Free Speech: Difference between revisions

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|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=I stopped at 240 Characters on this one, just so that it would all be displayed. Feel free to add your own kayfabrication examples. Many of us can finish each other’s thoughts at this point and would come up with the same basic lists:
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|name=Gen. Buck Turgidson
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|username=BuckTurgids0n
|content=Facts vs FactCheckers™</br>
Truth vs TheNarrative™</br>
Elite Achievement vs Elites™
|timestamp=5:52 AM ¡ Aug 3, 2024
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|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1819612397851890007
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1819612397851890007
|name=Eric Weinstein
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
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|content=For me, this has little to do w/ Kamala. It's:
|content=For me, this has little to do w/ Kamala. It's:


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Science vs TheScience™</br>
Science vs TheScience™</br>
Privacy vs TheTermsOfServicePrivacyPolicy™</br>
Privacy vs TheTermsOfServicePrivacyPolicy™</br>
Free Speech vs OurFreeSpeech™</br>
'''Free Speech''' vs '''OurFreeSpeech™'''</br>
Academic Freedom vs USAcademicFreedom™</br>
Academic Freedom vs USAcademicFreedom™</br>
Diversity vs DEI™</br>
Diversity vs DEI™</br>
Professional Agreement vs TheExpertConsensus™
Professional Agreement vs TheExpertConsensus™
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Revision as of 05:48, 10 October 2025

Free-speech-b.png

Eric Weinstein’s perspective on free speech is neither absolutist nor dismissive; it is contextual and anchored in concerns about institutions, norms, and unintended consequences. While he upholds free speech as a foundational element of open societies, his primary concern is with its erosion through cultural norms, institutional pressures, and platform policies. He advocates for vigilance about how free speech is mediated—not only legally, but socially and technologically.

Eric recognizes free speech as indispensable for science, democracy, and open inquiry, but rejects the idea that it can be pursued as an unqualified good. The legal protections of speech are relatively straightforward; the more difficult challenge lies in the cultural, institutional, and normative domains—the informal pressures that shape who can speak, how, and with what consequences.

Weinstein distinguishes between defending speech that is deliberately provocative and defending speech that is substantively important yet vulnerable to suppression. His preference is to protect the latter: speech that advances truth, dissent, or reasoned discourse, rather than speech intended mainly to offend. At the same time, Eric is skeptical of platforms, advertisers, and regulators coordinating to set the boundaries of acceptable speech. He sees this as a form of captured control that risks undermining genuine civil liberties. His repeated invocation of dualities—Free Speech vs. “OurFreeSpeech™”—reflects his concern that institutional rhetoric can hollow out the original principle.

Weinstein is a cautious defender of free speech: committed to its centrality, but wary of absolutism, sensitive to cultural forces, and focused on precision in defining its scope so that defending speech does not inadvertently empower those who would curtail it.


On X

Eric Weinstein has said a lot about free speech on X/Twitter. Below is a partial collection.

2010

'Free markets', 'tolerance', 'pacifism', 'free speech' etc.. are what physicists call 'effective theories' and require warning labels.

8:03 PM ¡ Jan 22, 2010


Obscenity charges against Gonzo pioneer John Stagliano are dropped! Miller v California remains a menace to free speech http://bit.ly/aVTowv

10:10 PM ¡ Aug 12, 2010


2011

The "Free speech zone" = X was invented & named in the USA = Y in 1988. Q: Name its even more important set-theoretic complement Y \ X.

4:33 PM ¡ Feb 18, 2011

2016

Confused by people promoting free speech by being deliberately offensive when you can offend many more people by simply thinking clearly.

8:04 PM ¡ Jul 22, 2016


If you don't define free speech movement goals carefully, you end up complaining about the free speech of others that inhibits yours.

12:07 PM ¡ Nov 5, 2016


I'm not as focused on free speech as I am around the "Don't worry, contrarian intellectuals. You'll still have a job on Monday."-movement.

12:26 PM ¡ Nov 5, 2016


2017

While often tempted, I'm not a free speech absolutist. I'm an anti-utopian w a commitment to keep our world safe from well meaning utopians.

Most of my friends who are free speech absolutists have never run the simulator forward to see the dystopia total free speech would create.

10:16 AM ¡ Jan 13, 2017


I like free speech but not absolute free speech. The US is the finer but not the latter.

4:53 PM ¡ Jan 14, 2017


Conclusion: my engagement patterns changed. Some of it is likely algorithmic. We should have a free speech option: time ordered, no filters.

2:40 PM ¡ Apr 09, 2017


We're standing up to mob rule to fight for universal civil rights, academic freedom, science & free speech. Safety NOT guaranteed.

Want in?

