Elon Musk, Twitter’s next owner, provides his definition of “free speech”

Amid Twitter buyout, Musk says free speech is simply "that which matches the law."

Read the whole story

 

[aerogems]

It's not transphobic though.

Actually, it is, it's textbook. And it's not welcome in our forum. You can think whatever you like, speak your mind on things, and if it's against our guidelines we'll show you the door. Twitter can do that too, as can any other website. How they choose to enforce their own rules is their business, how Elon will change things is his, but as long as I have a say in it here I won't tolerate that kind of bigotry.

Couldn't care less who you voted for in the last election, what kind of milk or nut juice you put on your cereal, if your hair is blue or you're totally bald, if you like cats or dogs or can't stand pets.

But in our forum you will respect people's basic humanity. Straight, gay, trans, non-binary, whatever works for you, it's okay here. If you can't handle that then you're welcome to go away.

Please note that the guy you just banned just registered a new account here and admitted it. Terminate with prejudice.

memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=853348

Yes yes, I saw it, it's deleted, and I had to edit a bunch of people who quoted it already.

Please, don't give these sad little snowflakes attention by responding to their tantrum. I will simply delete their account and one stupid post and life will go on like they were never here. And if they keep doing it I will keep deleting them, because I am paid to do it and will happily do my job, and they're the losers with no life wasting their time.

You missed mine, so I just went back and edited it out on my own to save you some time and effort. I trust this will be an acceptable exception to what we were discussing a few days ago. Feel free to go back and remove that entire post if you want, it doesn't really need to exist any longer.

 

[The Lurker Beneath]

Also worth noting Van Halen’s tour at the time was unprecedentedly large, with pyrotechnics and heavy stage rigging. If they messed up the M&Ms thing, the band couldn’t trust they didn’t mess up the fireworks or rigging or something that could be extremely dangerous or fatal.

Exactly. Failing to read a rider closely can be a matter of safety, so those little notes are really important, especially since tours don't bring everything needed with them since the venue provides a great deal of the load out.

I really have never liked how these things get trotted out as 'stars being out of control' instead of what they actually are there for, but at the same time I get it.

I have seen some utterly stupid arguments posted on Ars... but this takes the biscuit. (Sorry for not responding to the original version. I didn't see it)

Except it's actually true (at least in the case of Van Halen): https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/brown-out/

Interesting, even if I can't help suspecting some historical revision. I will withdraw my criticism of Old Lady Josie.

 

[Uragan]

Then maybe, just maybe, you ought to be thinking about your stance on "free speech" then.

Not really, as soon as I calmed down I realized that he should say whatever he wishes.

It brings him into disrepute, not me.

If you insist on characterizing my position as anti free speech you will be doing it in spite of this admission.

So you are a transphobe Nazi? What about people publishing those inappropriate photos of you with little kids should that be allowed?

Holy shit is this offensive. So when you're running out of material you call someone a nazi transphobe pedophile?

You should be ashamed of yourself. I find you odious.

I find Nazis odious.

Here is a photo of "I'm Tom Hanks, or am I?" at a Nazi rally. He is the guy in the middle. What a piece of human garbage he is.

Spoiler

Before you get mad about me outing you as a Nazi remember Freeze Peach Freeze Peach. Absolutely no restrictions on anything. That is the way of open discourse right. So let's discuss what about the Nazi ideology to you find attractive?

Might not even be a real Nazis as much as they'd like to pretend – these guys don't really look like prime Reich Lebensborn sperm material – on the contrary, they'd probably get rejected just from their looks alone...

(edit: tags. spoiler tags mistake, clarity)

The guy in the middle was the Nazi trash that ran over and killed someone in Charlottesville...

Does that mean I'm Tom Hanks, or am I? is posting from prison?

 

[Urist]

The amount of bigoted, racist, homo/trans-phobic, alt right sealioning trolls these Muskrat stories have added to my ignore list is astounding. I've never seen so many abusive assholes willing to out themselves just to defend the honor of a huckster charlatan billionaire

It's been bonkers. Usually bigots target different groups, but this time there's a laser-like focus on trans people. I guess hating trans people is the flavor of the month for chuds or something.

