Oliver Darcy

Musk and the right have for years claimed to be free speech maximalists.

Now Musk has openly censored the press (after being triggered by some news coverage) and threatened to ban those who posts links to other social media platforms.

The right’s response to all of this brazen censorship? It is mostly cheering him on.

No one has a right to be on a private company’s platform. But the hypocrisy is astounding.

Dec 18, 2022 at 8:35pmWeb
Show threadBrian VastagDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy if major news orgs don't leave twitter, they're letting elon musk exert editorial control
Show threadPeter Koopman 🦣Dec 18, 2022
@brianvastag @oliverdarcy
I agree.
Show threadDoremus JessupDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy I’m sure Taibbi & Weiss will agree with Musk’s mother
Show threadBad takesDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy particularly since the most damning censorship twitter could illustrate in coordination with Taibbi and Weiss amounted to the fact that twitter was previously giving preferential treatment to conservatives to accommodate perceptions of bias
Show threadJerryDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy is it astounding? Need to stop engaging them like there is an intellectually honest debate going on.
Show threadDuneMyThangDec 18, 2022

@jerryhorne @oliverdarcy

Exactly. Non sequitur from the get.

Show threadMikeDec 19, 2022
@krisSacrebleu @jerryhorne @oliverdarcy only a total moron would believe anything someone like elon says
Show threadHammancheezDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy this is the problem when the private company is one of the de facto public square of international society
Show threadhootyDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy I agree but I hope people understand more and more that collecting hypocrisies of the right wing is a fool's errand. Everybody needs to understand that the right wing does not care about hypocrisies the same way the left wing does and we're all trying to cash in those poker chips at the bank.
Show threadDuncan MurrayDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy You can argue that the discourse can now move forward from the free speech absolutists. It seems even Elon agrees there are some limits. Now we need a framework to understand where 'suggesting ways to communicate on other social media platforms' fall on our scale of ethical communication. Somewhere in-between inciting violence and racism I guess?
Show threadJennifedDec 18, 2022

@oliverdarcy

It's like lying and manipulation in the exercise of power and control is the point.
#WhoWouldHaveThought

Show threadJoelDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy then reporters and news outlets need to be gone. Leave. Gtf off twitter. Build out on other sites. Musk’s twitter needs shrivel up and die. Reporters and need outlets are letting him survive. Posts like this w/o action are useless.
Show threadSteven HiltonDec 18, 2022
We should no longer be surprised or astounded by these tactics. It's obvious they lie and use people's repeated willingness to believe them as a weapon. Please stop playing their game.
Show threadDan Wentzel 🏳️‍🌈Dec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy Proof that today’s right doesn’t have policies, doesn’t care about integrity, and only cares about “owning the libs”.
Show threadBart v. SchuylenburgDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy now that you’re here, shouldn’t CNN create a mastodon server of their own for their journalists and anchors?
Show threadJeffDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy well, to be fair here, Trump and his Administration didn’t want specific members of the press there, either. If they could have gotten away with more, assume they would have. Twitter isn’t the first step here, it’s like the 27th or 30th…
Show threadviolet handsDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy I mean honestly you were dumb if you believed they were about “free speech” because all of their actions showed they were about wanting to take the microphone away from marginalized voices and allow unmoderated harassment of us.
Show threadSarcasmoDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy actually, the hypocrisy is par for the course...
Show threadmarktaylorDec 18, 2022
@oliverdarcy @CNN should leave Twitter. It shouldn’t be a hard decision at this point.
Show thread🇺🇦 Sean Prophet ⚛Dec 19, 2022

@oliverdarcy

Hypocrity is the GOP platform, and has been since Nixon/Reagan. The last decent GOP President was Eisenhower.

And there are only a handful of non-hypocrite GOP members today, and they either lost their primaries, resigned, or quit the party.

For the GOP, publicly telling blatant lies, and holding double standards has become a loyalty test.

We have to stop being astounded by them executing on a 50 year old strategy, and figure out how to defeat them.

Show threadThe Velvet HammerDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy He’s finding excuses to run it into the ground, as was his intent all along. 😞
Show threadNirodhaDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy Elon Musk wants free speech as much as I would want his brain probe!
Show threadbrooklynmarieDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy Are you surprised? It’s been bad faith all the way down.
Show threadLeonDec 19, 2022

@brooklynmarie @oliverdarcy *exactly*

i really wish people would stop going “ha! they did a hypocrisy! got em!”

their base doesn’t give a shit about hypocrisy, they just care about winning. if they win through lying, even fundamentally lying about who they are and what they believe, that’s great, they outsmarted them, and they’re my team and that means i outsmarted them and I win.

they also assume that that’s what everyone’s doing, that everyone is just lying to win, and claiming someone is a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy, and worse, weakness. it’s just strengthening their narrative, not attacking it.

and people who care about integrity already know these people don’t have any.

Show threadDidiQDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy The right also claims to be pro life, while merely being pro forced birth.
Show threadNimbusDec 19, 2022
There are few actual values or principles for the Right. It's mainly give us what we want and we'll make up whatever sounds good at the moment to support it. And what they want changes with the whims of whoever their current grifting loudmouth is.
Show threadJasonDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy I think we've reached peak "dad's money."
Show threadTomDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy We all know that if you are looking for hypocrisy then you look at the loudest folks on the right, and the examples you’ll find are glaring. They have it perfected.
Show threadLitzz11Dec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy The right is all "private company he can do what he likes neener neener" but when their Nazi friends are suspended they scream WE'RE OPPRESSED.
Show threadMikeDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy it's not astounding if you've ever followed the political right before. Authoritarianism and outright lying are their core tenets
Show threadPeeDeeDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy the corollary to "no one has a right to be on a private company's platform" is that no one has to be on it.
Staying is giving Musk power to control information in our democracy. I think there is a moral imperative to leave asap.
Show threadChris DanielDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy It turns out they meant "free as in beer"
Show threadBarneyRCN🇨🇦⚓️🎓Dec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy Unfortunately it’s going to get worse!
Show threadΩ 🌍 Gus PoseyDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy Modern conservatism is fueled by willful ignorance, in the forms of an angry, ugly faith, and a willingness to ignore or destroy objective reality. Their entire political mechanism is now geared to this grotesque ideology and we can watch, with some satisfaction, as it tears itself to pieces.
Show threadThomas DavidDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy
Trump's "enemy of the people" is Elonovich Muskyovski's as well ...
Show threadmyfriendcharlesDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy It seems Elon thinks Twitter users should be treated the same way he treats his employees.
Show threadShady JadeDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy Freedom of speech is just a right-wing dogwhistle for power and I wish I realized that long ago back when I thought pointing out their hypocrisy could at ALL shame them. Damn it.
Show threadMihai²Dec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy the right doesn't believe anything. they cherrypick whichever arguments they think they can use to "own the libs". entertaining their bad faith arguments plays into their hands.
how do we return to a world where facts matter?
Show threadRoryTobeyDec 19, 2022
@oliverdarcy. Good comment on that: https://terikanefield.com/elon-musk-fox-news-and-free-speech-absolutism/
Elon Musk, Fox News, and Free Speech Absolutism - Teri Kanefield

First, some housekeeping: For the next two weeks, I will post on Thursday evenings instead of Saturday because of the holidays and my travel plans. “Free Speech Absolutism” Elon Musk abolished Twitter’s moderation policies and allowed “America’s most prominent Nazi,” Andrew Anglin back onto Twitter along with Donald Trump. He declared himself a “free speech absolutist” and said all voices … Elon Musk, Fox News, and Free Speech Absolutism Read More »

Teri Kanefield