472 Comments

Nah, Musk isn’t crossing a line by trying to clean up twitter, sorry Alex but you’re off base here. Also - blocking is allowed fyi

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I agree Alex is wrong in this. Organizations that try to help/ save victims have complained for years about Twitter’s nonchalant attitude towards child porn on Twitter. Even the now head of trust and safety, who was brought on to fight child exploitation on Twitter has said prior to Musk addressing the child porn/ exploitation problem in Twitter was not a priority. She said that when employees working on the problem quit (pre-Musk) they were not replaced. At one point she had zero engineers working on this. At the same time countless engineers were coming up with ways to shadow ban conservatives.

The old leadership at Twitter hurt a lot of people. Child exploitation was an especially big problem on Twitter. It’s more than that. Countless kids have mutilated their genitals and permanently sterilized themselves because acknowledgement of biological reality was banned on Twitter. Those talking about harm were attacked, had their lives destroyed, and got banned/ silenced under prior leadership. School lockdowns and isolation have permanently damaged millions of American kids - prior leadership ensured there would be no debate or discussion about this. The list is much longer.

If Musk were outing low level employees with no authority to make any decisions I might agree with Alex. That’s not what’s happening. Musk is holding the people who made terrible decisions that lead to widespread real world accountable for the decisions they made by showing they made those decisions. That’s a good thing!

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Alex seemed to misread his own quotation, note how Roth goes from "people under 18" to calling them "queer youth" to "teenagers" to "queer young adults." Like it or not, there are laws against statutory rape, even if both parties are under 18.

Likewise, "which cannot possibly be read as a defense of pedophilia or child sexual exploitation" - Musk didn't say that. Alex, be honest here. You quoted Musk too.

See: " but the fact that ***people under 18**** are on these services already indicates that we can’t readily dismiss these platforms out of hand as loci for ***queer youth culture***. ... or, worse, trying to ****drive out teenagers**** entirely, service providers ... accommodate a wide variety of use cases for platforms like Grindr — including, possibly, their role in safely connecting ***queer young adults***.."

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If roth was angry that kids under 18 are kicked off a gay "dating" app, then I'm def on elon's side

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I was going to write something similar, but I'll just add that Alex has also misconstrued what Musk wrote. And by doing so, he's committing the exact same "crime" that he's accusing Musk of. Here's the tweet in question:

Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services in his PhD thesis:

That's not saying that Roth is in favor of child exploitation or child pornography, but it is exactly what it says: perhaps in FAVOR of (technically) children being able to access adult internet services. This is not the same as defending child exploitation or child pornography.

There's a reasonable debate to be had about age of consent laws, particularly between older teens and younger adults, but until that changes, then children should not be on adult-oriented internet services.

I was a "queer youth" back in the 70s; came out at the age of 16. I was dating guys in their 20s. Technically illegal, but there was no exploitation or coercion and no one was the worse for it. If you think this is horrible, I respect your opinion. But Alex, shouldn't conflate Musk's quote with something else. He's being just as bad as he's accusing Musk of being.

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I had to read that passage a couple times because I couldn’t figure out if he was talking about minors or “young adults.”

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My reading was that he was purposely conflating the two.

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A teenager can be a minor or a “young adult” but not both (except in rare circumstances like emancipation).

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I agree with NCmom. Great comments. Children should always be "off limits' and those that encourage abuse towards them deserve to be held accountable. Let's think about the victims, the children, as the first priority instead of the last

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Really good, NCmom!!!

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Right on!!

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The other piece that Berenson seems to be missing is that Musk has the Twitter files, maybe there’s evidence there that makes it clear that Roth is bad business? Hmmm...

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Thanks NC Mom! As usual you're spot on.

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Wow, and Alex is blocking me for saying I won't support him anymore. My comments disappear as fast as I write them. Pretty amazing. Well, then I guess I'm done on here.

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Well, people are responding to my comments so maybe just I can't see them. I can see them for a minute and then they disappear. No idea why. Never happened before. I have until Dec. 24th paid on here since I cancelled. So we'll see if Alex responds to this issue OR writes a more sane post about Musk. He never apologied about Dr. Malone, so doubt he will. Also, Elon blocked Alex, didn't kick him off Twitter. He has a right to do that. But Alex is pretty strange sometimes.

