This document is part of an archive of postings on Tongue Tied, a blog hosted by Blogspot who are in turn owned by Google. The index to the archive is available here or here. Indexes to my other blogs can be located here or here. Archives do accompany my original postings but, given the animus towards conservative writing on Google and other internet institutions, their permanence is uncertain. These alternative archives help ensure a more permanent record of what I have written.
This is a backup copy of the original blog. See here for backups of my other blogs
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" -- 1st amendment
October 31, 2023
Yale campus newspaper censors pro-Israel writer’s column on Hamas beheading men, raping women
Yale’s campus newspaper is being criticized for censoring a pro-Israel columnist by removing what it called “unsubstantiated claims that Hamas raped women and beheaded men.”
The Yale Daily News last week cut out the reference from an Oct. 12 column by sophomore Sahar Tartak titled “Is Yalies4Palestine a hate group?”
“I’m still collecting my thoughts on the YDN’s egregious correction,” Tartak, editor in chief of rival campus newspaper Yale Free Press, wrote on her X social media account on Monday.
She reposted a comment by a Yale professor, Nicholas Christakis, who asked: “Are the hostage-taking, murder of children in their beds, burning of people alive, and parading of nude captive women in the street also ‘unsubstantiated’?”
Tartak, from Great Neck, LI, penned the column five days after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre that slaughtered more than 1,400 Israelis.
Scores of those who were killed had been taking part in a music festival a few miles from the Israel-Gaza border fence when Hamas terrorists invaded the area using hang-gliders and pickup trucks.
Tartak condemned Yalies4Palestine, a student group which posted messages on Instagram blaming Israel for the atrocities.
In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas assault, Yalies4Palestine posted an item on its official Instagram page which held “the Israeli Zionist regime responsible for the unfolding violence.”
Another social media post by Yalies4Palestine called on “the Yale community to celebrate the resistance’s success,” according to Tartak.
The group went on to express “full support of the Palestinian people’s right to resist colonization and return to their land” while dismissing “nonviolent acts of resistance” as ineffective. “This language should terrify you,” Tartak wrote.
Israeli authorities have insisted they recovered the beheaded bodies of babies killed by Hamas gunmen who invaded towns along the frontier with the Gaza Strip. A handwritten note found on the body of a Hamas terrorist encouraged the jihadists to remove the heads, hearts and livers of their Israeli victims, Israel’s military said last week.
However, Hamas butchery has been met with skepticism and the Yale Daily News ran an editor’s on Oct. 25 saying Tartak’s column “has been edited to remove unsubstantiated claims that Hamas raped women and beheaded men.”
The controversy comes as Israel’s president revealed Monday that the German-Israeli tattoo artist who was paraded through the streets of Gaza after being kidnapped by Hamas has been found dead after “sadistic” terrorists “chopped off her head.”
I am truly sorry to report that we have now received news that Shani Nicole Louk has been confirmed murdered and dead,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told the German newspaper Bild.
“Her skull was found,” he said, with the 23-year-old victim’s family also confirming that the death was confirmed by DNA on parts of her skull.
“This means that these barbaric, sadistic animals simply chopped off her head as they attacked, tortured and killed Israelis.”
Israeli military personnel involved in search and rescue operations of victims told reporters that they recovered beheaded bodies of infants at Be’eri, a kibbutz not far from the border fence ringing the Gaza Strip.
Israeli military Col. Golan Vach told reporters over the weekend that he found the body of a mother who was protecting a baby. “When I pulled it over I saw a decapitated baby,” Vach told Agence France-Presse. “I took it up with my hands and I carried it, and I put it in the body bag. I personally did it.”
Just days after the assault, President Biden condemned the beheading of babies — only later to acknowledge that he had not seen photos that confirmed this indeed happened.
Hamas has denied the claims that it killed infants.
https://nypost.com/2023/10/30/media/yale-campus-newspaper-censors-pro-israel-writers-column-on-hamas-beheading-men-raping-women/
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October 30, 2023
As free speech issues rage on campuses, Rutgers’ president is joining the national movement to promote civil exchange
Free speech on college campuses has become an increasingly hot issue: Some argue that certain controversial speakers should not be permitted, while others assert the exchange of ideas, even the most vile, shouldn’t be barred.
Wading into the mix is Jonathan Holloway, the president of Rutgers University, who has joined a national movement of more than a dozen college presidents committed to champion free expression, civic preparedness and the civil exchange of ideas on campus.
For his part, Holloway is teaching a freshman seminar “Citizenship, Institutions, and the Public,” where he invites prominent government, business, media and political figures — including those he doesn’t necessarily agree with — for debate about the state of the nation. Among those he’s had so far are the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, a prominent Baptist pastor, a former Goldman Sachs executive and the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News.
He also made the issue a core message in his new student convocation address in August, encouraging everyone to learn to listen to one another.
“Everybody believes in free speech until they hear something they don’t like,” Holloway, 56, said during an interview this month in his New Brunswick campus office. “That’s the moment when you have to say if you really believe, then you have to deal with this ugly thing that you don’t like.”
Civil exchange is also integral to the college experience, he wrote in an essay with Roslyn Clark Artis, president of Benedict College, a historically black college in South Carolina.
“We have seen students drown out speakers with whom they disagree, faculty hold back from sharing viewpoints that might be deemed controversial, and politics influencing hiring decisions,” they wrote. “This resistance to people and positions that are different is antithetical to the exchange of ideas that should be core to the college experience.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/as-free-speech-issues-rage-on-campuses-rutgers-president-is-joining-the-national-movement-to-promote-civil-exchange/ar-AA1iSmNn
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29 October, 2023
California School Tries to Keep 11-Year-Old Jewish Victims Quiet With Gag Order
A California school district forced four Jewish students to remain silent after they became targets of antisemitic harassment and now is misusing a federal law to prevent anyone from holding administrators accountable.
The social media account Libs of TikTok posted a report Monday of a verbal attack on four 11-year-old Jewish students at a California middle school that resulted in the Jewish students being forced to sign a gag order to prevent them from sharing information on the incident.
