April 27, 2022

"What exactly does [Elon Musk] believe can’t be said on [Twitter] right now?"

"It certainly doesn’t take long to find discredited race science, arguments that women are intellectually inferior, antisemitism, defenses of white supremacism and transphobic comments that remain on the platform even under current policy. It is easy to assume that the banned speech that Mr. Musk is standing up for is worse even than that. As the comedian Michael Che put it on 'Saturday Night Live,' the $44 billion deal shows 'how badly white guys want to use the N-word.' All of this is a moral and ethical case for keeping moderation policies in place...."

From "Let’s Be Clear About What It’s Like to Be Harassed on Twitter" by Elizabeth Spiers (NYT).

"It is easy to assume" a lot of things! It's also easy to splatter opinion columns with the idea that Musk is a racist, sexist pig and that to declare that you've made "a moral and ethical case" for censorship... and — paradoxically — that you're fighting misinformation.

It's interesting how much free speech the opponents of free of speech already have.

80 comments:

Mike Sylwester said...

As the comedian Michael Che put it on 'Saturday Night Live,' the $44 billion deal shows 'how badly white guys want to use the N-word.'

Saturday Night Live broadcasts Michael Che's racist jokes.

Skeptical Voter said...

Oh I don't know. It's "easy to assume" that the writer of that load of codswallop is an idiot. But then the word assume contains "ass" "u" and "me" so I don't make many assumptions. That said--she does.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

It's too bad Musk didn't save his money up and by the NYT. I'm sure the collective shits taken by the staffs of the NYT, WaPo, New Yorker, NY Magazine, NYRB and the middle-aged, leftist women of Manhattan would go a long way to help with the looming fertilizer shortage brought on by the war in Ukraine.

gahrie said...

One of the things that can't be said on Twitter right now is that Hunter's lap top is real, and implicated President Biden in crimes.

Enigma said...

In wokespeak, "discredited" or "misinformation" often means uncomfortable findings that go against someone's wishes, dreams, fantasies, and the current narrative. Some historical research was devastating and downright painful, so there are many heads in the sand and/or people whistling past the graveyard. This is dysfunctional.

In wokespeak, anything plus "-phobic" means the speaker wants to call their opponents weak and fearful for merely having a different viewpoint. Disgust is not fear. Anger is not fear. Different values is not fear. This is dysfunctional.

Until woke speakers enter conversations on equal ground with their thoughtful critics (alternative left, center, classic liberal, libertarian) the culture war will function as a propaganda war.

RideSpaceMountain said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"How badly white guys want to use the N word"

No. That's not it.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"It certainly doesn’t take long to find discredited race science, arguments that women are intellectually inferior..."

Wait, women aren't intellectually inferior!?! Mind status=blown. Maybe I made a mistake about Elon buying Twitter, otherwise how would Elizabeth be able to transmit paradigm-shifting ideas like this to uninformed people like me.

Turn those filters back on dammit!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Still waiting for SNL to mock Joe and Hunter.

PM said...

"It's interesting how much free speech the opponents of free of speech already have."
Well-spoke.

Rusty said...

"It's interesting how much free speech the opponents of free of speech already have."
Of course. They just don't want you(me) to enjoy the same thing. It's their club and no icky classic liberals are allowed.

"In wokespeak, anything plus "-phobic" means the speaker wants to call their opponents weak and fearful for merely having a different viewpoint. Disgust is not fear. Anger is not fear. Different values is not fear. This is dysfunctional."
Yeah, well. I'm used to it. And to be honest. I've been called worse by better people. And by 'better people' I mean bigger assholes than me.
Anyway. Yes. It's dysfunctional in the sense that it does not allow reason.

Beasts of England said...

Maybe if Elizabeth matures she’ll be able to handle the sharp corners resulting from the free exchange of ideas. Until then, she can just cry harder…

gilbar said...

i'll repost this here (sorry!)
“You could secretly ban one party’s candidate…secretly turn down the reach of their stuff and turn up the reach of something else and the rest of us might not even find out about it until AFTER the election.”

