What's that Musky scent? Elon bought Twitter—let the drama commence!
Also, war mongers are all over the news—Matt Taibbi dives into the bad journalism that gives them a free pass
Haha. I love this Tweet by Defiant L’s. So perfect. It’s a “fascinating cultural transition” when you approve of the billionaire gaining control over the media, but when it’s a billionaire you disapprove of, it suddenly “represents a chilling threat.”
Further to this, Bari Weiss has a great guest-take in her Substack today by Mike Solana. Here’s a clip:
Out of the gate, it was incoherent fury, with no consensus motive. We were told that Elon, who explicitly opposes censorship, intended to deplatform, and ultimately destroy, all of his critics, who are themselves explicitly in favor of censorship. We were told that Elon was building a propaganda engine. We were told that Twitter, which was until last week apparently a peaceful, utopian haven for principled discourse, would now revert to some earlier, imagined world of carnage (very bad tweets). The case was made, with zero evidence, that Elon is a racist. It was all just table stakes, really.
After a week or so, in brutal, Darwinian competition for attention, arguments against Musk blossomed into something more colorful. From Axios, a company committed in writing to never sharing an opinion, it was “reported” that Elon, once likened to Iron Man, was now behaving “like a supervillain.” His ownership of Twitter would lead to World War III, the case was made elsewhere. In one of my favorite moments of derangement, NPR helpfully reminded us that Elon is an imperialist. The basis for such an incredible charge? In the tradition of America’s Apollo Moon landing, one of the most celebrated accomplishments in human history, Elon wants to settle Mars, an uninhabited desert planet 155 million miles from Earth. This is just like colonial-era Britain’s brutal conquest of half the world, when you think about it.
The takes were all extraordinarily stupid, and yes, I loved every single one of them.
The worst people on the internet, delirious with rage, couldn’t stop themselves from saying the dumbest things they’ve ever said since last week and listen, again, yes, I love this. But as funny as the insanity is, it’s important to remember it’s all just that—insane. Irrelevant. Not remotely about what is actually at stake.
The central tension of this discourse has nothing to do with racism or violence or anti-Martian colonialistic sentiment. The collective meltdown over Elon’s Twitter coup is likewise not about the dangers of rich people buying media platforms, a budding take growing in popularity, with innovators of the meme including most recently The Information’s Jessica Lessin. After all, if “rich people buying media platforms” were a serious concern, we probably would have heard more about it last month, when every major media platform was . . . already owned by rich people.
The truth is there’s only one thing this is really about and that’s free speech. Still. It’s always just that.
Elon has repeatedly stated his goal of guaranteeing freedom of political dissent, which he considers essential to the functioning of our democracy. This is what his detractors are reacting to.
Click here for the full piece.
In other news, the always-thorough Matt Taibbi dissects the war mongers on CNN, Fox, and elsewhere (literally left, right, and centre), and the intellectual dishonesty of the “journalists” who consistently fail to mention the ties these people have to weapons manufacturers and defense lobbyists.
See you Friday, people!
Æ
Goodness gracious! Now I know why I have never been tempted to jump down the rabbit hole called Twitter. I read, with a kind of morbid fascination, the comments about Bari Weiss' article--which veered off in so many different directions that I experienced an hour of mental vertigo.
And that was 60 minutes of my life that I can't get back. I had to wonder what better use of my time was available such as working in the garden, maybe doing some exercise, giving my little dog some belly rubs, reading a book, eating breakfast, or picking my nose.
And so, in support of the 'concept' of Twitter, I was educated. Or, at the very least, relieved to find that my original suspicion that it was a bloody waste of time was absolutely correct.
Off to lay on the couch and pick my nose.