7:26 AM ¡ Jun 10, 2017

Many have urged me to follow @jordanbpeterson's lead these last 2 weeks--friends, students, strangers. I'm listening

https://patreon.com/bretweinstein


VOICE OVER: We've secretly replaced Free-Speech America w new improved Sharia-compliant blasphemy-free America. Let's watch folks' reaction!

12:15 AM ¡ Jul 22, 2017

Berkeley used to be Free Speech Center! Now KPFA Cancels Richard Dawkins talk because he criticizes Islam? Shame!

https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/richard-dawkins-deplatformed-at-a-book-talk-berkeley-for-abusive-speech-about-islam-on-twitter/

3:50 PM ¡ Jul 21, 2017


Clay, you weren't in a comedy club & your right to free speech wasn't infringed. You just put a colleague in a no win situation...& she won!

9:27 PM ¡ Sep 15, 2017

Here's @cnn video of me saying I love the first amendment and boobs that nearly shut down the network. So great:

https://outkickthecoverage.com/love-first-amendment-boobs/


1/ You bet I do: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mn5crhTusSA

Let's analyze why a sports guy like Crash Davis got to be pro-pornography & talk about body parts. https://x.com/EuroPork/status/908809213165604871

Sep 15, 2017

2/ Sarandon's character was host to two men. But it was she who turned the conversation sexy. Costner was offended (not outraged) & strong.

Sep 15, 2017

3/ Sarandon wouldn't let him stay private crossing into his space. He responded to her as a sexual woman and an equal not a delicate flower.

Sep 15, 2017

4/ He also was leaving her space and not remaining on her couch. This gave her choice without having to have her shut him down. A key issue.

Sep 15, 2017

5/ My point's simple. These issues are tricky & we've all screwed them up. But we don't just get to say any old thing. There are rules here.

Sep 15, 2017

End/ This isn't the crime of the century. But it's also not fair. There are implicit rules about jokes & flirting that aren't "free speech."

3:13 PM ¡ Sep 15, 2017


On the death of @hughhefner, I had to remind myself of how a lost thinking US-Left playfully championed free speech:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iaHDBL7dVgs

12:26 AM ¡ Sep 29, 2017


I believe @facebook, @Twitter, @Google are now deploying effective new measures & standards for securing US democracy against a repeat of unwanted involvement by unacceptable outsiders.

What I just can’t shake is fear that those outsiders are our own dissenting fellow citizens.

Dec 20, 2017

I should point out that unlike many friends, I’m *not* a free speech absolutist. Not a Trump voter. Not opposed to *some* discretion by the private sector as to whom it can deny service. But these are now utility like companies and something feels too...coordinated?...something.

6:01 PM ¡ Dec 20, 2017

2018

How is it that from a vast number of public speakers in the extended @SamHarrisOrg family you @EricRWeinstein seem to be the the first one to bring up the marvelous Marshall Rosenberg and #nonviolentcommunication #nvc ???

Jan 02, 2018

I don't know that I am. But it seems weird to me that I haven't heard it from anyone else given the amount of attention to "hate speech" and "speech as violence". If I have this wrong, point me to others discussing this in the context of free speech/hate speech. Thx!

8:53 PM ¡ Jan 02, 2018


“So, quick summary: There is no campus free speech crisis, the kids are all right, those that say otherwise have lost all perspective” -@JeffreyASachs

But we do have some lovely parting gifts for our contestant Jeffrey here on “Let’s-Build-a-Strawman!”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SynqYb-6bXY

5:00 PM ¡ Mar 11, 2018


1/2 The free speech community is itself divided as to whether the case for free speech is better made focusing on speech specifically intended to offend, or necessary speech deemed outrageous & attacked by authoritarians wishing to control & stigmatize reasonable civil discourse.

Mar 16, 2018

2/2 While I understand and can make *both* cases, I'm solidly in with the latter. It's now so easy to be attacked by a vengeful mob by simply saying true, reasonable things, that I can't find any advantage in confusing the story with being mean or teasing the weak & vulnerable.

12:13 PM ¡ Mar 16, 2018


Oh this is good: "Free Speech Grifters"! Let me save you time Mari. Everyone needs to be very very afraid of: @BretWeinstein, @clairlemon , @DouglasKMurray, @CHSommers, @jordanbpeterson, @RubinReport, @joerogan, @SamHarrisOrg, @benshapiro, me etc..

Why? We're not MSM compliant. https://x.com/mariuyehara/status/975754244904161281

4:26 PM ¡ Mar 20, 2018


There is not one single word or phrase in any language ever spoken that is without potential wholesome legitimate use by anyone living anywhere.

No language-level bans can withstand scrutiny. Not one.