JPS said...

I support free speech even for positions I detest and people I loathe – because the upsides are worth even that, and the downsides of restricting it are worse than those of letting it be said.

If I assume good faith on the part of Spiers and others on her side, they cannot grasp this concept. If I defend someone's speech, it must be because I like what they're saying.

But I'm about done assuming good faith. I think they're so used to flinging accusations of racism – no, scratch that, white supremacy! – sexism, LGBT-phobia, etc. that most of them have lost the ability to argue in other terms. To even see in other frames.

gilbar: Sometimes I can't tell if these people have an exquisite sense of irony or none at all.

Readering said...

People can write this stuff because Musk has left the field open to them. No one has any real idea of his plans for Twitter moderation, his TED talk notwithstanding. Maybe his bankers know more.

And the arbs are signaling that it's not a done deal.

Joe Smith said...

“By ‘free speech’, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”

--Elon Musk

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519036983137509376

Pretty easy to find...tweeted yesterday.

Readering said...

Given that the government cannot narrow the First Amendment by statute that Musk musing does not mean anything. But perhaps it means he is not going to have any content moderation. Seems a non-starter. AA loves free speech but this blog is not moderated per First Amendment jurisprudence.

robother said...

"Free speech for me, but not for thee. Free assembly for me but not for thee. The religion of Global Warming shall be the Established religion, the free exercise of all other religions shall be banned as disinformation." The New Revised First Amendment to the Living Constitution.

Sebastian said...

"It certainly doesn’t take long to find discredited race science"

Such as what?

"arguments that women are intellectually inferior"

Says who?

"transphobic comments"

Like, kids should not be mutilated before they are sexually mature and know what sex is?

"the $44 billion deal shows 'how badly white guys want to use the N-word.'"

I guess Musk's take could be that white guys should have the same freedom to do so as black guys.

"paradoxically — that you're fighting misinformation"

Haha, yes.

"It's interesting how much free speech the opponents of free of speech already have."

Well put. Not that it matters to them. The battle isn't about speech, nor do progs value their own freedom as such; it's about the lust for power. Musk claims a space they cannot dominate as they did before: that is intolerable.

As their rants confirm, it's also the greatest loss progs have suffered in the culture war. The VA school uprising and DeSantis v. Disney were mere skirmishes. Getting actual weaponry nuked is something new.

Jefferson's Revenge said...

if you are a journalist and your money quote is from some 2nd rate SNL comic, you are not really a journalist.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

From Man of the Year to Emmanuel Goldstein in just a few months. Didn't know Musk was going to set a land-speed record for going from hero to goat so fast.

Jupiter said...

I've got some bad news for Elizabeth Spiers. The NYT is censoring her. I guess I'll never find out what it's like to be harassed on twitter. Unless, in fact, I am currently being harassed on twitter. How would I know?

Paul G said...

It's easy to pinpoint the best answer to the author's question because it's the most glaring instance, one that Musk himself has cited specifically, and one that's never mentioned in the article: twitter suspended the account of the New York Post and banned not only tweets of the article in question--which conveyed true information--but banned direct messages including it. The refusal to address an opponent's strongest argument is a sure sign that the argument is powerful.

Sebastian said...

What I enjoy most about Musk's move is that he uses the money he made off prog climate-alarmist Tesla buyers to piss them off.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I understand moderation on this blog. It is a curated site. Can anyone explain why a public forum like Twitter, where one can see only those they choose and even block annoying people and Musk has vowed to rid of bots, needs moderation at all? If stupid people do stupid things they will be easy to identify and avoid. If they actually make threats that's against the law and TOS. If there is such a huge demand for a place to say the N-word and be a Nazi, then those people will be easier for the Authorities to track. Pre-banning people who you assume might do bad things is unamerican and lame. I assume bad faith on the part of most progressives, but I want them out there sharing their thoughts so i can avoid those idiots IRL.