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I can see your comments. Keep in mind that Substack's comment system can be a bit glitchy at times. I don't think you're banned. It's now 6:05 PM EST on 12/12. Cheers.

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I’m thinking the same.

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Dr. Malone writes about a lot of societal issues that pertain to this virus --how it was used and what they are up to. Alex just seems to spend his time attacking people trying to help censorship or people who are concerned about the vaccine. Usually without enough information. He doesn't seem capable of forming a bigger picture. Too bad.

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founding

Sexual Identity is of paramount importance now. Because the Queer-proud crowd has made it important. They do a lot of deviant stuff - for whatever reason. It is an issue.

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Agree. Alex is wrong here. Yoel Roth deserves the enmity Elon is throwing at him. He is a pathetic groomer and he is a reprobate who used his power grotesquely.

If Yoel feels endangered he can ask Elon and Trump for a referral to their security teams. Yoel put Trump in major danger.

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Roth was the head of “Trust and Safety.” It’s fair to ask what he did to protect kids in this world of, yes, groomers; prior to Musk, it appears that Twitter provided a safe harbor for groomers and did nothing to protect children.

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Right. And it appears he did much less to them than he did to conservatives and people questioning covid hoopla. He managed to get them off.

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Others have posted this down in the comments (thanks!) but want to ensure everybody sees it. An example of much MORE news on this ... https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/c-and-c-news-saturday-december-10

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Yeah, Alex misses the point yet AGAIN. They left dictators and terrorist posts on there and child porn while they deleted and banned conservatives and Donald Trump.

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And experts and people who protested the vaccines and rollouts and lockdowns. Yet the child porn people and terrorists and dictators were all over it.

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Best sight!

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founding

You are thinking for the moment not in objective reality and don't know objective truths. What are you going to think or say in the future will you still feel the same!? Sometimes truth hurts as well as feelings Musk knows that he has to show what he has and never be afraid.

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I assume you are talking to Alex. You are right.

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founding

In a Positive way of course.

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Oh, I misread that. I thought he was saying that he'd been suspended from Twitter (as I was this morning).

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TOTALLY AGREE!!!

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Roth is not a good person - and I’m being kind. Alex is on the wrong team with this take.

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Sorry Alex, the only person who crossed the line was you.

Your need to defend Yoel, given everything they did to you and EVERYONE ELSE who didn’t agree with them, is confusing and poorly executed.

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Agreed. Roth has literally said that the decision to ban Trump after January 6 was based on the “trauma” he and other “content moderators” experienced online that fateful day. He's a little censorious wannabe Bolshevik.

Video:

https://euphoricrecall.substack.com/p/the-twitter-files

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Lest we forget: Alex used to write for the NYT.

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“I can’t believe I have to say this, but no one - not Elon Musk or anyone else - has presented any evidence that Roth supports child pornography or sexual abuse.”

I don’t think that’s the point. I think the point is that on his watch Twitter PRIORITIZED seeking out and silencing political dissidents/Covid narrative dissenters over those posting child porn.

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I think knowingly allowing child porn on the site qualifies as "support"

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/c-and-c-news-saturday-december-10

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Agree with Jeff Childers on his analysis about the child exploitation which flourished on Twitter before Elon took over and crushed it.

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100%. I've been a Childers daily reader almost as long as I've been an Alex subscriber, and Childers is spot-on 95% of the time. This is no exception.

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👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

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Bingo!

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No one needs to prove anyone at Twatter 1.0 supported child exploitation and porn. All Elon had to do was clean it up aggressively which he's done and announced with pride that Twitter 2.0 has done so.

Alex is concerned about one gay man, Roth, which no one cares about because he's only one censorship tool of the Fascist Left at Twitter Americans now detest. Alex thinks this is going to lead to some kind of NAMBLA discussion and cause more backlash against homosexuality.

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If that is Alex’s concern, it’s pretty damn creepy of him to lump opposition to pedophilia together as somehow also inherently opposing people who are homosexual. I know numerous gay people, and not a single one I know is attracted to kids. They are deeply offended when people claim that opposing child sexualization harms the gay community. One has nothing to do with the other and linking them is bigoted at best.