Musk himself is notoriously transphobic; Allowing transphobia on the platform is one of the major unspoken promises in the imminent de-moderation of Twitter under his ownership. There has been a massive erosion of transgender rights across much of the US lately and trans rights are the current battleground of the "culture war" that is being constantly waged by the right. Likewise transphobia is considered by many to be just socially acceptable enough to express outright while being able to chuff it off as 'edgy' or 'feminism' (see Chapelle, Rogan, Rowling etc.). Transphobes are currently both emboldened and agitated, all while feeling threatened due to their hatred is becoming less and less tolerated by normal well adjusted people.

 

[DarthSlack]

Well it is outrageous. I've calmed down, but it is very offensive

Then maybe, just maybe, you ought to be thinking about your stance on "free speech" then.

Not really, as soon as I calmed down I realized that he should say whatever he wishes.

It brings him into disrepute, not me.

If you insist on characterizing my position as anti free speech you will be doing it in spite of this admission.

So when confronted with an opportunity for self-reflection, you instead double down on the stupid. No, I won't accuse you of being anit-free speech, what you are is much, much worse.

Stupid. And it can't be fixed.

 

[Derecho Imminent]

I do like the idea of confirming that the account is an actual human being. Bots and sock puppets need to go.

 

[Tijger]

I do like the idea of confirming that the account is an actual human being. Bots and sock puppets need to go.

Bots and sock puppets arent banned by law and if Musk claims that Twitters policy will be to only moderate whats not legal he'll be violating his own ToS if he bothers to have one, that is. Its all speech, after all.

 

[Statistical]

I do like the idea of confirming that the account is an actual human being. Bots and sock puppets need to go.

Bots and sock puppets arent banned by law and if Musk claims that Twitters policy will be to only moderate whats not legal he'll be violating his own ToS if he bothers to have one, that is. Its all speech, after all.

Also the idea that bot operators couldn't just use a "verified" account for the bot to post is a pretty obvious weakness. Likewise does anyone think a Russian troll farm couldn't get 10,000 verified identities to use as their disinformation campaign.

 

[HiredGoons]

I do like the idea of confirming that the account is an actual human being. Bots and sock puppets need to go.

Bots and sock puppets arent banned by law and if Musk claims that Twitters policy will be to only moderate whats not legal he'll be violating his own ToS if he bothers to have one, that is. Its all speech, after all.

Also the idea that bot operators couldn't just use a "verified" account for the bot to post is a pretty obvious weakness. Likewise does anyone think a Russian troll farm couldn't get 10,000 verified identities to use as their disinformation campaign.

The NFT shills have showed that it's pretty trivial to hijack legitimate accounts and make retrieving them almost a herculean feat.

 

[aerogems]

The amount of bigoted, racist, homo/trans-phobic, alt right sealioning trolls these Muskrat stories have added to my ignore list is astounding. I've never seen so many abusive assholes willing to out themselves just to defend the honor of a huckster charlatan billionaire

It's been bonkers. Usually bigots target different groups, but this time there's a laser-like focus on trans people. I guess hating trans people is the flavor of the month for chuds or something.

Musk himself is notoriously transphobic; Allowing transphobia on the platform is one of the major unspoken promises in the imminent de-moderation of Twitter under his ownership. There has been a massive erosion of transgender rights across much of the US lately and trans rights are the current battleground of the "culture war" that is being constantly waged by the right. Likewise transphobia is considered by many to be just socially acceptable enough to express outright while being able to chuff it off as 'edgy' or 'feminism' (see Chapelle, Rogan, Rowling etc.). Transphobes are currently both emboldened and agitated, all while feeling threatened due to their hatred is becoming less and less tolerated by normal well adjusted people.

Maybe he's transphobic because he kind of looks like someone in the middle of transitioning. Sort of like Trump Jr's fiancé. Wouldn't change my opinion of them in the slightest if they were, might actually improve it to be honest -- especially for Trump Jr -- but there's plenty of perfectly legitimate reasons to dislike them that have nothing to do with their appearance.

