206 Comments
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Alice Goldbloom's avatar

Please also defend us from BOTS so we ensure this is a human community free of interference and disinformation.

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Hamish McKenzie's avatar

Working on it!

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Mishtu's avatar

Bots have patterns — can use that to filter out

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Jan 30
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Dianne Skagen McBeth's avatar

Let other humans respond. The answer to censorship of free speech is more free speech.

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Jan 30
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Dianne Skagen McBeth's avatar

Who decides? Oh, the censors? No thanks. I prefer exposure to a variety of opinions, perspectives, and even rumours. Trusting in censorship as a response to potentially false information is similar, but more dangerous than trusting “government help”.

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Jay Sparrowhawk Ray's avatar

Good point. Protecting 50% of us from attacks by the other 50% encouraged to free range on us by Substack policies? Good idea. I think its called libel. Of course the other way is to stop the gorging they are currently endorsing. Guess their too chicken.

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EILEEN BRADLEY's avatar

It is pretty easy to distinguish bots...they just make opposing statements with no facts. It takes a few minutes of one's life to research facts. They do not do it. And then you never hear from them again.

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Karen Bracken's avatar

I find it very odd that you are accusing the adminstration of censorship when the Biden adminstration has perpetuated more censorship in the history of this country. Donald Trump has done more in a few days to end the tyranical Biden administration censorship than any other president. Explain yourself.

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Dustin Du Cane's avatar

Substack kissed the swastika ring of Trump yesterday, they are your fellow MAGA travelers pal.

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Carol L. Clark's avatar

?

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Mark Saleski's avatar

I’m sorry, you left yourself unzipped and your hyperbole flopped out.

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Fracktured's avatar

It happens to so many... bit more than half this country. 😁

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Jim Sanders's avatar

I’m to the point when I hear the coyotes of ignorance howl in our newfound Fascist States of America I can only smile and move on.

Free Siberia

free Ukraine

Free Tibet

Free Blue States.

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weedom1's avatar

What is fascism? (Specifically asking for your definition, in terms of governmental method, functions, and associations, rather than names of political opponents.)

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Joe Johnston's avatar

Fascism is a far right authoritarian ultra. Nationalist political ideology, characterized by several key aspects.

List: dictatorial leadership totalitarian control suppression of opposition militarism use of propaganda and sensorship

Prioritization of the state national unity corporatism, but army antil-liberal and anti-democratic aligns with economic elites

Will that be enough?

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weedom1's avatar

I was looking for Jim Sanders definition, to understand what he was saying. There are numerous definitions of fascism, each adding whatever the user of the word dislikes in views or government. So I can't know if your definition matches his.

When Mussolini invented it, he was combining the economic corporate engines with the purposes of government, in an effort to combat communism. He had considered the democratic governments and socialist governments to be too weak to stave off communism, so he exercised more rigid control.

Since that time people have added all sorts of their own attributes to the word, including whatever Mussolini subsequently did to retain control of Italy, as well as many other practices and characteristics of dictatorial regimes, whether fascistic or not.

In other words, the term fascist has "broadened" to mean whatever the user hates about the prevailing regimes. So whenever the term is used, I will ask the user to clarify.

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James Kislingbury's avatar

Go read a book.

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weedom1's avatar

I was in middle school when I first recognized the word “fascist” being misused in a sentence by a guy my older sister was dating.

It keeps happening.

So when I see someone using the label "fascist", I just ask them how they define it in political or in economic terms.

Crickets, 99 percent of the time.

Perhaps we should just give our own reasons when we disagree, rather than using this F word.

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James Kislingbury's avatar

I don't think it's a shock to anybody that your brain hasn't evolved at all since middle school.

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weedom1's avatar

FUN :-D

(and still crickets on awareness of what "fascism" really means.)

It truly is just an F word most of the time,

and sometimes it's like the saliva secreted after Pavlov's bell.

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SteveJ's avatar

Karen… to be honest that’s a really apt name.