Jupiter said...

"In wokespeak, anything plus "-phobic" means the speaker wants to call their opponents weak and fearful for merely having a different viewpoint. Disgust is not fear. Anger is not fear. Different values is not fear. This is dysfunctional."

I don't think that's accurate. The original usage "homophobic" was intended to imply that negative attitudes towards homosexuals and homosexuality are irrational, and likely indicative of mental illness. They're not calling you weak and fearful, they're saying you are dangerously insane and should be locked up.

Mark said...

It certainly doesn’t take long to find discredited race science, etc.

Who's looking for it? 99 percent of Twits will never see that stuff. You'll only see it if you want to.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

From "Let’s Be Clear About What It’s Like to Be Harassed on Twitter" by Elizabeth Spiers (NYT).

Well, it's like this:
If you're JK Rowling, or LibsOfTikTok, you get personal death threats that the Left wing thugs running Twitter leave up, because such threats don't "violate their community standards".

So Ms Spiers, GFY. You left wing scum define "criticism of the Left" as "harassment", and "death threats to the non-Left" as "acceptable discourse".

So you have nothing of value to say

Greg The Class Traitor said...

It certainly doesn’t take long to find discredited race science, arguments that women are intellectually inferior, antisemitism, defenses of white supremacism and transphobic comments that remain on the platform even under current policy.

How about discredited marxist "Science", arguments that men / whites are inferior ("white fragility" anyone?), antisemitism, defenses of black supremacism and misogynistic comments against "TERFs"?

Let's be clear, 90% of modern antisemitism comes from the Left, and the reason why you find it on Twitter is because the Left loves it.

All the rest have equally or more vile equivalents that the Left loves and would never censor.

So yes, Musk is going to let you monsters continue to fly your freak flags on Twitter, and he's going to also open it up to the people you monsters have been censoring.

You can either try to respond to the people you disagree with, and engage in intellectual debate, or you can runaway and hide.

What it's never been legitimate for you to do, and what you're finally going to lose the power to do, is to censor people just because you don't like what they say

tim maguire said...

"It certainly doesn’t take long to find discredited race science, arguments that women are intellectually inferior, antisemitism, defenses of white supremacism and transphobic comments that remain on the platform

So...you're saying that those aren't the things people get deleted for saying? And yet, you want us to ignore all the people who have been banned because they are bad people who spread bad ideas like discredited science, misogyny, antisemitism, white supremacism, and transphobia.

Something not connecting there...

Enigma said...

@Jupiter: "I don't think that's accurate. The original usage "homophobic" was intended to imply"

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homophobia
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transphobia

Definition of homophobia
: irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or gay people

Definition of transphobia
: irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against transgender people


Phobia defined:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phobia
Definition of phobia (Entry 1 of 2)
: an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation

-phobia noun combining form
Definition of -phobia (Entry 2 of 2)
1: exaggerated fear of
acrophobia
2: intolerance or aversion for
photophobia


The people who call others -phobic often also call for action and/or criminal judgement. Yes. Still, the term primarily means that the target is a fearful person.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Readering said...
Given that the government cannot narrow the First Amendment by statute that Musk musing does not mean anything.
Libel is against the law. So are "true threats"

Do you ever bother to think before you write?

But perhaps it means he is not going to have any content moderation. Seems a non-starter.
Well, when your a fascist pig who lives for suppressing other points of view, I can see why that would bother you.

It's not a "non-starter" for decent human beings who are actual adults

AA loves free speech but this blog is not moderated per First Amendment jurisprudence.
Blogger doesn't give users the ability to follow, unfollow, block, and mute other commenters
Blogger doesn't give users the ability to mute comment threads that they find uninteresting. It doesn't let users set up "block words" that cause a comment to be filtered out
Heck, it doesn't provide comment threads at all

Althouse chooses to moderate because Blogger doesn't give her users the ability to do so

Twitter gives its users the ability to moderate their own experience.

