Free Speech on Gab.com Is Problematic

Hello there, this is A .D. Robles and you're listening to A .D. on the Fight Laugh Feast Network. Alright, well, it has been a long time since I've done a Fight Laugh Feast episode. First I went on vacation, then I got sick, allegedly with COVID -19, although who knows.

I mean, I took a test and one of the tests came back positive, one of the tests came back negative. I was sick, you know, I mean, the first night I had a fever and the fever kind of was there the second night, not quite as bad.

But besides that, I mean, it's just been a pretty much a normal cold. So, you know, who knows? Maybe I have it, maybe I don't. John Brannion said maybe I should just assume that I had it. That way, you know, more unvaccinated people have survived this very, very serious disease that kills basically everyone that it touches.

So I guess there's that anyway. But let's just jump into it today. There's been so much going on that it's hard to pick a topic. I mean, these days it's very difficult. At least I found it to be difficult to pick the right topic to cover.

Why Gab Appeals to Free Speech Advocates

But what I thought I would do is is just, you know, throw a little positivity out there about Gab .com. I think Gab .com is a great website. And I've been seeing a little negativity out there from certain people.

And some of these people, you know, whatever, they're just throwing tantrums. Who cares? But others have, you know, there are people that like Gab, you know, people that enjoy it and have seen some negativity.

And I just wanted to just as a token of appreciation to the tech people at Gab and the engineers and Torba and all this kind of thing. I love the website, guys. And let me just count the ways. That's what I'll do today.

I'll count the ways of why I love Gab .com. But as a jumping off point, I wanted to just read some hilarious posts. I thought they were hilarious from this guy, Bill Mitchell. And, you know, I don't know who Bill Mitchell is.

I mean, he's one of these guys, like, I don't know. I guess he's, like, pro-Trump, but, like, you know, one of these, like, typical Republican, you know, conservative ink types, whatever. So he announced the other day.

I don't know who he is. I think he's some kind of radio show, podcaster. I don't know. But he announced the other day that he was leaving Gab because there's just too many people that were negative about the country and how the country is going down and things like that.

And then later it kind of came out that actually he's leaving because Gab is racist. Imagine that. Gab is racist, so he has to leave the platform. And I guess he's going to some platform I've never heard of called GetR or something like that.

Maybe it's called Getter. I don't know. But anyway, so he's going to Getter. And here's one of his tweets. It's just so dumb, right? He's talking about how Gab needs to start censoring anti-Semitic speech and, like, hate speech and Nazis and stuff like that.

And this is the thing. I just don't even—how in the world does he come to this conclusion? Like, the whole premise of Gab, at least as far as I understood, was that this would be the free speech platform, right?

This would be the platform where you won't get banned for saying words that people don't like, and you won't get banned for talking about various topics that people don't want you to talk about. That's the whole premise of Gab.

That's the product. So Bill Mitchell here is throwing, like, a little whiny little tantrum about how this is—he needs to start censoring this stuff. And so people are—listen to this tweet. Tweet! Ah! Listen to this Gab.

I just want to read this to you because it makes no sense to me. Here's what Bill Mitchell says in all caps. Let's talk about false premises! And then I guess he calms down because it goes into normal capitalization.

He says, I hear all the time that if Torba blocks the Nazi racist hate speech on here, that is censorship and Gab just becomes Twitter. Fake premise! False premise! I am not asking Torba to block speech about masks, vaccines, voter fraud, or climate change.

That's what Twitter does. I am asking him to block vile, racist, anti-Semitic speech that is considered completely unacceptable in society. The media uses the speech on this site to paint all Republicans as racist, and I resent it.

Now there's some inflection there because he uses copious amounts of bolded lettering and all caps, so I don't really know quite what he's trying to get across, but I think he's yelling. So he's yelling.

Bill, you just need to calm down. I mean, you know, I don't want you to have like a heart attack or a stroke or something. I mean, you just need to calm down. But this is the whole point. It's like, right, so Twitter does block these kinds of things—masks, vaccines, climate change.

That's true, but it also blocks the anti-Semitic, you know, hate speech and stuff like that. So Twitter does both, so that is just completely wrong. But this is the thing. It's like Bill seems to think that like a free speech site means that the speech that I like that other people don't like gets to stay, but the speech that I don't like that other people don't like because it's completely unacceptable in society, that gets to be censored.

