Upper Echelon Gamers: The Meltdown of Gab - Hypocrisy Overload (youtu.be/0JrPLl7yhFM): Otter Voice Meeting Notes

Upper Echelon Gamers: The Meltdown of Gab - Hypocrisy Overload (youtu.be/0JrPLl7yhFM)

Josh Jordan12min

Upper Echelon Gamers

00:07

For anyone truly familiar with the channel, it will be fairly obvious by now that I take a somewhat hard-line position in favor of free speech or freedom of expression. This ideology often leads to a necessary and combative stance when faced with various left-wing political claims that aim to censor or stamp out specific areas of public discourse. Most notably, this usually applies to the concept of harmful speech or harmful opinions.

Upper Echelon Gamers

00:30

A great example would be the 60 minutes segment from CBS that I recently covered. The premise was that harmful speech or hateful content are allowed to exist on YouTube instead of being struck down by default in all circumstances. To further complicate such a position, it was also self-acknowledged by the CBS interviewer that hateful or harmful content is in the eye of the beholder, that is to say, it is completely subjective.

Upper Echelon Gamers

00:53

So a hard-line stance against all hateful or harmful content with the goal of deplatforming those who participate means a perpetually shifting goalpost that totally abandons the concept of free speech. Well, this is not an uncommon perspective, many people agree with the concept of protected speech even when that speech is subjectively hurtful. And to be very clear, I do not advocate in any capacity that anyone ever participate in hateful verbal conduct. But the fundamental necessity is that an unflinching line be drawn where free speech and expression are protected, because the moment it becomes free speech, except x or y or z, it is an open acknowledgment that the concept is gone. And now, anything subjectively deemed by an authoritarian state to be hateful or harmful can be reclassified, prosecuted, or suppressed.

Upper Echelon Gamers

01:39

In light of this profound ideological divide, certain platforms and brands have emerged which aim to appeal to and capitalize on a demographic that supports the concept of free speech. One such platform is Gab.

Upper Echelon Gamers

01:51

Gab, for those that don't know, is a social media platform alternative to sites like Twitter or Facebook. On the very homepage, it is explained as, "A social network that champions free speech, individual liberty and the free flow of information online. All are welcome." However, recent events have begun to call this claim into question. And today, I want to analyze what I can only describe as a total identity meltdown for Gab as a platform.

Upper Echelon Gamers

02:14

Here is where I need to clarify a few things. Number one, free speech advocacy is often equated to prejudice itself by those that argue in bad faith. The sad truth is that anyone who advocates for the equal protection of all speech, literally conforming to the amendments set forth in the United States by our Founding Fathers, is often perceived as an ally to hateful groups. This is decidedly not true. Advocacy for the protection of free speech and expression extends, assuming it is, of course, genuine advocacy based on a set of actual beliefs, even to the speech we fundamentally disagree with on a personal level.

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