Which is why no other moderator is needed.

Finally, Althouse has never marketed her blog as "the virtual town square"

Jake said...

"I once got a violent threat for a column I wrote about why I disagree with the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the Consumer Price Index.

These are not uncommon experiences for women and minorities who speak in public, on Twitter and beyond"

1. Are these not risks for ANYONE that speaks in public?
2. On Twitter and beyond? Well, we should shut down everything then. We will all be in the dark, but at least no one will have those bad experiences.

rcocean said...

First of all: Harrassed on Twitter.

Twitter users can block anybody. They can also limit comments to their followers. If they're "blue checks" they can block everyone except other blue checks.

So, any "harrassment" is only a one time event.

Second: The NYT's is VERY upset that people can put out views they don't like. And So FUCKING WHAT? We don't all need nursemaiding. And what about all the attitudes/Views the NYT's likes that the rest of us don't? Why aren't we allowed to CENSOR their views? Oh that's right.

Third: Why is the "Center-Right" so bad at politics? Why do they let the LEft get away with constantly playing the victim? Or disguising their oppression of others as "fighting hate"? Or letting the Left wrap themselves in "Protecting others" or "Safety"? THey never fucking push back, or even notice.

Readering said...

Few things on the ether bother me much. I'm called a "Fascist pig" on this curated blog? Water off a duck's back. Especially given the source.

Non-starter? As I commented yesterday, and AA posted today, the EU will make it hard to moderate based on First Amendment boundaries for a platform doing business in EU.

Read Truth Social terms of service. Fascist pigs over there?

rcocean said...

As for women or minorites or anyone else.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. You're equal and some women/minorities claim to be superior. So, why should we give you special privilages and hit soft? If you don't like, stop trying to play in the big leagues and go back to T ball.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

It's interesting how much free speech the opponents of free of speech already have.

Well, yes, that's the point.

it's the point of "mask mandates" that are violated by the people imposing them (see Gov Newsom and The French Laundry).
It's the point of "Covid travel restrictions" that are violated by the people imposing them )see the Mayor of Denver and Thanksgiving 2020).
it's the point of "carbon restriction" pushed by people who fly private places to the "Climate Change" Conferences.

The point is that the part of the US Constitution that they MOST hate is the ban on "patents of nobility".

The whole point of being "elite" is that you get to do things the masses aren't allowed to do. The greatest "sin" of America is that we let the common people do everything that the "elite" get to do.

And that makes them "not real elite".

If you ever wonder why "the elite" are pushing something / objecting to something, ask yourself this "how does that thing relate to making 'the connected' more / less powerful than the rest of us?"

If the answer is that it does impact their privileges WRT us, then you now know why they have the position they have

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Readering said...
Non-starter? As I commented yesterday, and AA posted today, the EU will make it hard to moderate based on First Amendment boundaries for a platform doing business in EU.

1: Then Musk decides that Twitter is America's "town square", and that anyone else who wants to join is free to, but their government bans are their problem, not his
2: Or maybe Musk just plays the game honestly. "That's anti-white hatred, that's banned", and all CRT gets blocked. "That's anti female hatred, that's banned", and every single anti-TERF post gets blocked. "That's black supremacy, and all race supremacy is blocked".

Honest imposition of the rules the Left claim to believe in would crush the Left

Read Truth Social terms of service. Fascist pigs over there?
Wouldn't know, I've not tried to join. And assuming Musk does take over Twitter, I won't bother.

I didn't join Gab because their rules sucked

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

"It certainly doesn’t take long to find discredited race science, arguments that women are intellectually inferior, antisemitism, defenses of white supremacism and transphobic comments that remain on the platform even under current policy. It is easy to assume that the banned speech that Mr. Musk is standing up for is worse even than that."