And, for the record, I‘m not even a free speech absolutist...

5:04 PM ¡ Dec 20, 2018


Advertisers vs Riskvertisers:

An advertiser is a company commandeering attention to promote a product. A riskvertiser, by contrast, would be a courageous firm that underwrites important speech others wish to ban, and asks the public to consider its product in return for courage.

Dec 21, 2018

We the public and the creators need to stop supporting advertisers who buckle to sanctimonious mobs out of cowardice when the charges are frivolous.

More importantly, WE need to lead and build the Riskvertising industry. Let’s reward those companies that treat us as adults.

Dec 21, 2018

The following is an (unauthorized) RISKVERTISMENT for @DrBronner.

I love DR BRONNER soap! Their luxurious Castille soaps are no less amazing than their corporate bravery in support of Psychedelic Research on substances which are currently illegal!

Dec 21, 2018

#RewardCourage #Riskvertise. If you know of other firms that don’t buckle under pressure and who are interested in underwriting free speech, psychedelic research, and other unpopular worthy causes, please let me know! Let’s experiment with paying it forward until we find underwriters who don’t cut &run.

Dec 21, 2018

And note: this isn’t about Tucker. It’s about general ambient pressure that seems more about sanctimony than ethics.

9:28 AM ¡ Dec 21, 2018


1/ The Christmas Thread.

First off, Merry Xmas to all.

I’m asking for your help. I want to know whether any of you know about any quiet working groups or meetings involving but not limited to Visa/MC/PayPal/etc working on the issues of “populism”/“radicalization” as euphemisms.

Dec 25, 2018

2/ This would be organized by by some group like CFR, NAS or some other blue chip institution. It would be looking to figure out how to handle the “problems” of popular nullification of institutional objectives. In short it would view Brexit, Trump and restrictionism as “hate”.

Dec 25, 2018

3/ This quiet meeting would bring together the major “stakeholders”(?) which would not include the public. The twin problems the meeting would actually be trying to solve are “free speech” and “democratic choice” which the public generally doesn’t want solved at all.

Dec 25, 2018

4/ The meeting would explore the question of how to use the existing anti-terror programs & platform level controls to handle garden variety dissent contributing to popular nullification as if it were “hate speech”, which it would claim was akin to, or a gateway for, terror.

Dec 25, 2018

5/ I’m not asking b/c I have any information that such a meeting occurred. I, in fact, have NO such information. However, I am well aware of how coordinated action has been made to look more “emergent”, in the past & I now think we’re at a very dangerous juncture between 2018-20.

Dec 25, 2018

6/ This all now looks way off to me. Patreon is just the window through which we are glimpsing it. Why? Because they‘re clumsy. I fear we‘re seeing some plan to reestablish the former power of the Gated Institutional Narrative well above Patreon’s paygrade using payment networks.

Dec 25, 2018

7/ I hope this is wrong. But if it‘s correct, “improper” bitcoin transactions will start to carry serious criminal penalties. Further @jordanbpeterson will not deliver a technological fix as indicated.

Watch @datasociety, @nytimes coverage & payment channels.

Happy Holidays.

6:23 PM ¡ Dec 25, 2018


Free speech isn’t a fascinating topic.

At least to me, it’s more like “air hunger”: when you‘re being choked, it’s always super important to you above everything else, even if simple breathing isn’t really something upon which you ever expected to focus your intellectual energy.

8:42 AM ¡ Dec 18, 2018

2019

1/ I’ve been noticing a ubiquitous technique recently upon which I have seen little commented. “Punchable face”, #killallmen, “Open Borders”, “Tax is Theft”, “Believe Women”, “Free markets”, “Free Speech” and uptalking are examples. I want to explain here what I see linking them.

4:22 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019

2/ The technique involves bundling an attacking position and a retreating position where the retreat is low cost and reasonable while the attack is wildly simplistic, irresponsible and generally too expensive to maintain. The attack is frequently literal & the retreat figurative.

4:22 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019

3/ As @ezraklein pointed out for the attack position #KillAllMen dripping with sexism & misandry, the retreat position is “it would be nice if the world sucked less for women”. Likewise “Open Borders” can collapse all the way down to “I don’t want to see immigrants scapegoated”.

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4:22 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019

4/ Uptalking seems to be a speech pattern that has, among other benefits, figured out how to make an aggressive statement which would normally be costly in the underlying text for the price of just kinda maybe sorta asking a much less expensive (leading) question with one’s tone.

4:22 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019

5/ “Tax is theft” is a broad clean insane attack on nationhood, but if you bring up the problem of military protection as a well known public good & market defect, you get told that “Tax is Teft” is just a plea for smaller more prudent government. Okay. So why are we doing this?