The Libs of TikTok post states that the four Jewish students at Manhattan Beach Middle School in Manhattan Beach, California, were approached sometime after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of 1,400 civilians in Israel and told, among other disturbing comments, that “revenge is beautiful” and “all Israelis and Jews should be killed.”
Administrators of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District concluded that the comments made to the Jewish students were “political and not hate speech,” closing their investigation with what they described as “limited action.”
Administrators were not remotely clear in what they meant by this, or what exactly happened, including who did what.
The four students to whom the hateful remarks were directed reportedly were forced to sign a gag order preventing them from talking to anyone at the middle school or on social media about the abuse.
The California Anti-Defamation League, which in July presented the Manhattan Beach school district with a No Place for Hate award for “leading the charge against bias, bullying, and hatred,” issued a statement Monday night decrying the district’s egregious series of actions in this incident.
ADF called the actions of Manhattan Beach administrators “deeply hurtful” and a jeopardy to “the safety of the learning environment.”
My Heritage Foundation colleague Roman Jankowski asked the Manhattan Beach school district to turn over emails from Jennifer Huynh, the principal of Manhattan Beach Middle School, regarding the verbal attack on the four Jewish students.
In reply, the school district’s public information officer, Hibah Samad, emailed an elusive and obstructive statement to Jankowski informing him that the district wouldn’t release emails concerning the harassment of the students, details of the investigation, or what the investigation concluded.
The Manhattan Beach school district informed The Daily Signal that administrators were “aware of recent allegations” concerning the antisemitic harassment of the 11-year-olds.
School district administrators characterized the harassment as “inappropriate interactions between students at MBMS [Manhattan Beach Middle School] surrounding their views on current events in the Middle East.”
Administrators then stonewalled on releasing any other information by hiding behind the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/10/27/california-school-district-tries-to-hide-antisemitic-attack-on-11-year-old-students-by-citing-privacy-laws
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26 October, 2023
Cambridge University debate descends into farce after motion calling for solidarity with Palestine was stopped amid concerns it risked 'inciting violence'
A Cambridge University debate descended into farce after a motion calling for solidarity with Palestine was prematurely stopped amid concerns its proposer risked ‘inciting violence’.
The Students Union President, Fergus Kirman last night said he was ‘astonished and appalled’ by the motion and has completely edited the wording, following a mammoth backlash from Jewish students.
The motion, which was heard at the Cambridge Student Union on Monday, blamed the war between Israel and Hamas on ‘decades of violent oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state’.
It added: ‘The Student Union resolves itself [...] to condemn the British government’s support for the Israeli state and the distortions of the mainstream media in Britain in its coverage of this conflict.’
The motion concluded: ‘Only a mass uprising on both sides of the green line and across the Middle East can free the Palestinian people.’
When asked to define a ‘mass uprising’ by a student who attended the debate, proposer of the motion, Anais Austen Stanley said: ‘think back to the First Intifada’.
The First Intifada refers to a series of terror attacks in Israel which primarily targeted civilians and led to the murder of hundreds of Israelis.
Chair of the debate Benjamin Knight was forced to intervene and prevent Anais from answering the question further, over concerns that it would lead to ‘the incitement of violence’.
Interrupting Stanley he said: ‘This is getting close to a discussion on the incitement of violence and we would like to not cross that line.
‘We would like to not put any student member into a position where to answer a question they are going to have to incite violence.’
A statement published yesterday by the Union of Jewish students urged Cambridge Students Union to dismiss the motion and issue a public apology to Jewish students at Cambridge.
UJS has also called on the University of Cambridge to investigate Cambridge SU, the original motion and the speech given in favour of the motion.
Cambridge JSOC added: ‘For the Cambridge SU to consider debating a motion calling for a “mass uprising” is an absolute disgrace.
‘Jewish students in Cambridge deserve to learn in a safe and inclusive environment, without the murders of their relatives and friends being debated.’
Last night Israeli student Einav Grushk said: ‘Cambridge Student Union once again has shown blatant disregard for all Israeli and Jewish students.
Students were unable to vote on the motion at the meeting on Monday as not enough people attended to pass the threshold to validate the vote.
It is believed the amended version of the motion will be heard at the Cambridge Student Union again, in around two weeks time.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12667785/Cambridge-University-debate-descends-farce-motion-calling-solidarity-Palestine-stopped-amid-concerns-risked-inciting-violence.html
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October 24, 2023
Coca-Cola has quietly scrubbed references to Hamas-supporting BLM from its website
The Coca-Cola Company quietly removed references to its financial support for Black Lives Matter from its official website after the controversial group expressed support for Hamas terrorists who killed at least 1,400 Israeli soldiers and civilians earlier this month.
BLM’s Chicago chapter sparked outrage with a now-deleted post on X showing a photo of a paraglider with the text “I stand with Palestine.”
Hamas terrorists used paragliders to pour across the Israel-Gaza border and massacre scores of revelers at a trance music festival.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blasted Coca-Cola on his podcast last week, particularly after the soft drink giant touted its charitable donations to BLM on the company’s official website.
One of Coca-Cola’s brands, Sprite, gave half a million dollars to the Black Lives Matter Global Network as part of its “fight for racial justice.”
But the website apparently scrubbed reference to BLM after Cruz’s criticism.
The Texas senator posted screenshots on his X account showing the before and after images of the web page.
https://nypost.com/2023/10/23/business/coca-cola-quietly-removed-references-to-hamas-supporting-blm-from-website/
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23 October, 2023
Michigan State suspends employee for Hitler image on video board
I understand the sensitivities involved but I don't think it is ever right or wise to try to blot out history. The more we are exposed to history, the less likely we are to repeat its mistakes and follies
A Michigan State University employee has been suspended with pay after an image of Adolf Hitler appeared on the video board at Spartan Stadium before MSU faced Michigan on Saturday.