I just honestly have no earthly idea why it is people get all in a huff about gay or trans people. I mean, how does it harm you in any way? So what if an attractive woman is a lesbian? Your odds of having sex with her are likely zero either way. What does it matter to you what two consenting adults get up to behind closed doors? Maybe your secret kink is to have everyone in the neighborhood watching you have sex like you're some medieval king consummating their marriage -- which gets into a whole other area of insecurity we don't have time to get into -- but not everyone shares that desire. If two people meet and decide they want to spend the rest of their days together... great! We should all be so lucky! If you're envious of what they have, maybe you should spend a little less time worrying about other people and a little more time worrying about yourself. It's funny how a lot of women don't really seem to go for the narcissistic asshole who's full of hate... unless they're rich, in which case you can usually find someone equally narcissistic who will be happy to play the part of the trophy wife as long as it finances their lifestyle. Yet to hear these incels tell it, every woman they meet is a butch man-hating lesbian dyke. The problem couldn't possibly be with them! Honestly, wouldn't surprise me if, after even a single date with some of these assholes, the idea of trying out the lesbian lifestyle seems pretty appealing.

 

[watermeloncup]

The amount of bigoted, racist, homo/trans-phobic, alt right sealioning trolls these Muskrat stories have added to my ignore list is astounding. I've never seen so many abusive assholes willing to out themselves just to defend the honor of a huckster charlatan billionaire

It's been bonkers. Usually bigots target different groups, but this time there's a laser-like focus on trans people. I guess hating trans people is the flavor of the month for chuds or something.

Musk himself is notoriously transphobic; Allowing transphobia on the platform is one of the major unspoken promises in the imminent de-moderation of Twitter under his ownership. There has been a massive erosion of transgender rights across much of the US lately and trans rights are the current battleground of the "culture war" that is being constantly waged by the right. Likewise transphobia is considered by many to be just socially acceptable enough to express outright while being able to chuff it off as 'edgy' or 'feminism' (see Chapelle, Rogan, Rowling etc.). Transphobes are currently both emboldened and agitated, all while feeling threatened due to their hatred is becoming less and less tolerated by normal well adjusted people.

Maybe I missed it, but I hadn't really seen any transphobia from Musk until Grimes started dating Chelsea Manning. I could be wrong because I never really paid close attention to him (always found him overrated). But in any case, it's now very clear that he's transphobe, especially after seeing how his followers are behaving.

I think you're right that transphobia is the only kind of hatred that's just acceptable enough for them to express openly. The right massively lost their war against women, people of color, and gay people, so transphobia is the last obvious place that they'll be able to fight a culture war based on identity. They lose this fight, where would they go next? Or if they win, who will it become acceptable to hate again?

 

[dollyllama]

He said he is buying Coca Cola next and putting cocaine back in it. Now the libs have a reason to support him too.

You had me laughing up until that lib remark. I believe you meant Congressman Madison Cawthorn would support him.

 

[Uragan]

The amount of bigoted, racist, homo/trans-phobic, alt right sealioning trolls these Muskrat stories have added to my ignore list is astounding. I've never seen so many abusive assholes willing to out themselves just to defend the honor of a huckster charlatan billionaire

It's been bonkers. Usually bigots target different groups, but this time there's a laser-like focus on trans people. I guess hating trans people is the flavor of the month for chuds or something.

Musk himself is notoriously transphobic; Allowing transphobia on the platform is one of the major unspoken promises in the imminent de-moderation of Twitter under his ownership. There has been a massive erosion of transgender rights across much of the US lately and trans rights are the current battleground of the "culture war" that is being constantly waged by the right. Likewise transphobia is considered by many to be just socially acceptable enough to express outright while being able to chuff it off as 'edgy' or 'feminism' (see Chapelle, Rogan, Rowling etc.). Transphobes are currently both emboldened and agitated, all while feeling threatened due to their hatred is becoming less and less tolerated by normal well adjusted people.

Maybe he's transphobic because he kind of looks like someone in the middle of transitioning. Sort of like Trump Jr's fiancé. Wouldn't change my opinion of them in the slightest if they were, might actually improve it to be honest -- especially for Trump Jr -- but there's plenty of perfectly legitimate reasons to dislike them that have nothing to do with their appearance.

Yeah, let's not make fun of people for their looks. (Especially if we're going to use transitioning as part of the insult.)

 

[Deleted member 817175]

Have they? Link the article, and point out the exact sentence where they say the laptop itself is authentic.

