Elon Musk, after his typically bizarre way of getting to the finish line in closing the Twitter deal on Thursday, October 27, 2022, has many believing that he is a true champion of the First Amendment.
Naturally, if that is true, Musk will passionately strive to save what is left of “Free Speech” in America by bludgeoning his rival social media platforms into alleviating their censorship of information that could benefit everyone, including Conservatives and Republicans (note that there is a distinction between here), or anything that could possibly harm The Democrat Industrial Complex at election time. If you are of that mindset, save yourself the anguish and harsh reality that will ultimately set in… “In Musk, We Trust” would be a foolish place to bet the farm on.
Musk built the success of Tesla on a foundation of U.S. Government subsidies, being at one time the largest recipient of that largesse, and probably still is. He has lavishly praised the Chinese people while conveying pejoratives about American workers and has shown no proof of public service or commitment to the proposition that his purchase of Twitter really had anything to do with the First Amendment. Elon has proven himself to be a gifted entrepreneur with an exceptional ability to create and monetize breakthrough (maybe) technologies. His dumping of internal Twitter memoranda relating to the Hunter Biden Laptop Twitter censorship scandal was potentially a good first step in Musk’s commitment to exposing the truth and a clear gesture towards knocking the social media component of The American Pravda on its a**.
However, anyone who thinks that Musk’s visage deserves to replace George Washington’s visage on the Quarter, anointing him as the “Father of Free Speech” in the 21st Century, is naive… Freedom of Speech in America is the cornerstone of our Founding principles and the key to its survival as a Constitutional Republic.
Musk, with his private ownership of Twitter, is now a Media Baron in addition to being one of the top five wealthiest people in the world depending on the vicissitudes of the stock market on any given day. Essentially, he is the 21st-century equivalent of a Press/Media Baron of the 20th Century along the lines of William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, William Paley, Robert McCormick, and others. Americans sometimes relied upon and were often misled by the Media Moguls of yesteryear, but they never relied upon them to be guarantors of Free Speech. Even formally less educated Americans from two generations ago had a far greater understanding of their civic responsibilities and knew that freedom of speech was something that was their inalienable right as an American. The old aphorism "I disagree with what you are saying but defend to the death your right to say it.” has now been changed around a little by the political and social conformity of Social Media to: “I disagree with what you are saying, and will cancel you and destroy your life!”
The baby steps taken by Elon Musk are just that… Even with his mass firings, he kept on one of Twitter’s Chief Censorship miscreants (Yoel Roth) who has subsequently left the company. Even Centibillionaires have puppet masters and Musk is no exception. Who are his?
It's laudatory that Musk has called out the corruption of the Marxist Left Democrat Industrial Complex. However, it is always easy to voice criticism against those who can do you no harm. Musk’s general criticisms of institutions, large organizations, and gargantuan enterprises will have little or no effect on your right to Free Speech unless and until Musk’s Twitter ensures, through its direct competitive market influence, other major social media platforms to transparently post all submissions freely and fairly without regard to any preferred Political perspective.
It is up to each and every American Citizen to understand and fight for their First Amendment Rights EVERY DAY and to understand that, without Freedom of Speech… America is not America.
Pretty good work so far Elon, but you’ve got a long way to go…
-Emes