Steven Crowder ｜ Suspension and The FIGHT for Freedom of Speech
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Summary
Steven Crowder and Bill Richmond join Jemele to discuss the recent YouTube ban of the former host of Ladder with Crowder, who is being completely unpersoned by YouTube, and why they think it's a good idea to ban him.
Transcript
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I would introduce Steven as the host of Ladder with Crowder. I think I now need to
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introduce him as the former host of Ladder with Crowder. Really, I should introduce him
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as the former man who is the former host of Ladder with Crowder because he's being completely
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unpersoned by YouTube, by Twitter. We bring on now, to help us understand all of this,
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Steven Crowder and half-Asian lawyer Bill Richmond. That is the official title. I don't
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want to be kicked off for saying that myself. Bill, that is your official title, correct?
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That is for now, but I am going to just switch to full-Asian just to make sure I stay fully
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uncancellable in the future. Well, be careful because then a knockout game might be coming
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your way. Thanks for introducing me, referring to me as a loser. Thanks for that long setup.
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Thank you. I appreciate it. You're the one. You're the one. You're the one. You're the one.
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Ethnic, perfect-teethed fop. Thank you. That's true, Dwight. By the way, am I going to get a pass?
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The Sicilians are one of the most persecuted people in the history of the world. In this new
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racial caste system that's being created by the intersectional left, do I get a pass?
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I don't know because you guys have been trying to distance yourself from the Moors and the black
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history. I saw True Romance. You guys have a thing about that. The Sicilians are not necessarily
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super open-armed and loving. No, look, I still am the host. And by the way, people can follow me on
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Crudder Bits on YouTube. And we're always available on Mug Club, on The Blaze, the premium content
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there. But yeah, it's, as people may or may not know, it's the Adpocalypse 2 is the hashtag right
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now. Yeah, it was hardstruck for something that was not in violation of any rules. It's very clear
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right now for people who haven't been following this, the episode in question. Well, two, one was we
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did 15 Days to Flatten the Curve, an anniversary, a one-year anniversary for 15 Days to Flatten the Curve.
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I believe I was on that episode, actually. That's right. You were on that episode. All of the
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sources are available at loudearthcredit.com. Most of them are the World Health Organization,
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the CDC, and the Imperial College of London, by the way. We use their mortality rates. We use their
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infection rates. And they said, you can't talk about this. So that was removed, but it wasn't
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considered a heart strike. So it's very clear that you simply cannot be conservative and discuss COVID.
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We know exactly why they're coming after you, because you had the temerity to question the
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election. And because you, you, a comedian made offensive jokes that offended the sensibilities
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of some people. Okay, fine. Let's say, let's say that, that YouTube hates everything you have to
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say about the election. And let's say they hate your jokes too. Fine by me. Surely YouTube disagrees
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with a lot of what people say on their platform. Surely YouTube finds a lot of things distasteful on
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their platform. Surely YouTube knows what you've said and thought before. Why is this happening now?
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I mean, it just seems so arbitrary. It seems so capricious. And are you hearing anything from
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them about how, when you're going to get, get your channel restored?
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So to jump onto that, let me, let me talk about both of them. So first of all, we had Twitter.
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This is where he doesn't want me to talk and get us in trouble.
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Over the last five weeks, five, almost six weeks now, we've had four different instances where
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Twitter has sent a form email that says, here's the reason why you're off. And it's a specifically
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colon blank. And they send the form without actually saying what the post is that was a
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violation, much less what the reason is, even though their own public statements, both to
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Congress, both in their guidelines have said over and over, we're going to tell you what
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the reasons are. Now let's fast forward to the YouTube example. Cause remember we're now
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under currently a seven day ban on Twitter from being able to say anything from being able
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to shed any light on what YouTube is doing right now. The ability to be able to do that
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is highly limited, except for friends like you who are allowing us to be able to come
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out and talk about this right now. So the reason that's my word, not Steven's word.
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So when we look at what they've given us today, all they have simply said is here's the video.
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That's a problem. They don't say what specifically about the video is a problem, much less to
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the acknowledge that we had a video immediately before and an immediate video immediately after
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that dealt with the same issues. And in every single instance, making sure to the detail
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that we were bringing clear evidence that was still within the policy. And this is the part
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that's perhaps the most sinister about it. It's not a policy that says you need to come
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with proof. If you're going to say something controversial, it's you're not even allowed
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to say the controversial thing. So we made sure to stay back. You're not allowed to provide
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proof, right? Our greatest in here was providing proof. This is something that's really sinister
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that Bill left out was banned from suspended from Twitter. Okay. For whatever it was, how many days
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I came back? I posted one tweet between the previous suspension and the new suspension.