Link also where they validate the answers to all these questions:

Is it confirmed that the computer with that serial number belonged to Hunter Biden?
Is is confirmed that he flew to NY during the time specified as when he dropped it off?
Is it confirmed that he visited the repair shop in question?
Is it confirmed that the hard drive was installed on the computer confirmed to belong to Hunter Biden?
Is it confirmed that the copy of the hard drive was/is a perfect reproduction of the computer at that date?
Is it confirmed that some emails are from Hunter Biden?
Is it confirmed that ALL emails are from Hunter Biden?
Is it confirmed that at no point in time was the computer connected to the internet?
Is it confirmed that the hard drive/copy was inaccessible to anyone before it was given to Rudy Giuliani?
Is it confirmed that no changes were made to the hard drive/ copy after it was in Giuliani’s care?
Is it confirmed that the emails confirmed to be from Hunter Biden contain proof of illegal actions?
Is it confirmed that Joe Biden was involved in any of the confirmed illegal actions?
Is it confirmed that Joe Biden has prevented an investigation into his son?

What are you, some kind of sheeple?

 

[Uragan]

Well it is outrageous. I've calmed down, but it is very offensive

Then maybe, just maybe, you ought to be thinking about your stance on "free speech" then.

Not really, as soon as I calmed down I realized that he should say whatever he wishes.

It brings him into disrepute, not me.

If you insist on characterizing my position as anti free speech you will be doing it in spite of this admission.

So when confronted with an opportunity for self-reflection, you instead double down on the stupid. No, I won't accuse you of being anit-free speech, what you are is much, much worse.

Stupid. And it can't be fixed.

What is your basis for calling me stupid?

I suppose I could call you stupid, but I don't know if you are or aren't.

I've done my share of belittling people during my time on this message board so I suppose it's all fair game, but I'm not impressed, and most people won't be when the best you can do is call someone dumb for challenging your point of view in the slightest ways.

I've been called a nazi, pedophile, transphobe in the last hour and I have written nothing that any sane person could construe in that way.

It is desperate and pathetic that this is how many people on this board respond to someone who questions their precious orthodoxy.

But you were willing to call people "racist" without any proof of them actually being racist to you at all. (And you were the one who brought race into the discussion.)

You can't be like "WOE IS ME!" when you're doing the same behavior you're crying out about.

 

[Uragan]

Also, a ton of the insults on this board are actually frat boy style bullying, which is quite weird.

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

But I thought you were all for absolute free speech?

 

[Uragan]

Also, a ton of the insults on this board are actually frat boy style bullying, which is quite weird.

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

 

[Deleted member 817175]

Also, a ton of the insults on this board are actually frat boy style bullying, which is quite weird.

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

If you have been a victim of frat-boy bulling here on Ars, you should report the comments in question to the moderator so that the posters in question can be investigated and if necessary banned.

I don't know that you're going to get a very sympathetic reception after the clown show you've put on in this thread though.

 

[Statistical]

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

You believe nothing legal should be off limits. Absolute Freeze Peach remember. There are zero consequences. Also what you experienced here is the most limited nothingburger PG slightly tongue in cheek silliness compared to avalanche of unbridled hatred that will face vulnerable minorities.

 

[gsgrego]

Also, a ton of the insults on this board are actually frat boy style bullying, which is quite weird.

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

If you have been a victim of frat-boy bulling here on Ars, you should report the comments in question to the moderator so that the posters in question can be investigated and if necessary banned.

I don't know that you're going to get a very sympathetic reception after the clown show you've put on in this thread though.

Ya know. There is just something great about a "free speech " person whining about how his feelings are hurt by others speech.

 

[Uragan]

Also, a ton of the insults on this board are actually frat boy style bullying, which is quite weird.

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

If you have been a victim of frat-boy bulling here on Ars, you should report the comments in question to the moderator so that the posters in question can be investigated and if necessary banned.

I don't know that you're going to get a very sympathetic reception after the clown show you've put on in this thread though.

Ya know. There is just something great about a "free speech " person whining about how his feelings are hurt by others speech.

I'm not whining about my feeling, I'm pointing out hypocrisy.

I was a little offended by being called a nazi because I find that really offensive. But whatever.

Which is it? A little offensive or really offensive?

 

[gsgrego]

Also, a ton of the insults on this board are actually frat boy style bullying, which is quite weird.

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

In case you come back and see this. No.What I am worried about happening is much worse. Because It isn't illegal to call women whores, it is not illegal to call Asians yellow, and it is not illegal to say the nword. Along with much, much, much worse.

