New in PJ Media:
There has been one salutary effect of the weeks-long efforts of Elon Musk to gain control of Twitter, and the debate over the freedom of speech that ensued: now the Left’s foremost individuals and institutions are out in the open about their hatred for the freedom of speech. The authoritarian heart of the Left has been exposed, as has their war against the foundational principle of any free society: the right to express oneself even if one’s opinions don’t coincide with those of the powerful and/or moneyed elites. Barack and Hillary hate the freedom of speech and want you to think it’s a dangerous toy, too dangerous for you to play with. And now three pillars of the unctuous and hypocritical Leftist “human rights” establishment, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have come out against it as well.
Reuters, adopting the solemn, even funereal tone it reserves for significant Leftist setbacks, noted Monday that Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has called the freedom of expression the “bedrock of a functioning democracy.” That’s exactly what it is, and that’s why Leftists are enraged that someone who believes such things has gained control of one of the foremost means of mass communication in our age. They had become complacent in their control of such outlets, as confident of the rightness of their power as much as any medieval king was in his divine election; but now their hegemony has been severely challenged, and so it’s time to try to shape public opinion by calling out the self-appointed and reliably Leftist “defenders of human rights” to explain to us why this is so very, very wrong.
Deborah Brown, whom Reuters describes as a “digital rights researcher and advocate” at Human Rights Watch, asserted: “Regardless of who owns Twitter, the company has human rights responsibilities to respect the rights of people around the world who rely on the platform. Changes to its policies, features, and algorithms, big and small, can have disproportionate and sometimes devastating impacts, including offline violence. Freedom of expression is not an absolute right, which is why Twitter needs to invest in efforts to keep its most vulnerable users safe on the platform.”
See, it’s all about preventing violence. As the Left relentlessly insists, conservative speech not only leads to violence, but in itself amounts to violence. If Twitter allows freedom of speech, people are going to get hurt.
There is more. Read the rest here.
mike says
cry me a river ?
Aussie Infidel says
The Left has hidden its totalitarian intentions behind the facade of ‘respect for the rights of minorities’ for decades. And now their nefarious schemes might be revealed to the world.
Deborah Brown of Human Rights Watch asserted; “Freedom of expression is not an absolute right”! But that’s exactly what it should be – short of incitement to commit violence or any other crime. If a person feels insulted by criticism of his beliefs or behavior, then maybe he needs to reflect on what he believes or has done. It might well be that he deserves to be criticised. But Leftists would never admit under any circumstances that they could be wrong.
More power to Musk. Hopefully a new era is dawning. Perhaps I won’t be banned again as I once was.
raja says
Aussie Infidel,
Twitter was in war with conservatives and all who opposed evil Left and islam. Free speech was a big fraud committed by Twitter. Now comes the relief, hopefully there will be more freedom, going forward.
JimJFox says
Elon musk – GENIUS. He in charge of Twitter is exactly what the world desperately needs, all credit to this heroic individual.
wpm says
If Elon Musk has gotten the woke crowd goon squad angry (ACLU ,Human Rights watch,ect) he must be on the side of supporting the First Amendment .When the “golden child” ex-President of the United States Obama calls for more censorship on internet platforms ,you know who are the real threats against a free and open country are.
raja says
WPM,
All this seems to be a blessing in disguise. If Obama has really called for censorship on internet it means he was already censoring the net through evil elements in Dorsey, Agarwal, Qatar princes et al. That should signal that there was something seriously wrong with Twitter (which all know too well). If free speech gets a new breather it is most welcome, now.
Rarely says
That the various social media platforms have inherent severe dangers cannot be denied. How to deal with those dangers will be a challenge. Musk’s views may be fine and admirable but it is inherently very dangerous for one person (or a closely knit group) to be in control of content.
Because the rest of the world has different views and laws with respect to what speech should be allowed it is doubtful that the position of the U.S. Constitution will be the measuring stick.
gravenimage says
Rarely, I don’t think that because much of the world rejects freedom of speech that the United States should do the same.
Rarely says
I’m not saying it should. It’s just very, very unlikely that the U.S.’s definition of Freedom of Speech will prevail on the internet..
Doomer says
I hope Elon Musk doesn’t get killed by the Deep State and wokists. They are capable of it.
Doomer says
The best way to fortify Freedom of Speech is to Destroy the Military-Industrial Complex in America.
1. Doing that would break the power of the NEOCONS and NEOLIBS.
2. And the way to destroy that complex is by making the world even More MULTIPOLAR ( two or more Economic Blocs ). Economic Blocs that would be
Self-Sufficient, in general. It is called AUTARCHY.
3. Musk said he is NOT the Richest man in the World ( 170 Billion ) but he thinks it is PUTIN ( 200 Billion dollars, personal fortune )
If true,that is good for Russia, since Putin is authoritarian, but ,import pt, he is Sincerely Nationalistic. To help Russia he would not doubt use 100 billion dollars of his own money to help the Russian economy.
I don’t see Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg,Wall Street, Silicon Valley,
even Elon Musk as willing to do it to save the American economy.
4. We know Russia, for years, has been Secretly Buying Vast Amounts of GOLD. A few weeks ago Putin put the Russian economy back on the GOLD STANDARD.
According to some, Russia has, THREE to FOUR times More gold that officialy stated.
If all that is true: the fact that the US STOLE Russia’s 260 Billion dollars outside of Russia
is more than compensated.
Russia has a brilliant woman as head of Russia’s Central Bank.She is ELVIRA NABIULLINA. She has been vital in making sure the Russian economy has withstood the more than 5,000 sanctions the West has thrown at Russia.