People who argue in such bad faith should be ignored and probably worse. There are plenty of offensive comments on Twitter aimed at people the author apparently cares not about. And her assumption is just dumb. Oh well. NYT. No surprise.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Twitter banned the Bab-Bee - because Bab-Bee mocks leftists.

JaimeRoberto said...

Can I say Rachel Levine is a man on Twitter? No. Can I post a critical reply to a Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden tweet without it effecting the visibility of subsequent, unrelated tweets? Seemingly no. I can't prove it, but it sure seems to work that way. Can I tweet that young people face virtually zero risk from Covid? I can, but subsequent tweets appear to be less visible.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Readering said...
Few things on the ether bother me much. I'm called a "Fascist pig" on this curated blog? Water off a duck's back.

For the truth to hurt, one first has to value the truth

Since you had no response to my points how "Althouse on Blogger" and "Twitter" are entirely different situations, it's clear the truth doesn't actually matter to you

Leland said...

arguments that women are intellectually inferior

Does Elizabeth Spiers define "women"?

I'm not sure about arguments that women are intellectually inferior. I wouldn't agree. I have seen a number of recent arguments that women are physically inferior. I recall such debates 30 years ago, but for a long time I found such arguments rare until the last couple of years. I'm not sure what caused it, but I sure am glad that the students on the Penn woman's swim team are not being harassed so we can focus on Twitter harassment.

Browndog said...

Musk buys Twitter.

The Empire Strikes Back:

BREAKING: Biden Admin Department of Homeland Security to create a 'Disinformation Governance Board' dedicated to 'countering misinformation'

John henry said...

The other day someone made the point, in response to Ann and others, that PEDJT had never been "divisive" until he ran for president. It was not because he was not well known. He was probably the best known person to ever run for president of the US. Everyone had an opinion about him and even the worst opinions were not that negative.

Elon Musk has been well known and frequently in the news for 10-12 years now. Mainly for Tesla, Space-X, Starlink, Boring Co, PayPal, being successful in various ventures and being rich. There have been quibbles about him and Tesla, but overall he has been well-known and viewed favorably by most people in the US.

Now, all of a sudden, he is worse than Stalin, Mao and Hitler put together. What happened? Did he suddenly become possessed by Satan?

All he wants to do is take the concepts in the 1st Amendment seriously. He wants to help facilitate freedom of the press (in the sense of everyone having access to one) Freedom of speech, and freedom of (virtual) assembly.

It is amazing how some people find these innocuous, to me anyway, concepts so upsetting.

More than amazing, I find their upsettedness very upsetting.

John LGKTQ Henry

John henry said...

Readering,

I just reread the Truthsocial.com TOS. They seem pretty straighforward to me. What is it that you find objectionable?

(Other than association with our President Emeritus, that is)

John LGKTQ Henry

(OT But re my LGKTQ tag, it may be working. The cat may be on the roof.)

gspencer said...

Musk is the owner-to-be. Does he have any influence, even with his 9% stake, until the formal "passing of papers?"

gspencer said...

"Now, all of a sudden, he is worse than Stalin, Mao and Hitler put together. What happened? Did he suddenly become possessed by Satan?"

He's now become an actual threat to the Uniparty/CFR-connected-Establishment.

As Mr. Burns would say, "Release the hounds,"

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Tk2DIt7QN2A/Tc3x9yVIN8I/AAAAAAAAAPI/xeFAlQGQcKs/release-the-hounds.jpg

realestateacct said...

You can't say Rachel Levine is a man in old Twitter. You couldn't say masks are useless. You couldn't say that vaccines for children are not necessary. They had just announced that you couldn't say global warming is not a problem. The New York Post couldn't say that Hunter Biden's laptop had information people might be interested in.

gspencer said...

The Constitution was written to LIMIT the created government.

Which is why the left hates the Constitution.

The only known alternative to limited government is unlimited government.

ga6 said...

My my, this did not take long. Dept of Misinformation to be overseen by person who has stated the following:

"By all means, let’s regulate social media. But let’s do it with proper thought and consultation, with the nation’s best interests at heart"

This may be sublimated by a new advisory panel name "the best interest at heart" board.