The image of Hitler and his birthplace of Austria were shown on the scoreboard as part of a pregame trivia quiz roughly 80 minutes before kickoff between the rival schools.
Images quickly went viral across social media.
In a statement released Sunday, Michigan State University athletic director Alan Haller said that the school was “responsible for all content shown on its video boards.”
“Before it was displayed, the video was not viewed in its entirety by anyone in athletics, exposing a failure in our process,” Haller said, per the Detroit Free Press. “The video was not part of a sponsorship and had no affiliation with any of our corporate partners or our community.
“An initial assessment was conducted, and an involved employee has been identified and suspended with pay pending the results of an investigation. The investigation will determine any future appropriate actions.”
The athletic director apologized for the school displaying the image prior to Saturday night’s game and “for the pain it has caused our community.”
In particular, Haller said, he understood the harm it caused to the Jewish community, “which is currently experiencing a rise in antisemitism, including acts of violence.”
The quiz shown prior to the game was streamed from a YouTube channel called “The Quiz Channel” and the specific image of Hitler came from a video titled “General Knowledge Trivia Quiz (Part 18).”
https://nypost.com/2023/10/22/michigan-state-suspends-employee-for-hitler-image-at-michigan-game/
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22 October, 2023
Changes made to NYC teachers’ ‘anti-Israel’ classroom guide — but ‘damage is done’
Some antisemitic resources provided to city public schools on how to address the Israel-Hamas war have been removed — but many remain, and critics worry the “damage” is already done.
The lengthy list of websites dumped on teachers last week to help them teach the Middle East conflict no longer includes the Arab-run Al Jazeera, which refers to Hamas terrorists as “fighters” and their acts of terror as “operations.”
It does, however, still include Amnesty International, a group represented at pro-Palestinian rallies.
“I fear the damage is done and that teachers have been teaching a biased perspective, many without even knowing that they are doing so. This will most likely leave students with a hateful view of Israel, allowing them to justify acts of terror,” said Karen Feldman, a New York City social studies teacher and Holocaust educator.
It also removed two New York Times articles, a timeline of the clashes between Palestine and Israel and “The Global Context of the Hamas-Israel War” — and one CBS article entitled “What is Hamas? What to know about the group attacking Israel.”
The city Department of Education sent teachers a lengthy list of websites with information for class discussion on the Israel-Hamas war — including some slammed as strongly biased against Israel.
The guide featured 35 links, including far-left and anti-Israel sources, but lacked straightforward guidance, teachers said, instead leaving them to parse through the texts on their own, The Post reported last week.
https://nypost.com/2023/10/21/minor-changes-made-to-anti-israel-guide-for-nyc-teachers/
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20 October, 2023
Australia: Councillor is banned from speaking to other staff after questioning council's 'woke' decision to fly the Pride flag
A councillor in Victoria has been banned from speaking to council staff after she objected to a 'woke' move to fly a gay Pride flag permanently at the council's offices.
Susan Bissinger, a councillor in Mornington Peninsula, has also been ordered to complete a personal development course by mayor Steve Holland.
Ms Bissinger, who was elected to the council in 2021, said she felt 'under siege' and that the speaking ban could mean she can't properly represent the community.
'I'm pretty tough, but this is overwhelming,' she told the Mornington Peninsula Leader.
The situation came about after an online exchange between Ms Bissinger, other councillors and staff about a plan to permanently fly the Pride flag at council offices.
The World Pride street rainbow that cost taxpayers $161,500
Ms Bissinger fears that permanently flying the flag - which represents lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender nonconforming people - would be 'divisive'.
She said in an email that Mornington Peninsula should not be following other 'woke' Melbourne councils in doing so.
This was said to be an example of Ms Bissinger's 'poor behaviour', during external mediation ordered by Mr Holland.
The council's chief executive John Baker also attended the mediation and gave Ms Bissinger a letter saying due to her 'current behaviour' she was not allowed to speak to council staff.
Quoting the Local Government Act, the letter told her only to speak with Mr Baker, the council's chief financial officer and three other department heads.
Ms Bissinger said the nature of the complaints haven't been properly explained to her and that the instructions would make it difficult for her to do work on projects such as a traffic management plan for the area.
In her council ward, she represents the residents of Portsea, Sorrento, Blairgowrie, Rye and Tootgarook.
Julie Collins, of the Sorrento Chamber of Commerce, said Ms Bissinger's situation 'wasn't ideal' but local businesses were told by Mr Baker that the speaking ban wouldn't affect their work with the council.
'We've been told we'll be able to contact the relevant council staff directly,' Ms Collins said.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12649317/Melbourne-Mornington-Peninsula-council-Pride-flag.html
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October 19, 2023
Major conservative site blocked
"Heartland" covers a lot of ground and has a lot of readers. It is a climate skeptic site, among other things. I log onto it often. But not today. When I logged on to
https://heartlanddailynews.com/
I got the message:
THIS WEBSITE HAS BEEN BLOCKED
We blocked this website because it may contain malicious content and could be harmful to your devices
It's utter nonsense of course. Heartland is just news and commentary. The blocking appears to have been done by Telstra, the major Australian internet host. So whether the site is blocked elsewhere I do not know.
The odd thing is that the parent site is still accessible:
https://heartland.org/
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October 18, 2023
NYC doctor fired over pro-Hamas post cheering Israelis getting a ‘taste of their own medicine’
A New York City emergency room doctor has been fired for controversial posts online that applauded Hamas’ massacre at a music festival in southern Israel, saying the attacks gave Israelis “a taste of their own medicine.”
Dr. Dana Diab — an emergency room physician with Lenox Hill Hospital and Brookdale University Hospital & Medical Center, according to NYC Health + Hospitals — shared a video of the heinous Oct. 7 attack on her Instagram Stories.
“Zionist settlers getting a taste of their own medicine,” she wrote, according to a screenshot shared by Stop Antisemitism on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.
A second snap showed Diab’s Instagram profile, which has since gone private — where the physician boasted over 600 followers and had a Palestinian flag emoji in the bio section.
