While Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy Twitter is now on hold over details regarding the number of spam and bot accounts on the site, the billionaire said he remains committed to the purchase. Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten believes everyone should be cheering him on, because Musk taking over Twitter would be a boon to free speech and a blow against the ruling class that aims to control our communications:
Stop me if you’ve heard this story before: A ballsy billionaire with elite credentials, yet who is shunned by the elite, takes over an enterprise he plans to transform filled with people shaken by and poised to sabotage him, while under massive public assault.
I’m of course talking about Elon Musk, but the parallels between Musk’s bid for Twitter and Donald Trump’s bid for the White House are striking, and they’re worth drawing out. The Trump presidency provides lessons Musk should heed if he is serious about restoring freedom to the digital public square. If he applies them at Twitter, it will resound to the benefit of every American.
The most important lesson is that it is imperative to know what time it is — to fully understand the stakes of the battle and the lengths to which one’s opponents will go to win.
As with Trump, most of the stated reasons that the political class and media decry Musk, mask the underlying truth. Despite a slew of claims from detractors about how Musk’s victory imperils democracy, or hypocritically among many of these opponents, raises questions about foreign influence or could fuel white supremacy, the reality is that our Ruling Class thinks he — Musk, like Trump — threatens its reign. And it can’t abide them. In fact, it must eliminate any kind of threats.
Why else would its leading mouthpieces feel the need to pursue pseudonymous Twitter accounts curating progressive insanities? Answer: Because the Ruling Class wants to mainstream that insanity, but for the public to see what it is mainstreaming in such unvarnished form is discrediting and delegitimizing. But would there be a @LibsofTikTok without a @realdonaldtrump?
Trump posed a threat to the ruling class by challenging its power, privilege, and prerogatives in government. Musk poses a threat to the ruling class by challenging its power, privilege, and prerogatives in communications, where the ruling class has a monopoly on narrative, both how it’s disseminated and what’s disseminated.