The Michael Knowles Show - Steven Crowder ｜ Suspension and The FIGHT for Freedom of Speech

00:00:00.000 I would introduce Steven as the host of Ladder with Crowder. I think I now need to

00:00:05.180 introduce him as the former host of Ladder with Crowder. Really, I should introduce him

00:00:09.080 as the former man who is the former host of Ladder with Crowder because he's being completely

00:00:14.520 unpersoned by YouTube, by Twitter. We bring on now, to help us understand all of this,

00:00:21.380 Steven Crowder and half-Asian lawyer Bill Richmond. That is the official title. I don't

00:00:26.040 want to be kicked off for saying that myself. Bill, that is your official title, correct?

00:00:29.880 That is for now, but I am going to just switch to full-Asian just to make sure I stay fully 1.00

00:00:34.380 uncancellable in the future. Well, be careful because then a knockout game might be coming

00:00:39.900 your way. Thanks for introducing me, referring to me as a loser. Thanks for that long setup. 0.97

00:00:46.600 Thank you. I appreciate it. You're the one. You're the one. You're the one. You're the one.

00:00:48.840 Ethnic, perfect-teethed fop. Thank you. That's true, Dwight. By the way, am I going to get a pass? 1.00

00:00:56.020 The Sicilians are one of the most persecuted people in the history of the world. In this new

00:01:00.860 racial caste system that's being created by the intersectional left, do I get a pass? 0.78

00:01:06.140 I don't know because you guys have been trying to distance yourself from the Moors and the black 1.00

00:01:10.600 history. I saw True Romance. You guys have a thing about that. The Sicilians are not necessarily

00:01:14.780 super open-armed and loving. No, look, I still am the host. And by the way, people can follow me on

00:01:20.940 Crudder Bits on YouTube. And we're always available on Mug Club, on The Blaze, the premium content

00:01:25.540 there. But yeah, it's, as people may or may not know, it's the Adpocalypse 2 is the hashtag right

00:01:32.600 now. Yeah, it was hardstruck for something that was not in violation of any rules. It's very clear

00:01:39.000 right now for people who haven't been following this, the episode in question. Well, two, one was we

00:01:43.160 did 15 Days to Flatten the Curve, an anniversary, a one-year anniversary for 15 Days to Flatten the Curve.

00:01:47.300 I believe I was on that episode, actually. That's right. You were on that episode. All of the

00:01:52.380 sources are available at loudearthcredit.com. Most of them are the World Health Organization,

00:01:56.340 the CDC, and the Imperial College of London, by the way. We use their mortality rates. We use their

00:02:00.800 infection rates. And they said, you can't talk about this. So that was removed, but it wasn't

00:02:05.440 considered a heart strike. So it's very clear that you simply cannot be conservative and discuss COVID.

00:02:09.720 We know exactly why they're coming after you, because you had the temerity to question the

00:02:15.400 election. And because you, you, a comedian made offensive jokes that offended the sensibilities

00:02:21.180 of some people. Okay, fine. Let's say, let's say that, that YouTube hates everything you have to

00:02:26.680 say about the election. And let's say they hate your jokes too. Fine by me. Surely YouTube disagrees

00:02:33.180 with a lot of what people say on their platform. Surely YouTube finds a lot of things distasteful on

00:02:38.120 their platform. Surely YouTube knows what you've said and thought before. Why is this happening now?

00:02:44.540 I mean, it just seems so arbitrary. It seems so capricious. And are you hearing anything from

00:02:49.140 them about how, when you're going to get, get your channel restored?

00:02:52.620 So to jump onto that, let me, let me talk about both of them. So first of all, we had Twitter.

00:02:56.400 This is where he doesn't want me to talk and get us in trouble.

00:02:59.800 Over the last five weeks, five, almost six weeks now, we've had four different instances where

00:03:04.040 Twitter has sent a form email that says, here's the reason why you're off. And it's a specifically

00:03:09.920 colon blank. And they send the form without actually saying what the post is that was a

00:03:16.560 violation, much less what the reason is, even though their own public statements, both to

00:03:20.860 Congress, both in their guidelines have said over and over, we're going to tell you what

00:03:24.860 the reasons are. Now let's fast forward to the YouTube example. Cause remember we're now

00:03:28.560 under currently a seven day ban on Twitter from being able to say anything from being able

00:03:33.260 to shed any light on what YouTube is doing right now. The ability to be able to do that

00:03:37.940 is highly limited, except for friends like you who are allowing us to be able to come

00:03:41.320 out and talk about this right now. So the reason that's my word, not Steven's word.