Dr. Dana Diab was let go from Lenox Hill Hospital when one of her social media posts was called out as antisemitic. Northwell Health confirmed Tuesday morning that Diab no longer worked for the hospital system. “We are deeply sorry for the hurt and offense these comments have caused,” Northwell wrote on X.
“These views do not represent Lenox Hill Hospital and Northwell Health and go against our core values. The team member is no longer employed with Northwell.”
https://nypost.com/2023/10/17/nyc-doctor-dana-diab-fired-over-pro-hamas-social-media-post/
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October 17, 2023
Cops charge pro-Palestine Sydney protester who 'called for Jews to be wiped out'
He was charged with use offensive language
Police have charged a protester, who claims to work at an Australian Air Force base, after he allegedly used vile anti-Semitic language at a pro-Palestine rally on Sunday.
The man was videoed at the demonstration in Sydney CBD's Hyde Park repeatedly screaming 'Allahu Akbar... Get the f***ing Jews wiped out' until police intervened.
After footage of the shocking outburst spread on social media, police arrested a 63-year-old man in Mt Druitt in Sydney's west on Monday evening.
The Sydney rally was one of several held across the country condemning Israel's strong response to Hamas terror attacks.
The man was on the fringes of the Sydney protest where more than 6,000 gathered to demand an end to the 'Israeli apartheid' and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Wearing sunglasses and a Kamikaze pilot-style headband bearing a message about the Gaza conflict, the man allegedly unleashed his torrent of hate at passers-by.
When a concerned onlooker stepped in to say 'that language is not acceptable', the man in the video replied: 'I don't care as a Muslim.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12637983/Pro-Palestine-Sydney-protester-work-government-base-charged-police-called-Jews-wiped-out.html
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October 16, 2023
Elon Musk picks huge fight with EU as bureaucrats try to shut down free speech
European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton has taken to X (formerly Twitter) - itself owned by billionaire business magnate and investor Musk - to share an "urgent letter" letter addressed to him about "DSA obligations".
Benton wrote in a tweet alongside this: "Following the terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, we have indications of X/Twitter being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU.
But Musk has hit back in a tweet of his own, writing: "Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports. "Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that that the public can see them. Merci beaucoup."
The back-and-forth continued, with the EU Commissioner responding: "Vu, merci. You are well aware of your users’ — and authorities’— reports on fake content and glorification of violence.
"Up to you to demonstrate that you walk the talk. "My team remains at your disposal to ensure DSA compliance, which the EU will continue to enforce rigorously."
However, the X owner appears to have had the last word - at least for now - writing: "We take our actions in the open. No backroom deals. Please post your concerns explicitly on this platform."
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1822585/Elon-Musk-EU-Twitter-Israel-Palestine
October 15, 2023
Wrexham professor who called the use of Welsh language on road signs as 'potentially dangerous' is dismissed from university in free speech row
A professor is at the centre of a free speech controversy yesterday after losing a university role because he described the use of the Welsh language on road signs as 'potentially dangerous.'
Professor Nigel Hunt's social media post outraged some Welsh language supporters, with the academic branded 'xenophobic' and 'disrespectful'.
Now the academic, who was a visiting psychology professor at Wrexham University, has received a letter from the university's vice chancellor, dismissing him from the honorary position.
Professor Hunt, from Derbyshire, said he was 'disappointed' by the university's 'knee-jerk' reaction, branding it a 'free speech issue.'
'They were saying they were going to do an internal inquiry into it,' he told the BBC. 'There doesn't seem to have been an internal inquiry.
'I was driving back from Wales when this all blew up and the following morning I received the letter saying my contract was terminated.'
Professor Hunt first aired his views on a Facebook group called the Department of Petty Rage where he posted a picture of a bilingual sign from Wales and said they should be written just in English.
He claimed that bilingual signs could endanger road users as they contain 'irrelevant and - to most people - unintelligible information'.
Despite losing his post, Professor Hunt stuck to his view, insisting it was based on science, not any feelings against the Welsh language.
'Having complicated, dual-language signs is actually detrimental to driving,' he claimed. 'I really believe that academics ought to be able to put their point of view forward without having a negative reaction from their employer.'
In her letter to Professor Hunt, seen by the BBC, the university's vice chancellor, Maria Hinfelaar, said there had been 'several complaints' about the social media posts, with the university being tagged more than 100 times online.
'The university acknowledges you have the right to freedom of expression,' she wrote.
'However, we consider that the affiliation to our university within the media posts has brought our name into disrepute. Therefore a decision has been taken to withdraw your visiting professorship association forthwith.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12628465/Wrexham-professor-Welsh-road-signs-dismissed-free-speech.html
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October 13, 2023
Why does government need to more closely regulate social media? We need free speech
Jay Bhattacharya is a 55-year-old professor of health policy at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. He has four degrees, including an MD and PhD. At the height of the COVID epidemic, he criticized the Biden administration, calling for an end to economic lockdowns and school shutdowns. He concluded those solutions had limited benefit and disproportionately harmed the young and economically disadvantaged.
“The public health establishment in the United States and the world has failed the public,” he said. “The lockdowns harmed our children.” His research indicated that 100 million people worldwide were sent into dire poverty, “near starvation,” by the lockdowns.
“We haven't begun to count the deaths from that yet,” he said, “but it's gonna be in the millions.”
In terms of protecting people from COVID, he adds, “it's becoming clearer they did none of that.” That blasphemy by Bhattacharya — he is called “the man who talked back” — got him into trouble with Biden and the mainstream medical establishment.
He was censored on social media, the classic response of the authoritarian: we know best; no debate needed. To control the narrative, silence your opponents.
And they did. According to a lawsuit making its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government, in collusion with the social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, launched one of “the greatest assaults by federal government officials in the nation’s history” against freedom of speech. That’s undoubtedly an exaggeration.
But what’s clear is that in order to go full steam ahead on fighting COVID-19, working closely with Big Pharma, which reaped huge profits, the government had to go after what it labeled “disinformation,” “misinformation” and “malinformation.”
