The massive Twitter fight over H-1b visas and migrants working as engineers has apparently already claimed some casualties, or at least digital casualties. In that being the Twitter verification of people like Laura Loomer, [00:00:15] as well as several other notable critics of Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and their stance on bringing in skilled migrants. So they are now alleging that some of their, I guess, premium features or access to monetization on Twitter have been taken away. [00:00:32] And they're implying it's Strike Back by Elon Musk as a result of the fact that they dared to disagree with him. So that includes, as I said, Laura Loomer, as well as New York Young Republican Club president Gavin Wax. Infowars host Owen Shroyer and the pro-Trump account conservative PAC. [00:00:50] Laura Loomer said Musk has removed my blue check mark on X because I dared to question his support for H-1b visas. The replacement she chose that word very specifically of American tech workers by Indian immigrants, and I questioned his relationship with China has decided to retaliate by removing [00:01:06] my blue check and demonetizing me. Owen Shroyer says this feels like the beginning stages of censorship on X. And my God, to think that this is the beginning stages of censorship on X, when the only things [00:01:22] that matter are things that happen to you. And so obviously neither of them seems to know or care that Ken Klippenstein got his ass kicked off the platform because he dared to do something that they didn't like. And Elon Musk has a long history of strike back against journalists he doesn't like [00:01:38] and organizations he doesn't like. The free speech stuff is a brand. It's his eat fresh. I don't understand why people don't get that. It is a defense against, you know, people calling him a racist or whatever. That's what free speech is about. He didn't buy the platform to create a utopia. [00:01:56] He bought a platform so he could set up a little throne on it. And that's what he's done the entire time. They're just now noticing that because it might be affecting them. Now, we do have to acknowledge we don't know for sure that their portrayal of why and when they lost these features, including the ability to have [00:02:13] paid subscribers and stuff, is true. It seems accurate, and so I'm inclined to believe them, despite the fact that Laura Loomer is a massive liar. But anyway, this certainly would seem to be an escalation in the fight if what they're presenting is true. Yeah. So first of all, I now I say to the right wing, told you so. [00:02:34] They thought, oh, Elon's going to come in and we're going to be done with censorship. And what did we say on the show? We said no, it's just going to be censorship in a different direction. Right. And so and that's exactly what we got. Right. So not only do they start censoring some people on the left, - Ken Klippenstein, among others. - Yeah, other journalists too. [00:02:51] Yeah. And journalists that were critical of Elon Musk. And now, if you're a right winger and you're critical of Elon Musk, all of a sudden now you're having issues too. And it's not just Laura Loomer. And yeah, no, I take everything she says with a boulder of salt. Right. But it was other groups, including some political action committees on the right [00:03:09] that disagreed with Elon on H-1b visas. All of their folks became unverified at the same time. A great number of people. So it was pretty convincing to me. Now, so I'm saying that the people that I disagree with most are right about this unverified business, and I think it's wrong. [00:03:27] Look, guys, this whole thing of like banning people and cancel culture that happens from the left and the right as we're seeing here, right, is useless. It's counterproductive, I hate it. Right. Let the marketplace of ideas work. I know it's a mess, and I know in the short run there's tons of problems. [00:03:44] But I don't need help in defeating Laura Loomer's ideas. Like we're going to win that battle. I mean, and so the guys against H-1b visas, yeah, there's some folks there that might be good, folks that are misdirected, for sure. Right. But there's also Cernovich and Bannon and Colter and Loomer. [00:04:04] Like, that's the people I disagree with most on social issues, cultural issues. Anyone who says camp of the Saints is their favorite book. Yeah. I mean, look, I'm trying not to call people racist, as you can tell. Right? But like, the whole point of that book is the hero goes in and murders all [00:04:21] the immigrants trying to come into Europe. If you thought that was a great book, I mean, to say that you're an anti-immigrant is anti-immigrant is a massive understatement, right? So that's a gigantic problem. But there's no need to ban them, censor them, or any of that crap, in my opinion. [00:04:37] - Ramesh, what do you think? - Totally, totally agree. I mean, as far as people like this, Laura Loomer is involved. You know, it's it's, I'll just respond to that. Indian people do not bathe in their own feces. In fact, there's there are three. [00:04:53] At least the last time I checked, three of the ten wealthiest people in the world are from India. With an astonishing amount of wealth that is only barely imaginable. India faces many of the same problems we do in terms of gross economic inequalities as well. So I want to set the record straight on that and also