4:22 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019

6/ In the previous examples, the literal position has been the aggressive one, but that’s not even always true. Sometime I hear “Feminism is simply the proposition that women are equal.” which would be the retreat position with which only a loon would be tempted to argue.

4:22 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019

7/ Let’s call amalgams of attack and retreat Split-Level Arguments. We need to stop allowing these gambits to go unnoticed. They are like Navy SEALS dressed up as adorable toddlers. If you‘re advancing “Free Markets”, pay the price for the simplicity you just bought when pressed.

4:22 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019

End/ Let’s come up with language to make it very expensive to repeatedly push for something simple, clear & wrong as if we were just saying something reasonable & nuanced.

If you’ve noticed this trend, send me examples or anyone else’s name for it. Thx! 🙏

#SplitLevelArguments

4:22 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019

POST/ Deepity and Motte & Bailey are definitely examples of this kind of phenomena as people are pointing out. Question: do they cover the “Uptalking” example to your satisfaction? I’m looking for one universal label that covers them all. Thanks.

4:35 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019

Also, in Motte and Bailey, the Bailey is being maintained. It’s not an attacking position. The lord is not questing to conquer the lands of others. I don’t know whether people make that distinction. Eager to learn more.

4:38 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019


The one that interests me is Free Speech, which (after your intro) you didn't mention again in your main thread. Because I am in favour of free speech, I'm curious to know in what way you think it can be considered aggressive. (No sarcasm here - genuinely curious!)

4:29 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019

@rjheathfield Kiddie porn, military secrets, fighting words, etc...

4:39 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2019


Riley Reid Really?

5:36 AM ¡ Feb 01, 2019

Huh? She’s great as a human. Don’t know her work much. Why? Very generous with her time and insightful on free speech and business harassment involving web commerce.

5:36 AM ¡ Feb 01, 2019


.@SamHarrisOrg & I are coming to Cambridge/Boston as arguably the most important academic metropolis in the world. What is it that must be, yet can’t be, discussed w/ the Mass Ave. Institutions?

Asian quotas?
Undischargable student debt?
Activist studies?
https://bochcenter.org/samharris

5:56 PM ¡ Feb 26, 2019

What about cryptic public funding of private institutions through “overhead”?

The use of “post-docs” and “TAs” as cryptic labor posing as training?

Student unions?

The explosion of tuition/administrators?

Research Gerontocracy?

Free speech vs safe speech?

Let us know? 🙏!

5:56 PM ¡ Feb 26, 2019


Things important to me in a true progressive agenda:

Free Speech
Normalization of Intersex
Median Family Formation/Security
Economic Recognition of Kin Work
Neuro Diversity/Inclusion in Schools
Ending Labor Subsidy for Employers
Ending Race Based Incarceration
Stakeholder Value

6:49 PM ¡ Mar 14, 2019


No. 🛑.

Gay Marriage & rights. Workplace safety. Breaking Appalachian slavery of the coal Barons. Interracial marriage. Civil rights issues. Free speech movement. Cannabis acceptance. Vietnam War protests. Etc...

The history of the Left has no shortage of high points @prageru.

5:40 PM ¡ Mar 27, 2019


Assume I already get that some gender fluidity is highly conserved and that some of gender is socially constructed. Assume I got that a million years ago. What is the function of pretending that all gender and sex in a k-selected species is abiological and socially constructed?

7:33 PM ¡ Apr 28, 2019

Where is any real payoff coming from taking social justice and making it bigoted, anti-science, anti-free Speech, radically relativistic, non constructive, blood thirsty, authoritarian, intolerant and utopian?

Where does the benefit of the ‘upgrade’ to cultlike behavior reside?

7:38 PM ¡ Apr 28, 2019


When we ban people from spreading conspiracy theories we can no longer discuss conspiracies.

In 2017, I spread a conspiracy story.

Q: Should I be deplatformed for alleging that the US has a proven ability to destroy lawful US citizens by planting fake news in mainstream media?

1/ US Deep-State use of "Fake News" in Main Stream Media to Destroy Inconvenient US Citizens: A tweetstorm in honor of Black America & MLK. https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/27071821434064897

11:29 PM ¡ Jan 16, 2017
7:08 AM ¡ May 03, 2019

Think about this: the US has had a proven history of conspiring repeatedly against its own citizens and destroying lives. Our check against that tyranny is FREE SPEECH/PRESS including the freedom to discuss & test wild hypotheses that begin as...wait for it...conspiracy theories.

7:08 AM ¡ May 03, 2019

Right now, EVERY major platform (@Google, @Apple, @facebook & @Twitter) both spreads and profits from hate, violence, misinformation and offensive speech. I will defend them in the same terms I defend all those they deplatformed pretending that they have a zero tolerance policy.