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Yeah. The only tweet that I posted was Twitter test. Twitter has stated in front of Congress that
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they are transparent and tell people what violations have occurred so that they can rectify it. And I posted
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a screenshot that said you have violated blank. So Twitter then suspended me for pointing out that
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Twitter is suspending without reason. So it's not just on YouTube. You cannot be conservative,
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have a conservative opinion on these issues. You can't have a conservative opinion on transitioning
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children. You cannot have a conservative opinion on election laws. You cannot have a conservative
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opinion that values liberty over safety of a virus with a 99.9% death rate. You cannot have those
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opinions. But now on Twitter, you are not allowed to criticize Twitter. Yeah. Well, that's the key.
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That's the key to it, right? Because I think if for people who are listening, let's say they're
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more moderate. Let's say they're not quite as conservative as we are. They're slightly to the
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left of Genghis Khan or something like that. Surely you can see the double standard, right? Stephen Crowder
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raises questions about the 2020 election. Boom, he's off. He's got to go. Stacey Abrams and Hillary
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Clinton and on and on and on and on raise questions about all sorts of elections. Stacey Abrams, to my
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mind, still hasn't conceded the 2018 gubernatorial election. That's totally fine. Not only do those
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figures get to stay on, but all their supporters who raise these kinds of questions. Nor has Al Gore.
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Nor has Al Gore, for that matter. So obviously there's a double standard there. You made a joke
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that the left finds racially offensive about black people. Robin DiAngelo goes on videos and says,
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be less white. And then a whole lot of commentators upload videos saying, yeah, you should be less white.
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Yeah, we should abolish whiteness. Yeah, whiteness is toxic. Those videos all get to stay up, but you make
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a joke that they find racially offensive in the other direction. So for sure, there's an insane double
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standard here. But then you, I think you highlight the real point here, which is these entities,
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YouTube and Twitter are going to protect themselves. They're going to do whatever they
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want. And if you call them out on that, they're going to shut you up too. And it might not even
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be a political question. It's just about them keeping their power. And let me be clear too.
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I want to be really clear for people listening. I didn't even question the election. I said, we have
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a broken voting system that allows people to vote from non-existent addresses without ID.
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Here's proof of these addresses. So I want to be really clear. That's well within their rules.
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I didn't say the election is, and I don't know, are they going to go back and cover our,
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remove our election stream live? I think the reason too, that there's a target. Look,
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if I were CNN, if I were NBC, the last one was NBC, NBC, Vox, is that NBC Universal? NBC Universal.
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This one, we know that there's been some pressure from, take your pick. It could be Turner.
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It could be, could be ABC Disney. Look, if we were covering, for example, today, the Chauvin trial,
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or as was happening yesterday, and I'm CNN, or I'm Brian Stelter, I'm Anderson Cooper, I'm Brian
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Williams. And I go, hey, how are we doing? And I see that this little show, you know, that started
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out of a den is getting octuple the viewership. I'd want, I'd probably want to shut them down too,
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if I had no confidence in my abilities and understood that, you know, I was a shoe in based
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on nepotism. So I think that's a component to it. Right now we're kind of, you know, we have a target
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because we're bigger than these other entities and they want to get their foothold, right?
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I love this angle because so often what the left does is they'll distract you. So let's
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say, look over here, look over here. And then meanwhile, they're totally upending our culture,
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you know, somewhere else where you're not paying attention. And so we're all focused on the
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political component. Obviously that's playing a huge role here. You disagree with the politics
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of a lot of people at these companies, but there is also a, a raw business media component,
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which is they are the establishment media. They are supposed to control the narrative and big tech
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plays a huge role in that now too, because the minute you had social media, all of a sudden
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conservatives start doing really, really well. We blast past the gatekeepers. We start getting our
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ideas out there. Well, that, that is hugely, as you point out, that's hugely embarrassing for CNN
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that Steven Crowder with his, with his cameras and his YouTube channel is doing better than they are.
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So I do see this angle of corporate media just coming in and snuffing out the little guy.
