Elon Musk buying Twitter=Temper Tantrums
When adults cry because they don't get their way.
Elon Musk is the new proud owner of Twitter.
As most expected, over the last few weeks, Elon Musk purchased the wavering social media company Twitter. The entirety of Twitter’s existence has seen a rollercoaster ride for their stock price. Despite the shakiness of company value, Musk purchased the company at a premium, spending $43 B on the deal. It’s a fascinating shift in the culture of the United States.
On Monday, April 25, 2022, the announcement came through. What did you see? You saw tremendous relief and elation from one side, and the complete opposite for the other. The business mogul, a King Midas of commerce, bought the company as a venue for free public discourse. Nothing terrifies the left-wing authoritarian types quite like this idea of free speech. Today my breakdown is more of a mental exercise than a simple relaying of article analyses. I want to figure out what is going on, on both sides.
The Right:
When users jumped on Twitter, Monday night after the announcement, they witnessed a feed filled with elated users. I almost don’t want to call them “the right” because they are simply “not-the-left”. So, for the sake of this examination, we’ll just call them the right. Why are these people so happy?
The answer: Free Speech. On Monday night the Twitterverse was filled with people finally speaking their minds. Some of the subjects were: Covid-19 treatments, election fraud, comments about sexuality, criticism for Joe Biden, criticism of the government etc. It was fascinating to see people so relieved they were finally allowed to say these things. For years these people have been crushed by the media censors. Their beliefs, stories and political stances put them in Twitter purgatory. None of the above issues are illegal to talk about, and were being discussed on a platformed, headquartered in a country, that has a written rule about free speech. What is that rule? It is not simply a rule, it is a God-given right, one that is granted upon you at birth. It is not illegal to question an election, we saw the Hillary crowd do that for four-years, and in doing so even held impeachment trials that tied up the president’s administration for months. Criticizing the presidency, or politics is exactly why the rule about free speech was written in the first place. The government can’t toss you in prison for dissenting opinions. If these things aren’t illegal, then they should be allowed, period.
Right leaning, and free speech promoting citizens have been treated with contempt. The left views them as a threat, because in the Post-Modern world, words are violence. Through this logic and using vague terminology like “hate-speech rules” the left has managed to quiet the conservative, and right of center voices. Twitter has been shadowbanning people, censoring them and suspending them for years, simply for holding views contrary to the moderators. For those less savvy in technology, shadowbanning simply means your opinions are relegated to the backseat. Tweets from someone advocating for things like free speech, perhaps, would not reach as many people, as say a tweet promoting transgender ideology in children. People well versed in technology can easily manipulate a program to target ideas they don’t like.
Big Tech employees, and this doesn’t shock me at all, donate almost exclusively to the Democratic party. According to some sources floating around, the Twitter employee base was almost 99% left-leaning in political donations. These are the people that have control over the flow of information on the platform. It isn’t shocking that many on the right have complained of having their tweets manipulated. Sure, Twitter owning the company can do whatever they want, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly dishonest and a violation for those trusting the “free speech” platform to treat all users as the same.
During the evening of April 25th, many users on Twitter saw an explosive expansion of their followers. Twitter employees argued that it was purely organic, but most aren’t buying it. This is further proof that there were shenanigans going down at Twitter, and mostly said shenanigans targeted one group and that group was not left leaning. This is precisely why so many on the right were relieved when Musk took over the company. He is a major supporter of Free Speech, and this premise includes the idea that all ideas are welcome, regardless if it hurts the feelings of those hearing them. This is exactly what a site like Twitter should be designed to allow. There is little argument that the direction of censorship has been unfair. Twitter has allowed leaders of registered terrorist organizations to speak freely, but anything coming from the American right, is put under scrutiny of the moderators. We saw this when Donald Trump was banned for allegedly inciting violence after the January 6th “Insurrection”. This is completely absurd. Period.
Those on the right deserve this relief, because in a nation carried on the premise of free speech, the ability to speak freely comes with the territory. Whether Twitter will truly become a free speech platform is something to play out in the future and could very well fall out. European leaders sent warnings to Musk that violation of their hate speech laws could get the platform banned in Europe. These laws are always subject to change, and are usually vague, leaving the idea of hate speech open to interpretation. Either way the despotic leadership inherent in twitter over the last few years has been a venue for discrimination against any dissension, or anything that veers from the leftwing venue of politics.
The Left:
Now this is the fun stuff, right? Why are those on the left freaking out? I guess, to put it in better terms, why are those on the left having temper tantrums? It’s because they are losing control.
Over the last century, the mainstream arm of politics, media, Hollywood and the like, has been moving to the left. In the last decade it has been far worse than most eras in American history. The left has dominated the culture wars through their support by Big-Tech and the media. Technology has tremendous power in this modern age where a phone is always glued to our hands, and the information we see can change the way we think and feel. Every major social media platform has been dominated by the leftwing viewpoints of the users, and anything outside of the woke agenda has been subject to censorship. Accounts have been banned, sometimes permanently for having any opinions contrary to our leftist overlords.