7:08 AM ¡ May 3, 2019

Furthermore I will again spread my own researched conspiracy theory: the H-1b & the Immigration Act of 1990 were created from a conspiracy inside the @theNASciences & @nsf complex to target and betray our own STEM professionals on behalf of STEM employers: https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/Weinstein-GUI_NSF_SG_Complete_INET.pdf

7:08 AM ¡ May 3, 2019

Ending conspiracy theories means ending investigative journalism: no My Lai. It means banning Howard Zinn. Not discussing the McCollum memo. Not talking about the Dulles brothers / Kermit Roosevelt. Forgetting the untreated syphilis victims of Tuskegee.

Me to FB: Drop dead. /End

7:08 AM ¡ May 3, 2019

P.S. In honor of FB's zero tolerance, I joined a pro-violence hate group on FaceBook. It has an ideology of supporting violence by Kurdish Women against ISIS, its hated target. Come join me and dare FaceBook to shut us down. We are called "Kurdish Freedom Fighters Against ISIS" https://t.co/5cHOZ0NzhV

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7:17 AM ¡ May 3, 2019


To be clear: I'm not a free speech absolutist. Nor is the US absolutist. Companies are not the govt...etc..

What I oppose here is *simple* statements from Tech Utopians about how they are against *all* Hate, Violence & Misinformation while *selectively* enforcing & profiteering.

7:56 AM ¡ May 3, 2019

As Goldwater (should have) said: Extremism in defense of liberty is no friend of liberty. I know no other country where irresponsible speech is as protected as in the US. Grownups know that every freedom has limits. @michaelbd @BrianLehrer @JonahNRO @nytdavidbrooks @RubinReport

7:51 AM ¡ May 3, 2019


I am not a free speech absolutist.

I also introduced the IDW term. Get it right.

3:49 PM ¡ May 08, 2019


Well this is cool. @CIGS_INET is starting off a YouTube channel with a bang: @SamHarrisOrg interviews @NAChristakis on the evolutionary pressure on free speech after the digital revolution. Subscribe on YT to get them to continue making more great content! https://youtu.be/2oNLoPAf1hg

12:35 AM ¡ Jul 02, 2019


No, I’m saying that the IDW, having declared themselves fearless free speech warriors, are actively involved in policing the limits of debate.

2:20 PM ¡ Sep 20, 2019

So I’m not welcome in front of your audience on your upcoming dates to discuss this or show some solidarity and any coming together?

2:32 PM ¡ Sep 20, 2019

Can you also direct me to your sources of fact? It doesn’t sound like you became familiar with my stance on free speech in the course of writing your book unfortunately. You are beginning by making incorrect assumptions and inferences it would seem.

2:39 PM ¡ Sep 20, 2019


[My audience isn’t exactly clamoring for me to interview Billy Bragg. It was supposed to be a reciprocal show of solidarity in the face of four more years of Trump on the horizon if we don’t come together. You‘re not wrong whoever you are. Nothing to do w/ “gladiatorial combat”.]

Sep 20, 2019

[And thank you for trying @BluesClown. After hearing about being a “free speech warrior” (false), trying for gladiatorial confrontation (false) and having heard that I’m an “investment banker” (false), the public mischaracterization feels infinite. He can always find me in DM.]

Sep 20, 2019

Stop whispering Eric, we can all hear you. If the ‘challenge’ of debating me on your podcast is withdrawn, then maybe you should change the name of your club to the Intentionally Dark Web, and stop getting upset when people say you won’t debate them.

Sep 20, 2019

Cut it out. I wasn’t looking to debate you on your stage. Just play two songs that came out of two adjacent counties in Appalachian Kentucky we lost to Trump in 2016 in solidarity w workers & boost your book tour on a podcast after your show. Then you said “no thank you”. So Ok!

Sep 20, 2019

It was about solidarity w decent people getting screwed over by both political parties & the Left not eating itself, but actually doing something to come together. But you weren’t interested and I accepted that. Okay. Move on. But Pete Seeger would have shaken my hand. As he did.

Sep 20, 2019

I’m happy to shake your hand. I just don’t understand why you’ve withdrawn your initial invite to debate the issue on your podcast? Was it conditional?

Sep 20, 2019

Yes and no. I wasn’t looking to debate you. You wanted that. I’m not a free speech warrior. You said that, not me. I’m not an investment banker. I heard you think I am.

That sounded fishy. But you have been a person of integrity for a long time. 1/2.

