Impure Thought

It hit me like a thunderclap!
My favourite social media app
Apparently was searching hard
For heresies to disregard
An urgent email, asking why
Produced this rather strange reply
I tell you chilled me to the core
"'Cause our opinions count for more!"

I asked a fellow I'd defined
A so-called friend, "Pray be so kind
As to endeavour to explain
A notion I can't entertain
To wit, this slow increasing drip
That feels akin to censorship."
"They are," he smiled, "the Devil's spore
But their opinions count for more!"

Then he confirmed, alarmingly
The things they'd said he mustn't see
"It's also their considered view
The same constraints apply to you!"
When I protested vehemently
He simply said, "They'll disagree
And so we need to underscore
How their opinions count for more!"

"It is," my friend said, "in effect
Our reasoning that they protect
They're here to offer up support
Relieving us of impure thought."
It seems he wanted gratitude
For tendering this platitude!
I was expected to adore
That "their opinions count for more!"

Well, sometime later I brought home
A slightly controversial tome
To my amazement, he decreed
"This isn't something we should read
It may affect the way we feel
And that would hardly be ideal
Because, as we have said before
It's their opinions count for more!"

That self-same night some pamphleteer
Whose politics remain unclear
Came knocking loudly at my door
I think he may have called before
My friend opined, "This guy's a freak
To whom we really must not speak!
To listen would be to ignore
That their opinions count for more!"

Keen to hang on to what was mine
I booted up and went online
I Googled "mind-control abuse"
Which was of course of little use!
As later my psychiatrist learned
A million searches were returned
And faraway the highest score
Was "Their opinions count for more!"