Elon Musk hasn’t yet assumed the throne and become Twitter Dictator (Twictator?), but maybe he’s purposely trying to drag out this process in order to see just how many journalists whose brains he can break before he takes over for realsies.
We certainly wouldn’t blame him for doing that. Breaking journalists’ brains is fun. And it’s so easy, too! Plenty of them lost it the other day when news broke that Musk was ready to go through with the big deal. Remember Ben Collins? That guy was a hot mess.
And how about Vanity Fair? They are fa-reakin’ out over there, man:
If Musk's latest offer to buy Twitter actually goes through, he's made it clear he intends to welcome back the worst purveyors of hate and misinformation.
Read the latest from @besslevin: https://t.co/FdFRaJYoln
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) October 6, 2022
If Elon Musk takes over, the good name of Twitter will be sullied and besmirched! Mark Bess Levin’s words:
Earlier this week, Elon Musk woke up and decided that he wanted to buy Twitter. If you haven’t been keeping up with the daily whims of the richest man in the world, you might have thought he already expressed such a desire some time ago. And that’s right, he did— even made it official and everything!—before characteristically trying to back out of the deal, a move that landed him in court. Why the most recent change of heart? Obviously, no one can truly know what’s going on inside this guy’s head, but many people believe it probably had to do with the fact that it looked like he was going to lose at trial and be forced to buy the site anyway. Or perhaps it was that he didn’t want himself and his billionaire friends, whose text messages were recently revealed via court documents, to suffer further humiliation. Or maybe he just woke up that morning and decided to f*ck with people, as he frequently does. Again, no one can say for sure, but one thing we can say with a high level of confidence is that if Musk actually buys Twitter this time—and that remains a big if!—he’s very likely going to turn it into a right-wing cesspool featuring the worst people on earth—starting with Donald Trump.
…
“I think there’s a serious threat to democracy,” Jessica González, co-CEO of Free Press, a nonpartisan media advocacy organization, told Politico. “I think we’ll see prolific conspiracy theories, and white supremacists return to the platform and a lot more people who hold power and who are willing to use platforms to spread hate and harassment campaigns.”
…
Anyway, be afraid.
I have to assume that I wasn’t supposed to laugh while I read that piece, but dammit, I couldn’t help myself. Effing Louis Farrakhan is on Twitter and pollutes the public discourse with all kinds of insane bigoted garbage. So is Marc Lamont Hill. So is Ibram X. Kendi. So is Tariq Nasheed. Tim Wise. Pretty much any woke celebrity. And Bess Levin and Vanity Fair haven’t had any public meltdowns over any of those people. I personally don’t like Trump or his tweets, but isn’t he just as entitled to his free speech as anyone else? As long as he’s not calling for violence or endangering people (like, say, Taylor Lorenz has done many times)? Opening up Twitter wouldn’t threaten democracy; it would level the playing field.
And Vanity Fair’s just afraid that the Left will lose their iron grip on Twitter’s levers of power with Musk in charge, and then more people will realize that Twitter’s liberal powers that be have been stifling speech all this time.
DAMN THAT FREE SPEECH!
— Zombie John Gotti 🚌 🐗 (@ZombieJohnGotti) October 7, 2022
https://t.co/RDws1jDJLU pic.twitter.com/tw7HwyweD2
— Anthony Abides (@AnthonyAbides) October 7, 2022
This is terrifying!! What if I don’t mute all the necessary words and I accidentally see something I disagree with? Will there be Twitter therapists available? Virtual coloring books? This is all too much! 🥺😩😭😭
— 🫃🏼💉🇺🇦Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) October 6, 2022
If we have to subjected to dumb tweets of dumb stories from Vanity Fair, then they should have to deal with tweets they don’t like.
I’m so sorry this is happening to you.
— Tripp (@cbomar_3) October 7, 2022
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