My feed, like mostly everyone else's, has been flooded with commentary, reporting, and of course, memes of Elon's little sink stunt. The largely conservative (which nowadays seems to be everything that opposes the mental radical mob that is the left) pages I follow seem to all agree this is a good thing. And clearly, Elon's playing the part he's been assigned -- he's firing people at Twitter HQ left, right, and center. He's letting the good people that were banned back. He's checking the data, to make sure there's no shenanigans going on off-stage.
Yet I can't help but feel this is nothing more than a good cop, bad cop charade. I'm tempted to like Elon, because he's unusual and because he's real. But then, that's also why everyone else likes him, so maybe it's not the safest choice. It's always good to do a double-take when your voice joins in with the crowd. Even, sometimes, when it's a crowd of smart people you've chosen for their values, which reflect yours.
So I'm a little apprehensive of this whole Twitter thing, just as I was back when he first announced he'd buy it. I'm quite sure I shared similar thoughts back then, too. What bothers me about Elon is that he's this anti-establishment, pro-free speech dude who's saying fuck you, I won't stand for this.
In other words, the dream. Except I've a hard time believing you become the richest man on the planet by saying fuck you to authority. Seems to me if he really was such a radical baddie, we would've found him dangling in a cell a long time ago. Not that I think anything about that. Of course not.
When things seem too good to be true, they usually are. And much as I'd like to believe in the messiah who comes and leads the people against dictatorship, and brings along money, and power, and credibility, I don't think that's how we'll win this battle, if we ever do. It's too easy.
I think with all my heart there are still good people. Brave people. But I think they're you and me. I doubt they're at Musk-level, though sure, it's feasible that one of those good guys got extremely successful, and managed to keep his integrity.
You know who's a good guy who's for free speech, and anti-establishment? Julian Assange. And he's rotting away in prison with hardly a peep out of the MSM. He risks being locked away for good in a place so awful they only let you out of your cell for 50 mins a day. Complete isolation. That's what the world we live in does to good guys.
The reason I can't buy into it is the same reason I never liked the Batman movies. Batman isn't believable. This uber-rich, uber-powerful guy who starts fighting the good fight. In the real world, Batman's on board with the bad guys. People like the Joker, on the other hand, are believable. It's why everyone seems to have a Joaquin Phoenix shirt, sticker, cap, or phone cover now -- we're all just a shot away from breaking. That is believable, to me.