Sep 20, 2019

Music to me is like breaking bread. I won’t have a man to my house who won’t have me to his. I wouldn’t invite a man playing the Saul Alinksy ridicule game. My audience isn’t going to like the Internationale. But I would have stood up for you. DM if you like for a call. Peace 2/2

Sep 20, 2019

And it would be an honor to shake yours. Thanks for standing up for the voiceless during the dark times. Even if we disagree.

2:13 PM ¡ Sep 20, 2019


“Free” has multiple meanings. The strategy of using one’s own free speech for the simple pleasure of driving the costs of free speech of others (here by a claimed order of magnitude in security costs) is a very serious parasitizing of the simplistic free speech position.

Damn.

5:14 AM ¡ Sep 26, 2019

It appears that my event with @MaximeBernier on September 29th has been cancelled due to threats from Antifa and this insane piece in the local paper. The school is now demanding 10 times the original security costs and could demand more before showtime: https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/mohawk-college-should-have-declined-to-rent-space-to-maxime-bernier/article_5d148f52-de95-5d2d-b117-33d100679574.html

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2:42 AM ¡ Sep 26, 2019

I will be honest in saying that I don’t see a way to solve this problem within the simplistic “good ideas beat bad ideas” view held by various of my friends.

5:21 AM ¡ Sep 26, 2019


There‘s a sizable number of white supremacists who latch onto legitimate free speech, meritocracy, islamofascism & immigration issues like free-riding remoras. If these are issues you discuss you *must* piss these folks off regularly as if rubbing against a reef to dislodge them.

4:13 AM ¡ Nov 18, 2019

2020

I think the Left has reached a hard fork. Those that want to explore extreme wokeness, open borders, anti-whiteness, apologizing to homophobic/misogynist theocracies, worlds w/o men, reparations for slavery, cancel culture, etc need to branch off. And good luck: You’ll need it. https://x.com/rosemcgowan/st/rosemcgowan/status/1212976832544460801

6:13 PM ¡ Jan 5, 2020

Emboldening the Iranian Government like this is insane. I don’t care how traumatized you are by the US or how much you hate Trump or how much of Noam Chomsky you’ve read. It just doesn’t matter. Just get a hold of yourself.

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6:13 PM ¡ Jan 5, 2020

The rest of us for markets, democracy, liberal values, modest social safety nets, tolerance, content of character over color of skin, due process, free speech, etc. have to go back to defeating our loyal friends across the aisle & squashing newly emboldened neo-fascists. #Enough

6:13 PM ¡ Jan 5, 2020

#HardFork #ForkOff #GoForkYourself https://t.co/Pa6mfYYNU4

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6:22 PM ¡ Jan 5, 2020


I am going to be increasingly *ignoring* various issues, campaigns & provocations on Twitter.

If you are determined to screenshot the fact that I blocked you, I’m now much more happy to accommodate. We mere mortals with flaws have a right to be protected from our betters here.

5:11 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2020

I tried civility. I tried engagement. But this platform is engineered to allow all sorts of problems. One of them is anonymous networks of accounts/bots engaging named humans. Another is privacy based attacks. A third is bigoted intimidation. The controls are just insufficient.

5:11 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2020

Further, Terms Of Service have concentrated *discretionary* enforcement w/ “Trust & Safety”.

So, I don’t have a solution. I doubt Twitter does. Until they do, I will be using what exists: Block, Mute and Non-engagement as I, in my sole discretion, see fit until there is change.

5:11 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2020

I tried to engage before & do very little of this (e.g. Blocking or ignoring). But the danger to named individuals from the Platform, the bots, governments, law and mobs has nothing to do with free speech. It has to do with a tilted playing field encouraging personal destruction.

5:11 PM ¡ Jan 28, 2020


We‘ve got to talk about these relentless lying & distorting anonymous / pseudo-anonymous accounts whose function is to psychologically harass actual people from behind a wall of anonymity into silence & division.

Why are such unaccountable accounts mixed w/ actual humans? @jack

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3:51 PM ¡ Feb 18, 2020

Why is @antihero_kate gone and @uberfeminist still here? Is cruelty about someone’s deceased sibling the free speech we defend while we chill meaningful speech?

Is that account a paid for troll? Is that an instituon? Someone who needs help with trauma? What is it? Why anonymous?

3:51 PM ¡ Feb 18, 2020


2021

The Lesson of The Obama Era “Operation Chokepoint”:

There is something hidden in our collectivist do-gooding Impulse that too often starts with secretly wanting control over others and only then seeking altruisms to justify it.

The 1st amendment is an advanced check on this.

2:53 AM ¡ Jan 10, 2021

NEW: Amazon is booting Parler off AWS, its web hosting service, knocking the pro-Trump social network offline until it finds a new host.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/johnpaczkowski/amazon-parler-aws

1:10 AM ¡ Jan 10, 2021

Level 0: This is an attack on free speech in the public square.

