Because it was fun? Because it was for sale? Because he just had to have it? The truth is, no one really knows.
Ammal Hassan
April 26, 2022
What The Hell Does Elon Want With Twitter Anyway?
[Really? Musk has repeatedly said it’s because Twitter has been hostile to free speech. He has literally said:
Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate
By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law.
I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.
If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.
Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.
If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!
And authenticate all real humans
Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.
What should be done?
Despite all that, this bozo Hassan can’t imagine free speech being the real reason.
From reading some the comments to various threads about the buyout it is very clear that many people are vehemently opposed to free speech. They come close to predicting the end of the world if people are allowed to spread “disinformation, conspiracy theories, and hate speech.”
This is incredibly willful ignorance or, more likely in many cases, deliberate evil.
The “end of the world” is much more likely to occur if we don’t have free speech. The suppression of free speech is the mark of authoritarianism. It enables corruption, gulags, and genocide. This is why we have the 2nd Amendment. It protects the 1st Amendment.—Joe]
Mr. Huffman:
In addition to the often quoted “this is referred to as ‘bad luck’” quotation from Robert Heinlein, you may wish to remind your readers of another one of his, this time from “…If This Goes On” (aka, “Revolt in 2100”):
“For the first time in my life, I was reading things which had not been approved by the Prophet’s censors, and the impact on my mind was devastating. Sometimes I would glance over my shoulder to see who was watching me, frightened in spite of myself. I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy…censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to it’s subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked, contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything—you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”
It’s very often shortened by eliminating the first two sentences, but I personally feel those add substantively to the quotation, but that may be merely because I’ve been reading that book for almost 60 years and am very familiar with its context.
With all of the large tech companies (Google, Apple and Amazon) conspiring to shut down free speech and to censor anything that dares to disagree with the collectivist narrative this is more timely than ever.
Great idea. I’m a big fan of Heinlein as well. He and Ayn Rand had a HUGE influence on my personal moral and political philosophy.
Expect something after Boomershoot. I’m very busy now.
Yes, well forgive me if don’t join in the singing lustily of Happy Days Are Here Again!;
“I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.
Far beyond? Whose law? And a little beyond is cool?
If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.
Then tyranny would be perfectly acceptable, because democracy.
No visible foundation.
All built on sand.
Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”
So it’s all about pure democracy, with no apparent comprehension of the constitutional republic we were supposed to have. I guess we’d lost that contest by the early1940s, when FDR named America “The Arsenal of Democracy” instead of “The Arsenal of Liberty”, the two being virtual polar opposites.
I find no demonstration of a clear understanding of the fundamental principles in any of his quotes. So let’s be careful not to project our own onto his words, as we’ve so often done with Republican politicians thus being forever disappointed.
I believe it’s possible to be in favor of free speech, while also refusing to trust Mr. Musk.
Saling electric cars to help prevent pollution and global climate change should go a long ways toward reinforcing your distrust in Mr. Musk’s intentions.
It’s not as if he hasn’t acted like a used car salesman in the passed.
But hey, Hopium springs eternal, right?
It is sad to see firsthand, but most people would much prefer a simple lie than uncomfortable truths. They want to be part of the crowd; maybe part of a hipper edge of the crowd, but they want to be supported by being not far from the mainstream. It gives them comfort that if they are wrong, then they are not wrong ALONE. “Hey, everyone was doing it, how could I possibly have known?” Many of them support coercion and censorship, as long as it is a polite, nice, soft-shoe type, so that everyone is in the same boat together. The hate I get from some vaxxed people pointing out that Covid is a fairly benign and treatable disease, and almost exclusively kills those with serious comorbidities and zero early treatment with simple OTC things and cheap generics is amazing. They don’t want to know the truth about demographics and crime or IQ. They don’t want to understand that they are being robbed blind by central bank inflation. They MUCH prefer their happy, ignorant, cocooned lie. And they hate us heretics because our mere existence is a daily reminder that there are people who think differently, and might be right, and that means…. they might be wrong. That terrifies them.
They fear free speech because they have no counter-facts, no counter-arguments, and they are unable or afraid to learn. Free speech opens a window they don’t want to look out, because they are terrified of what they might see.
Afraid that looking to close at Disney will see child sex/gay/trans grooming and pedo stuff, looking to close in many other place will expose corruption and worse. They can’t handle the truth.
Elon Musk needs the Twitter platform (or something effectively identical in structure) as his comms platform for a multi-planetary human society. Analogous to the early trans-continental USA (and territories) comms system of 150+ years ago utilizing Morse code. This will require a network of re-transmitting platforms circling the Sun to allow nearly light speed retransmission of message packets between planets/platforms wherever they may be in their individual orbit of the Sun at any given time.
“Free speech” is just a useful metric upon which to base future customer faith in content reliability of any instantiation of such a Solar System spanning comms system.
The 1st and 2nd Amendments share a great deal in common.
They both only work if you use them.
Here’s my own quotation:
“Your inalienable rights are like muscles; they only stay strong if you exercise them.”