A little while ago, we shared Glenn Greenwald’s insightful thread getting to the root of the Left’s real issue with the prospect of Elon Musk buying Twitter. We recommend that you take a look if you haven’t already, because it dovetails nicely with another thread from Mary Katharine Ham today.
As Greenwald noted, liberals are extremely anxious about Musk being at the Twitter helm because up until now, they’ve enjoyed having the ability to share their opinions as well as the ability to get people’s opinions they don’t like shut down. Liberals have had a great deal of control over Twitter, and, by extension, narratives, and they’re terrified that they could lose it if Musk takes the wheel.
Twitter will reject the offer, Musk will dump his shares, nothing will change. In the end, we just get the only thing that matters: The Takes.
— Damin Toell (@damintoell) April 14, 2022
A very real possibility, but the mask came so cleanly off today and that genie ain't going back in the bottle. https://t.co/dVSAOjt4eX
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) April 14, 2022
That’s a really interesting and great point. Now, it almost doesn’t matter whether or not Elon Musk buys Twitter, because the Left’s reaction to just the notion has laid bare their agenda. It’s out there for everyone to see. And no matter how emphatically they try to deny it now, the cat’s out of the bag.
Twitter's heavy-handed political viewpoint discrimination/narrative protection is yet another thing that isn't happening, guys, then is happening but is also fine stop whining, and then is all of a sudden conceded to be happening precisely bc it is VITAL to democracy. https://t.co/2QF2hK3T7b
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 14, 2022
Recommended
Liberals running around today over Elon Musk like chickens with their heads cut off have let their narratives get away from them. It was bound to happen, what with creating so many.
That is, in fact, un-free speech, which is confusion of this Reich piece. The rebooted free speech concept is democracy needs heavy-handed moderation of speech to survive, so the new free speech is good speech determined by a left-leaning elite. https://t.co/0fHqJUAnWT
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 14, 2022
Looking at you, Max Boot.
As with "Red Dawn" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" before it, the reboot is not better. The original is amazing, and includes a lot of speech many among us won't like for many reasons bc that's the point.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 14, 2022
Freedom of speech is about protecting even the speech we don’t like.
Now, is Musk truly pro-free-speech? I think there are indications he is, including that he offered satellites/Internet to Ukraine against an authoritarian, but then refused to censor content, even Russian content, that was delivered by that infrastructure, to name one.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 14, 2022
But I think rampant rhetorical pants-wetting over possibility of Musk being in charge is A) a perceived loss of power to regulate other viewpoints in an important public space and B) some fear Musk himself will use the rebooted version of "free speech" against his adversaries.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 14, 2022
At least (B) is based in reality. After all, look what’s happened to Twitter in even just the past few years.
That is a healthy fear and one people should think about more often, when they're IN power and out of it. Rebooted free speech is not free, and therefore not great for preserving democracy. A light touch, wide latitude, & transparent rules in a speech platform would be better.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 14, 2022
Tools to restrict true abuse and threats are important, as is the ability to filter what you'd like to see. I get it, I've seen plenty here! But there's way too much "anything I think is bad is abuse/threats/hate" and therefore "no one should see it" on this platform.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 14, 2022
Last time we checked, Twitter gave users the option to unfollow or mute or block other users. No need to get the Thought Police involved.
And yes, stipulated, a private company can do what it wants, whether it's banning people based on my political preferences (which I would still SAY IS WRONG) or yours. But A) feds are increasingly involved, as with the Surgeon Gen guiding misinformation hunts.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 14, 2022
And B) I like to think of the First Amendment as the least we can do for the value of free speech. Great, the government didn't shut down speech today! Brava. What can we do to cultivate it and make sure minority viewpoints get a hearing even on this dumpster fire app? The end.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 14, 2022
That may be the end of Mary Katharine Ham’s thread, but we hope the free speech keeps coming.
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