Due to her: yesterday the ruble was at 75 rubles to the dollar. Nabiullina will keep it at the range 75-85, to make it sure it does not get Too Strong ( bad for trade).
5. Now Russia receives More Money than it Spends, it does NOT have a DEFICIT. No debt,if I am correct.
While GREECE has a DEBT of 2.7 TRILLION dollars, and ITALY has about the SAME debt, and FRANCE
has a debt of 3 TRILLION. The ONLY EU country that has a good economy is Germany: if Russia cuts off Gas and Oil to Germany, the Euro would crumble.
gravenimage says
Doomer has said this before–that (somehow) the only way to protect freedom of speech is to destroy the societies that practice free trade.
More:
Self-Sufficient, in general. It is called AUTARCHY.
…………..
Actually, an Autarch is a ruler with absolute power and no democratic curbs on that power. Who can be surprised that Doomer would make such an error (assuming this was not intentional)?
More:
3. Musk said he is NOT the Richest man in the World ( 170 Billion ) but he thinks it is PUTIN ( 200 Billion dollars, personal fortune )
If true,that is good for Russia, since Putin is authoritarian, but ,import pt, he is Sincerely Nationalistic. To help Russia he would not doubt use 100 billion dollars of his own money to help the Russian economy.
…………..
Any riches Putin has have been *taken* from the Russian economy, since he has not created anything.
Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union could have become a free democracy. No one has done as much as dictator Putin to ensure that this did not happen.
More:
I don’t see Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg,Wall Street, Silicon Valley,
even Elon Musk as willing to do it to save the American economy.
…………..
Actually, creating technical advancement has done a great deal for the US economy. Doomer’s idea that money is just lying around is mistaken–that is not how dynamic economies work.
But Doomer is still rubbing his hands over the (supposed) immanent destruction of the West. Very disturbing stuff.
Doomer says
1. In the case of Russia, Putin made the OIL and GAS industries essentially STATE industries.
That goes against the free trade theory, Adam Smith.
2. Before they were private companies, owned by OLIGARCHS.
Under the circumstances it was the right thing to do,since that let Putin arrange the economic policy in Russia that gave rise to the conditions of today, where the Russian economy ,the ruble, has become strong.
Not so in the time of Yeltsin,who preceded him,who ruled from 1991 to 1999.
3. The free market is good, but circumstances have to be taken into consideration. Pragmatism, flexibility.
TRUMP raised and maintained higher tariffs for CHINESE products, and
that went against free trade theory, against Adam Smith. Just like in the case of PUTIN.
But Trump knew he had to consider the situation ( just like Putin regarding the oil and gas industry in Russia).
Each country has different situations. And as a result of Trump’s economic policy: the BEST economic prosperity in America
since the 1980s.
gravenimage says
More from Doomer:
1. In the case of Russia, Putin made the OIL and GAS industries essentially STATE industries.
That goes against the free trade theory, Adam Smith.
2. Before they were private companies, owned by OLIGARCHS.
Under the circumstances it was the right thing to do,since that let Putin arrange the economic policy in Russia that gave rise to the conditions of today, where the Russian economy ,the ruble, has become strong.
………………………
No, seizing and nationalizing private property is not the right thing–unless one wants to live in a dictatorship.
Then, per capita income in the United States is about two and a half times that of Russia, so this has not actually been all that good for actual Russians.
More:
Not so in the time of Yeltsin,who preceded him,who ruled from 1991 to 1999.
3. The free market is good, but circumstances have to be taken into consideration. Pragmatism, flexibility.
………………………
“Pragmatism” in this case means a dictator seizing private property.
And the idea that this is all cultural does not hold water, in any case–Venezuela was the wealthiest nation in South America–until its leaders embraced Communism. Now shelves in markets are empty.
Taiwanese per capita income is more than twice that of China–despite their being the same people culturally in the mid-1940s. Thailand’s per capita income is more than twice that of Vietnam’s.
Koreans were culturally the same people in 1950–but now democratic South Korea is a wealthy, near first world nation–while North Koreans often lack enough food to eat. South Koreans have an average per capita income of $43,480, Communist North Koreans just $1,300.
There are many other examples.
Infidel says
All these international organizations – why are they at all affected by what is essentially one American taking a publicly traded American company private?
gravenimage says
Good question.
Doomer says
Elon Musk is a Man of Contradictions:
1. His great dream is his TESLA Electric Car which uses a battery that needs LITHIUM.
2. Musk is now,I assume, in despair that MEXICO has decided to NATIONALIZE its lithium deposits. Leftist president there LOPEZ OBRADOR, a few days ago,
won a referendum, a recall vote, with, 91% in his favor.
3. On July 24, 2020, Tesla’s Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that a second U.S. “government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people.”
Someone responded to Musk soon after, “You know what wasn’t in the best interest of people?
The U.S. government
organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia
so you could OBTAIN the LITHIUM there.”
Musk then wrote: “We WILL COUP WHOEVER we want! Deal with it.”
That is why Mexico,India,and other countries, are heading toward a Multipolar World:
they are tired of American neocons, the US Deep State, neolibs,
globalists, the Militray-Industrial Complex, Big Tech
( all In the Name of DEMOCRACY and HUMAN RIGHTS )
organizing REGIME CHANGE (via coups d’etat, revolutions, civil wars, direct invasion, proxy wars ) in other countries. And it is all in reality due to greed disguised as human rights.
gravenimage says
Human Rights Watch, ACLU, Amnesty International Clutch Their Pearls in Horror At Elon Musk’s Purchase of Twitter
………………
Free speech? Say it ain’t so! Oh, the humanity! sarc/off