The Silencing of Alternative Opinions on LinkedIn
~2-minute read
This is a post about censoring critics and blocking alternative perspectives in order to preserve your narrative in the interest of self-promotion.
First, the backstory:
Last week a post popped up in my feed that I had an alternative opinion about. In a pointed and highly contextualized way, I laid out in a comment my reasoning as to why this person’s advice was misleading.
(If you’re wondering what this post was about, it was a sales bro professing “how to grow your audience on social media in 3 easy, overly-generalized steps”.)
Within minutes, the OP had deleted my comment and, in a new post, proceeded to brag about how a troll (me) spent 20 minutes writing a disagreeable comment and how it only took him 2 seconds to delete it.
A few exchanges with this person were captured in the comments where he openly admitted that he sensors anyone who disagrees with him in order to preserve his narrative and protect his ability to self-promote. And that anything that makes him “look bad” gets deleted from the comments.
“It’s in my best interest to silence it. Free speech does not extend to someone’s comment section they have control over.”
To this guy, there’s obviously no other opinion but his. This approach to silencing others has become commonplace on LinkedIn.
(This is a screenshot of my comment on that second post. He blocked me within minutes. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a screenshot of my lengthy initial comment. TBH, I didn’t think it’d get deleted.)
Now, to the point of this post.
Censoring critics and alternative opinions are the death of the progress and evolution of ideas.
Healthy discourse is necessary—I’d argue mandatory—for the inspiration of thought, developing a well-rounded perspective, increasing empathy, seeing through one's own bullshit, and cultivating self-awareness.
And if you Like the self-proclaimed censoring brigade's content, you’re part of the problem too.
That’s it. This is the direction that LinkedIn is heading in.
As I mentioned, this behavior is not uncommon on LinkedIn. I’ve been blocked a number of times for simply disagreeing. Not for being a dick or poking the bear. But for having a strong, alternative perspective and calling out someone’s BS.
If you’ve read any of my posts, I do not lack context. If anything, I over-contextualize to avoid confusion and misguided rebuttals. If someone disagrees with me, I want them to have complete clarity around what they're disagreeing with.
I comment the same way. If I disagree, I put care and thought into laying out my reasoning. I don’t mince words. I don’t apologize. But I certainly give you my time in the form of a 20-minute written comment. And that level of care and thought should be respected—whether it's in your favor or not.