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Sam's avatar

Censorship of fake news and misleading information is not same as using judicial power to silence journalists

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Fracktured's avatar

dear trump supporter: explain yourself. just kidding. you've got no excuses.

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Ken's avatar

Karen you are exactly correct. How is it that Twitter, Facebook etc were ordered or coerced into cancelling those who spoke out against the tyranny of political correctness and so called science of Biden and the deep state was OK? It is a real shame that people are so rabidly opposed to others who don’t agree with them. We all have opinions and should be able to have a civil discussion predicated on information and facts from all sides. That certainly hasn’t been happening.

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Cindy's avatar

⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️

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JewsRejectZionistNazism&Terror's avatar

Another well-intentioned but heavily-propagandized and deceived worshipper of the fake "populist" billionaire tyrants . For details, please see here https://substack.com/@headandheart1/note/c-89589245

PS. And yes, the other wing of the oligarchy (the pro-billionaire fake "liberal") is also horrible, but that does not make the fake "populist" billionaires the solution. This comment isn't partisan and cheering for one or the other wing of the Oligarchy (as moat americans are taught to do). Please see full elaboration here https://substack.com/@headandheart1/note/c-89589245 on what is actually meant by this comment.

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Carol L. Clark's avatar

Either provide examples with backup as to who the publisher/TV broadcast was, with dates and full comments - no taking comments out of context - or explain your inability to do so.

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ImoAtama's avatar

I don't get it. What has Biden got to do with whether this administration conducts censorship? They're totally separate factual claims.

If Biden admin censored too, then you accuse both of censorship. The two lots of censorship don't somehow 'cancel out'.

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EILEEN BRADLEY's avatar

What exactly did the Biden administration censor? Can you please be very specific?

I am a firm believer when one makes an accusation about anything if should be backed up with facts and not just a generalized statement/accusation. This is part of the bigger problem with social media sites-statements with no backbone. Have you ever read Heather Cox Richardson? All of her writings are backed up with factual information in footnotes at the bottom of each article. Feel free to share your facts. I do know that all administrations have practiced some form of censorship during their tenure. Biden, in particular, was mainly concerned with disinformation and hate rhetoric. And, the Supreme Court ruled with Biden administration in a social media dispute with conservative states. "It helped ensure the Biden Administration could continue the important work with technology companies to protect the safety and security of the American people, after years of extreme and unfounded Republican attacks on public officials who engaged in critical work to keep Americans safe". You should read about it is quite interesting.

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Jan Austin's avatar

It's what they do best. No facts. Just blather.

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weedom1's avatar

Mark Zuckerberg, who runs META -facebook, etc. claims that he was pressured to censor numerous informational categories, and that his employees were subjected to abusive treatment by governmental employees making such requests. He's been doing an interesting apology tour lately, and has testified to a congressional committee prior to the current adminstration taking power.

Keep eyes open for new information about COVID jabs and their contents as these topics have recently become more permissible on the larger social media platforms.

A lot of this info is already on SubStack, which did not forbid it, (and which has likely enjoyed some COVID related growth in writers and subscribers during the last 4 years).

Most people should become more curious about the lack of content uniformity in the mRNA jabs, and the presence and the sequences of DNA from the various plasmids used to manufacture those jabs. It is astonishing stuff!

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Dave Annis's avatar

How about the Hunter Biden laptop? Are you aware of the Twitter Files?

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Cindy's avatar

⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️

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Laurie Dhandapani's avatar

Wow… just wow.

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James Kislingbury's avatar

Very stupid stuff, Karen. Embarassing.

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JT's avatar

Chris, Hamish and Jairaj, I have reached out to the three of you on numerous occasions to ask for your assurances that Substack leadership would refuse any efforts by government representatives to obtain information about your users, absent any legal requirement such as a warrant to do so.

To date, none of you have responded to my requests for assurances nor addressed the issue to the body of Substack users.

