See, this is what gets me about conservatives who go, "Well, you see, actually, I'm a free speech absolutist," and use that as their catch-all defense whenever you give them an example of a situation where speech can put someone in harm's way.
They'll defend Proud Boy militia groups showing up to menace a library event because a drag queen is there by saying, "Hey, I'm a free speech absolutist! What can I tell ya?"
And then... someone uses their speech to say something the conservative doesn't like.
That's when this whole "free speech absolutist" stuff comes crumbling down.
"Well, you see, if people know where his jet is, that could put him in danger so OBVIOUSLY that should be banned!" type stuff.
In those cases, they can suddenly understand that publicizing the location of a person/group/business to audiences of millions could put someone in harm's way. And that's when talking about accounts like ElonJet, that aren't meant as negative commentary.
But when you go, "Hey, maybe taking some random person's TikTok video, adding a caption that strongly implies that you think the person is a criminal of some sort, and then tagging in the person's employer -- maybe that's also bad?"
They'll go, "Sorry. Free speech absolutist."
It just never ends. And you talk yourself in circles...
...because the right never has to actually address its hypocrisy...
...because mainstream media outlets will keep writing up every story that has to do with 'cancel culture' as a very real thing…
…that is primarily a problem of “the left.”
And the public perception of "cancel culture" being an issue of "the left" is itself driven by media coverage that frames it in such a way.
When a Democratic member of the House tweeted that she was going to learn how to make her own adobo after the CEO of a company gushed about how much he liked Trump, mainstream media outlets talked about that non-stop for months.
When Republican members of the Senate tweet out threats of boycotts or regulation to companies over speech (Tom Cotton threatened GM; Josh Hawley called on Visa and Mastercard to stop letting PornHub use their services), it barely makes the news.
It's why they frame things like "The Twitter Files" as scandalous. You could see that in how Bari Weiss tried to make it seem like Twitter employees who disagreed with the company about policies were trying to cancel/silence/censor the company's actual decision.
Meanwhile, every once in a while there will be some conservative who gets popular on the right because they didn't "self-censor" at work. They get framed as victims of "cancel culture."
The hypocrisy is what it is. I don't expect any better from the right.
But I do expect better from mainstream media outlets. Stop taking guys like Musk at face value when they say things about being "free speech absolutists." If that's a position they want to stake out (again, I'm not the one trying to frame myself that way), they should prove it.
Open Thread: ElonJet as a Case Study of Hypocrisy
Topic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/14/elonjet-twitter-suspension-jack-sweeney-talks/
See, this is what gets me about conservatives who go, "Well, you see, actually, I'm a free speech absolutist," and use that as their catch-all defense whenever you give them an example of a situation where speech can put someone in harm's way.
They'll defend Proud Boy militia groups showing up to menace a library event because a drag queen is there by saying, "Hey, I'm a free speech absolutist! What can I tell ya?"
And then... someone uses their speech to say something the conservative doesn't like.
That's when this whole "free speech absolutist" stuff comes crumbling down.
"Well, you see, if people know where his jet is, that could put him in danger so OBVIOUSLY that should be banned!" type stuff.
In those cases, they can suddenly understand that publicizing the location of a person/group/business to audiences of millions could put someone in harm's way. And that's when talking about accounts like ElonJet, that aren't meant as negative commentary.
But when you go, "Hey, maybe taking some random person's TikTok video, adding a caption that strongly implies that you think the person is a criminal of some sort, and then tagging in the person's employer -- maybe that's also bad?"
They'll go, "Sorry. Free speech absolutist."
It just never ends. And you talk yourself in circles...
...because the right never has to actually address its hypocrisy...
...because mainstream media outlets will keep writing up every story that has to do with 'cancel culture' as a very real thing…
…that is primarily a problem of “the left.”
And the public perception of "cancel culture" being an issue of "the left" is itself driven by media coverage that frames it in such a way.
When a Democratic member of the House tweeted that she was going to learn how to make her own adobo after the CEO of a company gushed about how much he liked Trump, mainstream media outlets talked about that non-stop for months.
When Republican members of the Senate tweet out threats of boycotts or regulation to companies over speech (Tom Cotton threatened GM; Josh Hawley called on Visa and Mastercard to stop letting PornHub use their services), it barely makes the news.
It's why they frame things like "The Twitter Files" as scandalous. You could see that in how Bari Weiss tried to make it seem like Twitter employees who disagreed with the company about policies were trying to cancel/silence/censor the company's actual decision.
Meanwhile, every once in a while there will be some conservative who gets popular on the right because they didn't "self-censor" at work. They get framed as victims of "cancel culture."
The hypocrisy is what it is. I don't expect any better from the right.
But I do expect better from mainstream media outlets. Stop taking guys like Musk at face value when they say things about being "free speech absolutists." If that's a position they want to stake out (again, I'm not the one trying to frame myself that way), they should prove it.
Let this be a case study.
Any thoughts?
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