Unless you have been living under a rock since yesterday you know that Elon Musk purchased just under 10% of Twitter. He is the single biggest stockholder of the company. He was also named to their board. For me this is fantastic news! Twitter is one of the biggest public forums we have and they have been cracking down on speech for a long time. It’s more than obvious that this has been more of a crackdown on conservative thoughts than liberal ones.
The argument has been that they are a business and can do what they want. I actually agree with that argument and I would be on board if the terms and conditions were clearly set and everyone knew what the terms were. However, their terms are far too subjective and unevenly applied. It’s more than obvious that they censor conservative views far more than liberal ones.
The argument for business rights is a valid one. Businesses do in fact have rights. But this particular case is interesting to me. Some on the left have started to carry the business rights mantle because it is an argument that aligns with their belief of censorship. They believe that some views are hate speech and so using the battle cry of business rights they are allowed to keep censoring things and pushing a public narrative. However, in my opinion they don’t actually believe in business rights. If they really believed in business rights they would push for the elimination of minimum wage laws, affirmative action, and host of other laws that infringe on business and their ability to operate freely. Sadly, the opposite is true.
This argument is unconvincing coming from the left. It’s the inconsistency of moral relativity. There is no base or underlying philosophy to which to evaluate progress. It’s not based on a logical framework. It’s based on whatever feels good at the moment. Which, in reality is what Twitter was operating on that has led to Elon Musk’s actions.
People should be watching this because we are seeing the larger cultural and political upheaval right before our eyes. Our republic cannot be based on moral relativity. It will never work.