Free Speech Iron Man

Elon Musk doesn't understand free speech. Well, there's a lot he doesn't understand in fact, but recently his attitude towards free speech puts him where he wants to be; at the center of everyone's attention.

Elon Musk is the world's real life Iron Man. That's how he profiles himself, and that's how his fans see him. I see him that way too, because of the inherent iron-y in that label; Iron Man is made up, he's fake. Tony Stark is fake. Elon Musk is fake. He may think himself a heroic savior of mankind, but that's where it stops; in his mind and in the minds of his considerable following. We live in the society of the Spectacle, where appearance trumps the real. Speaking of Trump, he's another real life hero in the minds of his followers. And he's about to milk those followers once again, as he has recently announced that they can buy Trump NFTs, digital trading-cards, for just $99 a piece. He tweeted on 14 December "AMERICA NEEDS A SUPERHERO! I will be making a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT tomorrow. Thank you!" And the next day he published the news about his NFT collection...

People like Trump and Musk rely entirely on their public image. They've been playing their role of saviors for so long, they actually believe they are the hero they made up for their public image. They've become their own fake image. When Elon Musk decided to buy Twitter, he said that the platform is a vital component for a functioning democracy. That free speech must be guaranteed on that public square. He declared himself to be a "free speech absolutist", and said he didn't want to buy Twitter for the purpose of making money. Those words were all lies, as we can see now by his actions.

First he tried to avoid buying Twitter, but was then forced to complete the deal after Twitter sued him. Keep that in mind: Musk didn't actually want to buy Twitter, he just wanted to gain popularity with his fan-base. After he got stuck with the platform that's notoriously unable to turn a profit, he immediately proceeded to attempt to make it profitable by offering the blue check-marks for $20. After some of the blue check-marks, Stephen King among others, said they's never pay for a subscription, he lowered the price to $8. After Musk took over, news broke that the use of slurs, discriminatory statements, racism, antisemitism and bigotry went up by 500 percent. Advertisers left the platform in a hurry because brands don't to be associated with such negativity. Elon then went on to accuse "leftist activists" for chasing the brands away. In the meantime countless fake blue check-mark accounts appeared, posting inflammatory messages while impersonating big brands and big names; hey it's only $8 to impersonate Nike, Nintendo, Coca Cola or Joe Biden, right? This caused some big brands millions of dollars of losses...

And that's just the damage on the outside. Musk also fired thousands of key personnel, starting with management. The list of failures is too long for a single post, but it's safe to say that, up until now, Musk's takeover of Twitter has been a shit-show. So what about the free speech absolutism? Musk started by reinstating a lot of previously banned accounts, mostly far right hacks, which explains the huge increase in racism and bigotry. But he refused to give back Alex Jones his place in the public square. And Ye got reinstated only to be banned again after his open antisemitism and declaration of love for Hitler. Musk was a surprise guest at a Dave Chappelle stand up comedy show, but he got booed; really, it was an embarrassing event, look it up. The next day Musk tweeted "The woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters", and he proceeded to mass-ban leftist and liberal accounts...

Two days ago Musk banned the @elonjet account from a user who tracked his private jet using publicly available information.

Twitter has suspended an account dedicated to tracking Elon Musk's private jet trips using public flight data – a month after the world's second-richest man said his "commitment to free speech" prevented him from doing so.
_{source: The Register}

And today he's in the news for banning a slew of journalists who reported on the suspension of @elonjet and other bans. All this leads to one conclusion, a conclusion I've warned about on many occasions on this blog; no single person should have this much power. No single person should be allowed to have this much wealth. Billionaires should not exist. Again, there's a striking resemblance with Tony Stark's Iron Man, who also uses his superpowers wherever and whenever he deems necessary. When he decimates some terrorist compound in the first Iron Man movie, we all cheer like the right-wing trolls cheered when Musk decided to make Twitter a free speech haven. But there's a real problem with an individual deciding to do so on his own accord, as is explored also in this movie and other MCU movies. All decissions of this magnitude, of this impact, should be made democratically. The big online social platform should be answering to democratic scrutiny. Right now, Musk is Twitter's dictator; we can only hope his fans will manage to let go of the spectacle long enough to wake up to that reality.

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