Elon Musk Buys Twitter, “Let That Sink In”

“You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall — you need me on that wall.” — Aaron Sorkin, A Few Good Men

“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.” — Stephen King, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

Readers of this site know that I have been warning about a pendulum shift and a massive backlash to the utter insanity that has overtaken the cultural and political Left. Well, that moment has arrived. It looks like a massive red wave for the midterms (it looks that way right now, maybe that will change) and Elon Musk has now bought Twitter.

At the same time, the Washington Post’s Eric Wemple has now become the first major journalist and outlet to come to terms with one of the worst moments in American, and New York Times, history about the Tom Cotton essay debacle in 2020. My Twitter followers, and readers of my writing here and elsewhere know that, for me and many, that was the moment my perspective completely changed. I spoke out loudly at the time, though I’ve mostly deleted my Twitter history. But still, I have not shut up about it two years later.

The best coverage of this involved Bari Weiss who wrote a resignation letter from the Times after that and launched a fair-minded Substack called Common Sense. Weiss’ bravery emboldened many others, including me, to escape the bubble of the Left and start doing my own research into news stories and various other things. Weiss wrote:

Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor. As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative.

My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m “writing about the Jews again.” Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in. There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly “inclusive” one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. Still other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action. They never are.

Twitter has been destructive across the board, from journalism to the Oscars. The function of an Orwellian thought police is overwhelming to many, but especially to those in the highest reaches of power, culturally and politically. But information, like truth, wants to be free. Musk’s Twitter takeover will ensure a much more free and open forum.

With the Republicans possibly taking Congress in a week or so, Big Tech will be in the hot seat regarding the regulation of thought and speech. If the Democrats were to retain power, you can bet the first thing they would be doing — and they might still do it before next year — is regulate Musk and Twitter. I’m not sure how they’ll do that, but I figure that will be their main objective before 2023. The reason is, Twitter is too valuable for them at the moment. Twitter controls the media, and the media influences politicians.

Things are about to change. They’re going to change fast. I’ve been online 28 years and offline for 28 years. I know how the internet has changed. I’ve lived it. I know that the worst thing that has happened to the internet is for one specific ideology to have overtaken most of the biggest social media platforms, not to mention all institutions of power.

I believe it has taken us to a place where we have lost access to the truth. Truth in comedy, truth in screenwriting and filmmaking, truth in science, truth in journalism. If it must protect those deemed worthy of protection and distorting the truth, well, here we are. And indeed, here we are.

You don’t have to be “right-wing” to want personal freedom. For me, the only thing that matters more than my own life, the life of my daughter (or pets, friends, family) is freedom of the mind. If I had not escaped the bubble of the Left, my brain would have turned to cottage cheese. I don’t like being told what to think. And that is why you see me here and everywhere else online saying what I think vs. expressing myself out of fear.

I have taken personal risks by not following the status quo. But I know I did the right thing. That has to count for something.

Here are a few things to note:

1. Barack Obama was the first US President to use Twitter to grow his coalition of support. That coalition grew to consume most of Twitter and is otherwise known as the “blue-check” army. Obama still has the most followers on Twitter, at 133 million.

2. Trump’s rise also had a lot to do with Twitter; his support grew to nearly 80 million followers before they banned the sitting President of the United States.

3. Twitter changed its algorithm in 2017 to push the most “engaged” tweets to the top of the feed just as Trump took office. While that didn’t exactly change the user base of Twitter, it did start to make the cultural and political Left slightly more insane by the day. They do not see it that way. That is just my own opinion. You can still curate your own feed to see “latest tweets” instead of “top tweets,” but most people don’t do that. They are brain-addicted to the dopamine all social media apps dump into our still-primitive brains.

All you have to do is spend time off of Twitter, then spend time back on Twitter to see how it’s like dipping into Nightmare Alley. It is fun and exciting, but that’s mainly because it functions like the slot machines in Vegas. It dumps dopamine into your brain every time you use it, especially those who get a lot of engagement with their tweets.

