Milwaukee Meteorologist Fired One Day After Criticizing Elon Musk’s Nazi-ish Salute
from the we're-in-a-dark-place dept
To borrow a phrase famously used by the world class philosophers called Green Day, Elon Musk is something of a walking contradiction. He touts the so-called “Twitter Files” as some kind of damning report on government weaponization against critical content and is then accused of doing exactly the same thing himself. He’s a “free speech advocate” that went nuts when Twitter briefly blocked the NY Post, only to turn around and even more explicitly block news content himself in a far more ham-handed way. Musk is a man who has spit absolute vitriol towards people he dislikes on social media, at times potentially putting them in harm’s way by third-party fans of his, only to ask the rest of ExTwitter to just be nice to one another.
It’s a very specific brand of nihilism that perhaps makes sense in Musk’s head, but looks like a hypocrisy speedrun to the rest of us. His fans don’t care, of course, but it should be equally obvious that their defense of all things Elon is as performative as Musk’s routine. One great example is the discourse that has surrounded a gesture Elon recently made, which allies are referring to as an “odd gesture”, and critics refer to as “holy shit, did he just do a Nazi salute?” Below is footage of what occurred.
Was that definitely a Nazi salute? I’m not here to answer yes to that question. I’ve been reminded by all kinds of fans of Musk that the man claims to be on the spectrum and that one of the symptoms includes trouble properly using non-verbal communication. And, hey, sure, I acknowledge that.
He also did what looks like a fucking Nazi salute, people. Whether that was his intention or not is not known by this writer, but this game that a section of the country is playing by reacting to the accusation as though it were completely crazy is just stupid. There is nothing unreasonable about thinking that’s what it looked like. It was literally the first thing I thought of when I saw his gesture.
And it appears it was what a Milwaukee meteorologist thought of as well when she reacted to it on her own social media. Then she was fired the next day.
A Milwaukee TV weather forecaster has been dropped by her station one day after she criticized Elon Musk on social media for his straight-arm gesture that many have likened to a Nazi salute.
Staffers at WDJT-TV (Channel 58) were alerted by email on Wednesday that meteorologist Sam Kuffel had left the station. Her biography and picture had been removed from Channel 58 website by Wednesday afternoon.
“Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58,” said the staff memo from news director Jessie Garcia that was obtained by the Journal Sentinel. “A search for a replacement is underway.”
Conservative radio had reacted to Instagram posts by Kuffel and had lost their minds over them, once again acting like the whole thing didn’t look like what it looked like. And I will stipulate that the posts by Kuffel weren’t nice. One called Musk a “Nazi” and a “bitch” by way of an Always Sunny In Philadelphia meme. Another accused him via a meme of doing a Nazi salute and saying she would have nothing to do with any fans of his. Those aren’t particularly nice.
But so what?
They are the kind of free speech Musk and his fans have claimed to support. So why are some of them trying to drum up consequences for Kuffel? And if Musk really wants to behave as a free speech advocate, why isn’t he himself attempting to step in and say that the firing of Kuffel over this speech is wrong? Surely that is what a true advocate of free and unfettered speech would do.
And why the hell does a news station in Milwaukee of all places want to build a reputation for self-censorship like this? Milwaukee isn’t exactly deep Trump country or anything like that, so what exactly is WDJT-TV so deathly afraid of that it too can’t be bothered to stand up for the speech rights of its own staff members? And why should the staff members that are still employed by the station not think that their own ability to speak freely hasn’t been curtailed by the station’s own cowardice?
Another walking contradiction: a news channel that will only allow for certain reactions and interpretations of the news. Sounds mostly worthless to me.
Filed Under: free speech, nazi salute, sam kuffel
Companies: cbs58, wdjt-tv, x
Comments on “Milwaukee Meteorologist Fired One Day After Criticizing Elon Musk’s Nazi-ish Salute”
Literally in the name – W (for east of the Mississippi River) Donald J. Trump TV! It shows you that news station’s loyalties. I think that’s a nice coincidence considering Elon’s involvement in the Trump administration.
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It’s almost cute what a little tryhard you are.
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Those call letters have been in place ever since the station first went on the air, back in the late ’80s. They reference the station’s original permit holders, who headed what was known as TV 58 Limited.
