I was awfully glad to see my colleague Doug write a post about this the other day, and I’d like to expand upon it a little. I was a newspaper reporter well before there was the internet, and the local university sent over a book of expert sources on just about any topic if you needed a pithy quote for a piece you were working on. Media outlets these days have their own sources they like to consult: If NPR ever needs an expert for a piece, it has the usual suspects on speed dial, like the SPLC or Planned Parenthood or Media Matters. And media outlets can always find a professor or Ph.D. candidate to give insight, like drag queen and Ph.D. candidate Lil Miss Hot Mess, who co-authored an academic paper on “drag pedagogy” and “the playful practice of queer imagination in early childhood.”
In a recent piece in the Washington Post about the dangers of Elon Musk unleashing free speech on Twitter, the reporter consulted Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law’s cyberlaw clinic, about Musk “opening the gates of hell.” Caraballo’s expertise is apparently cyberlaw, but we’ve seen them a lot on Twitter, naming and shaming “stochastic terrorists” like Libs of TikTok and Christopher Rufo and Matt Walsh who are trying to get children’s hospitals bombed by reposting their own videos advertising their services. Caraballo’s a full-on trans activist, which is fine, but maybe mention that.
As Doug reported, Caraballo sure likes to threaten Supreme Court justices:
Here we have a call to violent action for the purpose of intimidation (i.e., terrorism) from @Esqueer_, a far-left transgender activist who accuses conservatives of incitement for thinking it's wrong to sexualize, exploit, and mutilate children.
It was deleted to cover tracks. pic.twitter.com/bWUjiRddK5
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) November 25, 2022
“The 6 justices who overturned Roe should never know peace again.” Oh, and here are their photos. She didn’t give out their home addresses (someone else did), but she doesn’t mind doxxing those fascists who are for quote-unquote “free speech.”
@Esqueer_ is also pro-doxxing pic.twitter.com/F2OGfwfklF
— Christina Buttons (@buttonslives) November 26, 2022
Please post mine anytime — if we can’t have a different opinion than you without you trying to encourage violence we have a much bigger problem 😊- God bless you
— Jim F (@jefchase) November 26, 2022
I wonder how they would act if they were doxxed. I'm betting they would come unglued and claim it was a hateful thing to do.
— Darwin Acolades (@DarwinAcolades) November 26, 2022
Wasn’t it Taylor Lorenz that doxxed libs of TikTok then got all upset when her information got out? 🤔
— Ygrene (@Ygrene12) November 26, 2022
You can have my address. All you have to do is ask. Been through doxing twice. Once at my home, once at my business. They never show up.
— #JOTUS (Jason of the U.S) (@rollofdimes) November 26, 2022
Someone needs to explain to her that fascists actually aren’t for free speech. And that no one has said moderation was going away.
— Alex 1984 vs 1776 🇺🇸 (@Sinnersaint39) November 26, 2022
“How long will the fascists be for free speech.”
🙃
— Circe’s Lover – I will not comply (@CirceLover) November 27, 2022
Caraballo seems to be overwrought.
— (((bacibobi1919))) (@bacibobi1919) November 27, 2022
I’d say these are calls to incite violence. Gaslighting and terrify by claiming people “want them dead” is ridiculous and dramatic, but also a danger considering we know how the ones believing this hyperbole behave. Same rhetoric as “do you want an dead son or an alive daughter.” pic.twitter.com/7lhsxF9RJA
— Milly (@millwrites) November 26, 2022
What an awful human being
— the digital graffiti (@Digit4lRepublic) November 26, 2022
@Harvard again?
— Savage Republican (@WolfmanRep) November 26, 2022
Yep. And once again, the Washington Post’s go-to source for civility on social media.
Be wary of anyone who uses the word “fascists,” and especially be wary of anyone who puts “free speech” in quotation marks.
Related:
About the expert media’s consulting for reports on Musk creating a dangerous atmosphere…https://t.co/v52a84vlEo
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 26, 2022