The third paragraph exists only in the mind of a shaven headed Greek/Cuban American.

The first and second paragraphs are true...

Leland said...

My my, this did not take long. Dept of Misinformation to be overseen by person who has stated the following:

Also supported on Twitter the notion that Hunter Biden's laptop story was Russian Disinformation, so we know how poor she is at identifying internal disinformation and spreading it.

hawkeyedjb said...

I've been banned from two places for the factual statement that transgender women are men pretending to be women. I make no value judgement about them, and neither hate nor fear them. But pretense must be served, for reasons I don't remotely understand.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2022/04/27/busted-how-a-covid-frontline-doctor-was-exposed-as-a-total-fraud-n2606421?utm_campaign=rightrailsticky1

So, it turns out that a "overworked Pediatrician on the front lines of Covid" is actually a school pediatrician who mostly worked remotely, and while she was beating the drum for the rest of us to wear masks, she herself posted lots of pictures of herself maskless with friends, on Instagram

I guess the Lefties are totally ok with this kind of "misinformation" continuing to appear on Twitter, right?

Eric Rathmann said...

How do people get so stupid? Progressives are "better educated", or at least better credentialed, yet they apparently can not see that calling people racist, deplorable, homophobic, ignorant, "far right", etc., is hate speech and is not moderated by twitter? The anti-Musk crowd lacks self reflection.
I understand that home sapiens have many problems with rationality with fast thinking, logical fallacies, and bigotry but the reaction to Musk and Twitter still amazes. Don't they understand on some level that Twitter has been a cesspool of hate, misinformation, and hostility against conservatives/Republicans/Christians? And that it is, and was, controlled by billionaires?
Apparently, Vijaya Gabbe, a power at Twitter, comes by her bigotry and hatred naturally by being subjected to bigotry at a young age and wrongly extrapolating that bigotry to all non-liberals but what is the excuse of others?
It boggles my mind.

holdfast said...

What can’t you say on Twitter?

You can’t say that an adult human with one X chromosome and Y chromosome, two hairy balls and a dangling penis is a man. At least, not if that human is wearing a frock at the time.

You also cannot say that Kylie Jenner’s father is named “Bruce”.

tim in vermont said...

merriam-webster dictionary us about as trustworthy as Wikipedia, and is edited for wokeness.

Iman said...

“It's too bad Musk didn't save his money up and by the NYT. I'm sure the collective shits taken by the staffs of the NYT, WaPo, New Yorker, NY Magazine, NYRB and the middle-aged, leftist women of Manhattan would go a long way to help with the looming fertilizer shortage brought on by the war in Ukraine.”

Chickenshit is said to be excellent fertilizer, so I think you’re on to something!

BUMBLE BEE said...

Well, by invoking the Richard Pryor clause, I'd say this is gonna be a fun ride

Iman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BUMBLE BEE said...

Donald Trump opened so many eyes to that which can't be unseen.

walter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
walter said...

Ask Dr. Robert Malone. I too got tired of his incessant use of the N word!!!
But then, neighborhood Walgreens pharmacists have become quashers of safe off-label prescriptions.

MadTownGuy said...

How quickly Social Justice Warriors turn into delicate little snowflakes when things don't go their way. But it's an act, a manipulative tactic to gain sympathy when intimidation doesn't work.

Ambrose said...

No comments for this piece. Even NYT knows when it is publishing crap.

Enigma said...

@tim in vermont: "merriam-webster dictionary us about as trustworthy as Wikipedia, and is edited for wokeness."


Are you for real? Phobia is a simple, firmly established word. Ironically your objection makes my case, as even this [known] woke source indicates fear is the first meaning.

Here's the Oxford link for phobia, as derived from ancient Greek phobos -- also meaning fear.