Like that's just such a weird version of free speech. It's like, yes, I don't like, you know, anti-black speech or anti-Hispanic. I'm a Latino myself. I don't like when people say bad things about Latinos, but like, you know, I'm an adult.

So like what I do is if somebody says, you know, a bad word about me, they call me a wetback, they call me a spic or something like that, like I just move on with my life. You know what I mean? I'm an adult.

I'm like almost 40 years old. You seem to be over 40 years old. I mean, I don't know. He's significant amount of Botox here, but you know, like you just got to get over it, right? Like I learned how to get over it like in kindergarten, you know, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words can never hurt me.

Yeah, words can hurt you, but like not. It's not that serious, though, right? Like words can hurt me. I'm not going to say that words can't hurt me, but like, you know, you got to move on, right? You got to swallow your pride.

You're really not that big a deal, right? And so the thing is, like if anti-semitic speech is like the worst possible kind of speech and it's completely unacceptable in society and stuff like that, like, like, you know, I really do think that if that's if you're that's your position, you need to get over yourself.

And I think that those who want to be protected from angry speech or vile racist speech, they need to sort of put on their big boy pants and realize that they're really not that big of a deal. Like the thing is, if somebody insults me like that, that urge to sort of like, like, like freak out and overreact, it's because I'm thinking I'm too big of a deal.

Like I'm actually not that great of a guy. So if somebody insults me, it's like, all right, well, I mean, they got me there, I guess. I mean, you know what I mean? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not that big a deal.

Like I'm a sinner saved by grace. And so when somebody says bad things about me, like even if they're not 100 true, it's like, yeah, but I'm not like I'm not like holy, right? Like I'm not set apart, right?

I'm not someone that that that we shouldn't be blaspheming. I'm just a person. I'm just a person like you don't like Latinos. I mean, that's too bad because Latinos are pretty cool. You know, so I don't know.

I just don't get it. But anyway, bottom line is that this is not like Bill Mitchell's not pro free speech. He's pro speech that he likes and doesn't find vile and disgusting. Right. I find certain speech vile and disgusting, but but people should be allowed to say if that's what they want to do.

I kind of appreciate it. Actually, a lot of people were commenting on this and they were saying, well, I actually kind of like it on Gab because people are actually revealing their whole hearts. I prefer people that are honest with me.

You know, you don't like blacks. You don't like Latinos. I prefer you to to just be honest about it than to harbor that in secret. I agree. I kind of like that because it kind of let's me know where where the mission field is, so to speak.

I don't I don't shun Nazis in the sense like I don't even want to look upon them like like I want Nazis to give their life to Christ. Right. I want them to turn from their sins, just like I want everyone to turn from their sins and their mission field.

Right. Racists are a mission field. If that's what you want to say, vile, vile racists are a mission field. Anti Semites are a mission field like this is this is the whole thing like like it just doesn't make any sense.

It doesn't make any sense. But anyway, so so Bill Mitchell wants it to be a version of Twitter that doesn't ban the speech that he likes, but does ban the speech that he doesn't like. It's just so ridiculous.

Gab, Censorship, and the Limits of Free Speech

Anyway, let's go to the next one, because, oh, and, you know, my comment here is it's like I like Torba, but I don't want Torba deciding what's good for me to see and not what's what's not good for me to see.

But there are exceptions to this, by the way. So people were trying to get me like, well, you know, he blocks, but he blocks porn. And it's like, yeah, he blocks porn because porn should be illegal. Right.

Like it's not illegal in our pagan culture that we have in this country where all kinds of pagan nonsense is tolerated. It's legal, but it should be illegal. So, of course, Gab is not allowing illegal speech like actually illegal speech, speech that should be illegal.

You know, threats of violence, things of that nature, pornography, child porn. It's all banned here because it should be banned here. I mean, I don't understand. Like, that's that's if you don't understand the difference between illegal things like that and and speech.

I'm sorry, but I really have nothing for you anyway. So then so then the other thing is like and this is what a lot of people notice. His big thing is that the media uses Gab to paint all Republicans as racist.

And it's just like, Bill, like, how old are you, dude? Like, did you just were you born two years ago? Because, you know, Gab didn't exist 10 years ago when the media was doing the exact same thing, calling all Republicans racist.