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And, and one of the, one of the most sinister from a legal side standpoint, I know we use that word
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sinister a lot, but it's very true is think about from an ant, at a very basic antitrust level,
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which is what you're seeing. Good, uh, Google, Facebook, other lawsuits that are going on right now
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is you have media companies like NBC universal, Disney, other big companies who are Viacom who
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are telling another media company, YouTube and Twitter to then go silence a competitor,
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third media company that's taking eyeballs and ears. And all of that is being allowed to happen
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right now in this nation while other things are happening. But here's the other part about it is
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where you're really not just silencing a voice. You're silencing counter ideas. You talked about
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fans of yours or audience members who were maybe in the middle or even on the left.
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This is a problem for anyone who's ever had a contrarian view with a government or an
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administration. If you've ever held an idea that would be critical, if for example, you don't like
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kids in cages with, with Joe Biden, I'm sorry, uh, minimum, you know, security prison with Joe Biden.
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I don't know what the phrase is supposed to call space camp. There we go. Border space camp.
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If you don't like anything about that, the power has been given to the tech companies to be able to
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say whenever they want, we're not going to just limit what you're saying. We're going to limit the
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idea of, we're going to limit the marketplace of ideas so that there isn't even that consideration
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any longer. I want to speak gentlemen, not, not just about what's going on here, because obviously I
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think we all know intuitively what's going on, but the big tech companies are stonewalling you.
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I want to talk about what to do now, because for a long time in the conservative movement or
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libertarians, there has been this idea that government bad corporations good. So we got to
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stop the government from infringing on our rights and our free speech tradition, but you know,
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corporations, man, they're great. Oh yeah. They're a private company. Start your own YouTube,
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start your own Twitter. And that seems to me to be a bunch of bunk right now. So what's the plan?
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How are you going to fight back? Well, first off, let me address that. And then, and then,
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uh, half Asian bill can get to the plan. Look, you have to throw that completely out the window
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when you have section two 30 and you have hundreds of millions of dollars going directly to the DNC
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from five companies that are more powerful than any empire that's ever existed, right? Amazon,
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Apple, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. So that's now changed because they lobby and they spend
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fortunes to ensure that they get favorable policy from those in government. And by the way,
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not just Democrats, a lot of Republicans too, they want a grandstand at one of these hearings and
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then, all right, that, that, that makes lunch. So, um, it's very, very different now at this
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point for the same reason that, you know, Verizon can't ban you. If you say something that's offensive
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across your phone, they're treated like public utilities. So it doesn't apply here. It's not
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the same as a mom and pop store. Mom and pop stores don't control the flow of information
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through getting their feet in the door with the government through lobbying. And they don't enjoy
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the same protections, the safe Harbor that these companies do with section two 30,
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they need to decide, are they a publisher like the New York times, like Washington post,
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in which case they have the right to remove opinions, uh, such as, such as my, which by the
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way, aren't even a strong PG 13 to be clear, right? Keep this in line with what could be broadcast on
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television. It's offensive to people who don't have a sense of humor, but it's not certainly not
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vulgar, certainly not an R rating. Um, if they want to do that fine, then that means they're liable
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for what's on their platform. But right now they're not. And that's under the guise of,
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they don't censor content. They don't have any control or editorial guidelines.
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And that's, that's not accurate. So people need to understand that. And, uh, the libertarians need
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to, to understand that their argument, you know, it's just, it doesn't apply. It's just like,
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let's, it's just like saying that if you legalize black tar heroin, the drug cartels will go out of
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business. They're going to straighten up and fly. Right. By the way, we're also going to ban
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guns. So yeah, no, the black market will go away. It's, it's silly. It's, it's fairy tales.
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Right. And actually you, you bring up a good point here that I, I do want people to realize,
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you know, I spend a lot of time reading the fringe of the radical left and the fringe of
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the radical right. You know, I'm, I'm constantly in these recesses of the internet and literature.
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You are basically as mainstream as it gets. It is, it is not like you are some fringe figure here
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You're talking about a guy who rose to fame by writing about the fact that I, my wife and I
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did not have sex until we were married because of my faith. Okay. That was considered more offensive
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than a lot of, so let's just be clear about that. What do I believe in? I believe in the first
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amendment, the second amendment. I'm a, I'm a Christian. I'm a family man. And I believe that
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people should be able to speak freely, even if it's offensive. I believe in lower taxes and I
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believe in a strong national defense. I couldn't be more, you know, basic B conservatism since this
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is on terrestrial radio. This is the shot over the bow. If YouTube says that I cannot go to physical
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addresses that don't exist and show that I'm, they are saying to everyone out there, people need to
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understand this. If you're a conservative, your view is not welcome and they should have to deal with
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that financially. Then they should have to state it publicly rather than doing it in the shadows.
