[brigandish]

Fascists don't support free speech. Please, learn what that word means[0] and then use it responsibly. We're already seeing the effects of misusing and overusing several other important words for political/societal discourse, and this is one of them. It's entirely unhelpful and lowers the quality of conversation here.

[0] The Doctrine of Fascism is available, for free, in several places. Start there.

[andruby]

Does Elon _really_ support free speech?

* He suspended multiple journalists from Twitter/X in December 2022 after they had reported on or criticized him [0]

* He has been accused of retaliating against critics and employees through threats, lawsuits, or firings, rather than tolerating dissent. [1]

* He selective enforcing Twitter/X platform rules. Here's 10 examples: [2]

He tolerates speech he likes and often punishing speech he dislikes. That's not being a "free speech" absolutist.

[0] https://truthout.org/articles/free-speech-watchdogs-condemn-...

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/free-speech-absolutist-elon-...

[2] https://gizmodo.com/10-times-elon-musk-censored-twitter-user...

[brigandish]

> That's not being a "free speech" absolutist.

One doesn't need to be a free speech absolutist to not be a fascist, far from it; and the exceptions prove the rule - those examples are the definition of exceptional. "10 times…" I can remember people getting banned en masse for changing their profile pic to an NPC character. The difference is night and day.

[bakies]

Elon fits the definition in Britannica pretty neatly

[anon7725]

Fascists do claim to support free speech while wielding the apparatus of state to ensure that any speech that they disagree with is suppressed, eg on college campuses.

[brigandish]

That's not a rebuttal. Claiming to support is not support.

Is Musk wielding the apparatus of state to ensure that any speech that he disagrees with is suppressed, e.g. on college campuses?

[lgl]

> Is Musk wielding the apparatus of state to ensure that any speech that he disagrees with is suppressed

He does not need to do that, he has his army of people like you that go around on all socials and wherever you can to post praise, defend him and attack any critics as he was some sort of uber genius savior of mankind. The Musk cult is real.

[xp84]

So... are you arguing that Musk is an opponent of 'free speech' because... a bunch of private citizens argue with you when you speak critically of Musk?

The whole thread (and to be fair, Musk himself most of the time) has lost the plot, since the phrase "freedom of speech" is about the government not restraining or punishing speech. Honestly, what Twitter allowed or not before or after Musk is entirely irrelevant to the concept of free speech. Twitter/X is still just some guy's website.

[anon7725]

Musk explicitly centered his DOGE effort on rooting out “woke” programs. This included pulling funding from independent research under the auspices of various government departments.

The Trump administration spent considerable effort strong arming colleges on account of speech that they did not like. Even if you subscribe to FIRE’s “Chicago Statement”, you should find the government interfering with colleges like this a break-glass scenario. “Individual Rights in Education” surely include the right to hold beliefs and teach in a way that the current administration is uncomfortable with.

So yes, these are fascist activities wholly consistent with the other fascist activities that MAGA movement is engaged in.

[brigandish]

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email [e-mail] and we'll look at the data.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#comments

I'm not sure HN is for you.

[bakies]

uh... twitter