And 20 years ago when the media was calling all Republicans racist. And back when Kanye said that George Bush doesn't like black people, the media has been doing this for a long time, way before Gab existed.

So it's like that's just that's a ridiculous premise that the existence of Gab and the fact that Gab doesn't block and ban anti-Semites and Nazis. That's why the media is calling all Republicans racist.

That's just idiotic. Obviously, it's just really weird. It's a weird take. I don't even understand it. A lot of people are very suspicious of Bill Mitchell. They think he's kind of, you know, got some secret connections or things like that.

You know, it's 2021. As far as I'm concerned, everything's on the table. I don't know, Bill. I don't care if he has secret connections. It's just a very strange take. And then here he says this. Bill says this.

He seems to be he kind of flips the script. And now he's all of a sudden he's concerned about Gab and Gab's future, which Bill, I don't believe that you're concerned with Gab and Gab's future. But he says it's a business decision.

If Torba doesn't want Gab to get left in the dust by Getar and Clout Hub and Locals, he needs to ban the anti-Semitic racist BS. There are millions who will never join this platform because of that garbage.

And again, I just don't understand. First, I don't think that he has Gab's best interest in mind here. But again, the product at Gab .com is a free speech social media platform. That's the product, right?

And so if there are millions of people who don't want to have that product, they won't have that product. But that's the point. It's like I don't think Torba is like trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator here.

He has a specific product, and he wants to protect that product as best he can. And the product is a free speech platform, not just a Bill Mitchell approved whatever he thinks is not too vile speech platform.

It's a free speech platform. That's the product. And so people who want that product are going to come to Gab. They're not going to go to Getar because Getar doesn't have that. Getar is not offering a free speech platform.

Clout Hub, I've never heard of Clout Hub, but who knows? And Locals, I guess if they're banning certain content, racist BS, whatever he wants to call it, then they don't have that either. They have something else.

Maybe they have a product people really like. But if someone wants a free speech platform, they're going to come to Gab .com. And I happen to really like the free speech platform at Gab .com. Does that mean I like everybody on Gab .com?

No. This is like kindergarten stuff. It's like do I have to say that? Obviously, I don't like everyone on Gab .com. Obviously, I see stuff on Gab .com that I don't like. But again, you move on with your life, right?

Or you can even block people. Like there's a button on Gab that you can block or mute and stuff like that. Big boys can figure out how to handle this stuff. But the thing is Gab's product is a certain kind of product.

And Bill Mitchell here doesn't like that product. But now he's trying to say that if you don't stop having this product, then the media is going to call people racist. Nobody cares. If you haven't been called racist at this point in 2021, I can't trust you.

I can't trust you. Anyone who hasn't been called racist at least once in their life, I simply cannot trust. Because the definition of racist basically means that you said something smart politically that makes sense politically.

And the person has no response, so they say racist. That's basically what racist means at this point. So if you haven't been called a racist in 2021, I'm sorry. I can't trust you. Anyway, but yeah, that's another thing.

Like racist, anti-semi. These are words that are just notoriously ill-defined. And so it's just like why would we try to please the media when we know that they've rigged these definitions against us?

It makes absolutely no sense. But then my favorite one, my favorite one was this like kind of parting shot from Bill Mitchell. Because I think this is where a lot of people actually agree with Bill here.

And I disagree completely, and I want to explain why. So Bill says this, that Andrew Torba owes it to Gab to publicly disavow all the Nazis and racists on this platform. We need a clear, unambiguous statement from him.

Real Christians do not accept this kind of talk. It's anti-biblical, and it's anti-Jesus. And so a lot of people are saying, yeah, well, why doesn't Torba disavow every racist ever and every Nazi ever and stuff like that?

And this game is such a scam. Like this is a play that has been developed over the last decade or so where they say you need to disavow this. Otherwise, you're an evil person. And then there's two options, right?

You can either play their game and then disavow the thing that they say you have to disavow. And here's what happens when you do that. So they say, well, you need to disavow racists. And then you say this is option one.

I disavow all racists. So what they do is they either don't tell anyone that you did that and pretend like you didn't, which is what they did to Trump. He never disavowed David Duke, which he did like 100 times.

