If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. In Venezuela, the government has enforced a 10-day suspension of the social media platform X, previously known as Twitter. This action follows a contentious exchange between the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. According to Maduro, the ban, which was directed by the Venezuelan telecommunications regulator Conatel, is a response to Musk’s behavior on the platform, which he claims included inciting “hatred, fascism, civil war, death and confrontations among Venezuelans,” thus violating Venezuelan law. This drastic move came shortly after Musk publicly criticized Maduro, labeling him a “Dictator” and accusing him of “major election fraud” about the recent presidential election, which remains disputed. Maduro, in a televised statement, issued a combative challenge to Musk, proposing a physical confrontation: “Elon Musk, I’m ready. I’m not afraid of you … Let’s fight, wherever you want.” Musk responded affirmatively to this challenge in a post on X. The restriction on X was confirmed by the internet monitoring organization NetBlocks, which reported that several Venezuelan ISPs began to limit access to the site, with some showing no reachability at all. This ban comes at a time of significant political tension in Venezuela, where protests have surged following the controversial presidential election on July 28, 2024. Both Maduro and his rival, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, have declared victory. However, international observers, including the US, have expressed skepticism towards the official results, recognizing Gonzalez as the legitimate winner. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Maduro Blocks X as Musk Feud Escalates appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Kamala Copying Trump's Platform Now

Gen Z gets a bad rap. Various members of older generations have painted them as weak, neurotic, helpless, and fragile. This is as simplistic as it is insulting. While these negative characteristics appear in most generations, Zoomers are not especially prone to them, and they are certainly not the wilting flowers that most of their critics insist they are. Take, for instance, a news story that will not die. Zoomers are honest, far more stable than we older generations will admit, and have a unique tenderness of spirit, which is astonishing, considering the timeline they’ve grown up in. In October 2022, the Daily Mail ran “Gen-Zers say they feel attacked whenever they see a 'passive aggressive' thumbs-up emoji” and the New York Post: “Gen Z canceled the 'hostile' thumbs-up emoji and wants to ban these 9 others.” Psychology Today even hopped onto the pile, with an overly thoughtful examination of the question, “What's So Wrong About Using the Thumbs-Up Emoji?” Last month, the story reappeared. It mostly rattled around the buzzier spaces of the internet, but the Independent published an editorial titled “The thumbs-up emoji isn’t passive-aggressive – Gen Z need to get over it.” “Get over it” can be such an ironic phrase. In this case, the people who need to get over it are the ones using the words “get over it,” where “it” denotes a weird, accusatory obsession with an entire generation being accused of obsessive weirdness. I would guess that a fresh batch of “thumb emoji Gen Z” articles will appear two years from now. Of course, there have also been plenty of more considerate takes, mostly from the highbrow outlets that are otherwise intolerable. This editorial by the Washington Post, “Gen Z’s new punctuation,” looks at the “major transformation in which emojis young people use to communicate humor.” Maybe emojis are only for us old people, a kind of modern hieroglyphs. There are generational differentiations in the realm of emojis. Other sources — myself included — prefer to see emojis as an advancement in the power of words. The thumbs-up emoji is, after all, now a legally binding signature in Canada. Now, admittedly, I’m often unsure what they’re saying. But it’s because I avoid learning their slang, as a kind of respect. Which also means that I could fundamentally misunderstand the character of the generation. What if they really don’t like the thumbs-up emoji? How would their movement affect the world? The burden of proof would rest on them. They would have to convince greater society to abandon the thumbs-up emoji for the sake of a more peaceful society. Or they would swallow the annoyance and make a joke about it. We've all experienced a strange and nagging habit unique to a previous generation. A few of these rankle us, even if it’s unclear why. Maybe something about the specific mannerisms or customs seems rude to us. By the way, these annoyances can lead to positive change in society. Minutiae of this sort can become the glue that fortifies a generation, even an entire zeitgeist. But it can also become the giant clown shoes on the generation’s state fair caricature. So even if Gen Z were outraged by the sight of emoji thumbs, Zoomers would be no different from us and our own eccentric dislikes and hang-ups. But that’s not even the case. So I’ll take them at their word that the “Gen Z triggered by thumbs-up emoji” narrative is contrived. Zoomers are honest, far more stable than we older generations will admit, and have a unique tenderness of spirit, which is astonishing, considering the timeline they’ve grown up in. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, they missed proms, graduations, freshman parties, and classrooms; they were forced into isolation instead. They have a warped sense of normalcy. They’ve handled it well. What I see in them is the next generation of Americans following roughly the same path as the wild young folks who preceded them. This revelation ought to transform cacti into daisies. It should fall on Millennials, Gen Xers, and Boomers like a cartoon anvil. Zoomers are working hard right now. And they won’t comply with some of the social assumptions we mistook for mandates. We haven’t even gotten to see their unique inventions yet, only glimpses. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some participation trophies to polish.

Before Kamala’s overnight media makeover, she was widely considered by both the right and the left as a failure of a vice president. Her popularity among the people was low, she was constantly getting grilled for her apparent lack of intelligence (i.e., word salads), and she remains to date the most radical leftist candidate the nation has ever seen. But then the media stepped in and gave her the makeover of the century. “Everybody forever was like, ‘Kamala Harris is the worst vice president; she's the least popular vice president of all time,’ and then in a moment ... all of a sudden, ‘She's our solution; she's our hero; everybody's with her,’” Joe Rogan told Michael Malice on a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.” - YouTube youtu.be It seems the public — or at least those who pay attention to the mainstream media — is suffering from memory loss, as mere weeks ago, Harris was widely considered a failure. How is it that those same people are now backing her? Rogan called it “fragility of the human mind.” “She’s gonna win,” he told Malice. “I feel like we are in this very bizarre time where people are giving in in a way that I never suspected people would before. ... They just want no Trump no matter what, and they're willing to gaslight themselves to think that,” he explained. The other reason he thinks Harris has a solid chance of winning is because the search engines, especially Google, have made anything that paints her in a negative light magically disappear — which has been critical in her makeover. “Try Googling a negative story on her. You won’t find one,” Rogan said. Simultaneously, if you Google Donald Trump, you’ll find pages of negative stories about him — even in the wake of his near-assassination. Malice said that this programming “can tip the scale” and “move the needle.” To hear more of the duo’s conversation, watch the clip above. Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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