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110810105614898

A persistent, irrational fear of an object, event, activity, or situation called a phobic stimulus, resulting in a compelling desire to avoid it. The presence or anticipation of the phobic stimulus triggers anxiety or a panic attack, although the person acknowledges the fear to be irrational, and the phobic stimulus is either avoided or endured with dread. A phobia that leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning may be diagnosed as a mental disorder—either a specific phobia or a social phobia. A comprehensive list of phobias and phobic stimuli is provided in Appendix I at the back of this dictionary. According to the National Phobics Society, the eight most common phobias in the UK (in descending order) are: arachnophobia, social phobia, aeronausiphobia, agoraphobia, carcinophobia, brontophobia, thanatophobia, and cardiophobia. Also called a phobic neurosis. See also (in the main body of the dictionary) agoraphobia, dysmorphophobia, Little Hans, pa-leng, paraphobia, phobic technique, social phobia, specific phobia, thanatophobia. phobic adj. [From Greek phobos fear + -ia indicating a condition or quality]

MountainMan said...

"By all means, let's regulate social media. But let's do it with proper thought and consultation, with the nation's best
interests at heart"

---

"The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." - Daniel Webster

JRoberts said...

Twitter plays BOTH kinds of music - Country AND Western!

Apologies to the Blues Brothers…

John henry said...

Re the new dept of truth in dept of homeland security

I just found out who the director will be. She is tweeting up a storm patting herself on the back and claiming this has been in the works for some months and the timing of today's announcement is pure coincidence.

Nina Jankowicz is her name.

She's an American, I think, but used to work for the govt of Ukraine.

Where is Natalie jaresko? Former Ukrainian finance minister and prime minister candidate? And, possibly American citizen.

Will she turn up at dhs?

This gets stinkier by the minute.

John LGKTQ Henry

Jokah Macpherson said...

The word has a transgressive appeal, being forbidden and all.

Elmer T. Jones said...

Quoting the racist SNL "joke" is standard practice for journalists who's entire existence is spent on-screen. I am not an anti-semite but peel back the curtain on that widely reported news about Michael Che's allegedly hilarious takedown of white male racists and a couple of actual truths emerge : SNL writers are all New York Jews who don't like black people and avoid them as much as possible. They use (and profit from) a talentless black minstrel like Michael Che to slander gentile white males as racists for wanting to use the "n-word" when in fact it is blacks who use that word exclusively. And it's dutifully reported as news by all the left-wing outlets populated by content generators that apparently never venture beyond their various electronic devices and rabidly left-wing information sources.

RMc said...

It's interesting how much free speech the opponents of free of speech already have.

Free Speech, like all of the Good Things in Life (tm), rightfully belongs only to the Good People (tm). If Bad People were allowed to have access to the Good Things in Life, they might start thinking that they are Good, which is obviously unacceptable.

tim in vermont said...

"but used to work for the govt of Ukraine."

It's a mafia, like the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada who was behind the bank account freezing of people, like waitresses who might have given $25 to the Canadian Truckers when such gifts were clearly legal.

Of course the liberal party is generous with subsidies for the press there, so you won't here a word about it, and what you do hear are carefully constructed denials which avoid the actual charge.

tim in vermont said...

"Phobia is a simple, firmly established word."

I am just saying that that dictionary is carefully edited for wokeness, I don't really care about the word "homophobe," but citing the IngSoc dictionary as "authority" on any issue political is a joke.

Jamie said...

the term ["-phobia"] primarily means that the target is a fearful person.

This was versus another commenter's pointing out that calling someone "-phobic" can be used as a means, or maybe a proxy, for declaring them dangerously unstable and therefore giving society a justification for medicating and confining them.

