Elon Musk Defends Stripping Critics Of Blue Checks And Monetization

Twitter(X) owner Elon Musk is defending his decision to demonetize and strip his critics of their blue checkmarks, in spite of proclaiming to be a free speech “absolutist.” The irony is that conservatives siding with Musk are actually using the exact same arguments that Leftists used to defend Twitter’s actions under previous ownership to ban hateful accounts. Time really is a flat circle, as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Elon Musk has been going through and taking away the blue check marks and the monetization privileges of the conservatives on Twitter who are now criticizing him. And as the owner of the platform, the guy that basically gets to make the rules, he has 100% allowed to do it. Now, being allowed to do something and being a total idiot hypocrite are two different things because Elon Musk has portrayed himself for years now as a quote, free speech absolutist. And yet here he is taking away check marks, denying people monetization, denying them the ability to even pay for that monthly Twitter, uh, subscription. And of course, according to some folks tampering with the algorithms. So, yeah, that, that doesn't sound very free speech Absolutist now does it. But this week, Elon Musk defended his decision to, you know, be a huge hypocrite after one supporter of his on social media. A woman by the name of Nicole Benni posted this, people getting demonetized for their inexcusable behavior, then complaining about free speech is hilarious to me. You can say whatever you want, you just can't get paid for it. Hope this helps.

Now, Elon Musk's response to that, I'll read you in a second, but I want you to take a minute. You now have conservatives out there making the same argument that people on the left made for years when Twitter, under previous ownership, Jack Dorsey was of course suspending hate filled right wing accounts. Like, hey, it's a private platform. They get to make the rules. You accepted the rules, deal with the consequences. That is basically what the conservatives are now saying when they were up in arms about that same thing just a few short years ago. That is what is so hilarious to me. Time is a flat circle. Same events just keep happening in different ways, but it's the same thing. I, I am just shocked that these idiots who three years ago would've been whining and crying, are now using the same arguments that the left made That is absolutely hilarious to me because these people are doing it without a hint of irony at all. Then Elon Musk jumps in shows that he doesn't understand corporations or the government and says this exactly. The First Amendment is protection for free speech, not paid speech for F's sake.

You are not the government. You as a private citizen do not e even as a business owner,

You do not even have the ability to infringe upon their free speech. The First Amendment only says the government can't do it. Are you genuinely that stupid? Are you I know the answer to that. That's rhetorical. Yes, he is like Elon. You don't have the ability to restrict people's first amendment's rights because it only applies to the federal government. These people are so insanely stupid that it oftentimes overshadows their hypocrisy. But it, it, it just, it drives me insane dealing with this level of incompetence, especially with a man who is not only the world's wealthiest human being, but also tied at the hip with the incoming president. And he's this dumb, it gets worse, uh, Nick Fuentes, you know, prominent, uh, uh, pro white guy went out there and whined about, you know, the algorithms being shifted and Elon Musk said, claiming censorship while simultaneously getting millions of views is the clearest possible evidence that Fuentes has poop emoji for brains.