Commentary: Elon Musk Is a Much-Needed Insult to the Coddled Consensus Class That Is Ruining America | Georgia Star News

by Rober Kimball

“The Bird is Freed!”

That’s what Elon Musk tweeted upon the consummation of his bid to buy Twitter. ’Twas a consummation devoutly to be wished. Why? For one thing, as Musk later tweeted, henceforth comedy once again will now be “legal on Twitter.”

Musk’s acquisition of Twitter for more money than you or I can really contemplate ($44 billion) lit the punditocracy ablaze. On the Left there was, as St. Matthew (13:42) put it in another context, abundant “fletus et stridor dentium,” “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” On the Right, there were cheers and not a little “Schadenfreude,” which is German for “serves you right, knucklehead.” The Right also went in for some creative trolling.

The dominant narrative, on the Left anyway, is that Musk’s acquisition of Twitter represents a conservative takeover of the social media giant. Twitter had been a brash and scrappy upstart, you see, and now it has been “colonized” by the rich and powerful. . . .

That’s the idea, anyway. You can practically hear the Nabobs of the Narrative holding their breath while they wait to see if the public buys it.

Their public will, of course. But how about the rest of us?

The New York Times gave fastidious expression to this canard in a story headlined “Twitter, Once a Threat to Titans, Now Belongs to One.” A “threat to titans,” eh? What do you suppose that means? The Times explains in its subhead. “A decade ago, the social media platform was a tool for rebels and those challenging authority. But over time, the powerful learned how to use it for their own goals.”

In order to appreciate how funny this is, you can start with CNN’s story about the pile of money paid to the executives that Musk, in his first order of business, fired on Thursday. It is a large pile. According to CNN, Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s former CEO, Ned Segal (former CFO), and Vijaya Gadde (former Chief Legal Officer) will walk away with nearly $200 million. (I pause so that you, along with many others, can savor the word “former.”)

Gadde, by the way, was not only paid many millions of dollars a year but was also instrumental in engineering the expulsion of Donald Trump, then the president of the United States, from the platform.

The idea that Twitter was a challenge to the establishment before the advent of Musk is almost as wrong as the idea that Musk is conservative and that he aims to transform Twitter into a a bastion of Trumpesque MAGA (or, to quote Joe Biden’s focus group, “ultra-MAGA”) sentiment.

As Musk has repeatedly stressed, his aim is to open Twitter to a wide range of political viewpoints, Left as well Right, “progressive” as well as conservative. By removing the top executives, Musk merely removed a hose spewing intolerance camouflaged as inarguable virtue. Marinated in that sentiment, many of Twitter’s 7,500 employees doubtless have absorbed the mantra that “free speech” means “speech I agree with.” In the run up to Musk’s takeover of Twitter, rumors were rife that he planned to fire “75 percent” of the workforce. Musk later denied that, but everyone expects him to put the company on a serious diet.

Everyone also expects him to make big changes in the way the company oversees “content” on Twitter. Musk is the very incarnation of a man in a hurry. His firing of Agrawal, Sega, and Gadde happened before his name could be painted on the door to his office. So did his immediate deployment of software engineers from Tesla to review Twitter source code.

But on issues of general policy he seems to be moving more deliberately. Twitter distinguished itself by its intolerance of views that challenged the dominant progressive narrative on everything from the presidency of Donald Trump, Hunter Biden’s laptop (really, a subset of Twitter’s Trump allergy), “climate change,” BLM, and various approved forms of “progressive” sexual pathology. Trespassing upon any of those orthodoxies could get you suspended, “shadow banned,” or banned outright.

That will change, but not all at once. Soon after taking over, Musk announced (on Twitter, bien sur) that the company would be “forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”

There are, I think, two major things to bear in mind about Musk’s takeover of Twitter. One is that, although he is not himself a conservative, the fact that he supports a robust view of free speech in which a wide variety of opinions are not only tolerated but encouraged means that he will be regarded as an existential threat by the progressive establishment.

That establishment is right to regard him as a threat. For its guardians require strict conformity in dispensing their twisted gospel of “diversity” if they are to maintain their power and perquisites. Open the door just a little, let just a little sunlight in, and pow! The magic spell that made it seem OK to say that men are women, that “climate change” is a threat to humanity, that COVID is a peril on the same plane as the Black Death, or that BLM and Antifa were justified in burning down our cities—suddenly that spell is broken, and so is the hold over the narrative that these new guardians of conformity had enforced.

The second thing to bear in mind is that the establishment will not sit idly by as Elon Musk challenges their narrative. Everything about Musk is an insult to the coddled, low-testosterone consensus that has been ruining America this last decade through the promulgation of its dependency agenda. It is no accident, as the Marxists say, that even as Musk pushes ahead with his reformation of Twitter, the coercive busybodies of the state have begun making minatory noises about “investigating” Musk. Thus we read that Tesla is under federal investigation over autopilot claims.

