In the past couple of weeks
a member of the Trump team,
this is Jason Miller, started a new
social media app called GETTR.
And if that sounds a bit like
Twitter, it's supposed to, because
it also looks identical to Twitter.
And basically it's designed to
be Twitter, but for
a specific sort of person.
And you'll know that when you look
at their mission statement, they
say that this social media platform
is dedicated to fighting cancel
culture, promoting common sense,
defending free speech, challenging
social media monopolies, and
creating a true marketplace
of ideas.
Which differentiates itself
from things like Parler and
other apps like that, based on,
I don't know, I don't know,
maybe we'll find out something.
But it already has some issues,
actually, which we'll jump into.
The first is that a notorious
neo-Nazi has already been suspended
from GETTR.
So, this is Tim Gionet, known as
Baked Alaska, who, I believe,
live streamed from inside
the Capitol during that attack.
>> Yep.
>> He's been suspended,
we don't know why yet.
But he quickly boasted about his
suspension on Gab,
the far-right social media
platform used by neo-Nazis.
So, GETTR comes and
says what's going to differentiate
us from Twitter is that we're
not in favor of canceling people,
we're in favor of free speech.
Wait, no, you're actually crazy,
and you're dangerous,
and any reasonable site is going to
try to get rid of you.
And so they did,
too, which undercuts their point by
just a little bit.
Also understand that GETTR is
apparently bankrolled by fugitive
Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui,
a close associate of pardonened
Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
Apparently provided something like
$1 million, but Miller says that it
was just seed money,
it's not direct investment.
I'm not rich enough to
know the distinction between those
two things, but he believes that
there's distance between them.
And, in any event,
there are other issues, too.
One of the bigger ones, by the way,
and I did not see this coming when
the app was announced, is that,
despite this being launched by
Jason Miller, one of the key
Trump guys, Trump is not on it,
he has not started an account.
We'll get into that a little bit
more, but the dude isn't on any
accounts, you'd think he'd be
desperate to get on this one.
But, apparently, he's not that
interested, which is a little bit
cold towards Jason Miller.
You're supposed to support
your bro's work, man.
But, anyway,
what do you think about this?
Do you think it'd have any chance
of becoming the next big thing?
>> So, before I get to the GETTR
jokes, which are going to be fun.
So, let's address the two things
that John mentioned there.
First of all,
he put in some seed funding but
he doesn't have ownership, that's
not how it works, [LAUGH] okay?
Nobody puts in seed funding and
then doesn't get equity.
They're like,
I'm just giving it for charity you
just do anything you like with it.
No, look, the right wing
billionaires sometimes give just
flat out money to like
Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager, etc.
Could be that, yeah.
So it could be like, hey, yeah,
I'm giving this to you for
propaganda.
And then, here's the things that I
want you to do to promote
my businesses, my anti-Chinese
government agenda, etc.
Yeah, that makes sense.
But if you do seed funding,
that actually means something.
And it definitely
means you get equity, okay?
And now, as to Trump, we come back
to that same equity question.
So there was a story or
a tweet from, I think,
it was Bloomberg, and
they explained that, no,
Trump is not going to be on it.
And they made a vague allusion,
which I'll explain to you,
which was that they're like
he did not get any
financial consideration, right?
Trump, when he talks on any of
these platforms, the Gabs, the
Gappers, the Grabbers, the GETTRs,
and what all these things, right?
>> He likes Grapper.
>> The Gators, whatever,
the first conversation he has,
is it, how good is your platform?
How's it on free speech?
No, [LAUGH] it ain't got nothing to
do with free, he's like,
how much am I getting, okay?
If I'm going to go on a platform,
a lot of people are going to
come with me,
which by the way is true, right?
So, I want a certain percentage of
the income that comes from that
platform.
So, apparently, it was too rich for
their blood and
Jason Miller didn't pay him.
So Trump's like, no,
I'm not going to do
anything unless I'm getting paid.
