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Fuck Elon Musk. This is why right-wing billionaires sue people reporting on them. They know they can't win these lawsuits. But they also know legal fees will cripple the little guy reporting on their lies and crimes.

Bad News: I’ve been laid off from mmfa, along with a dozen colleagues. There’s a reason far-right billionaires attack Media Matters with armies of lawyers: They know how effective our work is, and it terrifies them (him).

The bone stupid shit you read on Substack about "free speech" is an elaborate cover for a right-wing, oligarchic chilling of anti-billionaire speech through weaponized lawsuits. They're all buddies, the guys writing those Substacks and those right-wing billionaires.

I'd do more reporting on this but it's not my business anymore. Their weird hate campaign drove me to a much better life. But I do hope they all get outed and shamed and all their weird schemes are put on blast, and I hope you all protect whoever is brave enough to do it.

The UK satirical magazine Private Eye does do investigative journalism. They're not incompatible if you ever have the budget for it.

They don't know shame. That's the problem.

Get Kat at the onion Ben!

It sure will be your business when Global Tetrahedron makes acquisitions!

The man is a blight but I hope that with the gentlest of breeze (federal regulators doing their job) he and his empire will crumble away like a cicada husk. Thanks for being The Onion steward, you did your time on that treacherous beat.

When it became, too much work to murder reporters, they moved to SLAPP and other lawsuits

We don’t actually live in a society, and none of us will protect any of us. Man, it must be getting late in the day.

Serfs. The substack writers are serfs doing their masters' bidding

Correct.

More like retainers. Bosses always have willing followers.

Henchlings

You got that right.

Nobody who actively complains about free speech understands what it means or actually is willing to defend it for anything other than what they already believe. It’s that simple.

One of the most dangerous offenders is Musk with his “Free Speech Absolutists” crap coming out of his ex-Twitter megaphone to propagate his non-stop fascist agenda, calling it free speech when it’s nothing more than right- wing swill for morons.

You had me at fuck Elon Musk

We need anti-SLAPP laws in every state and at the federal level.

Won't help enough. At most, Musk will have to pay legal fees. No damages. You may win, your lawyers will get paid rack rates, and your life would have been put on hold for the duration of the lawsuit. And that is if the state has a great anti-SLAPP statute.

Cool, then let's hear your suggestions.

Suggestions for what?

You're saying anti-SLAPP laws aren't enough. So what's your suggestion for what would be enough? It wasn't a complicated question.

I made an observation. If you agree with my observation, the query you clarified now may make sense. Assuming you agreed, I would suggest that laws allowing the defendant to collect damages beyond just court costs and lawyer fees would help more. Maybe that'll even be enough.

It almost like the massive disparity in wealth is bad for democracy

Read some Charles Dickens to see how horrible wealth disparity would affect us. We’re not supposed to be going backwards in time. We’re supposed to be going forward.

We're going waaaayyyyyy back www.scientificamerican.com/article/eart...

Earth Is Warmer Than It's Been in 125,000 Yearswww.scientificamerican.com A landmark assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change says greenhouse gases are unequivocally driving extreme weather, but nations can still prevent the worst impacts

From Dr. Zhivago: Lara to Yuri: “Oh, Lord. What a horrible time to be alive.”

this is ALL number 10 on the Principles of Abuse also - I just learned about Wix being Israeli and am working on finding an alternative redloraine.wixsite.com/website/post...

Principles of abuse and the internal failures of racistsredloraine.wixsite.com

This is why their cult leader talks about weaponizing the justice system so much. They literally invented weaponizing the justice system.

Every accusation from the Right is a confession.

I don’t believe it’s the lawsuit. Don’t trust management telling stories to laid off staff

It's not a corporation where they're laying people off to divert money to shareholders or CEO pay.

MMFA is fighting two lawsuits, one filed by the AG of Missouri (a state with very weak anti-SLAPP laws), the other filed by Musk in a federal district court highly sympathetic with him. Anti-SLAPP doesn't apply to federal courts, so MMFA can't get the case dismissed or get their attorney fees back.

As a former employee, their leadership lied right to my face about a financial issue. I later learned from others that it was behavior they experienced as well. This is why I wouldn't trust their explanations to employees. The lawsuit is a factor, but their Union should be asking questions.

That's what one gets in keeping UK feudal legal rules & laws, particularly the Golden Rule - He Who Has Gold Makes The Rules ;) That's why other countries have a Loser Pays laws 😎

Australia has loser pays, didn't stop notorious public figures from suing individuals & major media. A secret trust funded Attorney General & alleged rapist Christian Porter; rightwing billionaire Kerry Stokes funded war criminal Ben Roberts Smith & Liberal Party staffer & rapist Bruce Lehrmann.

There’s a prophetic timeline happening. Issac Asimov wrote of a fictional foundation of technologists that had to be checked by a secret society. In our case, that secret society might end up being journalists.

we need a national anti-SLAPP law.

Announcing The Shallot: The Onion but serious.

The First Amendment only protects speech, not the speaker.

Join forces with MMFA, Tim Onion! Totally serious! The things you could accomplish!

He’ll eventually fuck with someone who doesn’t hire lawyers to fight back. Lawfare has its limits.

Billionaires need to be “”Justified””.

This is not a new problem.

Maybe it’s having so much money making people resent Elon, but fortunately he doesn’t care if anyone does anymore than we care if people don’t like us. Either way, expecting someone else to protect you is naive at best and rare enough to make people face this reality. Maybe find a new whipping post.

News organizations need a Nato article 5 like defense fund.

If they control the media, they control who gets the truth or does not.

We need solud, viable SLAPP laws in e v e r y d i s t r i c t because they shop for districts where they can get away with procedural harassment

So it's a malicious lawsuit but the damage has already been done.