00:03:47.380 So when we look at what they've given us today, all they have simply said is here's the video.

00:03:52.360 That's a problem. They don't say what specifically about the video is a problem, much less to

00:03:56.480 the acknowledge that we had a video immediately before and an immediate video immediately after

00:04:00.960 that dealt with the same issues. And in every single instance, making sure to the detail

00:04:06.240 that we were bringing clear evidence that was still within the policy. And this is the part

00:04:11.060 that's perhaps the most sinister about it. It's not a policy that says you need to come

00:04:15.960 with proof. If you're going to say something controversial, it's you're not even allowed

00:04:20.100 to say the controversial thing. So we made sure to stay back. You're not allowed to provide

00:04:24.800 proof, right? Our greatest in here was providing proof. This is something that's really sinister

00:04:29.480 that Bill left out was banned from suspended from Twitter. Okay. For whatever it was, how many days

00:04:35.940 I came back? I posted one tweet between the previous suspension and the new suspension.

00:04:42.540 Yeah. The only tweet that I posted was Twitter test. Twitter has stated in front of Congress that

00:04:48.740 they are transparent and tell people what violations have occurred so that they can rectify it. And I posted

00:04:54.920 a screenshot that said you have violated blank. So Twitter then suspended me for pointing out that

00:05:00.500 Twitter is suspending without reason. So it's not just on YouTube. You cannot be conservative,

00:05:04.500 have a conservative opinion on these issues. You can't have a conservative opinion on transitioning 0.97

00:05:07.800 children. You cannot have a conservative opinion on election laws. You cannot have a conservative

00:05:12.760 opinion that values liberty over safety of a virus with a 99.9% death rate. You cannot have those

00:05:19.380 opinions. But now on Twitter, you are not allowed to criticize Twitter. Yeah. Well, that's the key.

00:05:26.340 That's the key to it, right? Because I think if for people who are listening, let's say they're

00:05:31.160 more moderate. Let's say they're not quite as conservative as we are. They're slightly to the

00:05:35.820 left of Genghis Khan or something like that. Surely you can see the double standard, right? Stephen Crowder

00:05:42.300 raises questions about the 2020 election. Boom, he's off. He's got to go. Stacey Abrams and Hillary

00:05:49.940 Clinton and on and on and on and on raise questions about all sorts of elections. Stacey Abrams, to my

00:05:56.080 mind, still hasn't conceded the 2018 gubernatorial election. That's totally fine. Not only do those

00:06:00.920 figures get to stay on, but all their supporters who raise these kinds of questions. Nor has Al Gore.

00:06:05.240 Nor has Al Gore, for that matter. So obviously there's a double standard there. You made a joke

00:06:11.240 that the left finds racially offensive about black people. Robin DiAngelo goes on videos and says,

00:06:19.220 be less white. And then a whole lot of commentators upload videos saying, yeah, you should be less white. 0.56

00:06:23.720 Yeah, we should abolish whiteness. Yeah, whiteness is toxic. Those videos all get to stay up, but you make 0.99

00:06:29.220 a joke that they find racially offensive in the other direction. So for sure, there's an insane double

00:06:34.700 standard here. But then you, I think you highlight the real point here, which is these entities,

00:06:41.420 YouTube and Twitter are going to protect themselves. They're going to do whatever they

00:06:46.380 want. And if you call them out on that, they're going to shut you up too. And it might not even

00:06:50.340 be a political question. It's just about them keeping their power. And let me be clear too.

00:06:55.540 I want to be really clear for people listening. I didn't even question the election. I said, we have

00:06:59.720 a broken voting system that allows people to vote from non-existent addresses without ID.

00:07:04.980 Here's proof of these addresses. So I want to be really clear. That's well within their rules.

00:07:09.160 I didn't say the election is, and I don't know, are they going to go back and cover our,

00:07:13.580 remove our election stream live? I think the reason too, that there's a target. Look,

00:07:18.240 if I were CNN, if I were NBC, the last one was NBC, NBC, Vox, is that NBC Universal? NBC Universal.

00:07:26.420 This one, we know that there's been some pressure from, take your pick. It could be Turner.

