As well as closing US borders to Muslims, Donald Trump wants to talk to Bill Gates about 'closing up the internet'
People who support freedom of speech are "foolish people" in Donald Trump's book. This is just the latest in a seemingly endless stream of sweeping generalizations and misguided utterances to fall from the mouth of the Republican presidential candidate.
Positioning himself as the spokesman for the "noisy majority", Trump yesterday appealed to the xenophobic electorate in suggesting "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States". This is the statement that has, understandably, grabbed the headlines, but Trump also wants to exert control over the technology we use every day. Specifically, he is interested in "closing up the internet in some way", and he wants to speak to Bill Gates about it.
Quite what the former head of Microsoft has to do with control of the internet is something perhaps only Trump understands. Perhaps he's missed the fact that Gates' involvement in the world of technology has been cut to almost nothing as he concentrates on more philanthropic ventures. Regardless, Trump thinks Gates is one of the people who can help him in his misguided plans to clean up 'extremist' online content.
The bewilderingly popular (according to many polls, at least) billionaire says that he wants to talk to Bill Gates "and a lot of other people who understand what’s happening about closing up the internet in some way. People will say 'Freedom of speech! Freedom of speech!'. These are foolish people".
As he has demonstrated perfectly countless times on his campaign trail, Trump is fantastically out of touch with the world -- the modern, forward-thinking world at least. He is of a mindset trenched in decades-old bigoted views and a seeming failure (or refusal) to recognize the implications of much of what he suggests. People who support freedom of speech are far from foolish. These are the people whose ideologies are the very cornerstones of democracy. These are the forward-thinkers and the ones who should be listened to, not shunned and ridiculed for not holding outdated views of the world.
If Bill Gates and the 'lot of other people' have any sense, they'll treat any request for an audience with Trump with the indignation it deserves. Ignorant, sledgehammer-to-crack-a-nut approaches are dangerous, but Trump is ever the master of saying what his right-wing acolytes want to hear. His suggestions have been met with typical loud support -- but only from certain quarters. His dream of driving jihadists from the internet is simply not going to happen. It's simply an unworkable idea, and an affront to free speech.
Photo credit: Ilya B. Mirman / Shutterstock