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This is the “Christian Bakery” moment for Twitter et al. You can’t at the same time argue that a bakery must serve people whose politics it doesn’t like (you ca

This is the “Christian Bakery” moment for Twitter et al. You can’t at the same time argue that a bakery must serve people whose politics it doesn’t like (you can find photos of the baker in question with sympathetic gay folks, so he doesn’t seem like a total homophobe to me) and do the exact same thing yourself.

pulisse 8y ago
It's illegal in Colorado for a business to refuse service to someone because of their sexual orientation. That's the law under which the state tried to penalize the baker. Alex Jones violated Twitter's ToS by, among other things, encouraging armed violence. There's zero tension in thinking that both Twitter and the state of Colorado acted defensibly in these two cases.
- h4b4n3r0 8y ago
  One: https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1J01WU https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/..., so Colorado is wrong. Two: Using a figure of speech is not “encouraging armed violence”.
  - licyeus 8y ago
    "People need to have their battle rifles and everything ready at their bedsides" is not a figure of speech I've ever heard. Is Milo Yiannopoulos's quote "I can't wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight" a similar figure of speech? Excusing extreme calls-to-action after the fact as "figures of speech" gives license to say anything: when you've found you've gone too far, you can simply walk it back and say it was metaphor. Should any of Milo's or Jones's followers act on this, would you still say their comments were just figures of speech?
    - h4b4n3r0 8y ago
      Yes, it’s _obviously_ a figure of speech. Alex Jones is not, nor has he ever been, a leader of armed resistance of any sort. Neither was Milo. They do not _actually_ urge armed resistance. Anyone who argues otherwise is being deliberately obtuse. If you want to go after violent resistance, check out hundreds of accounts of violent Antifa activists which are, miraculously, not banned from Twitter.
    - benmmurphy 8y ago
      the second part of that quote makes it much less worse. 'everything ready at their bedsides' implies resisting an armed attack as opposed to going out and hurting other people. previously i'd only seen the 'battle rifles' ready part of the quote in the media. though, possibly the rest of the context is probably worse for jones :/
      - lylecubed 8y ago
        > though, possibly the rest of the context is probably worse for jones :/ If the rest of the context was worse for jones, the press would have used it.
      - licyeus 8y ago
        Full context is available in a tweet linked in the article[1], but Jones states "We're under attack and you know that and you've pointed out that mainstream media is the enemy. But now it's time to act on the enemy... They're coming and they're coming and they're coming. They think they can really take down America. This is it." before urging his followers to have rifles ready. [1] https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1029477795561463808 https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1029477795561463808
amaccuish 8y ago
Your analogy fails because Alex Jones isn't a protected class. He wasn't kicked off for being gay/religion etc, he was kicked off for inciting violence.
- h4b4n3r0 8y ago
  Nor were those gay folks by the baker. He didn’t refuse service because they were gay per se. He refused because they wanted a _gay wedding cake_. Had they ordered a birthday cake, he would have happily made it for them. It’s like if you go into a Muslim bakery and order a cake with a picture of prophet Mohammad an it. Go try it, see how that works out for you.

pulisse 8y ago

It's illegal in Colorado for a business to refuse service to someone because of their sexual orientation. That's the law under which the state tried to penalize the baker. Alex Jones violated Twitter's ToS by, among other things, encouraging armed violence. There's zero tension in thinking that both Twitter and the state of Colorado acted defensibly in these two cases.

h4b4n3r0 8y ago
One: https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1J01WU https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/..., so Colorado is wrong. Two: Using a figure of speech is not “encouraging armed violence”.
- licyeus 8y ago
  "People need to have their battle rifles and everything ready at their bedsides" is not a figure of speech I've ever heard. Is Milo Yiannopoulos's quote "I can't wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight" a similar figure of speech? Excusing extreme calls-to-action after the fact as "figures of speech" gives license to say anything: when you've found you've gone too far, you can simply walk it back and say it was metaphor. Should any of Milo's or Jones's followers act on this, would you still say their comments were just figures of speech?
  - h4b4n3r0 8y ago
    Yes, it’s _obviously_ a figure of speech. Alex Jones is not, nor has he ever been, a leader of armed resistance of any sort. Neither was Milo. They do not _actually_ urge armed resistance. Anyone who argues otherwise is being deliberately obtuse. If you want to go after violent resistance, check out hundreds of accounts of violent Antifa activists which are, miraculously, not banned from Twitter.
  - benmmurphy 8y ago
    the second part of that quote makes it much less worse. 'everything ready at their bedsides' implies resisting an armed attack as opposed to going out and hurting other people. previously i'd only seen the 'battle rifles' ready part of the quote in the media. though, possibly the rest of the context is probably worse for jones :/
    - lylecubed 8y ago
      > though, possibly the rest of the context is probably worse for jones :/ If the rest of the context was worse for jones, the press would have used it.
    - licyeus 8y ago
      Full context is available in a tweet linked in the article[1], but Jones states "We're under attack and you know that and you've pointed out that mainstream media is the enemy. But now it's time to act on the enemy... They're coming and they're coming and they're coming. They think they can really take down America. This is it." before urging his followers to have rifles ready. [1] https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1029477795561463808 https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1029477795561463808

amaccuish 8y ago

Your analogy fails because Alex Jones isn't a protected class. He wasn't kicked off for being gay/religion etc, he was kicked off for inciting violence.

h4b4n3r0 8y ago
Nor were those gay folks by the baker. He didn’t refuse service because they were gay per se. He refused because they wanted a _gay wedding cake_. Had they ordered a birthday cake, he would have happily made it for them. It’s like if you go into a Muslim bakery and order a cake with a picture of prophet Mohammad an it. Go try it, see how that works out for you.