I think the commenter was trying to make the point that the term "-phobia" is used by the Left not to evoke sympathy for the poor fearful person, which is what we're supposed to feel for people with a mental health issue, but instead to do two things:

1. Marginalize the person - set them apart from and inferior to mainstream society.

2. Criminalize the person - justify locking him up, for "public safety."

Of course I also agree with the commenter quoted above, who says that the Left uses "-phobia" to say that someone is fearful. This point of view adds a third purpose for labeling someone "-phobic":

3. Ridicule the person's opinion or belief.

(This from the Compassionate Left, who are demonstrably in favor of providing special accommodations to those with phobias that don't rock their boat, like agoraphobia.)

Basically it seems to me both definitions are intended.

MayBee said...

If white men really wanted to use the N word so badly, it would be perfectly acceptable to say.

wildswan said...

I looked up Nina Jankowitz who will probably be Elon Musk's chief opponent. She works at the Wilson (named after the well-known segregationist and racist President) Center. One part of her tries to support the Ukraine by exposing Russian disinformation. The other part tries to support Kamala Harris by calling the stories circulating about her a new form of disinformation, called "malign creativity", aimed at lowering women and preventing participation in public life. "Malign creativity — the use of coded language; iterative, context-based visual and textual memes; and other tactics to avoid detection on social media platforms—is the greatest obstacle to detecting and enforcing against online gendered abuse and disinformation." ... The overwhelming majority of recorded keywords relating to [gendered] abuse and disinformation were identified on Twitter and directed toward then-Senator, now Vice President Kamala Harris, who accounted for 78% of the total amount of recorded instances. ... Sexual narratives were by far the most common, accounting for 31% of the total data collected [on gendered abuse online mainly at Twitter.] The majority of these narratives targeted Vice President Kamala Harris. ... Online gendered abuse and disinformation is a national security issue." https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/malign-creativity-how-gender-sex-and-lies-are-weaponized-against-women-online
I suppose this means that most gendered abuse is a simple-minded use of identifiable abusive key-words but that there are those, the "malignly creative", who utter four-letter thoughts in many-letter words and have been escaping censorship by circumlocution. "Malign creativity is perhaps the greatest challenge to detecting, challenging, and denormalizing online abuse because it is less likely to trigger automated detection and often requires moderate-to-deep situational knowledge to understand."
The report explains that Nina supports developing "Hound of the Baskervilles" guidelines and a cross-platform consortium to run down MalCreas who make references to Willie Brown backwards and so on.

"[Social Media platforms] should also regularly update ... keywords to reflect and root out malign creativity, improve automated detection methods, and introduce nudges or friction to discourage users from posting abusive content.
... they should create a cross-platform consortium to track and respond to online misogyny, similar to existing consortiums which counter terrorism and extremism."

Misogyny is terrorism - or soon will be. Who knew. "Friction" will be used on the malignly creative terrorists. And "nudges." And, on the whole I think this means that we have a Der Alte named Kamala in our near future. But I'm sure her performance will put an end to misogyny.

All quotes from
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/malign-creativity-how-gender-sex-and-lies-are-weaponized-against-women-online

Original Mike said...

I'm sure others have covered this by providing examples (haven't had a chance to read yet), but how unaware do you have to be to believe Twitter hasn't been censoring conservatives for quite awhile now?

ccscientist said...

This is how terms are being defined:
Opposed to men in women's bathrooms? homophobic
Defend Israel? Racist
Antisemitism comes from the Left and is NOT shut down.
Making fun of Putin? shut down
Criticizing the chinese communist party? Racist
Not liking the sexualization of children? "don't say gay" and homophobic
Criticizing the fraud of BLM? obviously racist
Not wanting the country invaded by 2 million people/yr with no vetting at all? racist
Not entirely happy wearing a mask forever? you want people to die

It is all instead of actual arguments

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Here's what you can find on Twitter:

`(Eminem Agenda Era)
@MYMUSICB0X
@SaraGonzalesTX 's entire account makes me wanna take a 🔫 and 🎯 her in the 👤

If you can't see the icons, it says he wants to take a gun and shoot her in the head

https://twitter.com/MYMUSICB0X/status/1519753736360398848

We'll see how Twitter's "content moderators" deal with it