Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon discussed his previous experience regarding online censorship Monday with Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson, stating the reason behind it was for “control” of speech and thought.
Dillon appeared on Carlson’s social media show to talk about the Babylon Bee’s ban from Twitter in 2022 for alleged hate speech, as well as the company’s reinstatement by billionaire Elon Musk after he took over. Following a clip shown of NBC News investigative journalist Brandy Zadrozny criticizing Musk’s move to reinstate some companies like Dillon’s, Carlson criticized the journalist and questioned how people like her “ran the world.”
Dillion responded by stating he believes censorship is a way to “control speech and thought,” highlighting those offended by the Bee’s “mockery” were upset because it “exposes” their “foolishness for what it is.” (RELATED: Babylon Bee CEO Files Lawsuit Against California AG Rob Bonta Over ‘Censorship Law’ Enforcement)
“Everything about that. This sort of — obviously the low IQ, the up talk at the end of every sentence, the ersatz glasses — completely theatrical fake glasses — the made up stats, the fake concern for some group that she knows nothing about at all. And then under all of it, the desire to press harder with her boots against the neck of ordinary people and to shut them up on behalf of her bosses, the people who run the world,” Tucker stated.
“Like every – that’s just that’s the perfect – I hope that someone puts that in a time capsule for when the revolution finally ends and like we’re rid of people like that. They ran the world! How do we let them?”
Ep. 55 Corporate media is dead, which is why The Babylon Bee is more trusted than CNN. pic.twitter.com/FI9fh0QJhX
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) December 18, 2023
“I know it’s insane. But it’s, you know, it’s how they control speech and thought … if your worldview is incoherent and impossible to defend rationally, then you have to insulate it from criticism. What’s the most effective kind of criticism there is? I think it’s mockery, which exposes foolishness for what it is,” Dillon stated.
“I honestly was mistaken about this. It’s something I admit I was wrong about … It was my belief that humor — these were humorless scolds who just didn’t think our jokes were funny. And they thought they were offensive and they were being hypersensitive. And that’s not the case.”
The Babylon Bee CEO continued to state people like Zadrozny do not like that “the narrative is being challenged in a way that’s effective.” To which Carlson responded, if “they would censor you, they would kill you,” emphasizing censorship is typically for “slaves.” (RELATED: Musk Reinstates Trio Of Prominent Twitter Accounts, No Call Yet On Trump)
“I eventually learned and came to realize that it’s not humor. Humor is a vehicle for truth delivery. They don’t like the fact that the narrative is being challenged in a way that’s effective, and so they have to shut you up. And so that’s what it’s about. It has nothing to do with them being … offended,” Dillion stated. “It’s all fake outrage because they’ve learned that fake outrage can be used as a tool to bludgeon you into silence and submission.”
“That’s exactly right. If they would censor you, they would kill you. Period. Because you don’t censor a peer, another citizen, another human being. You censor your slaves. You censor somebody considered less than human. So, if censorship doesn’t work, they indict you. If that doesn’t work, they would kill you. That’s just, I mean, it’s a very obvious continuum,” Carlson stated.
The Babylon Bee was locked out of its Twitter account in March 2022 following a joke made about U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, a transgender woman. The company had joked Levine was the Bee’s “man of the year” after he had been named a “woman of the year” by USA Today.
Twitter then claimed the Babylon Bee violated the social media’s “rules against hateful conduct,” locking Dillion out of Twitter and asking him to delete the post to get back on. However, Dillion refused to delete the joke, stating “if the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it.” Following Musk’s take over of the social media platform, The Babylon Bee was one of the first three platforms to be reinstated back onto the site.