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And 58 in “Channel 58” is the same as Trump’s IQ.
But as you’ve stated, it’s coincidence, not causality.
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Is there a name for numerology crackpots, but who use letters?
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I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume that the original comment was meant a a joke….
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Poe’s Law is still a thing.
Other Meteorologist jobs going offline
Kuffel may have gotten the axe due to Fear Of Musk, but other Meteorologists are being “made redundant” through a deal between Allen Media Group and The Weather Channel.
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Allen’s company actually has owned TWC for several years, so this is unfortunately not surprising.
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Thankfully, the initial blowback has resulted in this…
https://thedesk.net/2025/01/allen-media-pauses-weather-channel-regional-hub
I hate that Elon Musk’s fans are using his autism diagnosis to excuse his behavior. I’m on the autism spectrum. Like Musk, I have autism 1 (formerly Asperger’s syndrome), and like Musk, I struggle with the non verbal, implicit communication primates use to learn complex social behavior. My issues are thus: autism or not, Musk is keenly aware of the political climate. There is no way he did not or could not understand that such a gesture would be extremely controversial. Second, plenty of smart autistic people have self stimulatory behaviors that can involve movements and gestures ( I point at things with my whole hand with my ring finger bent), and if Musk’s stimming truly looks like Nazi salutes (🙄), it’s on him to explain that or change the way it appears. Autism should definitely be a mitigating factor when it comes to consequences, but having autism isn’t an excuse to act like a jackass or to make people uncomfortable. The world needs to be accepting of autistic people, but autistic people (ESPECIALLY those of us w/o intellectual disabilities) also need to be good citizens, and understand that the rights to community life come with responsibilities to others… except if they’re billionaires, I guess.
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I imagine that the average person would immediately try to explain footage of them that looks like them doing a Nazi salute as “I wasn’t trying to do a Nazi salute” and/or distance themselves from Nazism and fascism. That Elon Musk hasn’t done either of those things says a lot about him…and none of it is good.
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He might be able to explain away doing it once, but he turned right around to those who didn’t see it clearly and did it again. So no, I’m sticking with him knowing exactly what he was doing. He probably thinks it was a grand troll but when you also own a veritable Nazi bar, express support for far-right German politicians, and actual Nazis are publicly thrilled with what you did, you don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.
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I agree, hence the eye roll emoji.
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Conservatives have intentionally desensitized themselves to accusations of fascism. “You say everyone who disagrees with you is a Nazi!” It allows them to engage in fascism and just gaslight others when accused. They try to make words meaningless, like trying the reverse uno, “actually, anti-fascists are the real fascists!” Musk swims in that culture daily.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/8/8/1786532/-Cartoon-You-made-me-become-a-Nazi
Re: Re: Re: 'It's YOUR fault I put on these robes and pointed hood!'
US conservatives/republicans really are the most pathetic and disgusting sorts of people, not only terrible in their character but cowards about it to boot, always acting as though everything is anyone and everyone’s fault but theirs.
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My take is that he was drunk. Of course that’s no excuse.
My other take is that he is dumb. Well, that’s not an excuse either.
And being both is a condition. Still not an excuse.
So yes, I’m clueless.
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My understanding is that Hitler also walked upright. Musk also walks on two feet
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Isn’t that a self-diagnosis?
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Apparently so. And although the vast majority of self-diagnoses are genuine and come about only because of the difficulties in getting an official diagnosis, it seems that Musk gave himself an unofficial label of Asperger’s syndrome (after the term was stricken from the DSM) just to excuse all of his “atypical” behavior that is really the result of his antisocial attitudes. I say this as someone who got an official label of Level 2 autism despite lacking a bank account with a tenth as much in it as Musk’s.
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I didn’t realize it was a self diagnosis. I do understand why many people self diagnose. There are a lot of financial barriers to getting diagnosed with Autism, especially for adults, but those barriers don’t really matter to him so no excuses there. I also am a little biased towards self diagnosis (I’m working on changing some thinking around it) because I’ve met so many people self diagnosing with conditions like autism and Tourette’s who would literally be “firsts” in medical literature. One self diagnosed woman claimed to have lost her ability to speak in adulthood due to autism. That has never happened as far as the research goes. She was pretty well known, too.