And then I am worried about how musk, and you, and those like you will moderate any kind of speech that criticizes you for saying those things.

 

[Uragan]

Also, a ton of the insults on this board are actually frat boy style bullying, which is quite weird.

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

If you have been a victim of frat-boy bulling here on Ars, you should report the comments in question to the moderator so that the posters in question can be investigated and if necessary banned.

I don't know that you're going to get a very sympathetic reception after the clown show you've put on in this thread though.

Clown show?

Because I am arguing a position you disagree with. I've actually been pretty reasonable, but that doesn't go too far here for some reason.

You? Reasonable? That's extremely laughable. You came in here and in your opening salvo insulted people who didn't hold the same position as you did on the subject.

The hysterical reaction to Elon Musk buying twitter is truly remarkable, and depressing. Reacting that way means you are so consumed by your ideology that everything is a threat. How do you find the courage to leave your house or talk to a girl? I bet you don't.

Twitter couldn't possibly get worse. If you believe twitter could get worse under new management you're not a serious person.

The insane rage directed at Musk shows how much a person believes their viewpoint or ego are too brittle to encounter any confrontation at all.

Pathetic really.

Yeah... this isn't reasonable by any stretch.

 

[Uragan]

Also, a ton of the insults on this board are actually frat boy style bullying, which is quite weird.

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

In case you come back and see this. No.What I am worried about happening is much worse. Because It isn't illegal to call women whores, it is not illegal to call Asians yellow, and it is not illegal to say the nword. Along with much, much, much worse.

And then I am worried about how musk, and you, and those like you will moderate any kind of speech that criticizes you for saying those things.

Since I got here it has been incessant insults and abuse and putting words in my mouth.

I tried to make a point about hunter biden's laptop, which is a legitimate question for anyone who actually cares about the way twitter can effect democracy, and in response, torrential insults.

I'm sticking it out because some of you are good people who will question at least some of your priors when someone tries to point out another way to look at things.

When people have legitimately asked you questions about the laptop issue, you haven't answered them. Why should we take anything else you say seriously?

 

[Statistical]

Also, a ton of the insults on this board are actually frat boy style bullying, which is quite weird.

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

In case you come back and see this. No.What I am worried about happening is much worse. Because It isn't illegal to call women whores, it is not illegal to call Asians yellow, and it is not illegal to say the nword. Along with much, much, much worse.

And then I am worried about how musk, and you, and those like you will moderate any kind of speech that criticizes you for saying those things.

Since I got here it has been incessant insults and abuse and putting words in my mouth.

I tried to make a point about hunter biden's laptop, which is a legitimate question for anyone who actually cares about the way twitter can effect democracy, and in response, torrential insults.

I'm sticking it out because some of you are good people who will question at least some of your priors when someone tries to point out another way to look at things.

When people have legitimately asked you questions about the laptop issue, you haven't answered them. Why should we take anything else you say seriously?

Some people are saying failing to answer questions is a sign of Nazism.

 

[Uragan]

I remain hopeful that someone on this message board is actually capable of having a real discussion about twitter and censorship.

If there is, please speak up otherwise uragan is going to keep calling me a nazi.

Why should we have a real discussion with you when you resort to insulting us?

 

[gsgrego]

Also, a ton of the insults on this board are actually frat boy style bullying, which is quite weird.

I thought that was the kind of off-limits shit that we're all worried about dominating twitter?

In case you come back and see this. No.What I am worried about happening is much worse. Because It isn't illegal to call women whores, it is not illegal to call Asians yellow, and it is not illegal to say the nword. Along with much, much, much worse.

And then I am worried about how musk, and you, and those like you will moderate any kind of speech that criticizes you for saying those things.

Since I got here it has been incessant insults and abuse and putting words in my mouth.

I tried to make a point about hunter biden's laptop, which is a legitimate question for anyone who actually cares about the way twitter can effect democracy, and in response, torrential insults.

I'm sticking it out because some of you are good people who will question at least some of your priors when someone tries to point out another way to look at things.

Alright. Now. Think about this, I didn't see all the comments but I think I saw you get called stupid.

Now what you have been arguing in favor of is for me to face no consequences when I tweet at your kid that he is "a sack of cracker shit whose mother didn't want him and who sucks dick" and encourage my 10,000 followers to do the same, daily.

So, maybe rethink your "free speech" no moderation stance.

