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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   29300 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 12, 2022

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Elon Musk has suspended a slew of liberal journalists and pundits from Twitter. It is, as Benjamin Braddoc puts it, a red wedding for the liberal establishment. I initially believed that he was just the "controlled" opposition of the deep state, obviously he's stepped on way too many toes for that. This imo underscores an important truth to the ultra principled who believe in free speech absolutism and neutral institutions, the overton window won't shift the other way just to punish the "heretics" who've assailed this sacred virtue. Social media, our Frankenstein, has made it insanely easier for mob rule to influence culture (not that it wasn't already).

I still don't believe we're witnessing complete course reversal, but this could just be the first legitimate W for the right.

EDIT: It looks like he's lifting the suspension.

  • Right-wing politicians, journalists and public personas suspended, banned and shadow-banned for years - "It's a private company, just don't be an asshole!"

  • Left-wing journos suspended for one day for doxing Musk - "It's fascism! Regulators, come and save us! It's free speech apocalypse!"

It is utterly fascinating how there's not a shred of even trying to apply fair standards here. Everything is completely motivated reasoning all the way down.

From outside it is sad and hilarious.

Reminds me about https://www.datasecretslox.com/index.php/topic,8363.msg337784.html#msg337784 (about Peru and still worth reading if you do not care about Peru)

(...)

This led to left wing protests and riots and a new state of emergency. The same people who praised Castillo's use of such tactics a few months ago flipped for pretty transparently partisan reasons. The left wing considers this a coup (despite it being completely constitutional) and the right wing considers this the successful prevention of a coup (which it was). The father of the right wing presidential candidate, Fujimori, staged a coup in exactly this way in 1992. And the left considers him a dictator. If there's a difference beyond partisan hypocrisy why it's different I can't see it. (Though this does add a wrinkle that the daughter of someone who can credibly be described as a dictator might end up as president. And that the right has the opposite position on legitimate/illegitimate coups making them hypocrites too.)

(...)

The opinion of the left is that the removal was illegitimate for... uh... reasons. Seriously, they don't have a legal argument as far as I can tell. It's all about neoliberalism and capitalism and that Keiko Fujimori is the daughter of a dictator. And her father's a dictator because he dissolved the Congress extra-constitutionally with the support of the military without calling an election. Which is completely different from Castillo because... he succeeded and Castillo failed I guess.

(...)

Fujimori speaks very highly of her father's presidency.

(...)

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