Rise of the 'censorship-industrial complex'
Under the Orwellian guise of halting disfavored speakers, viewpoints of hundreds of social media dissidents were banned, warned, de-monetized and labeled as dangerous. Algorithms were adjusted to de-emphasize the naughty speakers.
“The sad fact is,” says Bhattacharya, “we are living in a time where there is once again a need for scientists to (talk) secretly to one another rather than openly about what they actually believe.”
Don’t get me wrong. Those scientists may be misguided — and wrong. There is a lot we do not know, like how the virus started, whether the vaccine was the only way out, whether the vaccines were universally needed, or if they are truly safe. We need debate.
But the jury is just beginning to deliberate. We’ve not had a spirited debate. And that’s because, despite a free speech clause in our Constitution, the scientific, medical and social debate has been muted — by government and social media. Some call it the “censorship-industrial complex.” The lawsuit, Biden v. Missouri, seeks to take them both to task, and stop the censorship, if it’s truly that.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/10/12/free-speech-does-the-u-s-government-need-to-regulate-social-media/71121377007/
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October 12, 2023
How one simple word ruined the career of a children's gymnastics coach and turned his life upside down
Must not describe female gymnasts as "beautiful" (????)
A gymnastic coach's reputation is in ruins after he was accused of sexually objectifying teenage girls in an email because he used the word 'beautiful'.
Lindsay Nylund, 65, was sacked from his role as a coach at the City of Canada Bay Council's Five Dock Leisure Centre, in Sydney 's inner west, in May.
The renowned Aussie gymnast, who competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics and won medals at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, had worked at the centre for about two-and-half-years.
But Mr Nylund landed in hot water when he sent an email about his gymnastics team following a competition win.
'Hi all, Our beautiful FDLC Level 8 Women's Artistic Gymnasts,' he wrote in the email dated February 19.
'All achieved a top six apparatus placing in their respective divisions at the first state trial competition of the year.'
The director of community, culture & leisure, Russell Wolfe, said in a follow-up email: 'Thanks for the update Lindsay - congratulations to everyone involved.'
But that same email resulted in Mr Nylund's termination as he was being accused of sexually objectifying his team because he used the word 'beautiful'.
Mr Nylund is now unemployed and has struggled to come to terms with the accusation.
'It's traumatic because for a children's gymnastic coach, that's probably the worst thing someone could accuse you of doing,' he told A Current Affair.
The father-of-three believed at the time that it was a 'terrible mistake'.
When asked about his thoughts on those who might consider his comment inappropriate, Mr Nylund said it was 'political correctness gone a bit too far'.
'I mean, I think the word beautiful could be used in a wrong context, absolutely,' he said. 'But when you look at the context in the way it was used, no normal person would read that and think that's inappropriate.'
During an interview with broadcaster Ben Fordham on Sydney 2GB radio earlier this month, Mr Nylund said he was 'traumatised' when he was notified of the accusation via a letter.
'For a children's gymnastic coach, it's probably the kiss of death for your professional reputation and character,' he said.
The City of Canada Bay Council also accused My Nylund of showing a 'lack of respect towards centre management' when he allegedly permitted a one-week membership fee freeze when it was supposed to be two weeks.
He was also accused of having an 'unapproved dinner' with the parents of his gymnasts and transporting his team in a car without parent approval to a social event at a local club, which the council said broke Child Safe Practice guidelines.
Mr Nylund has rejected the allegations made by the council.
The council wouldn't comment specifically on the matter. 'The City of Canada Bay does not comment on staffing matters,' a spokesperson said in a statement.
'Additionally, as this matter is subject to legal proceedings the City of Canada Bay is unable to provide comment and will continue to treat all information as confidential.'
Mr Nylund has taken the case to the Industrial Relations Commission. A four-day hearing will be held in mid-November.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12618729/gymnastics-coach-beautiful.html
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October 11, 2023
Anti-Israel demonstrations in Sydney
The article below seems to urge that Muslim demonstrations against Israel should not have been allowed in Australia. The actions of HAMAS in Israel were so abhorrent and depraved that no celebration of them should be allowed.
I heartily disagree. I abhor HAMAS but I think there should be no restraint in allowing Australian Muslims to show what barely-human animals they are. Their celebrations are good evidence that Muslims are not what we want in Australian citizens. Future citizenship applications from them should be treated with great reserve and no more Muslim "refugees" should be accepted
There would be many Australians who saw the images of the Opera House protests on Monday night and wondered where their country had gone.
The Jewish community would be feeling not only let down but abandoned. And all right-minded Australians should be disturbed.
How could a government abandon their duty of care and their elected obligation to a community in distress? As John Howard described it, “A catastrophic descent from civility”.
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says a pro-Palestine rally on the steps of the Sydney Opera House was… “outrageous behaviour” and should be condemned. Around 1,000 people took part in the anti-Israel rally following the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas over the weekend. Protesters set fire to More
At the heart of this is a clash of human instinct and reflexive political response within the Labor Party that risks leaving the Prime Minister exposed as bitter divisions within the party over the Israel-Palestinian conflict re-emerge.
This has been on awkward display over the past 48 hours.
When Albanese refused to repeat his Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s tone-deaf call for restraint following the Hamas attack, faultlines over the response were evident. These were comments that could not have been interpreted in any other way than being directed at Israel.
The second was Albanese’s initial refusal to endorse Bill Shorten’s instinctive response to the Sydney protests as anti-Semitic. How could they be viewed otherwise? Albanese later came out and said they were.
Victorian Labor Premier Jacinta Allan’s inability to say whether she thought the Hamas atrocities were terrorist attacks again was revealing.
How could they not be? She later had to clarify this to confirm she believed they were.
NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns would have fought against members of his cabinet to light up the Opera House. To his credit, he stared them down.
But then he had to give his Attorney-General, Michael Daly, a clip over the ears for telling the Sydney Jewish community to stay at home for their own safety.
