Will Twitter Now Be a Haven of Free Speech?
I doubt it. Here's why.
People going into an apoplexy of rage over… things.
People hailing the coming of a savior.
People threatening to “leave” if soandso takes over…
Or if soandso comes back…
Why does all of this feel familiar?
Oh yeah. This is “public discourse” now, ever since two presidential elections ago.
This is what we do now.
The Musk Twitter takeover has become another thing to divide us into camps that alternately celebrate the ushering in of a new age of freedom and prosperity, or proclaim the end of civilization as we know it.
Of course, both positions are untenable nonsense.
To fire “content moderators” (i.e., censors) and remove barriers to free speech and to restore banned accounts cannot be the threat to civilization that some would have us believe.
The censors were the threat.
On the other hand, no supposed “savior” can change the deeper problem that persists: like it or not, we live in a censorious culture. There’s been a widespread flight from civil discourse, from “agree to disagree”, towards force, cancelling, and silencing one another.
Why?
For decades postmodernism (what today manifests in the culture as “wokeism”) attacked the existence of the individual, of the individual’s ability to know things, and of our ability to communicate across groups. It believes only in collective bodies and in obtaining things by force. A postmodernist is therefore repulsed by any concept of freedom, or individual rights, or even the possibility of co-operation or communication between individuals.
Ergo, freedom of speech is right out.
An entire generation raised in postmodernism in colleges and universities are now business leaders and boards of directors and elected office holders.
So, the rest of us find ourselves wading in the busted pipes of their philosophical sewer.
“Postmodernism” has to be the apotheosis of all misnomers. It should be “PRE-modernism”, since in every way, it represents a dialing back of the clock to pre-Enlightenment ideals of collectivism, tribalism, and brute force.
No accident, then, that we find ourselves in a culture of warring, incommensurable tribes who cannot hear one another.
Is one individual, or one tech company, going to overcome this culture?
Sorry Shirley, but No Fucking Way.
We have much, much more work to do--a generation’s worth, at minimum--before we can restore a general love of liberty and free speech.
And, given the state of things, it’s an uphill battle with roller skates on.
Remember, technology is a proxy for our bodies. It’s a way humans have of overcoming bodily limitations. Wheels do what our legs cannot, a shovel or an axe does what our hands cannot, telescopes and microscopes do what our eyes cannot.
The Internet, really, is just an extension of our brains. It connects my brain and your brain at incredible speeds over impossible distances.
Problem is, there are a lot of bad brains out there.
The culture is sick, afflicted, cancer-ridden with bad ideas.
Therefore, so is Twitter.
That said, there are hopeful signs of healing to be found.
The transparency about censoring policies is encouraging:
The lifting of the covid “misinformation” policy should be music to our ears.
As should the restoration of voices that we love:
A brief survey of Twitter this afternoon shows me a few encouraging things:
People calling out would-be dictators for brazenly discussing their world domination plans:
Calling out of the Long Covid scare tactic:
(BTW, I believe “long covid” is a real thing. But so is long flu, long pneumonia, long cancer, long common cold, long tuberculosis, etc. In other words, this is no more or less profound an observation than: when the body is sick, and recovers, there are lasting effects.😲One does not immediately go back to 100%. The body has been challenged, sometimes in serious ways that are not immediately detectable. The question is: why do we never hear about the other “long” diseases? The answer has to be that in the case of this disease, it is being used as a manipulation tactic to keep people in a state of terror and therefore compliant with future mandates, directives, shots, etc. What else could it be?)
Dr. Peter McCullough laying it down as only he can:
(Here’s the substack/paper he references in the video:)
(And here’s the one about mRNA in breast milk:)
(Okay, so the doctor’s content is not encouraging, but the fact that it is being openly discussed on Twitter is.)
And doctors apologizing and changing their tune on mRNA shots:
All good signs, to be sure.
But signs are not the same thing as the destination.
Many, many miles to go.
And we all should have learned an important lesson by now: freedom can vanish in a heartbeat.
Don’t assume, ever again, that freedom is here to stay. The would-be tyrants never sleep.
And certainly we should be skeptical of the idea that freedom can be “bought” for a low, low price of 44 billion dollars.
Eternal vigilance is the price.
Here is sense, if you’ll have it: a single event, like an election, or a corporate takeover, though possibly significant, does not by itself mean the end of life as we know it nor the start of a utopian golden age.
The only sensible attitude toward this strange, wonderful, terrible cauldron of human connection we call the Twitterverse is vigilance.
We will watch and see where this all goes.
James’s blood is mostly coffee at this point. Your kind transfusion is accepted here.
This is a fantastic piece. Very much appreciated. Free speech is not for sale in America - especially to the nearest high bidder with an agenda. Would be free speech marauder - the Musketeer - is the CEO of iPads on wheels and the SpaceX arm of USA inc. We are being so played and the TikTok generation is the most played of all. They have always been after the children.
I don't think I expected Elon to save us...I never used Twitter...I may start now though. I do feel at least one step closer to having the noose around the first amendment loosened...it's now up to us to get the damn thing out of the noose and administer life saving support!