00:07:30.040 It could be, could be ABC Disney. Look, if we were covering, for example, today, the Chauvin trial,

00:07:36.400 or as was happening yesterday, and I'm CNN, or I'm Brian Stelter, I'm Anderson Cooper, I'm Brian

00:07:39.840 Williams. And I go, hey, how are we doing? And I see that this little show, you know, that started

00:07:43.840 out of a den is getting octuple the viewership. I'd want, I'd probably want to shut them down too,

00:07:49.620 if I had no confidence in my abilities and understood that, you know, I was a shoe in based

00:07:53.480 on nepotism. So I think that's a component to it. Right now we're kind of, you know, we have a target

00:07:57.960 because we're bigger than these other entities and they want to get their foothold, right?

00:08:02.520 They want to get their claws into new media.

00:08:04.020 I love this angle because so often what the left does is they'll distract you. So let's

00:08:08.740 say, look over here, look over here. And then meanwhile, they're totally upending our culture,

00:08:13.720 you know, somewhere else where you're not paying attention. And so we're all focused on the

00:08:16.900 political component. Obviously that's playing a huge role here. You disagree with the politics

00:08:21.500 of a lot of people at these companies, but there is also a, a raw business media component,

00:08:27.380 which is they are the establishment media. They are supposed to control the narrative and big tech

00:08:34.440 plays a huge role in that now too, because the minute you had social media, all of a sudden

00:08:38.720 conservatives start doing really, really well. We blast past the gatekeepers. We start getting our

00:08:43.640 ideas out there. Well, that, that is hugely, as you point out, that's hugely embarrassing for CNN

00:08:48.720 that Steven Crowder with his, with his cameras and his YouTube channel is doing better than they are.

00:08:54.340 So I do see this angle of corporate media just coming in and snuffing out the little guy.

00:09:00.000 And, and one of the, one of the most sinister from a legal side standpoint, I know we use that word

00:09:04.620 sinister a lot, but it's very true is think about from an ant, at a very basic antitrust level,

00:09:10.300 which is what you're seeing. Good, uh, Google, Facebook, other lawsuits that are going on right now

00:09:14.320 is you have media companies like NBC universal, Disney, other big companies who are Viacom who

00:09:21.200 are telling another media company, YouTube and Twitter to then go silence a competitor,

00:09:27.040 third media company that's taking eyeballs and ears. And all of that is being allowed to happen

00:09:32.500 right now in this nation while other things are happening. But here's the other part about it is

00:09:36.900 where you're really not just silencing a voice. You're silencing counter ideas. You talked about

00:09:42.340 fans of yours or audience members who were maybe in the middle or even on the left.

00:09:46.460 This is a problem for anyone who's ever had a contrarian view with a government or an

00:09:51.360 administration. If you've ever held an idea that would be critical, if for example, you don't like

00:09:56.940 kids in cages with, with Joe Biden, I'm sorry, uh, minimum, you know, security prison with Joe Biden.

00:10:02.980 I don't know what the phrase is supposed to call space camp. There we go. Border space camp.

00:10:06.680 If you don't like anything about that, the power has been given to the tech companies to be able to

00:10:12.760 say whenever they want, we're not going to just limit what you're saying. We're going to limit the

00:10:17.980 idea of, we're going to limit the marketplace of ideas so that there isn't even that consideration

00:10:22.800 any longer. I want to speak gentlemen, not, not just about what's going on here, because obviously I

00:10:29.260 think we all know intuitively what's going on, but the big tech companies are stonewalling you.

00:10:32.640 I want to talk about what to do now, because for a long time in the conservative movement or

00:10:40.020 libertarians, there has been this idea that government bad corporations good. So we got to

00:10:46.060 stop the government from infringing on our rights and our free speech tradition, but you know,

00:10:49.920 corporations, man, they're great. Oh yeah. They're a private company. Start your own YouTube,

00:10:53.720 start your own Twitter. And that seems to me to be a bunch of bunk right now. So what's the plan?

00:10:58.580 How are you going to fight back? Well, first off, let me address that. And then, and then,

00:11:01.820 uh, half Asian bill can get to the plan. Look, you have to throw that completely out the window 1.00

00:11:05.740 when you have section two 30 and you have hundreds of millions of dollars going directly to the DNC

00:11:09.700 from five companies that are more powerful than any empire that's ever existed, right? Amazon,

00:11:13.820 Apple, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. So that's now changed because they lobby and they spend

00:11:19.480 fortunes to ensure that they get favorable policy from those in government. And by the way,

00:11:25.420 not just Democrats, a lot of Republicans too, they want a grandstand at one of these hearings and