let her and other people [00:05:11] know, including Vivek and Elon. And I bet they know this that many immigrants from South Asia don't necessarily want to come to the United States, because they might make almost an equivalent amount of money in their own country. And that can get you a lot further. In a country like India, where there are quite a few people [00:05:29] and you can get help with cooking, with child care, all the things that people can't afford in this country. Even people who are middle and in some cases even close to upper middle class, can't afford these things in our own country. Our country has more free speech protections than most other democracies. [00:05:46] Democracies can be very different from one another, especially the European Union. And so I've always been against censorship and the de-platforming of anybody and everybody, including the former president. That was a huge mistake made by Twitter in the past when they deplatformed Trump [00:06:01] and it fed this populist narrative that he's fighting against these established forms of power. So it's very rich when Elon realizes, oh, yeah, I, I am a single man, mind you, the wealthiest person in the world. I own a platform that might have just a few hundred million people on it, [00:06:19] but has profound influences on journalism, on journalism and journalists around the world, because many journalists get their stories and engage on acts like both of you. I don't, because luckily I can avoid it all as an academic. But I'm just. But my my main, my main point is that free speech on these platforms [00:06:38] has everything to do with what's viral and what's visible, and it's really, really important for them to recognize that if you start opening up the can of worms of of different types of censorship, you're going to end up being called out as a hypocrite, which they're already being called out as, even though I think I think [00:06:54] what they missed in their narrative about the importance of more H-1b visas, which I do agree with, is also how that has to be coupled with, finally, a plan to resolve the disease and the and the unhealthy economy that middle and working class Americans face. [00:07:10] And that's what they that's what they're going to be tested by at the end of the day. Yeah. And I don't want anybody to get surprised by Laura Loomer or the other guys reactions. I mean, they're consistently attacked every ethnicity that minus one. I'll let you take a while to guess which one they don't mind. [00:07:26] Okay, but Laura Loomer has attacked Muslims in the most hideous ways over and over again. So her terrible, awful comments about Indians is not surprising because, I mean, that's who she is. I'm just going to make a super random comment here. Obviously, I'm an enormous believer in America. I think that especially if we're united, we could dominate for a long, long time [00:07:44] because we take in the, the, the best, the brightest, but the hungriest too, of of the rest of the world. But if I was going to say there's if I was worried about one economic challenger, it would be India. Everybody's obsessed with China, and we got these hostilities with Russia, etc.. [00:08:02] But India is going to come roaring out in the world economy. Why? Because they have so much kinetic energy. It's not a centrally organized, government like China is, which limits and stifles [00:08:17] creativity and individualism, etc.. I don't think it strikes the right balance. India India's certainly has plenty of issues, but massive energy, a freer place. And now, finally, some opportunity there that could make a gigantic difference. [00:08:34] - So don't sleep on India. - I would remind. You, they're actually ahead in many ways on green energy. There's India has already actually done a lot more in terms of cutting and innovating around its carbon, around carbon footprints and carbon emissions than other kind of global South [00:08:52] countries of that of that ilk. Much more. And so yet at the same time, they're wondering, why can't we ever do anything about it? - Yeah. - We being the US. Yeah. Republicans despise clean energy for some reason. - Well, they don't believe. - It exists, right? [00:09:08] - Yeah. - By the way, super fast. Like, I don't actually want to know because it would involve having to have a conversation with her. And I aim to never have that happen in my life. But like, if you were Laura Loomer, like, what if, you know, by virtue of just chance, you had been born in India instead of where you were born? [00:09:23] You know that that's just random chance, right? What would you do? Like, what do you want them? Do you just want them to lay down and die? Like, I don't understand the thought process like that. But she. But that would require a little bit of empathy. And I doubt she has spent seven seconds of her life in true productive empathy, [00:09:42] trying to understand the life of someone unlike her. I will also say, just for the record, I don't wanna get into a conversation about it. I disagree in some cases about the efficacy of deplatforming, particularly people who are, you know, commissioning crimes and things like that, like there was concern about Donald Trump [00:09:58] and possible follow ons to the coup attempt on Twitter. But anyway, in some cases, I disagree. Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. 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