Did you not know me the whole time
that you worked for me, you idiot?
So that's why he's not on there.
>> I just really want a fine social
media platform where I
can be racist and say things,
is that so much to ask for in 2021?
You banned me from Twitter,
you take away my Parler, and
now I can't even GETTR done?
[LAUGH] >> Cenk, I'm going to leave
the GETTR jokes to you,
because you probably have much
better ones than I do.
That's my one and only and
I've emptied the clip.
So I think this is kind of
complicated in ways that people
might not expect.
I am going to start with us, and
by us, I'm referring to those folks
who identify themselves as
progressives.
And the reason I say that is,
I think it's worth considering did
and have we with the cancel culture
fertilized the ground that has
created this space?
Now, I think that the people who
oftentimes call themselves victims
of cancel culture are ones who
actually deserve it.
Because, if you can't express
a difference of opinion without
threatening someone else's
humanity, then maybe you do deserve
to be cancelled.
But, at the same time,
I think that there is a very thin
line in current society around who
gets to say what.
And I think that it's actually more
dangerous space than we realize.
Having said that, I don't feel any
ounce of, so, that's the one thing
that I think as progressives,
we do have to be mindful of.
I think that we sort of like
indiscriminately wave the cancel
culture weapon around in ways that
I think we should be a little
bit more thoughtful,
a little bit more precise about.
Because, in my opinion,
it fertilized the ground for so
much of the conversation that is
taking place now.
That is anti-critical race theory,
that is anti-actual factual
history, that is anti sort of
having important and
reasoned conversations.
Because we have been so aggressive
about cancel culture, that it
has just sort of turned mainstream
central moderate folks off.
>> Mm-hm. >> So that's on us,
in one way.
I do think that we should
be mindful of that.
At large, I think that this is
a very interesting space that would
not exist post if January 6th had
not happened.
Had January 6th had not happened,
Paula would still exist,
this whole notion of like,
well, we're banning people who
are neo-Nazis because we think
they're dangerous, would not exist.
Because there is a level of
liability that any lawyer would
look at and say, listen,
if somebody does something and
is able to sort of reasonably
connect this back to your platform,
you're going to have a problem.
And so, I don't necessarily see the
idea of we're banning a neo-Nazi
as a function of, these are our
values, and our values support
different people's humanities.
I don't think that's
the issue, at all.
I think people's ideologies,
when they are problematic,
they go to where they think they're
going to be able to express them,
where they think it's a safe space.
And it's not an accident that
Baked Alaska felt like this
was a safe space.
I think that, the conversation
we're having about January 6th with
a conversation that we're having
about the alt right, and
then holding them accountable for
foreseeable actions that can occur.
They probably looked at that and
said, we don't want any parts of
this, let's be on the safe side,
not the right side, the safe side.
And let's sort of err on the side
of caution and get them up out of
here, but that's my take.
And I think that the dog that
progressives have in this fight,
as far as I'm concerned, because
I'm loving watching this sort of
attempt to create a safe space for
racists go bad.
But the dog that we do have in this
fight, as progressives, is to
consider how are we navigating the
space that created a need for this?
And are we doing it in a way that's
smart, and that's intentional and
directed?
>> Yeah, no,
I think it's a great point.
I think, by the way, we don't have
time to engage them right now, but
I might have found an area for
future disagreement between us on
some of this, but mostly
about the conversation about cancel
culture that I see in other media.
Bearing in mind, of course, and
with a grain of assault like in
Michael Wolf's upcoming book,
he says that Trump never joining
Parler wasn't just about money.
He was offered 40% of the revenue.
It was that he required Parler
to allow him to ban people who
criticized him, and they said no.
So Donald Trump who claims that
he's a victim of cancel culture,
from being banned from Twitter,
wanted free rein to ban people who
made fun of him and
wasn't given that power.
>> I believe there's
a word for that.
