Musk's Twitter is Hearst and Pulitzer on steroids
Or Musk's "Yellow Journalism" 2.0
People, nations, organizations and otherwise are what they do, not what they say. Musk announced today that he is now placing the full weight of his personality and Twitter at the disposal of the Republican Party, who has consistently demonstrated extremist, un-American behavior in the Trump era. Personally, I don’t feel like being Musk’s lab rat in his experiments with our national security. His track record on human rights and ethics are not up to standards, by any account.
Musk’s purchase of Twitter and activities since are a threat to democracy that our founders could only foresee in far more restricted platforms, like local newspapers, word-of-mouth etc. For this reason, it will require our already dysfunctional Congress to address this type of adversarial influence, which threatens the very roots of democracy, free speech. Musk is not opening Twitter to free speech; he is creating a digital arena where subscribers are engaging others in gladiatorial combat. As we have seen, this combat spills over into actual violence on a regular basis. Just look at the role that Twitter played on January 6th. He sells the now infamous “blue checkmark” for eight bucks, turning it into a meaningless gesture and dangerous too.
Like Yellow Journalism, the high-stakes competition between Hearst and Pulitzer leading up to the last, turn-of-the-century, nothing good comes from greedy, power-hungry and marginally ethical competitors using American citizens as pawns in their wars of greed.
We must remember that it was Musk, who about two weeks ago did Putin’s bidding by trying to advocate for Putin’s gain, against the sovereign Ukrainians, fighting to retain their sovereignty and identity. Putin is committing genocide against Ukraine and Musk’s proposal would have let that stand, plus a bonus of territory for Putin.
Musk orchestrates governors like Abbott to sell out our tax base to get Musk to plant a factory in TX. Elon’s actions demonstrate an exceedingly low understanding or care about what happens to those stuck between him and his objectives of wealth, power and status.
The whole point of democracy is to give everyone a fair say in our nation. This is not possible when one power-centered and unethical person, controls what people think.
As one who understands how adversarial influence impacts our citizens, I can’t condone Musk’s control of anything I find of importance. Musk only cares for Musk. That’s not the agenda of anyone I know. Like everyone else, I have a choice and mine is to avoid all things Musk, unless… like the Grinch he can grow the size of his heart. I’m not holding my breath.
“And what happened, then? Well, in Whoville they say – that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day. And then – the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches, plus two!”
–How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Dec 25, 2013
Sorry for the short post today but flu and flu meds is giving me a fuzzier than normal brain.
Happy work week to all,
Paul