As of writing, NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley had still failed to reach out to the community to apologise, let alone express sympathy.
Instead, Carley described the police escort of the protest as a success.
Western Sydney federal Labor MPs Tony Burke and Chris Bowen, meanwhile, remained silent on the issue entirely until forced to comment, yet refused to condemn what was going on in their own backyards. Again, as Howard suggests, there can be no moral equivalence when the murder of young women and babies, the taking of hostages and the slaughter of civilians are involved.
It was inevitable that the moment Hamas embarked on its bloodthirsty assault, the politics of the Mid-East dispute would re-emerge on the streets of Sydney.
How the NSW government didn’t see this coming, and was ill-prepared to deal with the emotions it provokes, is another story.
What it has ensured, through its impotent response, is that October 9, 2023, will be a day of infamy … a day of shame for Sydney and a failure of character and leadership on multiple levels.
Two contrasting images now expose what is an international embarrassment for Australia and an unforgivable offence to the Jewish community.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers a speech of solidarity to a synagogue in London after the horror of the attack as thousands of Jewish people gather across the channel in embrace underneath the Eiffel Tower.
Yet under the sails of an Opera House illuminated with the Israeli flag, anti-Semitic chants and burning of the Israeli flag sprang from a pro-Palestinian protest the NSW government and its police effectively admitted being powerless to stop.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/mondays-prohamas-march-was-a-day-of-shame-for-sydney-the-premier-needs-to-answer-for-it/news-story/2f809461182bed553559fa3843bd6c8d
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October 10, 2023
Foxx, Owens Slam Antisemitic Students for Moral Bankruptcy
WASHINGTON – Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Chairman Burgess Owens (R-UT) issued the following statement after antisemitic groups released statements supporting Hamas and announced a Day of Resistance targeting Israel:
“In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the numerous statements issued by student groups at universities across the nation in support of the savage terrorist group Hamas’ atrocities and attributing responsibility for the murder, rape, and mutilation of its own citizens to Israel. Further, we denounce their participation in a so-called ‘Day of Resistance’ celebrating Hamas and targeting Israel and Jews’ right to exist. Israel has an absolute right to defend itself and its people.
“While it is the right of all Americans—including students—to speak, it is also the right and duty of all leaders to speak loudly in response to evil rearing its head. Too many colleges require lock-step discipleship behind woke policies and politics. Sadly, the university system has been captured by anti-American and illiberal ideology that is developing and feeding a hatred of Jews.
“Israel is in no way to blame. Hamas is in no way justified. As education leaders it is our responsibility to state this clearly and to ensure that all students, including Jews, benefit from a campus environment free from discrimination and violation of their civil rights. The Committee on Education and the Workforce will hold a hearing in November to investigate antisemitism on campus and the response to that antisemitism by cowardly campus leadership. Now is not the time for antisemitism to go unchallenged, and we will expose the despicable hatred expressed on university campuses as we work to defeat the forces arrayed against Israel and Jews across the world.”
Press release
October 09, 2023
In Switzerland, You'll Get a Prison Sentence for Saying This
A Swiss writer has been fined and sentenced to 60 days in prison for a speech crime that's made international headlines.
While Alain Bonnet is a controversial figure, in this instance, he was sentenced for defamation, discrimination, and incitement to hatred for calling journalist Catherine Macherel a “fat lesbian” in a Facebook video two years ago, Fox News Digital reports.
This won’t be the first time he’s served a prison sentence. He was previously jailed in France over his Holocaust denials, a crime in the country.
The Franco-Swiss writer had initially been convicted of defamation at the first instance in 2022, and received a day's fine. However, the Vaud public prosecutor's office lodged an appeal and won the case at the end of last week's appeal.
The sentence handed down by the cantonal court amounts to 60 days' imprisonment, said Vincent Derouand, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, on Monday, confirming a report by Swiss public radio RTS. The essayist, who celebrated his 65th birthday on Monday, can still appeal to the Federal Court.
Soral, whose real name is Alain Bonnet, was on trial for comments he made about a journalist from La Tribune de Genčve and 24 heures. After she wrote an article in 2021 that was not to his liking, Soral posted a video online in which he called the journalist a "fat lesbian" and a "queer activist", implying that the latter term meant "degenerate".
According to the public prosecutor's office, these comments are not just defamatory. "These are not just words; they are messages. Mr. Soral has hatred and contempt for homosexuals," said Eric Kaltenrieder, the public prosecutor.
Though it's shocking to Americans, this type of "intolerance and repression" is already in the U.S. on some college campuses, Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson told Fox News Digital.
"The problem with punishing 'hate' speech is, who gets to decide what is hate speech? Free speech then becomes subject to the whims of the people with power," Jacobson said. "Europe is just a few years ahead of us, and will be our future if we are not careful."
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2023/10/07/in-switzerland-youll-get-a-prison-sentence-for-saying-this-n2629479
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8 October, 2023
LAWSUIT: Air Force Punished Reservist Who Condemned Woke Military ‘Enforcement Tactics’
A new lawsuit is accusing the Department of the Air Force and the U.S. Space Force of punishing a reservist for speaking out against the “enforcement tactics” of those he says are quashing courage and truth within the military.
Space Force reservist Jace Yarbrough delivered remarks in uniform in early 2021 at the retirement ceremony of one of his fellow service members aboard the Battleship Missouri Memorial, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, his legal team said.
The battleship is privately owned and operated, according to a press release from Yarbrough’s legal representation, First Liberty Institute, the law firm Winston & Strawn, and the Ave Maria School of Law Veterans and Servicemembers Law Clinic.
Though Yarbrough traveled to the ceremony, attended, and spoke on his own dime and in his capacity as a private citizen and friend, the Air Force reportedly issued a Letter of Admonishment (“LOA”) after military members who were present complained about Yarbrough’s speech.
In that speech, the reservist quoted C.S. Lewis and Soviet-era dissident and Christian Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and expressed concerns that the military is breeding “incompetence and cowardice.”