If you have in the past, or believe you may be compelled to succumb to such non-legal requests in the future, the very least you can do is to advise your users that their use, input and identities are subject to government scrutiny upon request. From a user standpoint, forewarned is forearmed.

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Willie Akin's avatar

The EU is trying hard to censor and destroy opposition, and yet the only "systemic threat" mentioned is the new Presidential administration. Wasn't there some kind of threat of censorship from the previous Presidential administration? It seems there was some kind of twitter files episode where the democrat/administrative state was revealed to be targeting some opinions or such. I have been a subscriber for a long time, but if this organization leans any more into TDS or partisanship, I will see these efforts to "provide legal support" for voices on substack as just a fig leaf to shield biased attack dogs while they organize resistance against government/social/cultural changes that might have the Trump administrations fingerprints on them. I don't want to support The Resistance. Debate is fine. Divergent views are fine. Saying that Donald Trump is 90% Big Mac with a sneer and saying outright that RJKj was a hostage forced to consume toxic food is, to my ear, the ad hominem opinion of someone with hate in their heart. Get an exorcism and cast out the fear of whatever is driving that soul destroying resentment. I don't want to take away someone's right to choose who they love or how they live, why would someone want to take away my right to support the candidate and platform of MY choice? That said, I HOPE that this effort is a good faith effort to support ALL substack opinions and not like so many other initiatives that say they are doing one thing while running a hidden agenda.

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Dustin Du Cane's avatar

They kissed the butt of the new administration yesterday, which is why I’m leaving this Nazi loving platform.

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Burn Pile's avatar

Bye Dustin!

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Mark Stickle's avatar

It’s not an airport or train station. Departures don’t need to be announced.

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Oxnard's avatar

"Lighten up Frances". Very interesting to see alleged educated people be so childish and irrational with all the name calling, inaccurate canned statements with no spine for civil debate, and the feeble personal attacks upon others. It's the exact same redicilousness everywhere. Crying and whining about an uncontested, clean sweep election that has to be accepted just as the last catastrophic administration was tolerated.

The Biden administration clearly lied about countless issues from the start, upto and including contacting social media companies demanding they violate citizens 1at amendment rights and control what the public was allowed to see. Special Agent Elvis Chan was tasked with being point of contact for the misinformation campaign and point of contact for squelching the truth. All major networks as well as PBS, NPR, MSNBC, CNN were one sided fear mongering, covering up for joe, and only ever concerned with fluffing up one side of the story all of the time.

Echo chamber on the national level and anti-social media has been disrupted, so extreme manipulation of the unthinking masses has been greatly reduced.

It is comical that concerns are in place for the current administration and no mention of the proven wrongdoing of the last administration.

Bon voyage, rude human, you are not welcome anywhere except with your own like minded

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Mary Mc's avatar

🥱🥱🥱

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Johanus's avatar

Exactly

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Anthony Davidson's avatar

Yeah right, Trump is the big threat to free speech, not the federal agencies that screamed at and threatened social media as detailed in the Twitter tapes and explicitly described by Mark Zuckerburg. Sure glad you're here to protect us from the Boogie Man.

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Dustin Du Cane's avatar

Did you see their update yesterday calling Trump and Musk heroes of free speech?

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Jim Trageser's avatar

Lol ... you keep threatening to leave, and yet here you still are ...

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Jae's avatar

My thoughts exactly, Dustin. To read this newest post by Substacks rings hollow to me after yesterday’s defense of the tech bros

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Ray Bob's avatar

I thought you were leaving.Please go away. And take all your tired nazi bullshit with you.

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Jim Sanders's avatar

Why waste time arguing with fools? All dialectics are exercises in Sophistry, typically for both sides.

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Mary Mc's avatar

Do I note a certain amount of cynicism and sarcasm? 😉

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Mishtu's avatar

drippingly ;-)

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James Kislingbury's avatar

Literally none of that happened, bucko, but keep spreading information. I'm sure you'll be rewarded for it.