Level 1 rejection: This is not the public square but a matter of for profit companies and the freedom to do what they please.

Level 2: Level 1 only works if there is a public sector of the internet for all to use.

2:53 AM ¡ Jan 10, 2021


The Portal invited Ashley Mathews in advance of the election to discuss this specifically outside of politics. This is not about politics, but about a class that wishes to use business to impose control over other lawful human beings. We cover it directly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHNBCVGH34c

5:41 PM ¡ Jan 12, 2021

Every business must now assess refusal-of-service as a fundamental risk. (There is zero reason to assume the targets of this trend will remain limited to "them.") On-premise will get renewed attention.

3:55 AM ¡ Jan 12, 2021

Let me put this in the starkest terms. Our genius in the US is to NOT have our infrastructure nationalized. But laws like “Free Speech” don’t immediately carry over to the private sector. The idea of getting Tech-Finance-Universities-Media to shut down thought and speech is here.

5:41 PM ¡ Jan 12, 2021

These new authoritarians are trying to make commerce & the market do what the government legally cannot: make life impossible for dissenters. For the first time, to preserve freedom we will either need to regulate or nationalize. Both of which are terrible options. We’ve lost it.

5:41 PM ¡ Jan 12, 2021

Taken to its extreme conclusion, you will be free to bark ideas in a public park, only not to access banking, credit, electronic communication, education, the media. My old joke “Should Republicans be allowed to use the roads & phone system?” doesn’t seem all that funny in 2021

5:48 PM ¡ Jan 12, 2021


I actually thought about this more...here goes.

What is going on is this: mainstream media and tech are co-creating an illusion. The illusion is this: the entire Left has gone stupid, corrupt & insane. And the way it is accomplished is by collective institutional make-believe.

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021

WHERE ARE OUR INTELLECTS ON THE LEFT SCREAMING ABOUT THE SHUT DOWN OF FREE SPEECH IN AMERICA? Have we such a failure in education that we have forgotten the value of our freedoms? WHAT’S HAPPENING IS DIRE! WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021

All the civil libertarians are still here. The “free speech for ideas we hate” crowd is still here. The “Woke doesn’t make any analytic sense” crowd is here.

Ironically the Left leaning institutions are “manufacturing our consent” w forced “diversity & inclusion” loyalty oaths.

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021

Now, individually, we object. But I’m told we’re “thirsty” by the internet if I say: “NPR, I used to have John Ydistie on speed dial” or “NYT I would talk to Robert Pear or Dennis Overbye or others with some frequency.” until something about 8-9years ago: Our lines went dead.

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021

This was about the time of the Obama Era “Dear Colleague” letter that converted the Universities to indoctrination factories. This is the era of the DOJ “Operation Chokepoint”. And many of us who objected were suddenly just frozen out. More or less completely with no explanation.

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021

Now, via you, I’m seeing this differently. I don’t need NPR/NYT or any of these outfits to talk to me. But they stopped taking to ALL of us. Effectively center Left media ghosted EVERYONE who didn’t sign on to the new extra crazy version of identity politics and safety culture.

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021

And this is leads to several illusions:

A) The Left is insane & wants the police abolished so some can riot, firebomb courthouses, suspend policing at will.

B) The Left hates borders.

C) The Left is all in on collective guilt for slavery.

D) The Left is done w due process.

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021

E) The Left has traded in Free Speech for Safety culture.

F) The Left wants equity as a cover for new discrimination and racism.

Etc.

But that is not what is happening AT ALL. The true Left HATES this institutional strategy. So institutions have settled on “Smear & isolate”.

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021

We just don’t exist if media never talks to us. And if we manage to poke through using podcasting we are classified by the zealots running this strategy as Alt Right despite an enormous number of Jewish surnames and prominent black intellectuals in our ranks. As if we vanished.

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021

What I now see is that I allowed the internet hyenas to push me off. The point isn’t that I need to speak to the press, but that the press has to speak to the Left who HATE the direction of our modern Democratic Party away from equality & fairness for all independent of identity.

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021

With smear&ghost, they have simply disappeared an enormous wing of the party. Vanished without a trace.

So if you are here and sick of our insane tech-media-academic-political “leadership” undoing our civil liberties, add your name?

With numbers, they can’t gaslight us all. 🙏

5:27 AM ¡ Jan 19, 2021


2022

I though this was a hoax.

Apparently, I was in error here.

ERW-X-post-1488049730483412994.jpg
7:21 AM ¡ Jan 31, 2022

Is this anti free speech, is this really happening?