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So from a legal perspective, Michael, what really it gave me summed up is this. We're pro-business,
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but anti-fraud. These tech companies have, without a question, created a machine that mines data from
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their customers to be able to better sell ads. And that's what Facebook has said in Congress. That's
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what they say in their 10 Ks when they're publishing for their shareholders. That's how this entire
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business is run. Well, how do they do that? They need content creators like Steven to be able to
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generate a reason why people will come to the site, how to bring 5.4 million subscribers to
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YouTube, or a million plus subscribers on followers on Twitter. So you get all of these
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people in, you say, thank you for bringing them in. Now let me redirect them to where the ads want
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to go. These media companies, these NBC universals, the Disney's, the Viacom's, et cetera. Oh, well,
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we're actually not going to show your content anymore. We're not going to any longer show the
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things that would allow you to make money. And that's where the fraud part comes in. Consumers are
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told these platforms are evenly enforced and here are the guidelines. They are very clear,
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but in reality, they're not following the guidelines. It's like going into a store and
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being told, yeah, you can come into the store. Yes, you can spend money. And after you spend the
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money, they go, oh, actually the rules say you can't have the product you just paid for.
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That's what these folks don't realize is happening on a daily basis. It's a consumer crisis that is
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really, even though largely aimed at conservatives, because they're the ones who are creating the content,
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driving the people in. And then all of a sudden those content creators aren't there anymore.
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The content itself isn't there anymore. These businesses have the right to be able to set the
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rules, but what they don't have a right to do is deceive the public into giving their data,
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into being the product for these companies and allowing them to make their billions of dollars
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a quarter or a day or a week, and then take away the content on the rules that were stated.
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And can I add one more point to this? Listen, because he's making the legal argument there,
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and I think it's important. I think they need to be hit where it hurts as far as, you know,
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financially. But let's be clear when people, a lot of people out there say, well, if you don't
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like it, go to a different platform. They have the right, you know, if it's offensive, you shouldn't
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have offensive content on their platform. Let me put this into perspective here, okay? An entire episode
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of ours was removed, of mine was removed, where the most offensive thing that I said was the Imperial
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College of London said 2.4 million people would be dead. There would be a 3% mortality rate.
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And it turns out that the actual mortality rate is significantly closer to the normal flu for
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young, healthy people than 3%. That's scientifically undeniable, right? That is removed. Lil Nas being
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sodomized by Satan is kid-friendly. Now, to be clear, I'm not offended by Lil Nas being sodomized by
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Satan and selling shoes. No, I don't love it. But my point is, I certainly don't think that should be
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child-friendly. Ours is removed, and that's available for eight-year-olds. So this is what
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happens, too. This is the attempt to, when we're talking about sort of Orwellian, the attempt to
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mold people's point of view. You go to YouTube to, let's say, learn how to fix a carburetor or maybe
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learn how to do, you know, do something with an AR-15 build at home, right? This is something that's
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legal. And instead, you find yourself guided to advertisements for a medical virtue of visit
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with hormone blockers for your six-year-old. This is trying to guide perspectives and ban
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perspectives. And they are banning traditionalist, conservative, uh, Christian perspectives in favor
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of, uh, you know, sodomy with Satan, which listen, creative license. But what do you really feel? I
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mean, what's the, no, you've identified the stakes so well here because I just think for such a long
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time, we were so blinded by the idea that this battle over PC and wokeness or whatever is purely about
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free speech versus censorship. When really, as you described very well, it's a battle between
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competing sets of standards. So Steven Crowder reads some statistics. That is, that is offensive.
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You can't do that. But twerking in, in, uh, Satan's face, if you're little Nass, little Nass X,
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uh, totally, totally fine. Uh, we, we've got to leave it there, gentlemen. You can still find
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Steven Crowder at Crowder bits on YouTube. They can't find you on Twitter though, right?
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Not right now for, I don't know how long that remains to be seen either, but also,
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you know, they can always join a mug club, lightwithcrowder.com slash mug club. We have
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a promo code fight like hell and people get $20 off. So that's the best place for people to support
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us. That's the, probably the safest spot right now until some web servers or something try to kick
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you off. Uh, that is where you can find them. That is where you should find them. Go find Steven
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Crowder over at mug club, go find the formerly half Asian lawyer bill, uh, now the fully Asian lawyer bill.
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I think, by the way, guys, if this culture keeps up, you will need to become the 150%
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Asian lawyer bill just to protect against the new, the new, uh, racial caste system. Gentlemen,
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uh, really glad you're fighting back on this and I encourage everybody to go, uh,