Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The lights are all blinking red.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Bark louder, little dog.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

You are here: Home / The Curious First Amendment

The Curious First Amendment

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I don’t understand the angst over this at all:

Steven Crowder can still say whatever the fuck he wants. The first amendment is still a firmly entrenched right. No one’s free speech is harmed. It’s just that Steven Crowder doesn’t have a right to make youtube pay him for calling someone a lispy queer.

This is much ado about nothing.

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    How dare Media Matters and Vox post short clips of Glenn Greenwald saying stupid things! Don’t they know that’s Glenn Greenwald’s prerogative to do to other people?

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    Just what are GG’s First Amendment rights as a resident of Brazil? How do you say “First Amendment” in Portuguese?

  3. 3.

    Alain

    FYI I restored the old formatting, and I’m refreshing the cache so mobile users and Firefox, etc. users who’ve complained should soon see the proper post title font size. This carefully balanced, teetering mess is best left alone.

  4. 4.

    germy

    Tune in tonight as I join Tucker for a discussion on the serious matter of Brooklyn Cool Kid Journos bullying anti-establishment journalist @mtracey, following an innovative segment where Tucker & guests scream racial slurs for 5 min. straight to protest social media censorship.
    — Glem (I Do *NOT* Support Trump) (@GlemGreenwald) June 6, 2019

  5. 5.

    MattF

    OT. I want to note that RW outrage over Pelosi’s remark that Trump belongs in prison is a teensy bit hypocritical. Just go ask Hillary Clinton about that, if you dare.

  6. 6.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    Is there a word for when your inexplicable dislike of someone turns out to be completely vindicated?

  7. 7.

    Steve in the ATL

    Gosh, someone found the *one* stupid, indefensible statement from greenwald!

  8. 8.

    Gin & Tonic

    GG: “here are my full comments on whether Silicon Valley overlords will benevolently police our discourse to protect the marginalized:”

    Me: Hard pass, thanks.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    I don’t understand the angst over this at all:

    Conservative white guys want to be able to slur others because they know any like response will foment a race or culture war. When they are gently denied the full opportunity to do that, they get upset.

  10. 10.

    germy

    Today starts a new day in low-Earth orbit as we unlock the @Space_Station’s potential as a platform for companies to engage in commercial profit-making activities and we welcome private astronauts to visit on U.S. vehicles. Get more details: https://t.co/lJnIlxaii7 pic.twitter.com/8sbi1lEzIn— NASA (@NASA) June 7, 2019

    .@Space_Station is open for commercial business! Watch @Astro_Christina talk about the steps we're taking to make our orbiting laboratory accessible to all Americans. pic.twitter.com/xLp2CpMC2x— NASA (@NASA) June 7, 2019

    How long before Fox and Friends reports from the ISS? Ailes would have loved the zero G upskirt opportunities.

  11. 11.

    Cacti

    Counselor Greenwald, did Mr. Crowder voluntarily agree to YouTube’s terms of service when he began using it to host his content?

    No further questions.

  13. 13.

    waspuppet

    Brought to you by the same political movement that will soon be saying “OK our Census questions are based on racism and political advantage, but THEORETICALLY they could have not been, so you have to allow them!”

    ETA: Glenn Greenwald getting all huffy about hall monitors is particularly rich. Yeah, let’s have a non-society where no one enforces any rules and we’ll see how long the lawyers last.

  15. 15.

    germy

    Glen is good at holding grudges:

    Of course, knowing how petty Glenn is & his Trumpian grudge-holding ability, it's almost certainly just b/c @gaywonk (who worked for the ODIOUS Media Matters) has consistently criticized him for things like going on Tucker. pic.twitter.com/lI4pG5x762— Centrism Fan Acct ? (@Wilson__Valdez) June 5, 2019

  16. 16.

    germy

    Good point about Glen:

    Lol remember when his months-long campaign constantly bringing up Joy Reid (he tweeted about it well in the hundreds of times) was about Journalist Ethics & holding ppl accountable for vile anti-LGBT views? Yeah….. https://t.co/jJR36E6Hv7— Centrism Fan Acct ? (@Wilson__Valdez) June 5, 2019

  17. 17.

    different-church-lady

    @Alain:

    This carefully balanced, teetering mess is best left alone.

    Are you saying we should go away?

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    The only mystery about Greenwald is whether he’ll go full David Horowitz and openly embrace wingnuttery or if he’ll try to hang onto contrarian cred, like an infinitely less talented, late-stage Christopher Hitchens?

