There's satisfaction in watching Elon Musk as a person who has been trying to explain how the right is *different* to people who still want to waffle and "both sides" the political environment in the US.

People who come from the left and the center AGONIZE over moderation decisions, going back and forth endlessly over the trade offs between freedom of expression vs the chilling effect of racist or harassing speech.

People on the right DO NOT GIVE A SHIT. They don't even pretend.

Try commenting on a right wing website:

Racism, conspiracy theories, even advocating violence, all allowed. Mild criticism from the left? Banned.

But their people will come over to a place like Slate,and when they're banned for calling our LGBTQ commenters pedophiles they SCREAM that we're suppressing right wing opinion and against free speech.

They don't care. They don't even believe any of it themselves. It's all bullshit. Musk is like every moderator I've ever seen from that side.

Watch what the right says about Musk. I already know: The left did it first, he's just doing the same thing to the left that Twitter commies did to the right.

But it's demonstrably false! Twitter pre-Musk was hostage to bad faith claims of bias, unable to act against accounts that openly flaunted their rules because they were so afraid of the bad faith crtiques.

Musk bans anyone who criticizes him, not even bothering to have policies or enforce them. He doesn't care and neither does the right.

@e_urq Fascists are living in an alternative world. With alternative truths. Opposing decency and science.

@e_urq I genuinely hate this "whataboutism" which everyone uses. I've seen it a lot in covering stuff about #China's #CommunistParty #CCP.

For some reason, it's always "X did it first" or "What about X".

It's like everyone's in a race to the bottom. Surely the right way to think about it is "We screwed up, and we'll do better regardless of what X has done / is doing". But nope, it's always back to whataboutism.

@Howard @e_urq The (un)funny thing about whataboutism, is that it's an implicit admission of guilt. Instead of denying the accusation, the accused instead attempts to diffuse blame.

@NatSec_MTB_Beer @e_urq It's just also such a nonsensical response.

"Stop committing genocide on the Uyghurs."
"But what about the Americans killing innocent people in the middle east?"

How does that even make sense in terms of a logical conversation?

@e_urq agree.

Old Twitter: break a min rule get a timeout.. Delete the tweet. You are back.

Elon Twitter: he wanted to Permaban journalist for covering his story
So he "claims" they broke a rule. One that just became a rule 24 earlier.

His poll shows that most people don't fall into the trap.

But read hard right cons circles. They will claim that "the rules were clear".

@anclement @e_urq shit show alert 🚨 we are happy here and he’s a proven narcissistic con man. Best advice is leave and ignore the ignoramus. Just me.
@e_urq fascists have always regarded things like freedom of speech with contempt.
@wackyvorlon I know, but I'm really hoping more people will be able to see it for what it is now.
@e_urq I remember thinkpieces calling the right the true protectors of freedom of speech…
@wackyvorlon I know. I couldn't believe so many people fell for it. I still can't.
@wackyvorlon @e_urq not really a think piece then, izzit?

@e_urq

Here are further arguments as to why leaving #twitter is now a must:

https://robertsonp.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-the-twitter-quitter

In Defense of the Twitter Quitter

You don’t need to stay on Twitter and ‘fight’

Phil's Takes
@e_urq makes you wonder what govt overlords believe is criminal behavior and what is not. Tendencies and Convos about gangstalking, doxxing, rape, terrorism are acceptable but not groups formong to care for your local environment or engage in democracy.
@e_urq
They believe in nothing. Or rather they believe whatever they say in the moment. Their only commitment is to keeping others down.
@e_urq as long as I've been on the Internet (early 1990s), moderators on forums have bent over backwards to accommodate right wing trolls committing TOS violations.
@e_urq Hypocrisy in the right wing? Isn't that their entire official political platform, though? And always has been?
I believe most rw-thought stems from having failed most of kindergarten. They don't want to share the planet. They want to subjugate both the planet and everyone else on it.

@e_urq

gaslighting by any other name.

Sadly, the unsuspended journos were let back in "despite their doxxing violation.". That narrative has taken root.

@e_urq yes I wrote a long thread today inspired a bit by EM's journey. It seems to be a very teachable moment showing how this new form of right-wing authoritarianism has its own logic. You start of saying 'free speech' and then before too long you're saying very predictable bigoted things.