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Notes -
Two articles are popping today that I believe are related. Both are reasons for censorship or reasons the left has used to justify censorship.
https://twitter.com/scottgottliebmd/status/1612548694762745856?s=46&t=0qCqhJLXqMO-wn5FoPsWKg
The best he has is some anonymous account saying “execute this bastard”. Obviously with anonymous accounts anyone can just randomly vent and say something mean. It could even be Scott Gottlieb saying this about himself so that he can then asks for censorship of others in the name of “violence”.
Obviously people shouldn’t be threatened but a random message board comment I don’t think rises to the occasion of a real threat - though I’d agree those accounts should be suspended banned that make violent threats. They shouldn’t be used to censor non violent debates.
And the rest of the tweets he cited are not threats but calling him a murder and bastard. Being that he’s citing tweets that are not calls to violence does that means he total received only one anonymous threat to justify censorship of dissenting scientist?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/09/russian-trolls-twitter-had-little-influence-2016-voters/
Another claim for censorship especially in 2020 and especially for the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian troll/bots interferes with the 2016 election and now we need to censor people. NYPost/Zerohedge got censored on these justifications.
At first I thought these were both solid culture war stories to post about but didn’t feel like doing two posts. Then I realized their connected and both are weak reasons that have been used for significant censorship and deplatforming.
This is nothing new. Virtually all censorship, and indeed virtually all limits on civil liberties, are premised on the claim, usually false or overblown, that it is necessary to prevent harm. That is true on the right as well as the left, and everywhere, not just the US.
And the proper response is not to argue that the threat is not real, but rather, the response is, so what? See, eg, this colloquy at oral arguments re a state law requiring that all arrestees give DNA samples:
Do you know of a site/blog that just collects Supreme Court clapbacks? I’m interested mostly as popcorn entertainment...but also as a reminder that we’re theoretically appointing some of the smartest, most experienced legal professionals in the country.
Anyway, to play devil’s advocate—that’s the correct response for our government. Not so for a private individual. Twitter as a medium is somewhere in between, and I don’t believe broadcasting death threats or even epithets are deserving of that maximum level of protection.
I don't know what you mean, exactly, by clapbacks. There are certainly plenty of blogs which analyze Supreme Court decisions.
Snark, ideally highlighting something the appellants should have known. I’ve seen good ones coming from Scalia and others, though I’m struggling to find them again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel,_Inc._v._MCA_Records,_Inc. is always a fun read.
Bradshaw v. Unity Marine Corp., Inc., 147 F. Supp. 2d 668 - Dist. Court, SD Texas 2001 is a treat in the sense that you can still see the ring marks where the judge backhanded the attorneys:
And there is this Alex Kozinski classic:
Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc., 296 F. 3d 894 (9th Cir 2002)
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There is some prof who used to rate the funniest justices, based on number of laughs. But I don't know whether he or she posts the actual content of the comments.
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