>> There is actually,
and- >> In the English language I
believe that word is called bitch.
>> Yeah, and also, having six
months of right wingers on Fox News
tell me that me as a leftist,
I've got some issue with being too
censorious because of
cancel culture.
And then, Gwen Berry turned her
back on the flag, end her career,
get her out of there for
her peaceful protests.
They don't mean it, it's all fake.
And that's why I don't want to
contribute to a narrative that I
think is being weaponized against
the left, that is truly
a phenomenon that everyone engages
in some cases and not others.
In any event, I don't think we have
time for the video, but
Jason Miller would really like
Trump to join up, it doesn't look
like that's going to happen.
This is sort of a ridiculous
platform.
You can take a look at
the screenshots.
It is modeled exactly after
Twitter.
It looks exactly after Twitter.
In fact, people's follower numbers,
add their Twitter follower numbers
to it, which is insane.
I didn't even know how you can
do that, but
that's what they're doing.
Those are two different apps.
That's Twitter and GETTR, and
it's identical.
>> Yeah, it's- [CROSSTALK]
>> They're so lazy.
This reminds me of Trump's
platform/blog which lasted for
a month, right?
>> And then he was like-
>> Almost a month.
>> And he's like, well,
it turns out I suck at this.
Yeah, really, couldn't see
that coming was six bankruptcies.
That you wouldn't know how to run
a platform and neither does any
of his likes, of course.
But, look,
I actually generally agree with
Charles on cancel culture, I think
that that's a very nuanced issue.
We'll take a whole different show
to discuss, but it does sometimes
run amok on both sides.
So, it's not that I disagree
with John.
It was- >> Feels as if.
>> About the right wing is also
true, right?
But I do disagree with Charles that
I would have better jokes,
there's no chance.
[LAUGH] >> So, but let me give
you the jokes of others, though.
So, somebody did say,
Charles, that once that GETTR goes
bankrupt, they reserve the right to
use the headline, GETTR done.
So, you're on it.
And Dave Weigel said, GETTR,
I don't even know her [LAUGH] which
I found to be funny.
Said, GETTR, why,
was grifter taken?
[LAUGH] I likes all those.
But there is and,
there was a great little trolling
that I'll get to in one second.
But there is a really
interesting question,
another interesting question
here that Charles alluded to.
So they're not banning racists,
but they are banning neo-Nazis.
Where's that line?
Man that's a tough line to
draw, right?
Racists, yeah, come on in.
No, you're neo-Nazi.
No, sorry, but you're also racist
that's a super tough one.
Okay, [LAUGH] so, and
then the QAnon folks were really
upset because they apparently
had porn on there, why?
Because trolls instantly came in
with it, and bad words.
And QAnon people are like, you're
letting people say naughty words?
I thought this was just for
racists.
How is that not hilarious, right?
And every one of these right wing
platforms has the same
exact problem.
They're like,
where do we draw the line?
Because, I mean, if we say you can
really have free speech, we're
going to have people advocating for
violence and horrible things and
instantly, right?
And that's why there are lines,
because everybody has to draw
the line somewhere.
So all of this is totally absurd.
And, again, for some of the reasons
that Charles stated, you have to
draw legal lines, at a minimum,
otherwise, you're going to be in
massive, massive trouble.
Finally, the trolls on there
have been the best part of GETTR.
I don't mean to drive you to it
just to look at the trolls,
but the top performing posts as
of when we went on live here was
Cameron Millie.
She was getting the most
subscribers because it was
an attractive woman who
had her top almost off.
So, of course, right wingers, yes,
yes follow, follow, me like, right?
Without knowing what it is at all.
And then when you click on,
it has a picture of Joe Biden.
>> [LAUGH] And- >> That's
free speech, baby.
>> That's right,
and it lists Trump's lies about
the election, and so and now that's
the top followed account on GETTR.
>> Nice, nice.
[LAUGH]