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Bravo Scott -- your efforts are timely and invaluable in struggle for civil liberties in US.

Your protest and appeal to Elon Musk should be circulated far and widely.

Once again -- thank you for your efforts !!

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i was banned for frightening the biden clones.....

'that man in the white house is going to get us all killed'

'nuke'em til they glow'

i am a retired cold warrior that is how we talked in sac working half a mile from the alert facility!

the neocon colony in kiev is a cancer on the world.

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I like Elon ... however, I also very much like Scott Ritter - and if it came down to a choice between the two, Scott Ritter wins hands down, because he has integrity flowing from every pore, even in the face of extremes of adversity.

However, that said, I find it hard to accept that Elon is an all-over bad-guy (or lacks integrity), and from my perspective at least, it looks to me that Elon Musk is very much not in as free a position as it may appear - he has businesses which the USA could take from him with prejudice, including his own freedom, as easily as he decided to buy twitter.

Scott Ritter stood up, and continues to stand up against the wrongs and evils he perceives, and like Elon (who also seems to have a strong moral streak), has given the World cause to pay attention, and maybe even hope for a better future.

I see that both have tried very hard to contribute to the World around them with their respective skills, and both are subject to pushback for their efforts from powerful adversaries - and this is my main point - it does not look to me that Elon Musk has a freer hand to promote free-speach than Scott Ritter.

Both risk the ire of the USA and allies, but both have come from different backgrounds - Scott Ritter can more easily (patriotically) reprimand his country than can Elon, principally because Scott is a Marine (once a marine ... etc.,) and also, has already experienced corrupt blow-back for his honourable and valuable service, and put through the mill (which still turns) for speaking truth to power, whereas Elon is relatively-speaking, new to this, and has the added burden that his businesses could be ruined if he doesn't tow-the-line.

Arguably, Elon has more to loose in terms of the fall-out of loosing his businesses (and the resultant job losses, and economic damage), but also, because he is relatively new (even wet behind the ears compared to Scott's military experience) in dealing with corrupted national and international officials, 3-letter agencies, and fake-news Media.

I think Elon Musk is trying to do the right thing, and finding his hands are just as tied as others behind the scenes. I think, but may be wrong, that Elon's decision to help Ukraine with Starlink was forced upon him, or if it wasn't, he really is not the genius he is made out to be.

I think he is being forced to do things which keep Uncle Sam happy, whilst trying to find a way to have his businesses prosper - I think his heart is in the right place, but that there are very powerful people, who are doing their best to curtail his efforts, and even trying to make Elon their 'pet-billionaire'.

That may seem like a blind, childish, assesment, but I really don't think Elon got to where he is today, soley on his 'genius' and hard work, he must have had to make compromises with powerful people/entities in order to have been allowed to make what he has made in the first place, and then he got caught up in their agendas - i.e. Ukraine Special Military Operation happened, and he was forced to take sides, where I do not think he really wanted to.

All that said - maybe I am hoping that this is the case. I could be wrong, I could be very, very wrong, and I hope I am not.

We'll all see what transpires, maybe Twitter will be saved, and we will get a great platform, but I can't see how Elon can leverage complete free speach on Twitter, when there are so many powerfull autocrats who adamantly want to censor other's freedoms.

I do wonder however, if Roscosmos had not been as quick to insult and ridicule Elon when he first approached them for help with his rocketry program (behaving in this instance, just like many in the West - with arrogance and lack of foresight), how things would be today - I think Russia could today have been mutually benefitting from Elon's businesses - Starlink, Falcon Heavy, Starship, Tesla and more - and principally - Elon would not have made the mistake of taking sides with Ukraine (which I strongly suspect he was strong-armed into).

Thank you for an excellent article Scott, it's good to have my perceptions challenged by you.

@Elon Musk - what Scott says - do better (still love you both however).

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Elon is too busy this weekend Scotty. Instead of addressing some first amendment of us grunts, he is busy celebrating "helloween" in Romania in Draculas castle with Sergey Brynn and the rest of the silica valley gang....

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Elon ain't just twatter .

I call him feral.musket.

He is starlink to support nUkraine

.

But Russia will take good care of that, feral

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Scott, you were too early---should have waited a until the 'committee' met.

I know.I know.

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What you were expecting? New management and all what was said and done before by Twitter censorship team forgiven?

It is delusional because hundreds of Twitter employees - including hundreds of retired FBI and CIA agents - would be legally admitting they were deliberately acting against the American constitution which provides full support for freedom of speech. As a matter of fact, a historical one, George W Bush burned the bridge and all possible ways to pursue the truth about 9/11 with his famous saying "There is no going back from what we did and what we are doing". $50 grands as compensation for all families who lost relatives in the World Trade Center with strings attached - no one can make a legal claim about that anymore, for good. Same happened in 2008, Syria chemical attacks where Americans where involved with the logistics to plant the seeds of lies. Same in the Euro maidan. Same in the pandemic. Same now and forever.

