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Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

reuters.com

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Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#41
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a private company, it absolutely does not need to be neutral. They can choose any side they want. If you don’t like it, don’t use their platform. Gosh, when did the notion of private firms got so mixed up with so-called political neutrality? Are people this naïve?

>It’s a private company, it absolutely does not need to be neutral You're talking past each other. OP said should , you're talking about "needs".

The point stands. No private company should be neutral.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#42

GoFundMe should be political neutral, but it openly turns left. I recommend a long post explaining this phenomenon: https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/why-is-everything-libe...

It’s a private company, it absolutely does not need to be neutral. They can choose any side they want. If you don’t like it, don’t use their platform. Gosh, when did the notion of private firms got so mixed up with so-called political neutrality? Are people this naïve?

In a free society, businesses shouldn’t be able to suppress or punish customers for their political views. We already require businesses to not just do whatever they want in many ways. That’s what anti discrimination laws do, for example. We just need to make political viewpoint a protected class as well.

Apart from that, we also regulate a lot of private companies to be neutral. Your power utility may be private but can’t deplatform you. Telecom carriers are similar. Social media companies are just common carriers and public utilities that have avoided regulation so far with careful political donations. Payment companies (Visa, MasterCard, Stripe, PayPal, and yes, GoFundMe) are all just basic payment utilities and should also be treated as public utilities in many ways even if they remain private otherwise.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#43

GoFundMe should be political neutral, but it openly turns left. I recommend a long post explaining this phenomenon: https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/why-is-everything-libe...

This article does not support your claim. It talks about things being liberal , which is a right-wing , pro-market ideology and fundamentally incompatible with leftism.

That might be true if you're in a political science course or something, but in the US "liberal", "leftism", "left-wing" is usually synonymous with each other. Some of the "liberal causes" that the article talks about include "women’s march, BLM, and Occupy Wall Street ".

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#44
post #16
post #11

Quoted post unavailable.

Your attempted explanation is wrong. Trump won the rust belt in 2016 because neoliberals sold out the working class and their unions. This behavior by the administration is a half hearted attempt to roll some of that back.

> is a half hearted attempt to roll some of that back

That's just assumed and is normal politics so I didn't see it worth mentioning. You didn't refute my other point that President Biden does not see Musk as a political ally

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#45

GoFundMe should be political neutral, but it openly turns left. I recommend a long post explaining this phenomenon: https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/why-is-everything-libe...

This article does not support your claim. It talks about things being liberal , which is a right-wing , pro-market ideology and fundamentally incompatible with leftism.

No post body was provided.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#46
post #27

Also keep in mind that in the backdrop of all this is the fact that our Prime Minister has called the protesters racists and misogynists. Probably inspiring someone who ran over some protesters in Winnipeg. Canadian news and politicians are desperately trying to denounce the protesters while ignoring the fact that Canada has some of the harshest Covid restrictions in the world at the moment, while the US has hardly a…

Even more stupid: Canadian media and Twitter users saying they are “fringe” because by a poll (totally no incentive to lie on those), 85% of truckers are vaccinated. To which I say: A. I bet more than 15% are unvaccinated because why answer honestly with Canada’s level of restrictions and penalties? B. If it is actually 15%, that’s not fringe, and also that’s low enough that dropping the mandate should be reasonable…

It makes no sense to assume that these guys aren't vaccinated anyway. They aren't against the vaccine, they are against the mandate!

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#47

GoFundMe should be political neutral, but it openly turns left. I recommend a long post explaining this phenomenon: https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/why-is-everything-libe...

Very interesting explanation, thanks.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#48

Apparently Elon Musk also got involved and called GoFundMe “professional thieves”, because they were going to redirect donations intended for Canadian protesters to other (likely left leaning) causes: https://nypost.com/2022/02/05/elon-musk-gofundme-professiona... He also called out their double standard for claiming to not support protests that aren’t peaceful after they funded so many violent riots and illegal acti…

Why does anyone care what Elon Musk says about this situation? It has nothing to do with his businesses.

I would bet a lot of money that the logistics aspect of it is what he's concerned with. Parts from suppliers don't magically show up at Tesla assembly lines.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#50

If you send money to fascists be prepared for the money to be intercepted. Simple as that

As much as you may dislike "fascists", you don't get to tell other people who they can or cannot send money to.

GoFundMe tells a lot of people who they can or cannot send money to via their platform. First, there are laws around sending money to designated terrorist organizations, then there are restrictions around violence, pornography and sex work, and many more. The giant list can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/c/terms

If you want to mail a check to these truckers, have at it, but GoFundMe is not obligated to collect money on their behalf. Here's another example, but not one Ron Desantis would ever care about - https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200131-gofundme-shuts-us...

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