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I think most of the gay community is appalled by the perverse outward actions of an overly vocal minority.

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Alex you have kids, why wouldn’t this be offensive especially if one of your kids happen to come across this scums allowance of this child material? Why is it you keep fixating on Musk the last 2 weeks? I know you have given Musk credit, now give him time to fix this mess

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The people far beyond homosexuals on the “abnormal” scale (strict, statistical definition of abnormal here - meaning simply fewer of them - don’t go crazy!) are purposely conflating their issues with those of gays to try to gain a greater voice. Actually a smart strategy.

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Absolutely. While the strategy may be smart it’s also downright evil and cruel to those who are everyday normal gay people. Im amazed how many people fall for this semantics game, which is simple minded and ridiculous. It says a lot about the general public that it is a “smart” strategy. In a world of thinking humans it would properly be stupid and widely mocked when activists conflate the humans these terms actually refer to.

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Yes, this idea should be permanently decoupled.

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You just admitted his guilt…yes…it’s guilt.

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💯!!!!!!!!

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Fuck Yoel Roth. He’s human garbage

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Musk should not have blocked you on Twitter simply because you are disagreeing with him on Roth and his treatment. But the stuff that is being dug about Roth shows he’s sympathetic to sick predators (if not one himself?) and deserves no sympathy whatsoever. If he gets doxxed by someone, so be it. His ilk do it all the time to those they seek to cancel.

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Evidently Alex didn't work in an office of crying idiots when Trump got elected. You've got to see it to believe it.

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And Musk made that clear in the beginning.

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Well said!

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Hysteria does not become you, Alex ... get a grip and get back on message with respect to COVID and the government's handling of the 'vaccine'.

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Do you know this guy Roth or something? What a strange hill for you to die on. He's clearly a freakish scumbag. It is not a logical jump to believe that his rather outre views on sexual practice could color how he perceived various Twitter users' posts relating to sexual topics. Methinks thou dost protest too much.

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Dec 12, 2022·edited Dec 12, 2022

This is far below your usual standards Alex. Did you miss the part where the new head of trust &safety, Ella Irwin chimes in saying that she was told by old management that she could not replace staffers in early 2022 who worked on child sexual exploitation and that at one point there were zero engineers assigned to the issue???? My advice is to delete this nonsense article.

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I second that advice. Sometimes, self-censorship is the way to go.

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🎯🎯

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He shouldn't have posted it, but shouldn't delete it and all the comments on why he's wrong

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That’s an excellent point - all the comments are more than worth it.

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Agreed. Alex jumped the gun here without all facts. Here's the statement from Irwin: https://twitter.com/ellagirwin/status/1601310614948745216

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Seriously? So you are saying that the clown who cavorted and conspired with the deep state spy agencies and domestic security apparatus to throw a Presidential election doesn't deserve a dose of his own medicine? Oh my gosh .... what about FAIRNESS!!!!

Tolerance has allowed our Constitution to be subverted. Musk is simply showing everyone that tolerance has its limits. Perhaps if the "Trust & Safety" useful idiots weren't so far up the butts of the politicians they were attempting to prop up, they would have spent a wee bit more time on actual, real problems.

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Totally disagree with you, which doesn’t happen often.

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Wow Alex, after agreeing with many articles, I'm gonna disagree big time.

So you're worried about this guy who helped destroy the country, but its ok that people are still committing genocide with clot shots?

Whats going on?

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It appears Alex's feelings were hurt because Musk blocked him.....?? Thicker skin is warranted for all of the horrific bullshit going on in the world and this scumbag Roth doesn't deserve a minute of anyone's time in defense of him or his thoughts or his actions.

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He should have waited a day or two. His post reads like the first draft of an email I write when I'm really pissed. The difference is, I let the first draft sit in 'draft' for a day or two, soften it up, and the email. Sometimes it's actually the fifth draft before I've cooled off.

