Rita Panahi: Left’s fury at Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase confirms awful truth

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter has sent “progressives” into fits of frenzied rage, fearful their ideological opponents would no longer be silenced.

The meltdown on Twitter is as delicious as it is hyperbolic. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, purchasing the social media site has sent many tweeps into fits of frenzied rage.

Musk’s interest in Twitter is two-fold; he clearly sees potential to be unlocked justifying his US$44 billion investment but he also wants to utilise the platform to champion free speech, and that is why the Left is having a collective tantrum.

In what has been an unedifying spectacle, an assortment of “progressives” (aka close-minded troglodytes) from media, academia and politics railed against free speech fearful that their ideological opponents would no longer be silenced, suspended and shadowbanned on Twitter for thought crimes such as accidentally misgendering a ‘woman’ with a full beard.

The reaction of the activist and media class, who are increasingly interchangeable, was telling. Despite denials that Big Tech platforms consistently stifle free speech, and always in the one direction, the undeniable reality is that the extent of the Leftist bias had become toxic and a threat to democracy.

These platforms are the new public square where people increasingly get their news and converse about the issues of the day.

Elon Musk has purchased Twitter, much to the anger of “progressives”.

The examples of Big Tech bias and censorship are too numerous to list but arguably the most sinister act of suppression came before the 2020 election when Twitter and Facebook together with much of the mainstream media conspired to bury a series of highly damaging stories by the New York Post about the Biden family and their dodgy foreign dealings.

The effort to bury and discredit the story saw the official account of the NY Post suspended together with high profile conservative accounts that shared a link to the stories.

In fact all users were blocked from sharing the story with Twitter labelling it “potentially harmful”, which it was … to the Biden campaign.

After the election Twitter apologised for its false claims and some 17 months later the Washington Post and NY Times also admitted the stories were real and significant but when it mattered most they conspired to bury information the public deserved to know.

The fact that Twitter banned a sitting US president on the most spurious grounds while allowing the mad mullahs of Iran to tweet anti-Semitic threats tells you everything you need to know about the platform.

Twitter conspired to bury information about U.S. President Joe Biden the public deserved to know.

By effectively muzzling one side of the ideological divide social media giants are having a nefarious influence on free discourse. In the past two years alone scientists and pundits have been suspended for advancing the lab leak theory in regards to Covid-19 and for questioning the efficacy of masks.

For years Twitter accounts have been banned for stating biological facts in contravention of radical gender theory.

Feminist academics have been banned for “misgendering” activists but the activists aren’t banned for spewing vile, misogynistic abuse at those who question the notion that men can have babies and that children as young as four can choose their own gender.

Twitter even suspended satirical site The Babylon Bee for a joke deemed not sufficiently PC. It’s worth noting that before making his move on Twitter Musk contacted Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon.

The humourless hysteric at Twitter HQ who banned The Bee has helped set in motion a momentous change in Big Tech.

Upon hearing of Musk’s Twitter takeover, Jay Bhattacharya, Professor at Stanford School of Medicine tweeted: “Big tech censorship of anti-lockdown scientists is the moral equivalent of book burning. It is a great shame that public health officials co-operated with the censors in the great deplatforming effort. Most puzzling are the science communication ‘journalists’ who abetted it all.”

Leading infectious disease expert Prof Martin Kulldorff tweeted: “As a scientist, I will no longer self-censor on @Twitter. Thank you @ElonMusk.”

While other users took the opportunity to share dangerous hate speech: “Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina,” tweeted commentator Sara Gonzales.

Those most threatened by Musk’s purchase do not fear that they will be silenced or banned as conservatives have been, they only fear that their political opponents will no longer be targeted.

Commentator and Editor Emma-Jo Morris summed up the meltdown: “We are watching a real-time realization and total meltdown of corporate media, as they all come to grips with the prospect that Twitter will be controlled by someone who is not sympathetic to their mission and won’t do their bidding to control the public discourse.”

There is much unhinged commentary labelling Musk everything from a white supremacist to a dangerous maverick.

The truth is Musk’s politics are complex, he is certainly no conservative or Right wing, though these days anyone who supports free speech is labelled far Right or even, ironically, a Nazi. Musk has donated to many Left wing causes and along with most of Big Tech financially backed Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

But it’s clear that he loathes the excesses of woke culture and the double standards that exist on Twitter.

This is a passion project for Musk as much as a business decision.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” he said in a statement.

But let’s not be effusive in praise yet; let’s see him deliver on his promise of a genuinely open and unbiased platform before declaring Musk a free speech saviour.

One thing that is clear, the worst people on Twitter, the biggest liars, race-baiters and bad-faith actors are irate.

And that is a good thing.