New in PJ Media:
“At the end of the day,” former Reddit CEO Ellen K. Pao tweeted Tuesday, “the free-speechers really just want to be able to use racist slurs. CW: racism, immaturity, stupidity, and even more racism and extreme stupidity. They really don’t care about sharing new ideas or encouraging freedom other than the freedom to harass other people off the platform.” Pao included a screenshot of a message she apparently received, loaded with anti-Chinese slurs.
That’s all that people who say they want free speech are really about, you see, at least in the view of fashion-monitoring Leftists: insulting and hating people. But if Pao has such a dim view of “free-speechers,” what is she, exactly?
The same question could be asked of an increasing number of prominent Leftists, including Barack Obama, who claimed Wednesday that he was “close” to being “a First Amendment absolutist,” but then in practically the same breath called for a “combination of regulatory measures and, uh, industry norms” that would restrict speech on the Internet that he considered to be “disinformation.” You know, like the Hunter Biden laptop story was until a few weeks ago.
Pao was reflecting the mindset of others who have headed or still head the various social media giants. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said in 2018 that Twitter should “focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed. Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard. And so increasingly our role is moving towards how we recommend content … how we direct people’s attention.” Sure. If those “free-speechers” were given free rein, they might end up directing people’s attention away from the opinions and views approved by the elites. People might even start thinking for themselves. Can’t have that.
Meanwhile, Facebook, according to Fortune magazine, has been “clamping down on hate, increasing penalties for users who repeatedly share misinformation, and linking readers of any post related to COVID-19 to information from government sources.” What if those government sources share “misinformation”? That possibility is not considered; nor is the change of what constitutes approved opinion over time.
This creeping authoritarianism and the increasingly open opposition to the freedom of speech of Pao, Agrawal, and others strikes at the very foundations of free society. The freedom of speech is an indispensable prerequisite for any society truly to be free. If speech that is not calling for or justifying violence or criminal activity can be proscribed for any reason, then a tyrant can take advantage of speech restrictions in order to silence opponents and dissidents.
There is more. Read the rest here.
Doomer says
Getting to know the videos of the antiwar Left ( Abby Martin,George Galloway,Aaron Mate,
Jimmy Dore, Chris Hedges, Richard Medhurst, Fiorella Isabel (The Convo Couch, in youtube), The Greyzone ),
they are the real thing when they say they are Leftists but for freedom of speech. They have agreed with Conservatives,for example, that TRUMP was never in collusion with Russian during the election.
That said,they have a pathological hatred of Israel,it’s their blind spot,obession.
The antiwar movement has correctly pointed out:
a. If a government is Authoritarian, then Sanctions do NOT work, they only harm the people,not the leaders.
b. Over and over: in Iran,Afghanistan, Irak ( against Saddam Hussein), Venezuela,Cuba. It never works.
c. In a DEMOCRATIC country: sanctions work, and Putin knows it, but he has Not Applied any sanctions on the West yet.
By the way,YOUTUBE is still in Russia and the Most Western,Anti-Putin Russians ( those who speak English)
can Easily hear the best arguments for and against both sides ( videos of CNN,BBC,MSNBC and Alex Christoforou,Alex Mercouris, etc).
I know it because there are videos by PATRICK LANCASTER and others , who interviews people in the warzone ,in Russian ( with English subtitles) and in the comment section
you see comment after comment in RUSSIAN ( also, surprisingly,but less, in POLISH ), and several say,in the comment section, they live in Russia.
Also,his videos in English give Russian who don’t speak English the option of clicking at settings and see Russian subtitles, his latest video is:
“One Neighborhood Shelled Twice A Day Everyday In The Russia – Ukraine War”
Another proof is NATALIA KAZAROVA ( anti-Putin),Russian, who lives in Samara,on the Volga river. She makes videos in SPANISH,
and you see comments after comments in Spanish. She has access to youtube,made a video a few days ago. Said she will soon upload a second video about EXTRATERRESTRIALS.
gravenimage says
That any of these creeps are pro-freedom of speech is *very* questionable, and a number of them have strong links to Jihad.
