By Brandon Morse | RedState
You’ve likely heard by now that Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made good on his word and has made an offer to buy Twitter whole-hog. The goal, as he’s been saying openly, is to take the largest conversation site on the web and take it from the dictatorial grasp of the radical leftists who silence everyone to the right of Marx at every turn and return it to a platform that values free speech.
In turn, this has made leftists lose their minds, and even as I write this, the reaction has been nothing short of glorious. If it’s not pure unadulterated panic, it’s people coming to the very odd conclusion that freedom of speech is somehow dangerous to…freedom.
Yeah, it’s that level of asininity.
But zooming out on the arguments gives us a pretty good idea of what both sides of this conflict want, and when you plainly lay out the goals of each, it strikes you just where people are at in terms of ideology.
For those supporting Musk’s buyout of Twitter, they want something very simple; the ability to say what they want without fear of being suspended or banned. They want to be able to have conversations and make points without having to obey the guidelines laid down by their political/ideological opposites.
In other words, a little more honest conversation, a lot less ideological oversight.
What those who are against the buy are saying is that they would rather not allow people to say what they want, how they want, when they want, because some people will utilize that to spread “misinformation” that threatens our “Democracy.”
At least, that’s their excuse. What they actually seem to be afraid of isn’t the spread of “misinformation,” it’s the fact that very soon they’ll lose their handicap on this course and will have to have their ideas and declarations weighed and measured in an environment where it won’t be protected.
They’re being made equal and they don’t like it.
Much of what the left argues can only exist in a vacuum. Introduce outside opinions and the point they make begins to deflate pretty fast. For years, Twitter has been complicit in keeping certain arguments from making their way into the mainstream and given Twitter’s status as the de facto town square (as Elon Musk called it) that has polluted the national conversation on many a topic.
Everything from the COVID-19 virus to transgenderism has had Twitter’s “Trust and Safety” police busy. Suspensions and bans are a daily occurrence on the right. Even jokes are punished. You can ask the Babylon Bee about that. Their account is still suspended.
Looking back to the time of GamerGate around 2014/2015, you’ll notice there are far fewer right-leaning individuals than there were then. Our voice on the platform has been severely diminished. Those who do remain have had their reach choked to the point of non-existence. I have over 40k followers on Twitter and yet you’d think I had 200 by the amount of reach my tweets get.
Imagine what happens to the national conversation when all those banned and suspended are allowed to come back to the platform and speak truths that the left had kept tightly locked away. Imagine the largest conversational platform not having a guided narrative.
The national conversation will inevitably shift further away from the left.
And that’s what they’re really angry about. They can no longer control the national conversation here. Their dictatorial power will be lost and their ability to convince you of whatever ridiculous talking point they’ve cooked up will be severely lessened. They will lose more power while the people gain it.
The people are angry that the people are gaining power at this moment should be noted. These people aren’t to be trusted.
Author: Brandon Morse