  21. 21.

    The Moar You Know

    The right to free speech versus the right to a free platform is being deliberately conflated by conservatives, because while they had enough money to buy Fox, they will never have enough money to buy YouTube, or Twitter, or Facebook.

    You don’t have the right to a profit;
    you don’t have the right to an audience;
    and you don’t have the right to a platform.

    You gotta earn that shit. And the world is not buying what they are selling.

  23. 23.

    The Moar You Know

    The only mystery about Greenwald is whether he’ll go full David Horowitz and openly embrace wingnuttery or if he’ll try to hang onto contrarian cred, like an infinitely less talented, late-stage Christopher Hitchens?

    @Betty Cracker: You know down to the marrow of your bones that the only possible answer is “both”.

  24. 24.

    Kraux Pas

    My right to have my one man show at the Gershwin Theatre with a full compliment of advertising is being denied to me by big Broadway. I demand justice.

  28. 28.

    randy khan

    @Betty Cracker:

    The only mystery about Greenwald is whether he’ll go full David Horowitz and openly embrace wingnuttery or if he’ll try to hang onto contrarian cred, like an infinitely less talented, late-stage Christopher Hitchens

    Since Greenwald can’t write nearly as well as Hitch did, I think only the Horowitz route is available.

  29. 29.

    Chyron HR

    “Well, the Russians finally decided to silence my accomplice Julian, but I’m still useful, right?” – Glenn Greenwald, probably

  30. 30.

    zhena gogolia

    Pretty funny piece on Trump’s visit by Marina Hyde in the Guardian:

    That said, I did miss our former best player. You spend a lifetime cringing at Prince Philip insulting people, and the one time you want him to, he’s retired.

  31. 31.

    bbleh

    @Baud: It’s also just another item for the victimology file. Poor put-upon white men, carrying the burden of civilizing society without thanks even as others receive special favors and treatment!

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: LOL! It’s also a shame Princess Margaret is dead. You know she would have had some properly cutting remarks for the Evil Clampetts!

  33. 33.

    Mandalay

    While y’all are gleefully jerking off about Crowder and Greenwald, you’re giving a free pass to the real villain: YouTube.

    They don’t have to let Crowder post videos at all, and following complaints they initially decided that what he posted was OK. It took YouTube a year to act on this, and even now they let him post his hate speech, and only demonetize the most egregious videos. This is exactly what Crowder wants to happen. Fuckers like him rake in the megabucks by being able to portray themselves as martyrs for a noble cause.

    And the story still has legs. This is great:

    Last night, LGBTQ+ activists and former Google employees attended an overflowing San Francisco Pride Board meeting to lobby for the exclusion of Google from this year’s Pride parade and celebration.

    Fuck Greenwald.
    Fuck Crowder.
    Fuck Carlson.
    But double fuck YouTube and Google.

  41. 41.

    Hoodie

    @The Moar You Know: That’s probably an oversimplification, but apt in this case. Yes, the first amendment protects against government constraints on speech, not actions by non-government actors that make speech more difficult or expensive. Conceivably, you could have a corrupt system in which government is virtually indistinguishable from powerful “private” economic actors (see, e.g., Russia), so the actions by these private actors could be viewed as government action. Of course, YouTube, whatever its numerous faults, is not even remotely an arm of the Trump Administration or vice versa. If anything, liberals could complain about not being able to have their own opinion shows on Fox, given that it acts as an unofficial media arm of the Trump Administration. In other words, Fox should be forced to give Carlson’s spot to some equally bad leftist performance artist.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    These morons need someone to repeatedly slap them while saying in Mitt Romney’s voice, “Corporations are not the government, my friend.”

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @germy:

    I for one am glad that Glen was willing to

    benevolently police our discourse to protect the marginalized

    in that situation.

  46. 46.

    kindness

    @trollhattan: John Lennon has a song for you.

    Hmm. Link to Youtube version of Instant Karma if you click the final you. Not sure why it isn’t highlighted as a link.

  47. 47.

    Kent

    So I’m sure Glen Greenwald can get his first amendment case fast-tracked to El Supremo Tribunal Federal en Brasilia. I expect he has a good case.

    Remind me again how the first amendment applies to a resident of a foreign country posting content to the servers of a multi-national corporation which has its Brazilian headquarters and servers located in Belo Horizonte, Brasil.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    Example #637,853,603 that “libertarianism” really means “white dudes get to do whatever they want and everyone else has to STFU.”