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Sonora's avatar

The Substack Defender program needs its own Terms and Conditions or at least an inclusion the T&C’s on the general Terms page, please.

You can build confidence in the program by openly sharing the terms and limits of the program.

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Substack's avatar

Hi Sonora, you can find details on this page, linked at the bottom of the post: https://pages.substack.com/defender/

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Sonora's avatar

Yes, totally saw that link. Terms and Conditions are more detailed though, yes? I think we need both. Or included in the general T&C’s of Substack?

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Mishtu's avatar

Yes. Exactly. Very concisely put.

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Wm. S. Loder's avatar

You had me until you stated “The new presidential administration has a record of using the courts to silence journalists and has issued threats against those in the media.”

Another words you are biased against the Trump admin but make no mention of the previous administration or the Government political warfare for Crossfire Hurricane and others. Tells me you have an agenda not a service for the truth. Can’t support this.

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James Kislingbury's avatar

Most normal people are biased against garbage. I'm just wondering why you want to bring it into your house.

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Comment deleted
Jan 30
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Wm. S. Loder's avatar

I’m not absolving the Trump admin. If they are wrong go get them. Just run the road both ways and be objective.

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James Kislingbury's avatar

You are absolutely defending the Trump administration, but sure.

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Alex R. Berg's avatar

For good reason. This post talks about lawsuits that are used to pommel weak individuals who lose even when they abide by the law, this post is bot about protecting people who violate the law and spew acid on people they hate.

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FreeManScott's avatar

The NEW administration goes after media and writers etc? Short memory. Sad but not an unexpected position

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LesC's avatar

“The new presidential administration has a record of using the courts to silence journalists and has issued threats against those in the media.” I believe those were actually defamation lawsuits, which the billionaire media giant owners choose to settle out of court rather than enter into discovery, which is exactly the tactic Substack stated they use. And interestingly enough they are all lining up behind him. Seek the truth, print the truth, and if you’re wrong retract your untruths. Be they slanderous lies or honest mistakes. I believe as an author that might keep you out of trouble during any administration. IMHO

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Lee Wellings's avatar

Good work and thank you. But every time at the moment I see a development like this I do feel compelled to suggest Substack’s most urgent need is for (specialist) Editors/collators to get work seen. I’m worried a lot of great writing is getting lost right now, I’m not the only one, and I want to help. (My area of vast experience is sports) best wishes, Lee

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Yahoo's avatar

Sounds like you are democrats. The Biden DOJ colluded with Facebook, Twitter, The Times, and the courts to silence words that didn’t fit their narrative. Blaming Trump who has been in office less than two weeks shows an incredible bias, if not outright lies by Substack. You have been extremely silence these past 4 years and now you are scared? What an insult to the readers and authors of this forum.

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Sy's avatar

Were you (or anyone) unable to speak on FB? Or anywhere else? Alt-right and Conservative voices were the dominant voices in podcasts, cable, FB, and Twitter. Literally all had the most engagement, the highest numbers, the biggest reach. It’s like you won but are crying that you lost because we were less successful than you. Did you not know that you dominate in all media? For over eight years now?

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John Taylor's avatar

I ran across your comment by accident, I am curious what you believe now, since Trump has been in office for four months?

Let me ask you these questions. Did we have all this chaos when Biden was president? Why didn’t you notice that it started after Trump came to office?

As to the courts, many who ruled against him, including his OWN Supreme Court, are his judges. Why? Because they, unlike this administration, actually follow the law and the constitution. Biden was shut down by the courts at times as well.

I am wiling to bet that you’d be screaming holy hell if democrats had been doing this to this extent.

The words carved in the DOJ building are there for a reason. “Where law ends, tyranny begins.”

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Mia Schachter's avatar

But the only payment processor substack uses is Stripe, which has draconian censorship policies. Anyone working on a new option for accepting payments? We can’t speak freely on Substack with stripe.