All over the app, following Musk’s announcement, we have seen the explosion of liberal heads. The often-amusing take is that free-speech is a threat to “Democracy”. The left loves this buzzword. They always use it incorrectly, basically saying that democracy is a threat to democracy. Freedom is a threat to freedom. There must be a school for leftist talking points somewhere, because words like “Democracy”, “Racism”, “White Supremacy”, etc. are always jammed into every sentence referring to right leaning individuals. It is all a ruse. The only thing these people care about is losing control.
Anything seen as a personal jab, or something that hurts feelings, is now an existential threat. Anything that can hurt the perceived identity is what is usually deemed a threat to democracy. Triggering people is so simple now, and they have been conditioned to be triggered that it takes very little to offend someone. This so-called “threat to Democracy” just means the spread of an ideology. It is an ideology that doesn’t agree with us; therefore, it is a threat to my existence. It is a very childish way to live. The right-wing ideology runs counter to the woke ideology. Woke ideology is based solely on the self, it is all about perceived image, and the support of said image. Anything that could crumble the idea of perfection, and happiness is truly the most horrific offense that anyone can live through.
In 2016 Donald Trump became the president and his anti-woke, pro-American stance brutally mind-fu**ed these people. It was a level of mental invasion probably unseen in history. Donald Trump started to live in the minds of these liberal crybabies 24/7 and it was the greatest threat to their existence. This perceived idea of self is tied to the here and now, so much so that they couldn’t fathom having so suffer through minutes of the presidency, let alone years. It didn’t matter that Trump could only be president for a maximum of 8-years, the fragile perception of the self that has been created could topple with a mere spattering of mean words. Anything that made these people angry, or feel offended, was grounds for anger and violence like we saw throughout those years. Postmodern intellectual thought, jammed into the heads of recent college grads, made words themselves into violence. This needed to be combated at all costs, and that meant moderation. The only moderators getting jobs at major Silicon Valley establishments were going to be left leaning. Colleges in this modern age churn out liberal-minded graduates to a point where they are radicalized and later given jobs at these tech giants.
For years the liberals were winning. Not through actual conversations, or true conversion but through domination. It was a domination that came through the conjoined heads of institutions like media, tech and Hollywood. It came through censorship, destroying the lives of human beings, getting people fired, getting them banned, removing their means of making money and feeding their families. These forced-converts, converted via the liberal inquisition, were bending the knee to the liberal world order simply as a means of survival. This kind of control allowed for political swaying through a dominant media, playing pro-Biden commercials on TV every single commercial break. This control came through the silencing of anything other than the liberal mindset. This was all just control, and Elon Musk is a threat to that.
Most of these leftists cannot convince people through actual logical discourse, that the liberal agenda is the correct one. They don’t have cogent arguments, but rather they use rhetorical attacks, going ad hominem 100% of the time. That is precisely why they use words that evoke strong emotion. They would call Trump a dictator, right-wingers they would call Nazis and call anti-vaccine mandate proponents “killers.” It plays completely on emotion. That is how they think. They can’t admit the world around them is crumbling at the behest of their new liberal agenda. To the minds of these citizens, who think in this way, words on Twitter are all that matters. If competing opinions flood out, then they’re screwed. It was this kind of free speech that put their anti-Christ aka Trump, in office. For generations who received participation trophies and non-stop back pats this idea of losing ruins their entire worldview. Not winning=death to the ego.
They’re going all in now. They’re pulling out their “White Supremacist” labels, and “ This is a threat to Democracy” type statements, and it will change nothing. When the words won’t work what else do you have? Your only option then is to convince through actual reason and result. That isn’t an option.
Elon Musk buying Twitter ruins everything because if this is taken positively, and this movement for free speech grows, it is going to expand elsewhere. This may force companies to drop ESG, and the artificial praise lobbed by pandering corporations will go away and weaken the ego even more! Elon Musk is a guy who has spearheaded the environmental revolution and has been incredibly successful in that regard. The leftist obsession with the environment should have them lauding Musk as a hero. Instead, he’s pure evil. The only “right-wing” thing Musk seems to be a proponent of is Free Speech. The danger of a powerful, pro-free speech corporate head is that the power of words is under threat. Musk is doing this to open discourse and help expand the boundaries of curiosity and promote change. It is this ideology that created modern civilization and the United States spearheaded the effort. If someone is ardently against this idea, then they have an agenda to control, that is all this is about.
Conclusion:
Musk buying Twitter may make no difference. He may cave to the woke mob and ditch the platform all-together. That is highly unlikely, but it could happen. If it does make a difference it is going to cause a rift in the culture war. This will represent a shift, that could permeate all of technology. This may force the leftists to revise their stance on Section 230 which would ultimately weaken other social media platforms. This could be a lose-lose situation for the left. With the liberal-run economy tanking, America losing its place as a world leader under the leadership of a liberal majority in politics, tanking stocks in companies like Disney, the cancellation of CNN+ and every other signal, the left can’t direct society through results. They can only do it through control. It is exactly why the left is petrified of this purchase, because this could mean a loss of their control.
Be prepared. The powers that be are going to push hard to combat this in any way possible. Either way, the left domination is starting to falter.
Grown-ups, no matter the political affiliation, should not act like children having temper tantrums. Holding your breath, stomping your feet and screaming whatever word of the day that will enrage people, is not a formula for a civil society. Instead of padding your ego through your online persona, perhaps some soul-searching is what you should do.
Be prepared for the next phase of the culture war. It is coming.