Elon Musk is absolutely not a ‘free speech absolutist’

submitted a week ago by jeffw

www.theverge.com/2024/9/4/24235213/x-brazil-sup…

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48 Comments

magnetosphere a week ago

Although the title made me mutter “no shit”, the article itself is legit. It’s no fluff piece. The article provides several specific examples, and is definitely worth reading.

Substance_P a week ago

“We and our 848 partners store and access personal data, by clicking accept…” That’s a hard pass on the cookie policy for me.

NotMyOldRedditName a week ago, edited a week ago

848?!

I’m not excusing this, but for their code base sake and sanity, I really hope that’s a we use 5 or 6 and those 5 or 6 use a whole pile, instead of having implemented even a hundred or more services that share data.

some_guy a week ago

He reiterated the claim in an interview with CNN, in which he said the platform has “no actual choice” but to comply with government censorship requests.

Just stop platforming this dickhead. We already know everything there is to know about him. Let him blather on his dying site and nowhere else.

ShareMySims a week ago

Literally no “free speech absolutist” has ever actually been a “free speech absolutist”, it is always about wanting to avoid the consequences to their own hate speech, while they hold anyone who opposes it doubly accountable for their opposition, and try, often successfully, to silence that.

NotMyOldRedditName a week ago, edited a week ago

And they always seem to confuse that free speech just protects them from their government, not the rest of the world, and will have consequences.

ShareMySims a week ago

Yeah, it’s always those who shout loudest about free speech that have the least understanding of how it works. 😂

Clinicallydepressedpoochie a week ago, edited a week ago

If they understood they wouldn’t shout about it. Or maybe they would, they’re just banking on other people’s ignorance.

“Free speech absolutist” means “you are required to hear everything I have to say and you can’t criticize me for it.”

ShareMySims 6 days ago

Yeah, that’s well put.

Cephalotrocity a week ago

It’s the same with so-called ‘anarchists’. Look at lemmy.db0.com, with a list of rules to be obeyed longer than Lemmy.world’s (not that I don’t agree with the rules, just that it is fundamentally hypocritical)

Zombiepirate a week ago, edited a week ago

Anarchism: a political theory advocating the abolition of hierarchical government and the organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion.

I don’t follow. How is it hypocritical for an anarchist forum to have rules that the community agrees upon? I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what anarchists believe.

Cephalotrocity a week ago

anarchism - the political belief that there should be little or no formal or official organization to society but that people should work freely together

I’m curious: what do the words ‘formal or official organization’ mean to you? Try and boil it down to say one word…

It’s called understanding the implications of the statement. If an anarchist forum had the doctrine ‘no matter what, treat each other with respect’ it’d be fine. Anything beyond that is ‘obey my opinion on how you should behave’. You know… ‘Anarchy’.

LookBehindYouNowAndThen a week ago, edited a week ago

Same energy

ETA: It’s really funny that you’re making this argument in a thread you about how people don’t understand how the first amendment has limits, much like the principles of many types of anarchism have limits.

10/10, no notes.

Cephalotrocity a week ago

yl sdpjl jfjfj dfasjkf lasdjflk asdjfkl;jsj jkasj fqw iope uroiqwpmv qipo

See I can do it too.

Zombiepirate a week ago, edited a week ago

If you really want to learn about anarchism instead of just spouting off an ignorant take, you should do some reading. Assuming you know everything about a whole political philosophy based off of the name and a half-understood definition that you just Googled is not the path forward.

It’s nobody else’s responsibility to educate you, especially when you’re being belligerently hard-headed about learning what others think.

A one-word summation is for people who do not appreciate nuance, and I have no desire to engage with such a request.

Cephalotrocity a week ago

There is no nuance here. ‘Follow these rules or else’ is anathema to Anarchism and trying to ad hominem to deflect from the fact you haven’t put up any shred of evidence to the contrary is weak tea.

henfredemars a week ago

He is as long as it’s his own speech, and it doesn’t include anything he said in the past that he might not wish to be disseminated in the present, among a host of other conditions.

leisesprecher a week ago

That’s the funny (or sad) thing with almost all of those free speech enthusiasts. They don’t want free speech, but exclusively freedom for their speech.

He is a nepo baby apartheid cuck though…

“My freedom to say what I want, and the ability to filter what others say, is absolute.”

— E. Musk

T00l_shed 6 days ago

And all he had to do to do that was buy Twitter.

WoahWoah 6 days ago

Duh. Did this really need to be a whole article?

He is if you only consider his speech. Typical sociopathic, spoiled, rich kid syndrome

Kalysta 6 days ago

He banned the term cis from reddit.

No. He’s not. Also fuck him.

some_guy a week ago

I figured out the cheat code, and you wouldn’t believe what it is. Just say nazi shit and you’ll get promoted by Lonnie with a “that’s interesting,” or a “this,” or “this needs investigation.” It’s awesome! I just spout a bunch of nazi shit and Lonnie promotes me right to the top of everyone’s feed! You gotta try it.

/s

Lasherz12 a week ago

Shocked I tell you

Snot Flickerman a week ago, edited a week ago

In other news, water makes things wet.


On one hand, I understand why these articles need to be written.

On the other hand, the fact that these articles need to be written at all shows how far off the fucking map humanity is.

I’m not even confident to say we’ve regressed, it feels like this is how its always been and we had a generation (at least in the US) that was self confident enough to lie to themselves about it for about 70 years until it became too obvious for their children and grandchildren to ignore. The only difference is the technology has made it faster and more easily repeated.

Obviously Musk isn’t a free speech absolutist, but just like all his followers, it’s not about being sincere and proving anything, it’s about an expression of power. It can be seen in their smug smiles when they argue that they support free speech while suppressing yours.


We’re pretty fucked, as a species.

leisesprecher a week ago

What frightens me about all of that is how many people don’t see through that bullshit. It’s so extremely obvious how full of shit these demagogues are, but millions of people applaud for that.

Here in Germany we had state elections. On the “anniversary” of the invasion of Poland ⅓ voted for an openly right-wing extremist party, and 10-15% for a party that basically claims to combine the national with the social, both parties are supported by Russia. It’s insane.

It’s wild that articles like this are made… If you even have an small touch stone of common sense it’s pretty obvious billionaires rarely do things for people unless it out proportionally helps themselves.

beebarfbadger 6 days ago

Well now you got something black on white that you can cite and point to for collected evidence. That’s… something?

Konala Koala 6 days ago, edited 6 days ago

I wonder if “Elon Musk is absolutely a ‘hate speech assholutist’” would fit him better, meaning that inviting him here to comment may end up with him in violation of ‘Rule 6’ and likely end up being banned with no warning given.

CharlesDarwin 5 days ago, edited 5 days ago

It’s kinda why most people laughingly put it in scare quotes - and not just when talking about Elmo.

The real question is why people insist on continuing to use Xitter.

carl_dungeon 6 days ago

Did they just figure that out? Not like years ago?

zante a week ago, edited a week ago

And that’s a block Jeff. Im not wasting another second on soap opera.