00:11:28.660 then, all right, that, that, that makes lunch. So, um, it's very, very different now at this

00:11:33.360 point for the same reason that, you know, Verizon can't ban you. If you say something that's offensive

00:11:37.100 across your phone, they're treated like public utilities. So it doesn't apply here. It's not

00:11:42.220 the same as a mom and pop store. Mom and pop stores don't control the flow of information

00:11:46.260 through getting their feet in the door with the government through lobbying. And they don't enjoy

00:11:51.340 the same protections, the safe Harbor that these companies do with section two 30,

00:11:55.000 they need to decide, are they a publisher like the New York times, like Washington post,

00:11:59.060 in which case they have the right to remove opinions, uh, such as, such as my, which by the

00:12:04.080 way, aren't even a strong PG 13 to be clear, right? Keep this in line with what could be broadcast on

00:12:09.100 television. It's offensive to people who don't have a sense of humor, but it's not certainly not

00:12:13.100 vulgar, certainly not an R rating. Um, if they want to do that fine, then that means they're liable

00:12:17.160 for what's on their platform. But right now they're not. And that's under the guise of,

00:12:20.420 they don't censor content. They don't have any control or editorial guidelines.

00:12:25.160 And that's, that's not accurate. So people need to understand that. And, uh, the libertarians need

00:12:30.720 to, to understand that their argument, you know, it's just, it doesn't apply. It's just like,

00:12:34.900 let's, it's just like saying that if you legalize black tar heroin, the drug cartels will go out of

00:12:39.020 business. They're going to straighten up and fly. Right. By the way, we're also going to ban

00:12:42.320 guns. So yeah, no, the black market will go away. It's, it's silly. It's, it's fairy tales.

00:12:47.300 Right. And actually you, you bring up a good point here that I, I do want people to realize,

00:12:51.380 you know, I spend a lot of time reading the fringe of the radical left and the fringe of

00:12:57.260 the radical right. You know, I'm, I'm constantly in these recesses of the internet and literature.

00:13:01.480 You are basically as mainstream as it gets. It is, it is not like you are some fringe figure here

00:13:09.600 out here on the right.

00:13:10.520 You're talking about a guy who rose to fame by writing about the fact that I, my wife and I

00:13:14.420 did not have sex until we were married because of my faith. Okay. That was considered more offensive

00:13:19.380 than a lot of, so let's just be clear about that. What do I believe in? I believe in the first

00:13:23.200 amendment, the second amendment. I'm a, I'm a Christian. I'm a family man. And I believe that

00:13:27.300 people should be able to speak freely, even if it's offensive. I believe in lower taxes and I

00:13:31.400 believe in a strong national defense. I couldn't be more, you know, basic B conservatism since this

00:13:36.180 is on terrestrial radio. This is the shot over the bow. If YouTube says that I cannot go to physical

00:13:43.000 addresses that don't exist and show that I'm, they are saying to everyone out there, people need to

00:13:47.380 understand this. If you're a conservative, your view is not welcome and they should have to deal with

00:13:53.000 that financially. Then they should have to state it publicly rather than doing it in the shadows.

00:13:57.300 So from a legal perspective, Michael, what really it gave me summed up is this. We're pro-business,

00:14:02.100 but anti-fraud. These tech companies have, without a question, created a machine that mines data from

00:14:07.900 their customers to be able to better sell ads. And that's what Facebook has said in Congress. That's

00:14:12.300 what they say in their 10 Ks when they're publishing for their shareholders. That's how this entire

00:14:16.860 business is run. Well, how do they do that? They need content creators like Steven to be able to

00:14:21.220 generate a reason why people will come to the site, how to bring 5.4 million subscribers to

00:14:26.760 YouTube, or a million plus subscribers on followers on Twitter. So you get all of these

00:14:31.940 people in, you say, thank you for bringing them in. Now let me redirect them to where the ads want

00:14:36.980 to go. These media companies, these NBC universals, the Disney's, the Viacom's, et cetera. Oh, well,

00:14:41.640 we're actually not going to show your content anymore. We're not going to any longer show the

00:14:46.120 things that would allow you to make money. And that's where the fraud part comes in. Consumers are

00:14:50.540 told these platforms are evenly enforced and here are the guidelines. They are very clear,

00:14:55.720 but in reality, they're not following the guidelines. It's like going into a store and

00:14:59.920 being told, yeah, you can come into the store. Yes, you can spend money. And after you spend the

00:15:03.600 money, they go, oh, actually the rules say you can't have the product you just paid for.