4. Twitter didn’t become 1984 until 2020. Like all social media apps, they were sucked into the machine of policing thought (I promise you, someday people will write books about this moment in history, once they are no longer afraid to do so). Twitter was essentially co-opted in 2020 by those in power, the Democrats essentially. That meant there was unity of ideology across all platforms, from Google to Youtube to Facebook to Twitter (especially Twitter). That meant the blue-checks on Twitter mostly did the thought policing for the Biden administration. Proudly so. Anyone who didn’t go along with the day’s directives were punished.

They called themselves the “resistance,” or “resistance Twitter,” but the truth is, they were always the empire. They still are, albeit a collapsing empire. The pendulum always swings. That’s the only thing we can be certain of where human societies are concerned.

5. Elon Musk became interested in buying Twitter when he saw that the Babylon Bee had been suspended for making a joke that most would consider transphobic at best, “hate speech” at worst. That joke really did put free speech, vis a vis Twitter, to the test. Considering our government is on board with this kind of thought/speech policing, even going so far as to punish satire or humor (however harmful you think it is) that made Twitter violate the First Amendment. Not technically, of course, but if the government is involved, that takes us to the Constitution.

So, was the joke that bad? To many out there, yes, it was. They see it the same way one might see an anti-semitic or racist cartoon. They stopped publishing Dr. Seuss books for what modern readers see as racist stereotypes. And to the modern-day Left, making a joke about someone’s gender expression is on the same level, given the abuse and suicides among the transgender community.

Musk will likely work with others to determine how best to set a new Overton window, to decide what is allowed and what isn’t. I expect it will follow the dictates of the Constitution. Or else will be regulated as a public utility.

No doubt, many will leave Twitter under new management. But many more will join. Maybe it will motivate journalists to start being journalists again. Who knows.

I have always said that we’ll be through this new “Red Scare” when we can all be okay with people saying things we find offensive, shrug, and move on. When words and ideas, and thoughts are no longer “harm,” we will have moved through this era. When Trump can return to Twitter, and it’s no big deal, we know we are stronger, more resilient, and better equipped to survive real life.

What do I mean by that? Well, to many on Twitter this is worse than literal nuclear war, as the Spectator highlights in their “The Most Hysterical Twitter overreactions to Elon Musk’s first day:”

Aaron Rupar also saw the potential exodus as an opportunity to hawk his wares: “Followers: I hope you don’t leave Twitter but IF YOU MUST, please sign up for the free version of my newsletter. “

So what are Twitter’s more progressive users so scared of? One account summed it up: “The reality of Elon Musk’s “the bird is free” – holocaust denial, racism, disablism, conspiracy theories, rape and sexual abuse threats, threats of violence, misogyny, sexism, transphobia, LGBTQ+ prejudice, eugenics, will now go into overdrive with no accountability.”

Tech “reporters” and “misinformation journalists” are also clutching their pearls. “It’s like the gates of hell opened on this site tonight,” tweeted the Washington Post‘s Taylor Lorenz. “I would be so happy if I’m wrong. But the all the red lights are flashing here,” said NBC’s Ben Collins.

One person on Twitter claimed that “NY times and WaPo tech reporters” were “hosting a space [Twitter’s livestreaming function] and saying people are terrified of even posting in slack.” According to this user, the Twitter Space included comments such as “It’s like the Joker taking over Arkham Asylum and releasing all of the supervillains back into the world” and “This is a really scary time for Twitter employees. These are their lives. They worked really hard on this app.” Cockburn can’t verify those quotes himself, but is filing them under “too good to check”…

I feel badly for them. It has to been hard to watch a once powerful movement behave like they’re locked inside a doomsday bunker. This is just not the way to survive life. If this is what Twitter has done to us, or them — then an intervention was required. Sometimes you just need some tough love.

Be strong. Be brave. Be honest. Hope springs eternal.