The Air Force declined to comment on ongoing litigation to The Daily Signal and would not confirm that it had sent Yarbrough the LOA.
“The Air Force and the wider [Defense Department] are under threat, not only from without, but from within,” Yarbrough said in his remarks, obtained by The Daily Signal. “Over the last decade, the totalizing claims of a radical political faction within our wider culture have broken into our military. This faction, time and again, has brought the culture war inside the DOD, knowing that if it can capture our top brass, the lower ranks will salute smartly and follow.”
“Over the past 10-15 years,” he continued, “we have seen our service take sides on the most controversial issues of our times. Our service has been politicized. This, I fear, is a death knell for courage and competence.”
Yarbrough warned that this radical political faction within the military is not concerned with “objective reality,” but instead with “compliance with the party message.”
“We have seen their enforcement tactics,” he said. “They cow their opponents into participation in their dishonesty through fear of professional and social retribution.”
Ordinary Americans face canceling if they make basic statements like “men can’t birth babies,” or “boys should not be allowed in the girls’ locker room,” he said.
“These are intuitive, basic facts about the world,” the reservist continued. “They cannot be avoided in everyday life, by everyday Americans. Denying them requires constant, maybe even continuous, self-deception.”
“What is worse, this deception is induced by fear; when we submit to it, we are cowards,” he added. “When we keep silent about the lies we see (whether to keep our jobs or merely to avoid uncomfortable situations), we bury the lie inside ourselves. We habituate ourselves to dishonesty. Our grip on objective reality slips, and we are less capable and less effective in our world. By making the lie a part of ourselves, we become incompetent.”
And this “awful dynamic” has become part of the Defense Department’s culture, Yarbrough said. He speculated that airmen were being sent a warning—namely, that if they got on the wrong side of a political question, they would be labeled an “extremist” and given the option of conforming or being rooted out.
Yarbrough quoted Solzhenitsyn’s “A Candle in the Wind,” saying:
To stand up for truth is nothing. For truth, you must sit in jail. You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me. The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world. In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future.
And Yarbrough articulated a choice for his fellow airmen: “Will you continue the work he started? Will you have the fortitude to insist on competence, or will you fold? If we are to get through this time of—and I know no better word for it—insanity, it will be because a critical mass of airmen said, ‘Let the lie come, but not through me.’”
Unless the Air Force’s Letter of Admonishment is rescinded, his legal teams say, it will continue to adversely affect his career.
“We’ve entered dangerous territory if the Air Force thinks it can punish Jace for his private religious exercise and private speech while acting as a private citizen in a private venue,” Danielle Runyan, senior counsel for the Plano, Texas-based First Liberty Institute, a Christian conservative nonprofit law firm, said in a statement. “In his purely civilian capacity, Jace had permission to speak freely and exercise his U.S. constitutional and federally protected rights as an American citizen. The Air Force’s punishment of Jace is a perfect example of the very cancel culture he warned about in his speech.”
Yarbrough himself weighed in on the lawsuit in a separate statement.
“As the totalizing claims of radical progressivism devour more and more of our common life and institutions, even prosaic, obvious, and natural truths are vilified as harmful and extreme,” he said. “I did not seek out this fight, but my faith forbids me from quietly assenting to what I know to be false. As a Christian I will not live by lies, even if it means I am no longer allowed to serve in uniform the country that I love, which has been one of the singular privileges of my life.”
Yarbrough is also represented by the Veterans and Servicemembers Law Clinic at the Naples, Florida-based Ave Maria Law School. Antony Kolenc, an associate clinical professor of law and director of the law clinic, said in a statement that “this cause is central to our mission.”
“Our clinical students have been inspired by Jace’s courage to take a stand for the rights of military reservists,” he said. “We hope this case will help stop the erosion of First Amendment protections in the U.S. armed forces.”
The Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/10/03/air-force-accused-of-punishing-reservist-who-condemned-enforcement-tactics-of-woke-military
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5 October, 2023
New Month, Same Old Censorship From Big Tech
It may be a new month, but Big Tech is using the same old tactics to target conservative media. Townhall has once again been labeled “harmful” and “unreliable” for daring to cover the issues that matter most to Americans.
Stories addressing the government’s response to COVID, the border invasion, climate change, and more have all been demonetized in an effort to pressure us into no longer discussing these important topics. That's what Big Tech does. They demonetize stories on topics they don't want the truth told about in order to strong-arm us into not writing about them at all. It's the most egregious type of corporate censorship and an attempt to deprive us of the revenue we need to survive and keep telling the truth.
Here are just a few examples of the stories Big Tech doesn't want you to read:
Hoo Boy: New Evidence Raises Serious New Questions About Fauci's Honesty and Ethics
Top Florida Surgeon Advises People Not to Get the New COVID Booster
Why Was a Venezuelan Flag Planted on U.S. Soil by Illegal Immigrants?
https://townhall.com/columnists/katiepavlich/2023/10/04/a-new-month-the-same-old-censorship-from-big-tech-n2629371?utm_source=thdailyvip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&recip=6139244
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4 October, 2023
Supreme Court could soon quash Big Tech censorship
The blame goes mostly to the social-media giants like Facebook, YouTube and Google that censor political views they don’t like.
But the tech giants’ day of reckoning is near. Justice Clarence Thomas is taking them on.
Phone companies like AT&T and Sprint can’t shut down your account because of your political views.
American Airlines can’t refuse to sell you a ticket because you’ve questioned climate change or COVID lockdowns.
A hotel can’t deny you accommodations because you’re a Republican.
The law forbids it. That same ban against political discrimination should apply to social-media platforms.
Thomas has argued against Big Tech censorship since at least 2021, saying these companies should have to serve all customers, just like phone companies, utilities and public accommodations.
The US Supreme Court announced Friday it will rule on Florida and Texas state laws that prohibit tech giants from canceling users based on their political views.
Expect Thomas to lead a majority of the justices to conclude that Internet censorship is inconsistent with democracy and must be stopped.
A high-court ruling against censorship will deal a powerful blow against Big Tech tyranny.
