldn’t be surprising that my friend Dr. Helen Smith—Ph.D. psychologist, prize-winning documentarian, and wife of “Blogfather” Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds—is the latest, very welcome entrant in the world of alternative structures.

As she explains on Helen’s Page:

“A lot of people after the election are feeling more isolated than ever. So I made a place for them to meet each other. Helen’s Page is a place where people can come to find and help other liberty-minded people across the country—from selling your undiscovered screenplay or advertising your local bakery right down to finding an accountant, electrician, or other professional who shares your love of liberty.”

Selling an “undiscovered screenplay” may be more than a tad optimistic at this point, but the other suggestions make a lot of sense. And the site is already filling up with people hawking various wares to their liberty-minded colleagues and friends.

A high percentage of these wares appear to be books.

This is also not surprising given how difficult it is for right-leaning books to be reviewed or even noticed, but, yet more importantly, because of what is going on in the publishing world.

Amazon, the dominant force in publishing by a hitherto unimaginable amount, almost to the point of monopoly in essence, if not technically, turns out to be a book banner straight out of “Fahrenheit 451.”

The most recent is example of this horrendous, anti-free speech behavior is the sudden disappearance of “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” by Ryan T. Anderson.

Although I have been published twice by the same publisher, Encounter, I have not read the book and cannot speak for its contents, but cannot imagine anything that would merit this treatment when Amazon sells “The Anarchist Cookbook,” “frequently bought together” (in their parlance) with the “U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook” and “U.S. Army Guide to Unconventional Warfare.” “Mein Kampf” is also available.

We are obviously in the era of the New Corporate Dictators (Zuckerberg, Bezos, Dorsey, and whoever of multiple leaders is presently ruling Google/Alphabet) who are arguably as powerful as the conventional kind, more powerful in the crucial area of mind control.

Just today Facebook, bowing to the Sons of Goebbels at Media Matters, has, a second time, removed an interview with former President of the United States Donald Trump with the following juvenile email:

“Hi folks,

“We are reaching out to let you know that we removed content from Lara Trump’s Facebook Page that featured President Trump speaking. In line with the block we placed on Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, further content posted in the voice of Donald Trump will be removed and result in additional limitations on the accounts.”

When that can happen, alternative sites like Dr. Helen’s, small as they may be, become all the more necessary.

You know what they say about little acorns….

DISCLOSURE: All thirteen of my published books are currently for sale on Amazon, but I have no ability to remove twelve of them that were licensed to publishers in the conventional manner. Only my most recent novel—“The GOAT”—that was self-published as an experiment is under my control. But even that is difficult to unsnarl from the Amazon system with multiple editions, including Kindle, and the more complicated audiobook, which I share with the man who narrated it, who has his own fiduciary interest. But I’m working on it, looking for other venues and payment methods. Give it some time. Soon enough it may turn up on Helen’s Page.

Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, co-founder of PJMedia, and now, editor-at-large for The Epoch Times. His most recent books are “The GOAT” (fiction) and “I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already” (nonfiction). He can be found on Parler as @rogerlsimon.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.