Expect more of that. Beatings will continue until morale improves. As Glenn Reynolds put it at Instapundit, “The Bureaucracy Mobilizes Against A Threat.” Were the midterms not just around the corner, I might be worried about this coalescing threat against Elon Musk. But come November 9, the clock will be ticking against that sclerotic, freedom-hating consensus. The bird is freed, and we will be too. Fiat Musk!

– – –

Roger Kimball is editor and publisher of The New Criterion and the president and publisher of Encounter Books.
Photo “Elon Musk Dreaming of a Brighter Future” by Steve Jurvetson. CC BY 2.0.

Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience. For licensing opportunities for our original content, please contact licensing@centerforamericangreatness.com.

The post Commentary: Elon Musk Is a Much-Needed Insult to the Coddled Consensus Class That Is Ruining America appeared first on The Georgia Star News.

Skip The Scoop | Seek Understanding

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded March 16, 2021 | The Rot in the White House … Biden’s Moral Bankruptcy | Video: 48 Minutes 54 Seconds

Show Me

Biden In. ISIS Back. Isis-linked Militants Beheading Children in Mozambique, Says Aid Group

Show Me

Ballot Shredding (Destruction Of Evidence) Has Already Started In Georgia

Show Me

Georgia Judge Gives VOTER GA the Right to Inspect Fulton County Election Ballots

Show Me

AstraZeneca Vaccine Now Safe for Seniors, NACI Says

Show Me

Dem activists target Ga-based corporations in bid to oppose GOP voting reforms; Coke, Home Depot first to cave

Show Me

Trump Eyeing ‘Upgrade’ Over Georgia’s Gov. Kemp, Adviser Says

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded March 16, 2021 | Delete Your Account … Woke Corporations Fight Election Integrity and at Facebook | Video: 48 Minutes 55 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded March 16, 2021 | I’ll Bet You A Lot of Yuan … How Facebook and the Capitol Riot Stole the Election | Video: 49 Minutes

Show Me

Washington Post Blames Source for Falsified Trump Comments on Georgia Election

Show Me

Washington Post Admits to False Trump Quote

Show Me

U.S. Lawyer Steven Donziger Speaks from House Arrest in NYC After Suing Chevron for Amazon Oil Spills

Show Me

Georgia Judge Might Unseal Fulton County Absentee Ballots for Fraud Investigation

Show Me

Italy Prosecutors Seize Batch of AstraZeneca Vaccine After Death of Man

Show Me

News Corp. agrees to three-year deal with Facebook in Australia

Show Me

After 18 Years, Billion-Dollar Bioterror Defense System Still Can’t Detect Multiple Threats

Show Me

Myanmar: Vast arsenal and notorious troops deployed during nationwide ‘killing spree’ protest crackdown – new research

Show Me

Judicial Watch: Federal Court Slams Potentially Illicit Sales of Body Parts of Aborted Fetuses – Orders Release of Additional Information on Organ Purchases

Show Me

China in Focus (March 15): Biden White House Officials Recognize Lab Leak Theory

Show Me

NY Legislature Proposes Nearly $7 Billion in New Taxes on Businesses, Wealthy

Show Me

150 Spring Breakers Arrested in Miami Beach

Show Me

Investigation Against Gov. Cuomo Intensifies As Accuser Submits To Lengthy 4-Hour Interview

Show Me

March 15, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 55 Minutes 03 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded March 15, 2021 | God’s Timing … Mike Lindell on His Political Future, Fake News, and Fraud | Video: 48 Minutes 50 Seconds

Show Me

Duke University Imposes Stay-In-Place Order for Undergraduates, Cites Party-Linked COVID-19 Surge

Show Me

BLM activist Tamika Mallory calls out Joe Biden and ‘demands justice’ during Grammys

Show Me

Las Vegas swarmed with crowds as casinos reopen at 50 percent capacity

Show Me

Fauci Fears Another COVID-19 Surge, Says Trump Should Tell Supporters to Get Vaccinated

Show Me

National Guard identifies solider who died off duty while deployed at U.S. Capitol

Show Me

Fauci documentary marks AP foray into film

Show Me

Doctors Are Investigated After Posting Organ Photos Online as ‘Price Is Right’ Game

Show Me

Woman fatally shot by cop in traffic stop-turned-shootout in Tennessee

Show Me

NEW George Floyd Riots: What the Media ISN’T Telling You! (SHOW NOTES)

Show Me

Elon Musk Gets New Title of ‘Technoking of Tesla’

Show Me

Watchdog group says three House Democrats broke ethics rules by linking member, campaign sites

Show Me

MyPillow CEO Says New App Will Be ‘Safe Place’ for Those Canceled by YouTube, Twitter

Show Me

Danish Woman Who Died From Blood Clot After AstraZeneca Shot Had ‘Unusual Symptoms’, Agency Says

Show Me

Opportunity Beckons in the Mideast

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded March 15, 2021 | The Ides of March … Populism Then and Now | Video: 48 Minutes 48 Seconds

Show Me

Judicial Watch to Facebook: End Censorship of Trump

Show Me