One great example is the discourse that has surrounded a gesture Elon recently made, which allies are referring to as an “odd gesture”, and critics refer to as “holy shit, did he just do a Nazi salute?” Below is footage of what occurred.
Meanwhile in less public spaces, Elon’s fans and conservatives are saying, “Oh hell yeah he just did! Nice!”.
“…one of the symptoms includes trouble properly using non-verbal communication.”
He has trouble with verbal, as well. As in, he opens his mouth, vomits and expects everyone to believe he’s highly intelligent.
'Ignore what your eyes see', straight out of 1984
Welp, chalk up another ‘news’ outlet that cannot be trusted to accurately and honestly report on the news I guess…
Having seen a side-by-side comparison between a nazi salute done by people who were absolutely nazi’s and proud to wear the label and what Elon did… it was a gorram nazi salute and he knew it, and if that wasn’t enough the fact that he did it twice removes all possibility of doubt.
The only people who are pretending he didn’t do a nazi salute(twice) during his speech are the dishonest trying to gaslight people and the gutless cowards who refuse to say anything mean about someone that rich.
SLAPPed into Submission
My hypothesis is that WDJT was afraid Musk would file a SLAPP suit unless they signaled to him that they didn’t endorse Kuffel’s statements. We’ve already seen through the Media Matters case that there’s at least one judge who’s willing to aid Musk in his efforts to silence his critics. Even if Media Matters wins their case, Musk has demonstrated his willingness to SLAPP his critics, which makes the mere threat of a suit enough to intimidate outlets into silence–and even complicity.
I don’t think the news station was afraid of Musk’s (supposed) wrath. I think they’re just doing what every employer in America does: If your employee’s social media goes viral in a way that someone won’t like, you’re gone. Whether the criticism is justified or not is immaterial. The business doesn’t want to give anyone a reason to hate them, even irrationally, because that’s not how you make money (a concept particularly alien to Mr. Musk, perhaps that’s why none of his companies make any money).
it's not a nazi salute
it’s 2 nazi salutes back to back.
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FAFO.
Milwaukee County is deep blue, sure; Harris won it by 38 points. But Trump won every other county in the station’s viewing area, by a margin of anywhere from 6 points to 36 points.
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Great point.
These coastal and urban elites have the mistaken notion that normal Americans think like them!
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Bitch you live in a major city.
Don’t play.
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So you admit you’re incapable of basic math. Typical Republican.
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80% of the population lives in urban areas. You’re just demonstrating your mistaken notion that you know what a “normal” American is.
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Read again: AC called out urban elites, not urbanites. Meaning they made no attempt to call out urban non-elites unless you squint exceedingly hard.
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That’s correct. I appreciate your noting this explicitly for some of the more deranged readers here. Thank you.
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Yes yes you agree with yourself.
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Yes, yes. you go on confusing different ACs. Hypocritical troll.
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No, he’s right. I did agree with myself. Why do you think I’m not the same person?
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Read again: AC called out urban elites and I’m suggesting that it’s a useless term akin to Herman calling people he doesn’t like “degenerates.” The so-called urban elites are just people in urban areas, indistinguishable from 80% of the population. Likewise useless is their term “normal Americans.” That just means “people I think are like me.”
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TIL: An urban elite is an ordinary city dweller, not an elite who lives in the city. Elite-defending troll.
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Yes, that is actually the case. The term “urban elite” is functionally meaningless. It’s a conservative boogeyman like DEI, woke, CRT, etc. Things attributed to “urban elites” like education or progressive ideology are common among a lot of people who aren’t elite. You’re just engaging in your two minutes hate. It only serves a purpose to keep you sycophantic and disengaged from reality. You might as well rant about lizard people or transdimensional brain-eating squirrels.
But, I’m completely open to being enlightened. Feel free to provide a useful definition of “urban elites” that allows us to actually identify real people to whom the term can apply.
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Well, thanks for the inaccurate info, Winston.
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Oh, I love the irony of making a 1984 reference when you’re the one trying to use vague to control people’s perceptions. Enjoy your two minutes hate raging at fictional villains like Emmanuel Goldstein.