 

[TechnologyDinosaur]

what I constantly miss in this discussion, is his statement that "everybody is going to be a registered user" (or something in that direction) -> Which I, as a European, interpret as "no anonimous bullshit allowed".

When that's a fact, people will automatically be responsible for their "free speech". As well as companies, which -absurdidly- are considered "people" as well, in USA law.

I highly doubt that's going to happen. Banning bots would be good, and would keep the discussion more rational.

This being Musk... the whole ethos of him and his startup buddy Thiel is fake it till you make it, revenue at any cost. Then fake some more. If those bots bring traffic they stay. And angry people do bring traffic and clicks. Hence... the bots won't be banned. They'll be encouraged.

 

[Urist]

The amount of bigoted, racist, homo/trans-phobic, alt right sealioning trolls these Muskrat stories have added to my ignore list is astounding. I've never seen so many abusive assholes willing to out themselves just to defend the honor of a huckster charlatan billionaire

It's been bonkers. Usually bigots target different groups, but this time there's a laser-like focus on trans people. I guess hating trans people is the flavor of the month for chuds or something.

Musk himself is notoriously transphobic; Allowing transphobia on the platform is one of the major unspoken promises in the imminent de-moderation of Twitter under his ownership. There has been a massive erosion of transgender rights across much of the US lately and trans rights are the current battleground of the "culture war" that is being constantly waged by the right. Likewise transphobia is considered by many to be just socially acceptable enough to express outright while being able to chuff it off as 'edgy' or 'feminism' (see Chapelle, Rogan, Rowling etc.). Transphobes are currently both emboldened and agitated, all while feeling threatened due to their hatred is becoming less and less tolerated by normal well adjusted people.

Maybe I missed it, but I hadn't really seen any transphobia from Musk until Grimes started dating Chelsea Manning. I could be wrong because I never really paid close attention to him (always found him overrated). But in any case, it's now very clear that he's transphobe, especially after seeing how his followers are behaving.

I think you're right that transphobia is the only kind of hatred that's just acceptable enough for them to express openly. The right massively lost their war against women, people of color, and gay people, so transphobia is the last obvious place that they'll be able to fight a culture war based on identity. They lose this fight, where would they go next? Or if they win, who will it become acceptable to hate again?

Yeah, before Grimes it was more or less just garden variety 'edgy' humor which was easy enough to overlook due to Musk having the sense of humor of a 12yo who spends too much time on 4chan boards.

 

[Uragan]

The amount of bigoted, racist, homo/trans-phobic, alt right sealioning trolls these Muskrat stories have added to my ignore list is astounding. I've never seen so many abusive assholes willing to out themselves just to defend the honor of a huckster charlatan billionaire

It's been bonkers. Usually bigots target different groups, but this time there's a laser-like focus on trans people. I guess hating trans people is the flavor of the month for chuds or something.

Musk himself is notoriously transphobic; Allowing transphobia on the platform is one of the major unspoken promises in the imminent de-moderation of Twitter under his ownership. There has been a massive erosion of transgender rights across much of the US lately and trans rights are the current battleground of the "culture war" that is being constantly waged by the right. Likewise transphobia is considered by many to be just socially acceptable enough to express outright while being able to chuff it off as 'edgy' or 'feminism' (see Chapelle, Rogan, Rowling etc.). Transphobes are currently both emboldened and agitated, all while feeling threatened due to their hatred is becoming less and less tolerated by normal well adjusted people.

Maybe I missed it, but I hadn't really seen any transphobia from Musk until Grimes started dating Chelsea Manning. I could be wrong because I never really paid close attention to him (always found him overrated). But in any case, it's now very clear that he's transphobe, especially after seeing how his followers are behaving.

I think you're right that transphobia is the only kind of hatred that's just acceptable enough for them to express openly. The right massively lost their war against women, people of color, and gay people, so transphobia is the last obvious place that they'll be able to fight a culture war based on identity. They lose this fight, where would they go next? Or if they win, who will it become acceptable to hate again?

Yeah, before Grimes it was more or less just garden variety 'edgy' humor which was easy enough to overlook due to Musk having the sense of humor of a 12yo who spends too much time on 4chan boards.

Edgy humor just leads to bad shit, IMHO.

 

[Deleted member 817175]

I remain hopeful that someone on this message board is actually capable of having a real discussion about twitter and censorship.

