Over time, Elon Musk has made some huge cash and used it to pay different folks to make some fairly cool issues for him. He’s additionally a horrible particular person whose listing of scandals is so lengthy, you’ve in all probability forgotten issues that will have gotten every other CEO fired, and nowhere is that perspective on show clearer than over on Twitter, the social media community he purchased whereas claiming to defend free speech. As Adam Conover factors out in his newest video, although, all of the proof factors to Musk doing extra to kill free speech on this nation.
Now, earlier than we get too far, we have to set up precisely what free speech is. As xkcd’s Randall Munroe so eloquently put it:
The best to free speech means the federal government can’t arrest you for what you say. It doesn’t imply that anybody else has to hearken to your bullshit or host you whilst you share it. The first Modification doesn’t defend you from criticism or penalties. If you happen to’re yelled at, boycotted, have your present canceled, or get banned from an web neighborhood, your free speech rights aren’t being violated. It’s simply that the folks listening assume you’re an asshole, they usually’re exhibiting you the door.
That is, in fact, an issue for conservatives as a result of their insurance policies are deeply unpopular and objectively horrible. When Democrats get what they need, the rich pay extra in taxes. When Republicans get what they need, folks actually die. And that’s even earlier than you get into the wild conspiracy theories and bigotry their elected officers spew nonstop. When social media corporations began banning folks for blatantly or repeatedly violating their phrases of service, conservatives determined they had been being censored. It’s bullshit now, and it was all the time bullshit.
So Elon Musk purchased Twitter beneath the guise of defending free speech. The truth that the first Modification solely applies to the federal government, and Twitter was a publicly traded firm was as irrelevant as whether or not or not Musk even understood the excellence. He’s not a defender of free speech. He’s a bigot who occurs to have cash and used it to amplify the voices of essentially the most vile folks on the web.
Musk didn’t cease there, both. He’s additionally banned critics, journalists, political activists and different customers he simply doesn’t agree with. He even determined the time period “cis” was a slur. Musk additionally made Twitter engineers change the algorithm to spice up his tweets even to individuals who didn’t need to see them, roughly forcing others to hearken to his speech. Oh, and when advertisers determined they didn’t need their adverts showing close to tweets utilizing racial slurs, Musk responded by suing an promoting commerce group and forcing them to close down as a result of they couldn’t afford to combat the lawsuit.
Even for those who skip the precise definition of free speech as outlined within the 1st Modification and later interpreted in landmark court docket instances equivalent to Brandenburg v. Ohio, and also you go together with Elon’s model, he’s nonetheless a hypocrite. He’s additionally gotten even worse since he put a Trump 2024 win on his imaginative and prescient board. To see simply how unhealthy he’s gotten, you’ll have to look at the remainder of the video under.