Or they say, oh, so you disavow racists. And then they make the parade of all the people that really aren't racist, but they've called racist. And now they say you've disavowed all your friends essentially.

So they're trying to drive wedges. This is a stupid play, guys. Don't answer that way. You don't have to jump when they say jump. You don't have to be their little dancing, you know, I don't even know.

It's a marionette. You're not a marionette. You don't have to do what they say you're going to do. Anyway, so here's the other option, though. When they say you must disavow all racists and all Nazis.

The other thing is you could do this is option two. Laugh at them and say I'm not playing your stupid disavow game because it's stupid. And so I recommend that strategy because they'll say, see, see, it proves they're racist, which they're going to do that anyway.

But it takes all of the oomph out of it. And see, these people love nothing more than when you don't care about their little tactics. You don't care about their games. You don't care about their name calling.

Like that's the thing. I had a conversation last night with Joel from Right Response Ministries. We were talking about Doug Wilson. And I believe that one of the reasons why Doug Wilson gets a lot of special treatment from, you know, vice dot com and all these people that just can't stand Doug Wilson.

It's not because he's like uniquely like theologically wrong in their opinion. There's lots of people theologically wrong. It's not because, you know, he he's uniquely misogynistic. You know what I mean?

Of course, I don't think he's misogynistic, but there's lots of people that have the same beliefs as Doug that don't get the attention that Doug gets. What happens with Doug and I think Torba is is the same way in this regard.

All of their tactics that typically work that get you to kind of like cut your balls off and say, sorry, I never believed it. They never work on these guys like Torba. When when when the ADL starts to write a new article and Torba gets wind of it, he laughs and memes them to death.

It doesn't he doesn't care about it. Doug Wilson. He's having the time of his life. Vice dot com will write a slanderous article about him, and it certainly doesn't appear to affect him. Now, maybe it does.

You know, privately, you know, maybe he's upset about it. But when you see him publicly, he seems to be laughing about it. And I, I personally think that that's something that we could emulate. We could all seek to emulate from Doug Wilson and even Andrew Torba to a certain degree.

Andrew Torba looks like he's having the time of his life, and he's got an article after article after article written to try to destroy his reputation, destroy his career and all of that kind of thing.

I have a feeling that one of the reasons why it doesn't work on Andrew Torba is because Andrew Torba understands his status before God, before he was saved. He's much worse than people have said he he is when you look at the secret place on the inside.

But then Christ saved him and and and and loved him anyway. And that's where Doug's at. You know, he's he's much more. You don't need the joke. He always tells us. You don't know the half of it, right?

You don't know the half of it. And so when you realize, actually, that you're not that big a deal, like I think Andrew knows he's not that big a deal. You can laugh at these attacks. You must publicly.

This is like their best stuff. Like I'm telling you, this is their best stuff. You must disavow. And the thing is, the reason why this is their best stuff is because, number one, they don't have the truth on their side.

So this is the best they can come up with. Disavow everybody. And when you laugh at that and say, no, that's a stupid game. I don't play stupid games. All the wind is out of their sails. All of the wind is out.

They have no power. Like they have nothing left. What can man do to me? Right. Why not fear the one who can destroy body and soul? All man can do is destroy your body. Not a big deal in light of eternity.

And so anyway, I just wanted to say, I'm going to put some positivity out there. I love Gab .com. The product at Gab .com, I feel that the product is well protected. It's going to be a free speech platform, and that's why I'm on Gab .com.

Not because it doesn't ban the certain things that I like that people get banned on Twitter for saying. Not because of that. Because it doesn't ban any of it. I don't want Andrew to be in charge of what's acceptable to me and what's completely unacceptable or not.

I'm more than able to do that for myself. And so, Andrew Torba, love you, brother. Praying for you. Doug Wilson, love you too. Praying for you. And I got to say, Bill, maybe you should take your little whining little crybaby session somewhere else.

Maybe Getter is the place for you. I don't know anything about Getter, but if there's a lot more whining and crying aloud on that website, maybe you'll appreciate that a lot more than you will here on Gab .com.

Because you will have no sympathy here for being so upset that your eyes had to look upon vile comments of which are unacceptable in any society. Anyway, I hope you found this podcast helpful. God bless.

Don't forget to tune in next week on Thursday for AD on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network.