Category: Fuck Corporate America

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Lauren Boebert's Tweet To Elon Musk Claiming The Left Only Wants 'Censorship' Backfired Instantly

Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert was criticized after she claimed "leftists" opposed to billionaire Elon Musk's recent move to buy Twitter only want "censorship."

While Musk's buyout was cheered by conservatives, it sparked concern from other—especially civil rights groups—who said that having one person have so much centralized power over political discourse online poses a significant threat to democracy.

Musk batted away these criticisms, saying his opponents are experiencing an "extreme antibody reaction" because they "fear free speech."

And Boebert agreed, claiming Musk's opponents not only want to censor him but that "Their ideas don't hold up in debate."

Musk has continued to allege Twitter's algorithms are biased and conservatives have applauded his buyout as a win for free speech, which Boebert has often claimed is threatened on the social media platform, thereby constituting a First Amendment violation.

However, these claims do not hold up under scrutiny.

The First Amendment applies only to governmental action and does not apply to behavior by private employers, private companies, or private, non-government individuals unless they worked in concert with the government.

Ironically, Boebert's Twitter activities have occasionally violated the First Amendment given she has previously blocked her constituents and was sued because she cannot legally block anyone who finds any of her tweets objectionable.

In 2019, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled online pages used by public figures to connect with their constituents are public forums, which means an official cannot block people from them because of the opinions they hold.

Boebert's tweet garnered significant attention.

Her claims were swiftly criticized by those who pointed out Republicans have recently ramped up a campaign to ban books and limit what subjects teachers can teach in their classrooms.

https://twitter.com/johnhassomesoap/status/1519261642931978240

https://twitter.com/Wildchildwendy/status/1519111477617205250

Earlier this week, the Twitter board of directors agreed to a $44 billion buyout by Musk, potentially making it one of the biggest deals to turn a company private.

Twitter previously acknowledged it had received Musk's bid, which comes out to $54.20 a share. The company confirmed in a press release its board of directors received the offer and would "carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders."

Rumors of a buyout began to circulate earlier this month after Musk disclosed a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter made him the company's largest shareholder. Prominent conservatives appeared emboldened by the news, particularly because Musk had questioned Twitter's content moderation rules in the days before his disclosure.

At the time, there was significant speculation Musk would join Twitter's board of directors, a move that would potentially broaden his influence over the platform and its policies.

Republicans, spurred by former President Donald Trump, have often accused Twitter of limiting prominent conservative voices on its platform.

In 2018, while still in office, Trump claimed Twitter was "SHADOW BANNING prominent Republicans" in response to a news story that alleged accounts owned by Republicans were showing up in a general search of the website but not automatically populating when typing their names in the drop-down bar.

Twitter later issued a response, attributing the issue to a platform bug.

[Source]

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I Agree 100%

Since my employer recently dropped the mask mandate for all our buildings, I fully expect to receive notice this coming week that we are moving into "Phase 3" of the Return to Work Plan, meaning that instead of having to be in the office every other day, we'll be required to be there three days a week in preparation for the full return to work that will inevitably follow.

Since my particular team has already received permission to stay on that schedule going forward (even after everyone else has to return to the office full time), I'm still not happy about it—for all the reasons listed in the tweets above.

Two years ago when we were all forced to make changes to the way we did—well, pretty much everything—I viewed it as an opportunity for humanity to move forward; to finally break out of the toxic behaviors that contributed to the general fucked-up state of modern civilization, and frankly it felt good. But greed and pursuit of the almighty dollar wouldn't allow that.

And now we find ourselves in the position of putting money before safety and in the rush to get everything back to the same toxic "normality" it was before March 2020, I fear we are setting ourselves up for another disaster when the next COVID variant appears. Human stubbornness, stupidity, and overall resistance to change will not allow the kind of societal evolution that needs to occur.

And now Biden is advocating an full end to telecommuting?

Fuck that..