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Oh, I love the irony of attacking someone for making a 1984 reference in response to making such a reference oneself. As AC said, you’re trolling. Shame you suck so hard at it.
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There’s no irony here. It was intentional criticism for a stupid comment.
I first made reference to the two minutes hate because they’re just brainwashed and frothing at the targets they’ve been manipulated into hating.
Then they made a vague reference that wasn’t even really a response because it didn’t contain anything substantial except a link referencing a character in a book I already referenced.
Then I mused about how ironic it was that they made the reference because they’re the ones for whom such a reference actually works. You can’t sincerely pretend the comment equivalent of “I know you are but what am I” is a legitimate response.
Then you apparently didn’t understand any of this and also commented below indicating that you think a fascist billionaire president is included among the “urban elites” who conservative pundits decry as progressives, liberals, and leftists.
I don’t usually recommend this, but you should probably copy and paste the conversations you don’t understand into an AI chatbot and ask it to explain what people are saying before you respond. It would make for far fewer nonsense posts from you.
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Because Trump, Musk, and Zuckerberg don’t have addresses in cities? Because I think they do.
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What are you talking about? Trump, Musk, and Zuckerberg aren’t referred to as urban elites. Apparently you aren’t familiar with who is using the term and how they’re using it.
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If lifting your hand over your shoulder is a nazi salute then it’s a nazi salute. But do is pretty much every salute in the last century including every American officer ever saluted.
the first salute was a rough American salute. Go watch some old John Wayne movies for similar salutes.
The second was probably intended to be a cheer or fist bump, but autism…
One of the more amusing memes I have seen had Obama, Captain Kirk, Kamala and Ms Clinton all making similar gestures.
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There’s crystal clear video of Macron making a similar salute on stage!
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Shhh hunty the adults are talking.
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Bruh.
Next time get Elmo’s check before you bury your tongue in his asshole.
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Ugh, NO.
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TIL: This salute is indistinguishable from an arm raised into the air.
There’s only Four times a Nazi salute is acceptable.
One: You’re an actor in a WW2 movie, History Channel tv special from the 00-10’s, or other form of “facist alt history type, ie Man in the High Castle.”
Two: You’re currently in a full body cast, and your arms are fused in that position.
Three: The year is sometime in the 1940s, in Germany.
Four: You are ~5’9-6’2, and you’re trying to put your hand on Shaqs shoulder.
Alternate 4: You’re trying to catch a cab in NYC but you have a shoulder injury so you cant lift your arm above the 130 degree angle.
Alternate 4b: You’re playing frisbee golf
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Again with the hypocrisy on consequences
Does speech have consequences, or not? If, as Techdirt editorials and associated comments suggest, the answer is “consequences” then this action should be supported by Techdirt and its “+1” army.
Of course, extremists aren’t known for having principles guide them so I suppose hypocrisy is merely par for the course.
Now perhaps the principle has been misunderstood somehow. It could be that “speech has consequences” applies only to political opponents and/or to speech that the listener dislikes. Which of course would be evil of an authoritarian nature, but extremists are happy with that as well.
Quite the conundrum.
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The article isn’t about the consequences of free speech.
It’s about Musk and other right-wingers being hypocrites when they act like it should be possible to say whatever they want with no consequences, but then not lambasting a company firing someone for voicing an opinion.
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Of course it does, but you and your idiot crew have been telling us for years that such consequences are “censorship” (it’s not) or “cancel culture” (it’s not) while insisting anyone should be able to say anything.
So forgive me for calling you a fucking hypocrite.
No one’s saying that the company can’t fire her. It’s their right. But we can call out how pathetic and weak it is to cave in to a bunch of hypocritic fuckheads like yourself.
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Yes, it does…
…but if the same woman had been fired for saying something similar about Joe Biden while he was president, people like you would be hailing the move as “censorship” or somesuch. You see her fired for daring to criticize an ally of a politician you favor and you act like we should be thrilled instead of horrified.