7:23 AM ¡ Jan 31, 2022

I think you have to decide that for yourself. I see it as an internal conflict document. The school has a faction that wants free speech and an army of caring administrators that wants to know if you feel harmed by that free speech.

8:19 AM ¡ Jan 31, 2022


2023

Because our institutions decided that they outgrew the free society they serve.

6:47 PM ¡ Jun 17, 2023

What is a “Free Speech Zone” to a free people? [Since 1988]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone

6:59 PM ¡ Jun 17, 2023

What is a “reputation score” and why am I still throttled?

7:10 PM ¡ Jun 17, 2023

NEWS: The Twitter team continue to find shadowbans buried deep in the Twitter code.

Just last week they found a measure that stopped accounts assigned a low 'Reputation score' from trending.

This shadowban even applied to Elon's account and prevented his tweets from trending.

XDaily-X-post-1670114485791596545.jpg
5:10 PM ¡ Jun 17, 2023

What is ESG and how does it work exactly?

7:12 PM ¡ Jun 17, 2023

NEW: From S&P Global to the London Stock Exchange, tobacco companies are crushing Tesla in the ESG ratings. How could cigarettes, which kill over 8 million a year, be deemed a more ethical investment than electric cars?

One answer: Tobacco’s gone woke.🧵 https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/how-tobacco-companies-are-crushing-esg-ratings/

5:10 PM ¡ Jun 17, 2023

What is “Controlled Sponteneity”?

Is there a more Orwellian oxymoron among oxymorons?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax2FWS4qYVw

7:13 PM ¡ Jun 17, 2023
ERW-X-post-1670155414162526208.jpg
7:44 PM ¡ Jun 17, 2023

Why is this so anti-interesting?

Just search on “Furin”, “SARS-CoV” “Spike Protein”, “Wuhan” and “DTRA” for @doddtra. Wouldn’t you **want** deep public hearings if this was all a super unfortunate coincidence? Right??

Coincidence theory puts conspiracy theory to shame.

ERW-X-post-1670157696765689856-1.jpg ERW-X-post-1670157696765689856-2.jpg
7:53 PM ¡ Jun 17, 2023

If you want to understand Trump & RFK, make it very simple. Ignore the errors and issues for a moment. ALL of them. They’re the only 2 major candidates working at the scope of “Maybe almost EVERYTHING important/weird that we’re told by institutions is potentially totally wrong.”

7:59 PM ¡ Jun 17, 2023

2024

For me, this has little to do w/ Kamala. It's:

Democracy vs TheDemocracy™
Science vs TheScience™
Privacy vs TheTermsOfServicePrivacyPolicy™
Free Speech vs OurFreeSpeech™
Academic Freedom vs USAcademicFreedom™
Diversity vs DEI™
Professional Agreement vs TheExpertConsensus™

5:52 AM ¡ Aug 3, 2024

I stopped at 240 Characters on this one, just so that it would all be displayed. Feel free to add your own kayfabrication examples. Many of us can finish each other’s thoughts at this point and would come up with the same basic lists:

6:02 AM ¡ Aug 3, 2024

Facts vs FactCheckers™
Truth vs TheNarrative™
Elite Achievement vs Elites™

5:52 AM ¡ Aug 3, 2024


I was recommended to join this space on X last night during a drive to meet friends.

I was told that I’d find it “interesting.”

I found it interesting. We are here, after all.

Still processing.

Aug 20, 2024

An interesting waste of time? Not being a smartass, what's the point.

Aug 20, 2024

Maybe just listen to 5 minutes at random? It’s as much about X and the state of free speech as it is about the topic.

1:14 AM ¡ Aug 20, 2024

2025

This Kimmel thing is really disturbing to me.

I have no idea how our late night hosts became so…uh…um…closely coordinated.

But FCC pressuring ABC is chilling. Yet no one seems to see free speech non-politically.

I’m for free speech. Even though I see the coordination here:

ERW-X-post-1969804983903412621.jpg
4:44 PM ¡ Sep 21, 2025

And please spare me the idea that this is just all so simple. There are laws, and then there are norms. And the norms have culture around them. There are also understandings.

Those who follow me know, I believe the easy part of free speech is the law.

The rest is the hard part.

They have a broadcast license and thus are subject to regulation. This isn't complicated.

4:46 PM ¡ Sep 21, 2025
4:55 PM ¡ Sep 21, 2025

A free country, a free press, free markets, free and fair elections, and a free people aren’t so easy to pull off or everyone would have done it.

We never had all of those things. Ever.

But we got closer than I ever could have imagined. And it wasn’t because it was all simple.

4:59 PM ¡ Sep 21, 2025

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