By Dustin Rowles | News | January 22, 2025 |
We are a couple of days into the new administration, and while there have been a number of alarming decisions, there’s been little pushback, even from leaders on the left. Is AOC the only politician willing to call out Elon Musk?
AOC: I don’t care what Elon Musk is doing behind the presidential seal, but in this country we hate Nazis. Kind of like a foundational defining thing. Two of the foundational things about American history is that we beat the confederates and we beat the Nazis.
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 21, 2025 at 10:17 PM
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The President has already held a press conference, but with all those reporters present, an Episcopal Bishop is the only one who has directly challenged this administration. Thank God for Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.
The sheer contempt these people have for a Bishop telling them to have compassion for LGBTQ children and immigrants.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) January 21, 2025 at 3:32 PM
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(Andrew noted that, although you only see it once here, Vance glanced at his wife twice with a “Can you believe this lady?” look, and she refused to acknowledge him).
Meanwhile, while other major social platforms—X, Facebook/Instagram, TikTok—are aligning with the new administration, at least Reddit is calling out Elon Musk’s clear Nazi salute. I told a reader yesterday that quitting platforms feels like a second job (we ultimately left Facebook/Meta—follow us on Bluesky!). At least Reddit isn’t OK with Nazis.
Using the picture below, most Reddit communities mobilized over the last 24 hours to ban X/Twitter links from the site.
A comprehensive list of subreddits banning X can be found here: shorturl.at/KQPPo
— Bluesky Wins (@blueskywins.bsky.social) January 22, 2025 at 8:28 AM
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Hundreds of Reddit mods—including those running some of the most popular and apolitical subreddits—are deciding to cut ties with X. Some are even distancing themselves from Meta content.
I’ll also note that while the First Amendment doesn’t apply to any of these platforms, Mark Zuckerberg has said he wants Facebook to embrace a “free speech ethos.” I, too, believe in the “free speech ethos,” but let’s not forget that refusing to associate with bad actors is also an exercise of free speech—just like shutting up, not clicking, and walking away are their own forms of freedom of expression.