Her firing is an omen of what is to come. We all saw how mainstream media outlets bent the knee for Trump before he was elected. Things will only get worse from here for anyone in any kind of position of power or influence who dares to criticize him now. I mean, a preacher asked Trump to be compassionate and merciful towards immigrants and LGBTQ people, and right-wing pundits and politicians alike decried her plea as an “attack” and an “ambush” on Trump. Compassion and mercy are considered net negatives to the Trump administration, which aims to dismantle any- and everything that helps people. (See also: the right-wing opposition to the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.)
Donald Trump will take from this country everything that makes it a good place to live. This story proves that the process has already begun. What must he take from you to make you accept the truth?
As soon as I saw the nazi salutes I knew we were in for an obnoxious bunch of half-assed lies defending it to liberals and reporters who are then too afraid or credulous to call his shit and say it was a fucking nazi salute.
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Careful. You’ll offend people pointing out liberal spinelessness.
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The only people offended by that would be spineless liberals.
He's not a Nazi
He’s a Limp Nazi.
He tried multiple times but couldn’t get it up properly.
The hand was willing but the shoulder was weak.
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Chin and mouth muscles are extremely weak too.
Apart from the fact that it was to the side rather than straight out in front, I should cocoa.
I know the discussion in this article is not the gesture itself but the whole very disturbing reactions to people voicing their disgust with it and with the generally very disgusting figure of Elon Musk but I think it’s time people started calling apples by what they are, apples. Whenever their apple-y things are involved.
The entire US govt is being run by nazis. It’s plain simple. Elon has been showing he loves nazis and bigoted morons for a while now, because he is one. You don’t embrace ideas you don’t agree with even if you don’t declare yourself a member of the group that advocate for those ideas. Heck, the orange orangutan in the presidency is even reenacting the ministry of propaganda just like the 3rd reich did.
The US is Germany ~1930 to 1945~. The signs are there for many years now. Except there isn’t the URSS to stop it.
Good article, but the title is misspelled. It’s “Meteorologist.”
I’m on the spectrum. You know what I’ve never done? That ^!
I can sort of see what he’s trying to do. He’s saying “my heart goes out to you” and he’s trying to mime grabbing his heart and throwing it to them. But Jesus, he does it so awkwardly. And, regardless of his intent, the optics of a very right-wing person giving his support to another right-wing person, at a “rally” of all places, making this gesture is only ever going to interpreted one way.
I’m not sure if he’s publicly acknowledged it or spoken about it. But it might have all gone away (or at least been minimised) if he’d immediately come out and said “I didn’t mean it to look like that. I promise I wasn’t trying to do a naxi salute. But I acknowledge how it looked and I can see why people might think that I did. I’m genuinely sorry about that, but, as I said, it’s not a reflection of my politics and views”. Or something like that. But, to my knowledge, he hasn’t done that.
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That’s the explanation his allies and supporters have been going with (in public), but it would be more believable if he hadn’t done it twice. He did it like that on purpose for reasons known only to him.
If he wanted to look like he was throwing his heart out to the audience, he could’ve had his hand palm-up when it came off his chest or used both hands to mimic throwing his heart to a wide audience. He also could’ve held his hands to his heart, then brought them up to his face so he could “kiss” his palms before “tossing his heart” (while keeping his hands palm-up, natch). That he didn’t do anything like that—that he intentionally made that specific motion and put his hand up in that specific position twice—tells me he knew exactly what he was doing. Anyone who blames what he did on autism or whatever combination of drugs he was on in that moment isn’t worth taking seriously.
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The problem is that regardless of what he says, he’s just run fuck out of plausible deniability.
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He’s saying “my heart goes out to you” and he’s trying to mime grabbing his heart and throwing it to them.
Strange how it matches exactly to the nazi salute then, you know, those people he loves to have on his platform and who are all thrilled because they sure as hell agree that it’s a nazi salute…
It wasn’t a “Nazi-ish salute!” It was just an “awkward gesture.” Totally a coincidence https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-musk-twitter-reinstates-neo-nazi-andrew-anglin-account-1234640390/
Republicans are a bunch of crybabies. They spent years insulting the left progressives for any slight demanding free speech be the norm but the second they get pushback the conservatives revealed they’re no better than their enemies.
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We have an excellent model of that exact attitude here on Techdirt.
If that were true, you wouldn’t still be here constantly gurgling out fashy bullshit.