featured
The Economic Consequences of Censorship // Mike Benz
Mike Benz | Trusted Newsmaker
The Economic Toll of Censorship: Unmasking the Blob
In the halls of Congress, a quiet rebellion is taking root. Committees like House Weaponization, House Oversight, and Homeland Security are beginning to investigate abuses by federal agencies like the DHS and NSF. Weaponization, modeled after the 1970s Church Committee, is especially noteworthy. That original committee exposed CIA infiltrations of left-wing anti-war groups. Today, the same script plays out—only the target is on the opposite side of the political spectrum.
Foreign Policy: The Real Driver Behind Censorship
Censorship in the U.S. isn’t just a domestic battle. It’s a foreign policy tool. Those in power understand that if politicians deviate from approved foreign policy narratives—like Trump did—they become targets. Ron DeSantis escapes similar treatment largely because his global vision aligns with the so-called “blob”—a term used for the entrenched foreign policy establishment.
The Blob’s Grip on Accountability
Remember the movie The Big Short? That poolside conversation about corrupt AAA ratings is eerily similar to how the censorship-industrial complex operates. Oversight officials often have financial or social ties to the very networks they’re supposed to regulate. Many float resumes to blob-funded institutions or attend the same elite Aspen retreats. This conflict of interest poisons the integrity of our governance.
The Open Society Doctrine and Blowback
U.S. diplomacy leans heavily on free speech as a wedge to pry open closed societies. Institutions like the Open Society Foundation and USAID wield this doctrine to exert influence abroad. But when these same tools of influence begin to control speech at home, the blowback becomes dangerously real. The American people get caught in a proxy war between foreign-focused dirty tricks and domestic free expression.
Economic Dependence on Censorship
This isn’t just about ideology. It’s about jobs. Over 60 U.S. universities now receive $100 million in government funding for disinformation programs. Defunding these initiatives would ripple through departments from computer science to sociology, impacting mortgages, kids’ college funds, and institutional survival. Judges might even hesitate to support First Amendment challenges, subconsciously aware of the economic dominoes they’d topple.
Section 230 and the Moderation Minefield
Trump’s push to reform Section 230—the law protecting tech platforms from liability—sparked internal panic. A memo from 2020 compared repealing Section 230 to shutting down a coal mine in West Virginia. At the time, 100,000 jobs were tied to content moderation. The economic ecosystem of censorship was already deeply rooted—and it’s even bigger now.
The Path Forward: Phasing Out the Blob
So what’s the solution? Sunset provisions. Give the industry 18 months. Let universities and contractors find new careers. Create clear firewalls between foreign disinformation campaigns and domestic civil liberties. Yes, some military and diplomatic stakeholders will demand carveouts, but the strategic goal must be non-negotiable: dismantle the censorship-industrial complex.
Learning from the Architects of Control
The same people who built this beast did so slowly and methodically from 2017 to 2020. U.S. ambassadors, NATO contractors, and State Department officials lamented how powerful tech companies were—but reassured each other: “We just need to combine our power.” And they did. Bit by bit, year by year. That same blueprint can be used to tear it down.
Final Thoughts: Dismantling the Digital Leviathan
This effort won’t succeed overnight. The censorship apparatus is deeply entwined with academia, private enterprise, and the intelligence community. But if there’s a silver lining, it’s this: the system was built by people who didn’t believe it could be done. Yet they succeeded—because they started. Now it’s our turn to start. Slowly. Methodically. Relentlessly.
The bottom line? America’s censorship industry is an economic and political leviathan—but it can be dismantled the same way it was assembled: piece by piece.
//
