Elon Musk’s defense of his freedom of speech will make you want to cheer

Tesla (one of those other companies Elon Musk is running) had a shareholder meeting yesterday and then he sat down for an interview with David Faber at CNBC. In the process, he spoke a great deal about his view of how he acquired Twitter, how he feels about Twitter, his commitment to freedom of speech on Twitter and other topics. So, if you’re obsessed with Twitter (and it’s kind of a bona fide occupational qualification around here), you’re getting a lot of interesting stuff.

Elon Musk talks about his Twitter acquisition pic.twitter.com/r63eUJHeoQ

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) May 16, 2023

Elon Musk speaks about his decision to choose Linda Yaccarino (@LindaYacc) as the new CEO of Twitter pic.twitter.com/fk53bBGnqt

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) May 16, 2023

Here’s where things start to get particularly fascinating. First, he offers the idea that community notes have a larger effect than just the specific tweets being ‘noted,’ because the embarrassment has a deterrent effect on other people who might be dishonest.

But he also discloses that advertisers have gotten upset with him over being noted and how he stood up to them:

Elon Musk speaks about Free Speech on Twitter: pic.twitter.com/PS179aWdKm

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) May 16, 2023

Then the interviewer starts to grill him on why he dares to speak freely. This occurs in multiple segments including this one where he talks about regretting his vote for Biden and wishing he could vote for a normal person for president:

Elon Musk is asked if he regrets voting for Joe Biden “Man.. I wish we could just have a normal human being as President” pic.twitter.com/JzWaLYn4Wr

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) May 16, 2023

We all want a normal person as president, Elon.

And the actual quote is ‘I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory, than by the Harvard University faculty’ and it was William F. Buckley who said it.

(And now we just realized that young people might not even know what a phone directory or phone book is, and, therefore, we feel old. You see, youngsters, before there was the Internet, the phone companies had to print out books full of people’s phone numbers, often with their addresses. So it’s really a way of saying he would rather be governed by random people.)

Twitter’s Elon’s World. He paid $44 billion to dominate your attention and determine what you see. He knows he can manipulate his personal platform to be in a position powerful enough to crown kings, pick presidents and help produce whatever personal or political outcome he wants

— Luke Zaleski (@ZaleskiLuke) May 17, 2023

Actually, Mr. Zaleski is upset that Musk probably won’t be participating in more of that election interference he apparently craves.

He is the owner or major shareholder of many companies. He has sucked at walking the non political line, but it is dangerous for a business person to support one side or another too much

— PuzzleFactory (@Tulrin) May 16, 2023

It’s dangerous to have opinions or something.

i feel him https://t.co/rsqtDYvBEs

— Pascal (@paescebu) May 17, 2023

He's gonna run one day 100% https://t.co/tnM1ZEAOVg

— Peace Capital ☮ (@SMalikjo) May 17, 2023

He can’t, unless we amend the Constitution.

Almost every “conspiracy” from 2015 to now has happened…not flat earth, not Bigfoot, but legit issues about CV, Biden, govt have all been exposed as accurate. C1A coined the term, ask yourself why 🙄 https://t.co/0XOXB7Cnj1

— Some Might Say ❄️ 79 (@CulinaryOasis79) May 17, 2023

Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube censorship was election interference.. https://t.co/vqkg3JsCPA

— Gulf-SchemePark (@Jackpotkimm) May 17, 2023

And do we have to tell you that people liked what he said about free speech?

I love when intelligent people take time to think about what they are going to say. Look how serious he got. 😳

Mean what you say or don’t say it at all.

— Ro₿ert Σliadis (@REliadis) May 17, 2023

This is the hottest scene I've ever seen. It feels like a movie because this level of genuine confidence and authenticity rarely occurs in real life. He could play the game and enjoy all the ad revenue, but won't sacrifice his soul. Nothing could be more solid.

— Tiffany Duke (@itstiffduke) May 17, 2023

Elon held his composure while "you don't care" flowed out of David's mouth. Elon isn't about to be intimidated or silenced. David very much put words in Elons mouth by saying "you don't care" because we know for Elon that it's quite the opposite. So disappointed in David's…

— Jessie Rose (@JessieRoseGarre) May 17, 2023

Musk took a 13 second pause before he answered. 🔥🔥🔥

— 3sidedstory 🇺🇲 (@3sidedstory) May 16, 2023

pic.twitter.com/kM0aaY3VU3

— Brandon Christison (@greatbrandoni) May 17, 2023

Someone even dug up the relevant clip from the Princess Bride:

@elonmusk Elon Montoya ⚔️ executing on his mission at the 1:22 mark! https://t.co/JLoxm96eCw

— Tico S. Thepsourinthone (@ticotheps) May 17, 2023

Some people have fu money. Few have f-them money. Elon has f-errbody money. https://t.co/89EsO5x8Ey

— Jason Gu (@jasonprompts) May 17, 2023

He ain’t wrong.

But we will leave you with the words of Seth Dillon, the owner of the Babylon Bee:

We refused to censor ourselves and lost access to this platform because of it. The only reason we're back is because Elon shared our belief that you can't put a price on freedom. In an age of censorship and ideological subjugation, Musk's answer here is profound. https://t.co/So62Ke2AZU

— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) May 16, 2023

Damn straight.

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