Not long ago, Elon Musk was regarded as a liberal superhero with a cape because of his support for green energy and electric cars.
But now that he’s the new owner of Twitter with his estimated $40 billion to $50 billion acquisition, the left is as angry as hornets. Hundreds of employees are threatening to quit and many thousands say they are dropping their Twitter accounts.
But why, exactly? Here is what Musk said upon his successful Twitter takeover:
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. ... Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
Does that sound threatening to you? Who could object to more openness and free-wheeling debate on social platforms?
The answer is the slice of America that has been captured by a radical agenda that refuses to tolerate anyone with contrary ideas or opinions.
What’s especially disheartening is that some of the most vicious attacks against Musk’s mission of inclusion for Twitter come from the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International. They even criticize him for being a “free speech absolutist.” Once upon a time in a far-off galaxy, these groups were vigilant guardians of free speech absolutism.
Now they’re terrified that someone somewhere at some time might engage in speech that offends them. Do they not understand that no one has a constitutional right to not be offended by what someone else says or writes? I’m offended by half the things I hear and see on MSNBC and CNN. But I’d fight to defend their right to say what they want to say.
The First Amendment is precisely first in the Bill of Rights to protect every person’s right to express their opinion—even when it might be controversial or even wrong. How else are we going to have honest and thought-provoking debates ever again in America with this new muzzle policy?
Some on the left worry that Donald Trump will soon be back on Twitter spouting off three or four times a day. If you don’t want to see that, delete his tweets from your platform. I have a right to talk; you have a right to not listen.
I wish Musk the best of luck with his ambition to create an open and honest social media platform that advances civilized and informed conversation and debate.
It’s frightening that the progressives on the left are so afraid of that. They claim that their goal is to shut down “hate speech.” Just two weeks ago, an Army veteran who put herself through college with her own hard work said on LinkedIn that rather than having a taxpayer bailout of student loan debt, everyone should feel honor-bound to pay their own student loans—as she did. This was labeled “hate speech” and was taken down.
Perhaps what is happening here is that the left doesn’t want to engage in any debate because they know they can’t win the argument if the other side is allowed to speak.
