Conservatives and libertarianish types have really been enjoying themselves today, watching lefties come absolutely unglued over the prospect of Elon Musk buying Twitter and completing his transformation into scary “movie supervillain.”
But believe it or not, there are actually some lefties out there who can also appreciate what Musk is doing. Or there’s at least one lefty out there who can appreciate it: Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald is no rabid right-winger, but he recognizes the potential value in what Musk could bring to the Twitter table.
Like everyone, I have no idea what Elon Musk's intentions are with Twitter.
But what I know for sure – having seen it first-hand with Substack, Rumble, Callin – is that few things are more urgent than platforms devoted to free speech and discourse, rejecting messaging control. https://t.co/YaB2VppcsH
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 14, 2022
Greenwald is right about that. Twitter ostensibly began as a platform for anyone to say whatever they wanted to, and, particularly over the past few years, it’s become a place where speech and opinions are policed and the policing almost exclusively flows in one direction.
The primary problem is not that tech monopolies have become hives of censorship and speech controls. It's more pernicious and aggressive. They are now key weapons in maintaining closed propaganda systems, always aligned with the US security state:https://t.co/5yMwRQ4v8B
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 14, 2022
If Musk restored what was heralded as the potential of not only of Twitter but the internet generally – liberating people from centralized state and corporate control and fostering free discourse – it'd be one of the most valuable developments in years. I realize it's a big "if." pic.twitter.com/2rEqkGsSas
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 14, 2022
If Musk took control of Twitter, he’d have a real opportunity to restore it to its original stated mission.
The worst, most bloodthirsty and destructive neocons are telling you explicitly: their power to censor the internet, to exclude dissent and maintain information monopolies, is central.
How does everyone not understand why restoring free discourse to the internet is so vital??? pic.twitter.com/LbGG2ONVju
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 14, 2022
A lot of the people screeching about Elon Musk today do believe in free discourse — they just believe that only certain people should be free to engage in free discourse.
I know Nate's formulation is ironic here but it works because it is now indisputably true: a core, central belief of Western liberals is the nobility and necessity of censorship. It is one of their most important weapons, hence the panic and hysteria:https://t.co/Lr5KplRWnp
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 14, 2022
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 14, 2022
It's not just standard US liberals who view online censorship as a noble instrument. Of course they do.
The far greater menace: it's the key weapon of information control for real power centers. We saw that with COVID and especially now with this war:https://t.co/OoZp47nKBs
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 14, 2022
If the success of your political movement, your national ambitions, or your wars, depends upon the need to censor dissent and silence your adversaries, that's a pretty strong indication that you have zero confidence in the beliefs you want to propagate, probably for good reason.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 14, 2022
We couldn’t’ve said it better ourselves. If lefties are so confident that their positions are the right and moral ones, they shouldn’t be terrified at the prospect of sharing a “free speech” platform with people who have different opinions.