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Kathy Napoli's avatar

Agree @Mia Schacter

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Neil Hanson's avatar

Nailed It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Jonathan Silverman's avatar

How does one donate to this?

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Jim Sanders's avatar

Ah, here it comes. The donation shill. The ram with the bell around its neck.

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Jonathan Silverman's avatar

Seriously- thank you but I was not speaking euphemistically. The link is the article provided was for those needing this defense. Id like to contribute towards the defense fund and wonderred if anyone saw any guidance on this?

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Jim Sanders's avatar

Fair enough. I’m just feeling jaded by all these sites telling how bad things are while collecting money which subscribers read while eating popcorn as if a movie western without realizing there is no cavalry coming to the rescue.

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Tom Butler-Bowdon's avatar

Can I reiterate what Lee Wellings says below:

"Good work and thank you. But every time at the moment I see a development like this I do feel compelled to suggest Substack’s most urgent need is for (specialist) Editors/collators to get work seen. I’m worried a lot of great writing is getting lost right now..."

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Mishtu's avatar

Agree — but two options — not mutually exclusive

- better curation (and editing )

- better search and discoverability

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Mark's avatar

I am amazed that Substack would put in print anything about the present administration and censoring. Get a grip guys, thought you were intelligent & informed that statement says no.

The Biden administration station have time after time demonstrated overt censorship…. Are you not aware of their overzealous manipulation at Twitter? Are you not aware that Zuck called them out on their desire to control speech? Cmon, this is so basic I wonder why anyone would respect your next message.

Be hones, be fair, call balks & strikes and don’t be partisan. It’s disgusting!

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James Kislingbury's avatar

How come none of you dopes defending the Trump reich have user pics. Get serious.

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Dustin Du Cane's avatar

Is this a panicked response to your taking the knee yesterday? Trump and Musk are the kings of the SLAPP. They are the greatest threat to actual free speech and not hate speech, in the world. And you were kissing their rings in a disgusting manner yesterday. And now you’re talking about defending free speech instead of retracting your disgusting ode to vile fascist? Cowardice.

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Johanus's avatar

Easy on the bias and hyperbole please. You appear to have forgotten how the Dems from Obama on and the libs in Canada, and their equivalents in Britain and the EU, etc. and all their tech and media puppets, have done more to destroy free speech, censor and obfuscate truth and even prosecute truth tellers since the days of communist East Germany. Not sure how you managed to do that.

How bout keep political, rabid anti-Trump biases out of here eh? Let's just agree to unite in the fight to protect and preserve open, honest and transparant dialogue, scientific esp. Let people (esp. intelligent ones) speak their minds and argue their cases without fear of partisan reprisal or esp. big monied interfence and prosecution from gov't or industry, which is the real threat, and so maintain the open marketplace of ideas we all want to see thrive.

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James Kislingbury's avatar

Oh, look, a guy with a bunch of Roman Empire posts Defending fascism. Wonder what that's about.

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Jim Trageser's avatar

Lol ... libel law post-Sullivan makes it almost impossible for a public figure to prevail. That FB, et al, settled shows they did NOT want internal docs unearthed during discovery.

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Jae's avatar
Jan 30Edited

100%. Well said, Dustin!

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Ray Bob's avatar

Why are you still here?You said you were leaving. Please don't let the door hit you in your large ass on the way out

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Mary Mc's avatar

😂😂😂 🥱🥱🥱

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Volman777's avatar

So i came to Substack because Alex Beresen was censored on Twitter by the Biden administration. (Who is in a well documented lawsuit with them now.) It's ironic that you are saying this administration has a history of this when the last administration started a whole "disinformation" team to squelch info they didn't like. (Sounds like the kgb to me.)

Anyway- we get it. You're liberal and your life is ruined. But don't pretend that the last administration was a beacon of free speech. It was the opposite.

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James Kislingbury's avatar

Lol. Imagine caping for that clown. Get a grip, sir.

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Volman777's avatar

Lol- imagine...wait you can't imagine as you've been brainwashed my msnbc.

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