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Agreed.... sometimes raw emotion is useful but not in this instance

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Dec 12, 2022·edited Dec 12, 2022

Ah, that old reflex is coming back, Alex. Yes, the "blood flows" but it isn't any actual present blood, it's the blood of children which was flowing with the unchecked actual Child Exploitation/Porn under your beloved Yoel Roth.

Don't worry Alex. We already thought the worst of Roth and Vijayjay and the entire Fascist Left at Twitter before the revelations Elon revealed about how they did next to nothing on the exploitation of children. Elon himself has commented that in the last month Twitter has done more to stop child exploitation materials on Twitter than in the years prior combined.

Of course these revelations are not going down well for the gay mafia. Well Alex, speech has a price and sometimes it comes in revelations we didn't expect or ones we'd like for their pure unsavory truth.

Deal with it.

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I can't find it in me to sympathize with the guy who was in charge of safety et al for content and couldn't find any reason to remove literal child porn but dreamed up reasons to remove a political figure he disagreed with. EM hasn't called for anyone to do anything violent against this guy. Criticism isn't violence. This, to me, is the same way people tried to say Trump incited violence with his tweets. He didn't. And Elon hasn't encouraged anyone to behave violently against this man. The idea that Criticism incites violence is a stretch IMO. Irrational people behave irrationally and we shouldn't self censor for fear of what others might do and we certainly don't shoulder the blame for lunatics who decide to do crazy shit

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I'd also liken this to the same logic that was applied to the Paul Pelosi garbage. Some whacko allegedly attacked P.Pelosi and they blamed it on repubs and Trump fans? Give me a break. Even if that guys motivation was some QAnon conspiracy shit, it is not anyone else's fault or obligation to censor their thoughts or critiques because crazy people who do crazy shit exist. This just feeds the idea they're pushing that people must be censored because certain opinions are dangerous and some nutcase might do something and they'll find a way to blame it on someone else's thoughts or opinions

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The odds are higher Roth or someone like him beat Paul Pelosi with a hammer than a typical MAGA type.

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I don't disagree with you. However, either way- we don't censor our thoughts, opinions, theories, or speculation for fear of some whacko taking an idea or opinion that they read somewhere and running with it. I'm not going to self censor (and neither should EM) because crazy people exist.

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Nobody seriously believes that criticism of public figures equates to responsibility if some lunatic commits a crime against them. How do I know this? How many commentators (including Alex) blamed Bernie Sanders for the Congressional baseball game shooter who targeted Republicans and nearly killed a Congressman? None. Everybody recognized that the guy was a lunatic. No one said that Bernie had blood on his hands. All of this is just an excuse to censor conservatives or more generally, people who believe in free speech. Alex might actually fall for this nonsense. He isn't very discerning in most instances. Like the time very recently that he fell for an anti-Trump hoax (yes another one.)

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Roth isn't the problem per se, but his ideology is.

We don't excuse Neo Nazis with Swastikas, we shouldn't excuse LGBTQ folks who write so "innocently" about child sexualization. In a purely academic setting this is a nothing burger. In a leftwing dystopia where minors are being courted into drag shows and mutilated into Gender Ideology, its a red line.

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I would suggest that anyone who thinks it is "no big deal" to suggest that minor children be on Grindr should take a look at the site. Get back to me after you've seen what the standard content is on that app.

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Dec 13, 2022·edited Dec 13, 2022

Agreed. I'm not sure most are aware of the level of sexual deviancy displayed by homosexual men. Straight men have a far better idea than women do, but most women would simply have no clue what these people are thinking nor capable of.

Homosexuality is taboo for a reason. Obviously discrimination and violence are off the table, but taboo needs to be the norm.

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I suspect that straight men would display the same sexual tendencies if not restrained by women.

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Dec 13, 2022·edited Dec 13, 2022

That is exactly my point. Apologies for sounding homophobic.

Women are natural male regulators.

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Terrible

No place for under 18

Gay or Straight kids

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I'll just take your word for it.

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Alex,

You flew too close to the sun.

You were right on the vaccines - but your hot takes on every other recent issue just don't look that well thought out. In fact, they appear rather imprudent.

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Imprudent or revealing of his true beliefs?

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Elon will have zero trouble finding good engineers who want to protect children for god’s sake. What a stupid article this is.

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