If there is, please speak up otherwise uragan is going to keep calling me a nazi.

And I want to talk about leprechauns, but for some reason, nobody is willing to offer any real-life examples, so it's kind of a pointless discussion.

 

[watermeloncup]

The amount of bigoted, racist, homo/trans-phobic, alt right sealioning trolls these Muskrat stories have added to my ignore list is astounding. I've never seen so many abusive assholes willing to out themselves just to defend the honor of a huckster charlatan billionaire

It's been bonkers. Usually bigots target different groups, but this time there's a laser-like focus on trans people. I guess hating trans people is the flavor of the month for chuds or something.

Musk himself is notoriously transphobic; Allowing transphobia on the platform is one of the major unspoken promises in the imminent de-moderation of Twitter under his ownership. There has been a massive erosion of transgender rights across much of the US lately and trans rights are the current battleground of the "culture war" that is being constantly waged by the right. Likewise transphobia is considered by many to be just socially acceptable enough to express outright while being able to chuff it off as 'edgy' or 'feminism' (see Chapelle, Rogan, Rowling etc.). Transphobes are currently both emboldened and agitated, all while feeling threatened due to their hatred is becoming less and less tolerated by normal well adjusted people.

Maybe I missed it, but I hadn't really seen any transphobia from Musk until Grimes started dating Chelsea Manning. I could be wrong because I never really paid close attention to him (always found him overrated). But in any case, it's now very clear that he's transphobe, especially after seeing how his followers are behaving.

I think you're right that transphobia is the only kind of hatred that's just acceptable enough for them to express openly. The right massively lost their war against women, people of color, and gay people, so transphobia is the last obvious place that they'll be able to fight a culture war based on identity. They lose this fight, where would they go next? Or if they win, who will it become acceptable to hate again?

Yeah, before Grimes it was more or less just garden variety 'edgy' humor which was easy enough to overlook due to Musk having the sense of humor of a 12yo who spends too much time on 4chan boards.

Fair enough, i could have easily missed it. Especially since transphobia wasn't on as many people's radars until relatively recently.

 

[O/Siris]

I thought freedom of speech was not freedom from consequences.

True which is why the poster was pointing out how Elon is nothing more than a hypocrite. He demands no consequences for speech until he dislike the speech directed at him. Alex Jones' website says the same thing in its ToS, yet when he was banned from Twitter he decried it as censorship.

That whooshing sound was the original poster's point clearly going over your head.

No, it's the thump of the poster's point falling flat on its face.

Musk hasn't called for an end to his speech, nor silencing of same. He opted to not do business with a customer who clearly had no interest in resolution. It's called firing the customer, and is a perfectly legitimate (and ethical) response to a customer complaining in such an entitled fashion.

So consequences are okay as long as they are ones you like.

Also, Donald Trump has not been silenced by being banned from Twitter. He's still showing up on TV, in newspaper interviews, press releases, at political rallies, etc. For someone who has supposedly been silenced, he sure seems quite capable of speaking to millions of people.

And I'll just say, I'm fine with a company firing a customer. I've dealt with that on many times. No one here is claiming that Elon and Tesla didn't have the right to stop doing business with that person. But Elon declares himself a "free speech absolutist" while not actually living up to his supposed ideals. And that is what is being called out.

I absolutely adore the intellectual contortions of The Left on this. What you ignore is the intent behind those so-called "consequences."

Musk cut ties with a potential customer. So far, no one has shown the least bit of evidence that aMusk nor anyone affiliated with him took action against the blogger's speech, nor his ability to speak out. Which IS a direct result and intent of actions taken by The Left.

Had Musk done likewise, I'd have nothing to say about The Left's bleating about this miniscule item. He did not.

Yes, he cut ties with the customer over their speech. He even plainly stated so. So the only one doing mental contortions is you. Musk claims to be a "free speech absolutist." His actions prove that's a lie.

Also it's quaint when people such as yourself claim that anyone that disagrees with the far-right is somehow "The Left." I hate to break it to you, but I'm not a "leftist" (a word basically devoid of all meaning when flung around by the far-right) and I frankly don't need to be one to know Musk is full of shit and this far-right blather about "free speech" is BS.

SO the hell what? The blogger's speech was not suppressed in any way, shape, nor form.