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Excellent explanation. Keep up the good work!

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Musk won't free the bird because Twitter is already being threatened by its many advertisers and that would cut into the revenue of the place so don't count on anything happening. The left will continue to do what they always have done, quash freedom of thought freedom of speech. It is my opinion at this time that musk spent $45 billion dollars of US hard-earned money for nothing because it's he refuses to open it up and the people that were on it before the man that he keep it that way. I will tell you Scott you might as well just go over to GAB deal with the nut job Nazis that are there as I and so many others do just ignore him or block their content personally as for me I got thicker skin than that and I can engage them and do so when I feel the need to get a point across.

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All very beautiful and as I almost always agree with everything in Scott's text. The problem is that I was also blocked, suspended or kicked out for good, I can't say precisely because I'm not a social media expert, except that I stopped being able to access Scott's telegram chat on the same day Scott came back to twitter and was suspended again . And before anyone thinks I usually go around breaking rules, let me explain: just because I made a comment on the post where Scott announces his return to twitter - which I went to check - condemning Scott's sordid smear campaign that was already running on twitter . Where I also condemned the smear campaign. Even pointing out the traps that were also made to Assange to exemplify how criminal states silence the truth and its messengers. And I said a warm welcome to Scott. In the telegram, I also wrote that I had 120% confidence in Scott's integrity and thanked Scott for all his work in analyzing what is happening in Ukraine and the world today.

After a few seconds, I was also blocked from Scott's telegram chat. An account where, despite respecting any decision made by its administration, it is as public as twitter. Even if some authors do not always have this perception. And I also want to add that I'm not 15 and I've never had idols. That I did what I did in the exercise of a right and a duty of citizenship that I never fail to exercise - sweeping up the trash! For me and above all to condemn all those who attacked Scott's truth. I think for other dimensions of life Scott has friends and family! Besides me, on the other side of the world, who's never met Scott in person. But I didn't stop being very unhappy with the expulsion from the chat. I imagine like Scott from twitter. What I started thinking was a mistake that, however, was never undone. And even if I'm not in the habit of going back to the places where I get kicked out, I'd love to leave with my reputacion as regular as when I walked in. Because like I said, I don't usually break rules I've accepted. Even though I didn't subscribe because it's another thing that pisses me off in today's world. Spend your life signing everything! And I like being free so much. Cordially.

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Mr. Ritter,

Please consider the situation as you have considered logistics in warfare.

It has been 5 days since Musk assumed control of Twitter - why would executing major policy changes at a 7500 employee corporation be substantively different than executing changes in a 7500 person military formation?

First amendment, yes but bots and spam are a real problem at Twitter too.

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Mr. Ritter, you have sung full-throated praises for your 4 selected moderators at Telegram.

Ironic. 

Because for no good reason that I can think of, I have been blocked on your Telegram channel, not only from posting chats, but even from reading them!

So I am here and I am not blocked. Yet.

So let me say this in all honesty:

there is something wrong with people that want to moderate and control the speech of other people. I would be very suspicious of anybody who had any enthusiasm for this sort of job or showed great interest in such a task.

Years ago, I was very interested in the Kobe Bryant case. I took the victim’s side because she was telling the truth but she was being horribly slandered

There was a message board at KateFaber.com that was totally unmoderated. Anybody could say anything, for as often and as long as they wanted to say it. Yet all of us agreed that that was the best message board that existed, or any that have since existed.

.

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I wrote a comment a few minutes ago and it suddenly disappeared when I was rereading it! Perhaps I made a mistake and deleted it. So let me try to say it again:

Mr. Ritter, you have sung full-throated praise for your 4 moderators at Telegram.

Ironic.

Because for no good reason that I can think of, I have been blocked from not only posting to your Telegram chat board, but even from reading it!

So now I am here and I have not been blocked. Yet.

So let me say this while I can:

I would be very suspicious of anyone who volunteered (or was paid) to ‘moderate’ the speech of other people. It is my opinion that there is something wrong with people like this, people that show an interest in doing such tasks, and an enthusiasm for doing them.



Years ago, I was very interested in the Kobe Bryant case and followed it closely. I took the victim’s side because she was telling the truth, and yet was being horribly slandered and lied about.

There was a message board at www.KateFaber.com that was completely unmoderated. Anyone could say whatever they wanted to say for as long as they wanted to say it.

Yet surprisingly, we all agreed that that was the best message board of them all, or of any that came along afterwards.

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This is going to be interesting. Any bets that there is already huge pressure from government officials on Musk about keeping this moderation more or less like it was?

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