For instance, George Galloway condemned Charlie Hebdo for supposedly being “racist, Islamophobic, hypocritical rag”–this was *after* the massacre by Jihadists there. Note that he has *no* criticism of the mass murderers trying to shut down the freedom of speech of cartoonists. He said that anyone standing up for their freedom of speech should be ashamed of themselves.
George Galloway is also virulently antisemitic and has been involved with Jihad terror-linked “Palestinian charity”. He is a big fan of Hamas.
Abby Martin is a 9/11 “Truther” who claims that Jihad terror does not actually exist, and is instead done by the US government to make Muslims look bad. She claims that the Jihad against Israel is a “fight for freedom”. She is a big supporter of BDS.
Richard Medhurst–despite his Western-sounding name he is Syrian–condemns Israel defending herself against Jihad terror attacks. He regularly appears wearing a “Palestinian” Kefiyyeh. Re 9/11, his only response has been to slam supposed “Islamophobia” following the atrocity. He has also appeared condemning America on Iran’s state-run Press TV.
Fiorella Isabel also claims that 9/11 “was an inside job”.
There is much more, but why bother?
Then, describing thugs who support the unprovoked, brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine as “antiwar” is grotesque, Never mind that so many of these creeps also support Jihad terror.
But Doomer does this regularly.
Then, Russia has banned Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and is threatening to ban YouTube:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-22/youtube-at-risk-of-russia-ban-after-facebook-is-deemed-illegal
Positing Russia as pro-freedom of speech is quite ludicrous.
john smith says
George Galloway is a traitor and he was Saddam Hussein’s biggest cheerleader. How the hell he escaped going to prison is something I will never understand, there was ample evidence that he’d received hundreds of thousands off Saddam.
gravenimage says
True, John. Galloway is so anti-British that he actually got expelled from the Labour Party–not an easy matter. He was also suspended from the House of Commons. He met with Saddam Hussain in 1994, lauding his “courage and strength”. He applauded Jihad terror attacks on British troops. He then joined the Respect Party, which mostly has links to Muslims (including Jihadists) and Marxists. He is virulently antisemitic. He goes *way* beyond garden-variety leftist cluelessness. A genuinely evil figure.
gravenimage says
Former Reddit Boss, Like Other Leftists, Is No Fan of the Freedom of Speech
………….
Pao’s idea that freedom of speech is “racist” and “stupid” is just appalling.
somehistory says
since she is using “freedom of speech,” that must make her…in her self-righteous mind…racist and stupid…except that she doesn’t see things with Truth and reality directing her thoughts and speech.
People like her never can see the rafter that is in their eye because they are looking for straws in the eyes of others; she’s a hypocrite.
gravenimage says
Good point, Somehistory. But logic is rarely a strong suit of these creeps.
somehistory says
“Students who oppose free speech and contracts should lose professional prospects’
Opinion by Washington Examiner –
Law students who oppose the twin constitutional pillars of free speech and the sanctity of contracts should never work as lawyers. Journalism students who oppose free speech should also never work in a professional newsroom.”
“Colleges that encourage their students to embrace illiberal positions against two of the things that make America great are depriving the nation of a new generation of competent professionals. They are doing the nation a grave disservice, to say nothing of the students they are misleading. And they should not be permitted to get away with it.”
Recent developments at Yale Law, Georgetown Law School, the University of Virginia, and elsewhere point to a frightening trend that could render these and other institutions unfit to teach or proffer degrees that employers will want to honor.
This fall, Georgetown Law School will require all first-year students to take a contracts course that is really an anti-contracts course. It does not teach basic principles of contract law so that students can become competent lawyers — rather, it propagates an ideology that all American property law is rooted in “the history of dispossession and appropriation” and that “intellectual property has a cultural appropriation problem.” Georgetown students will also be forced to waste time that should be used to learn the law taking an elective course “certified” to “focus on the importance of questioning the law’s neutrality.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/students-who-oppose-free-speech-and-contracts-should-lose-professional-prospects/ar-