  50. 50.

    Waynski

    @The Moar You Know:

    The right to free speech versus the right to a free platform is being deliberately conflated by conservatives…

    This. Their idea of free speech is, “We get to punch you, but you can’t fight back.” And btw, you don’t get to make the call on what anyone outside of your windbag propaganda machine decides to publish or not publish. Not your decision T(f)ucker.

  51. 51.

    MattF

    @Mnemosyne: And, #637,853,604, that GG is an asshole. I’ll admit, though, that I stopped paying any attention to him a few years ago.

  52. 52.

    mrmoshpotato

    @MattF: Hey now. You’re 239 pounds if you believe it instead of all the scales in the world – the lying, lying scales who should all be sued and locked up.

  53. 53.

    Mandalay

    @different-church-lady:

    I can only dream about being as aware and astute as yourself.

    WTF?

    Perhaps our full time meta poster is embarrassed about her own knuckle dragging contribution:

    GREENWALD IS A PROFESSIONAL TROLL FULL STOP

    How witty! How clever! How astute!

    When you get the awareness of a door knob it will be a sign of progress.

  54. 54.

    kindness

    @Mandalay: You are aware that there are a bunch of gay people who work for Google, no? I know a couple of them. They feel Google is very inclusive. Now what YouTube did was wrong. I’m glad they finally kicked out the advertising $ for this hater.

    Really I’m more concerned that Facebook is going to hose the next election (2016 redux).

  55. 55.

    Baud

    Ok, I hate to defend GG because he is a troll, but his tweet doesn’t mention the First Amendment. (I haven’t watched the clip.).

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    @MattF:
    As I understand, an experienced tailor can take a look at you and have a pretty good idea what your measurements will be. So if Trump lied about that, the tailor would probably know.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    The Fox chyron reads “BIG TECH & THE FIRST AMENDMENT.” The audio in that clip is a bit garbled for a few seconds, but I didn’t hear GG mention the 1A. The conflation is on Fox (of course).

    Possibly unrelated question: every time I see a photo or video of Tucker Carlson, his jaw is slack and his mouth is agape. I don’t even know how to describe his expressionless expression, but I find it almost physically disturbing to look at him.

  64. 64.

    West of the Rockies

    Hey, anyone see Mustang Bobby around these parts lately? Seems he sort of dropped out.

  65. 65.

    SRW1

    @zhena gogolia:

    Not sure the world would need to know how Trump wriggles his fat a** into his pants, quote, quite uncomfortably, in his automobile, sitting sideways, the door open, unquote, to get ready for a cheat of golf.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mandalay: Come on, YouTube is fine. Since Prince died, you find Prince videos to watch. How is this a bad thing?

  68. 68.

    TenguPhule

    @waspuppet:

    Yeah, let’s have a non-society where no one enforces any rules and we’ll see how long the lawyers last.

    A good lawyer could be fattened up nicely in time for winter. //

  69. 69.

    TenguPhule

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    In the form of a bolt of lightening that turns Greenwald into an oily stain on the sidewalk.

    Fuck no. Have some consideration for public street cleaners.

    Electrocute him in his fucking Brazilian mansion.

  70. 70.

    Steve in the ATL

    @waspuppet:

    Yeah, let’s have a non-society where no one enforces any rules and we’ll see how long the lawyers last.

    I got a shotgun, a rifle, and a four-wheel drive and a lawyer boy can survive

    (full disclosure: my car is 2wd, but I’m pretty sure my wife’s SUV is AWD. Close enough?)

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steve in the ATL: I don’t have a four wheel drive, but, in addition to a couple of shotguns and a rifle, I have a sword and several knives.

    In addition, I got some groceries, some peanut butter, to last a couple of days.
    But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no
    headphones, ain’t got no records to play.

  73. 73.

    J R in WV

    @Betty Cracker:

    …a shame Princess Margaret is dead. You know she would have had some properly cutting remarks for the Evil Clampetts!

    Wait! The Clampetts were country bumpkins, ignorant of city ways…but they were nice people who went out of their way to attempt to be supportive of others. Now, it often didn’t work out that well, but the intention was always good.

    As a country person, I’m offended that you compare the Clampetts to the Drumpfs in any way!!

  77. 77.

    Duane

    Glen Beck was shedding crocodile tears for Loudmouth Crowder yesterday. His solution: Sign up for Blaze TV!

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