Elon Musk’s Social Media Minefield
– By Ed Kociela –
Before it became a minefield fueled by hate and discontent, social media was a nice place to visit.
In the beginning, we really only had Facebook, where you could catch up with family and friends, sharing greetings and photos or even linking up for live online video chats, and Twitter, where you could stay abreast of whatever was happening in any of the four corners of the world with lightning speed that more often than not beat the television outlets. They both filled a need to overtake the ennui.
But money and power corrupted both, and before long, we were inundated with faux “news” outlets created by the carpetbaggers who planted their flags in lies and misdirection. They quickly learned that those who supported a particular ideology were a proper target for certain advertising clicks and started with the “specialized” sites they would post to draw huge click-throughs and profits. They quickly realized that if one side of the political spectrum could be so lucrative that it would be worth their while to create another site from the opposite side to double their dough.
The loonies who fall for this kind of outrageous fiction followed their respective camps and drew a line in the cyber sand that, even today, one does not wish to cross.
It has degenerated into a playing field of hypocrisy, particularly in the case of Elon Musk and Twitter, for which he slapped $44 billion on the negotiation table.
Born into wealth in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” a position that absolves oneself of accountability. In layman’s terms, a verbal anarchist with no filter or concern for the influence and power of words, which, as we have seen through the ages, can be treacherous.
Except, that is, if the words relate to him.
As the second-richest person on the planet Musk is, without question, newsworthy. As owner of Tesla, SpaceX and a number of other huge corporations and organizations, he could not escape the headlines if he tried. He is a public figure and he uses that position to promulgate his businesses and profile. But as a public figure, that sword cuts both ways and he is also subject to analysis and criticism.
Musk doesn’t take criticism very well and although he bathes in public adulation and fealty, something respected news reporters are wont to do, he personally banned a half dozen reporters – Donie O’Sullivan, CNN; Ryan Mac, The New York Times; Drew Harwell, The Washington Post; progressive reporter Aaron Rupar; Keith Olbermann, former MSNBC host; and Linette Lopez, Insider columnist – from Twitter.
His case was built on the blatant lie that they had given away his the “real-time” location of his private jet.
An examination of the Tweets proves the reporters had done no such thing and further review indicates that the information he was trying so hard to suppress was a matter of public record anybody with a computer and search engine could find on their own. The ban drew immediate protests from major news groups across the globe, the American Civil Liberties Union, United Nations, and many others.
What makes it such an egregiously hypocritical exercise is the simple fact that Musk has long claimed to stand for complete and total free speech, whether in social media content or conversation.
He cannot have it both ways, so what we have here is yet another example of a rich bully setting rules for everybody else while he carries on as he wishes.
As far as his position on free speech, while I agree that the First Amendment is, by far the most important, it does not come without accountability. I mean that old rule about not yelling “fire” in a crowded theater has bearing. You wish to criticize a political figure, the government, public character, go for it as long as it is fair and honest. Don’t make stuff up, don’t lie, don’t promote hate or violence and I can support you. Cross any of those lines and you are dead in the water, which is why I supported the original Twitter decision to ban Donald Trump, numerous hate groups, and White Nationalist punks who deny the holocaust or rally to overthrow the government. Musk has lifted the ban on Trump, who has thankfully not renewed his savagery on the Twitter site.
I’m also all-in for free speech as long as the social media outlets employ some sort of fact-checking to separate the lies from the truth. There are, believe it or not, many uninformed souls who believe that trash.
As one of the richest people on the planet, Elon Musk surely represents a certain elitism and separatism that comes with the turf. It is obvious he places himself a cut above the rest of us and a special place in rights and influence that only money can buy and the rest of us be damned.
I have never been a fan of the simpering, gin-soaked observations of F. Scott Fitzgerald, generally a whiner of the ultimate level.
But, I’ve got to say he nailed it with one surprisingly coherent observation.
“Let me tell you about the very rich,” he wrote. “They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful. … They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves.”
There is a fatal truth to that, even when you put Ernest Hemingway’s caustic retort, “Yes, they have more money,” behind it.
And, that is the foundation of the typical double standards the uber-rich base their lives upon, that “Life’s been good to me…sorry about your luck” attitude that runs through most of those of a certain social standing.
That’s why when it comes to rich and powerful influence, my admiration and respect goes to the boyishly charming, pot-smoking billionaire hippie entrepreneur Richard Branson, a much more benevolent soul and humanitarian.
As far as Musk?
It might be time to tiptoe out of the Twitter minefield.
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