00:15:07.220 That's what these folks don't realize is happening on a daily basis. It's a consumer crisis that is

00:15:12.760 really, even though largely aimed at conservatives, because they're the ones who are creating the content,

00:15:17.180 driving the people in. And then all of a sudden those content creators aren't there anymore.

00:15:21.200 The content itself isn't there anymore. These businesses have the right to be able to set the

00:15:26.280 rules, but what they don't have a right to do is deceive the public into giving their data,

00:15:30.880 into being the product for these companies and allowing them to make their billions of dollars

00:15:36.480 a quarter or a day or a week, and then take away the content on the rules that were stated.

00:15:42.900 And can I add one more point to this? Listen, because he's making the legal argument there,

00:15:46.440 and I think it's important. I think they need to be hit where it hurts as far as, you know,

00:15:48.820 financially. But let's be clear when people, a lot of people out there say, well, if you don't

00:15:52.600 like it, go to a different platform. They have the right, you know, if it's offensive, you shouldn't

00:15:55.480 have offensive content on their platform. Let me put this into perspective here, okay? An entire episode

00:16:00.640 of ours was removed, of mine was removed, where the most offensive thing that I said was the Imperial

00:16:07.100 College of London said 2.4 million people would be dead. There would be a 3% mortality rate.

00:16:11.080 And it turns out that the actual mortality rate is significantly closer to the normal flu for

00:16:17.300 young, healthy people than 3%. That's scientifically undeniable, right? That is removed. Lil Nas being

00:16:24.200 sodomized by Satan is kid-friendly. Now, to be clear, I'm not offended by Lil Nas being sodomized by 0.68

00:16:31.760 Satan and selling shoes. No, I don't love it. But my point is, I certainly don't think that should be

00:16:37.340 child-friendly. Ours is removed, and that's available for eight-year-olds. So this is what

00:16:42.760 happens, too. This is the attempt to, when we're talking about sort of Orwellian, the attempt to

00:16:46.600 mold people's point of view. You go to YouTube to, let's say, learn how to fix a carburetor or maybe

00:16:52.720 learn how to do, you know, do something with an AR-15 build at home, right? This is something that's

00:16:57.460 legal. And instead, you find yourself guided to advertisements for a medical virtue of visit

00:17:02.980 with hormone blockers for your six-year-old. This is trying to guide perspectives and ban

00:17:08.220 perspectives. And they are banning traditionalist, conservative, uh, Christian perspectives in favor

00:17:14.200 of, uh, you know, sodomy with Satan, which listen, creative license. But what do you really feel? I 0.93

00:17:20.260 mean, what's the, no, you've identified the stakes so well here because I just think for such a long

00:17:25.240 time, we were so blinded by the idea that this battle over PC and wokeness or whatever is purely about

00:17:31.900 free speech versus censorship. When really, as you described very well, it's a battle between

00:17:38.120 competing sets of standards. So Steven Crowder reads some statistics. That is, that is offensive.

00:17:44.420 You can't do that. But twerking in, in, uh, Satan's face, if you're little Nass, little Nass X, 0.58

00:17:51.640 uh, totally, totally fine. Uh, we, we've got to leave it there, gentlemen. You can still find

00:17:56.600 Steven Crowder at Crowder bits on YouTube. They can't find you on Twitter though, right?

00:18:01.920 Not right now for, I don't know how long that remains to be seen either, but also,

00:18:05.640 you know, they can always join a mug club, lightwithcrowder.com slash mug club. We have

00:18:08.480 a promo code fight like hell and people get $20 off. So that's the best place for people to support

00:18:13.100 us. That's the, probably the safest spot right now until some web servers or something try to kick 0.95

00:18:17.540 you off. Uh, that is where you can find them. That is where you should find them. Go find Steven

00:18:21.500 Crowder over at mug club, go find the formerly half Asian lawyer bill, uh, now the fully Asian lawyer bill. 0.97

00:18:28.740 I think, by the way, guys, if this culture keeps up, you will need to become the 150% 1.00

00:18:33.600 Asian lawyer bill just to protect against the new, the new, uh, racial caste system. Gentlemen, 0.71

00:18:38.520 uh, really glad you're fighting back on this and I encourage everybody to go, uh,

00:18:42.980 go support that fight.

00:18:44.000 Go support that fight.

The Michael Knowles Show - April 03, 2021

Steven Crowder ｜ Suspension and The FIGHT for Freedom of Speech

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