Not a day too soon. Right now, social-media platforms freely censor, taking down posts, deplatforming users whose views they don’t like — even a former president of the United States — and burying information so it’s impossible to find with Google.
Big Tech censorship affects far more people than when colleges silence dissent or even when workplaces and schools indoctrinate.
Texas’ anti-censorship law is designed to protect the public against this loss of freedom.
The law still allows removal of items that are pornographic, threaten violence or promote the sexual exploitation of children — what’s truly harmful.
To defend Texas’ law, the state’s attorney general specifically cited Thomas’ argument.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law, deciding that corporations do not have a “right to muzzle speech.”
But the 11th Circuit struck down a similar Florida law, arguing that Big Tech platforms have a First Amendment right to pick and choose views like a newspaper does.
Now the Supreme Court is poised to resolve those conflicting outcomes.
The court will decide who the First Amendment protects — the tech companies that claim they’re like newspapers or the millions of social-media users.
The smart money is on Thomas convincing a majority of the justices that democracy requires an uncensored Internet.
In a 2021 concurring opinion, Thomas suggested a role for Congress to provide a legislative fix, including changing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
But Congress is unlikely to act as long as Democrats control either house.
Most Democrats in Congress are rooting for more censorship.
https://nypost.com/2023/10/03/supreme-court-could-soon-quash-big-tech-censorship/
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3 October, 2023
Some GOOD hate speech
There is no doubt that Pat Condell loathes Leftist political correctness. He says so in the most vivid terms. He holds nothing back. But what he says would sound justified to most conservatives
But there is no doubt that what he says IS "hate speech" So when YouTube took down his most recent video they were clearly within their own rules fobidding hate speech. Whether hate speech should be censored is another question
Pat's latest video "OK Groomer" is still available on his own site:
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2 October, 2023
The satire site Babylon Bee’s fight against New York’s insane online speech law is not funny
Let’s hear it for satire: An important amicus brief has been filed on behalf of funny fake-news outlet the Babylon Bee in a crucial First Amendment case working its way through New York’s courts, with free-speech legend and UCLA prof Eugene Volokh, social video platform Rumble and creators app Locals among those filing briefs in support.
To recap: Last year, New York state passed a nakedly unconstitutional law aimed at restricting certain kinds of online speech.
Namely, that which tries to “vilify, humiliate, or incite violence against a group” over “race, color, religion, ethnicity, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”
All of which is (with narrow exceptions for incitement) 100% protected constitutionally.
For sites that allow comments, the law threatens crushing fines that accrue by the day if they fail to post a public plan for a response if someone does a speech no-no.
The statute also demands site owners create some kind of snitch hotline for outraged readers.
It’s a clear threat to site owners: Keep ugly speech off your platform, or the hammer comes down.
Worse still, this law was passed in response to the Buffalo supermarket massacre.
Albany progs are using that unthinkable horror — which was not caused by speech, but by the demented evil of its perpetrator — as a lever to achieve their long-held goal of undermining First Amendment rights.
The ways such a law can be abused are literally endless.
Especially in a state where public employees, like ex-CUNY professor Shellyne Rodriguez, go on violent rampages against opinions they don’t like and literally threaten journalists with death.
And that goes double since state Attorney General Tish James had made it abundantly clear she backs the censors.
The left, in New York and elsewhere, has been on an anti-speech crusade for years, one supercharged by Trump-mania.
It’s no longer a fringe position: A recent survey showed that almost half of Democrats now support legal restrictions on speech; 75% think the state should cut down on hateful social media posts.
Another poll showed more than half of college students think schools should use speech codes to clamp down on unfavored ideas.
This means a victory over the law is not only crucial now; it will be ever more important in the future as this new, censorious generation gets older.
So all good luck to the Bee, Volokh, and their fellow freedom fighters. It’s clear they’re going to need it
https://nypost.com/2023/09/30/the-fight-against-new-yorks-insane-speech-law-has-never-been-more-important/
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1 October, 2023
To sh*g or not to sh*g?
"sh*g" is common slang for sex in Britain and Australia but it could be seen as colloquial rather than as offensive. There are ruder terms Laurence Fox could have used. So I think the larger issue here is that you are not allowed to criticize women
Ava Evans had been contemptuous of men without apology but that was OK apparently -- but Fox did not think so and was surely entitled to express his contrary opinion
A political journalist was left feeling "physically sick" after disgusting comments made by Laurence Fox towards her live on GB News.
Fox referred to Ava Evans, political correspondent for JOE, as a "little woman" during an episode of Dan Wootton Tonight, and then grossly asked: "Who'd want to s**g that?"
GB News later said they felt the words were "totally unacceptable", while TV watchdogs Ofcom today confirmed they'd received "a number of complaints". Fox, meanwhile, stood by his comments and blamed the "woke world" for the outrage caused by them.
Ava shared a clip of the comments on Twitter, with the caption: "Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently won’t s**g me?"
Fox has since been suspended by the channel.
Speaking to host Dan, Laurence said: "Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel. We need powerful, strong amazing women who make great points for themselves.
"We don’t need these sort of feminist 4.0. They’re pathetic and embarrassing. Who’d want to s**g that?"
Laurence and Dan both appeared to laugh, and the former actor added: "Sorry, it's true though."
Dan then said: "I’m just going to provide a touch of balance from her because she did actually respond to this earlier today, saying that she regretted her comments, but she didn’t apologise. So there you go. And she’s a very beautiful woman Laurence, very beautiful."
After his comments sparked outrage, Fox said he "stands by every word of what I said".
He added: "It's called free speech. I realise that the new woke world is low on laughter and high on offence, but it's still worth trying to find the lighter moments in this joyless new cancel culture which has been created for us."
"So if you are expecting a grovelling apology, I suggest you don’t hold your breath. I won’t ever apologise to the mob. Have a lovely day. In this self censoring world, speak your mind. Live strong and free," he added on Wednesday.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1817275/ava-evans-laurence-fox-gb-news-dan-wootton
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