If you thought that the transformation of Jeff Goldblum from a bookish scientist into a fly in the 1986 movie The Fly was a dramatic metamorphosis, just consider the sudden conversion of Elon Musk from liberal hero to hated nemesis. And a transmogrifier wasn’t even necessary!
It seems like just yesterday that Musk was the belle of the ball at the liberal cotillion, having seemingly single-handedly established the electric car industry that is going to save us from a planetary sauna. Environmentalists beamed. Affluent liberals scrambled to buy a Tesla to park in their driveway to let their neighbors know just who the most conscious people on their block were. His boring company promised to speed the construction of public transit. Musk’s antics, like smoking pot on a podcast, thrilled his young fans. Liberals cooed in adoration.
What did he do to incur liberal wrath? He staked out a position as a free speech absolutist, criticizing Twitter’s decision to bar Donald Trump and his often colorful tweets, which sent lefties into a conniption fit, and occasionally embarrassed moderate Republicans. Liberal reverence for free expression comes with some major exceptions.
In April 2022, Musk agreed to buy Twitter, and the left went apeshit. The New York Times pronounced that Musk was “dangerous” to the entire world, while another publication shrieked that he “put free expression in danger.” The fact that we had somehow survived more than 200 years of free speech before the labels “misinformation” and “hate speech” started getting flung around reassured no one.
After Musk consummated his purchase in October, the attacks intensified. Every setback at any of his companies was gleefully detailed. Reports that Twitter employees were informed that they would be expected to change out of their pajamas and come into work shocked a generation that had decided that they preferred working from home. San Francisco officials suddenly decided they needed to investigate employee rest areas at Twitter for zoning violations.
Musk is not the only one who has metamorphosed. The left, the media, and academia have transformed dramatically as well. These institutions, which previously had professed a role as the fiery champions of free speech, have now embraced censorship and become ideological filters. The stormy Marketplace of Ideas is being tamed.
On college campuses, once the home of Mario Savio and the often raucous free speech movement, we now see “trigger warning” and “safe spaces” used to shield pathologically delicate students from the “trauma” of competing views. Speakers and faculty who question the dogma of the woke mob are run off campus.
In the media, we find newly contrived jargon, such as “fake news,” “hate speech,” and “misinformation” being used as a semantic cudgel to batter down any narrative that conflicts with the publisher’s preferred view. We have seen legitimate reports on the origin of COVID-19, and Hunter Biden’s laptop, suppressed as “misinformation,” “Russian disinformation,” or “conspiracy theories.”
The free speech movement wasn’t all that long ago, so this turnaround is quite a shock. The idea that the left, instead of the right, might be the ones seeking to censor speech was only predicted by old, paranoid Cold Warriors. What happened?
Well, the left has become “the establishment” that seeks to protect its hegemony, and requires at least an ostensible show of fealty to the progressive creed. Government, educational, and corporate institutions are expected to be supportive. These days, what large institution doesn’t have an office of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and doesn’t espouse “green” values?
Do we truly need to be protected from “toxic” ideas? Aren’t adults capable of sifting through the clamor of voices in the public discourse and deciding for themselves? It is curious to hear liberals, who are quick to dismiss the suggestion that social contagion might account for the astounding increase in teenagers who suddenly believe that they are misgendered, yet who also believe that the public is so susceptible to influence that just hearing an Alex Jones podcast will send them charging into the street in violent insurrection. No such fears were expressed over the fiery cheerleading during the George Floyd riots.
Be honest. Looking back, did you ever see yourself acting as a censor?
This is disheartening. Previously, the one point of agreement between the right and the left was that each side was entitled to be heard, no matter how obnoxious their opinions. The ACLU once felt so strongly about the principle of free speech that they even supported the right of Nazis, a repellant group, to march in Skokie, Illinois. The idea that anyone might be attacked for being a “free speech absolutist” would have been preposterous, and yet, here we are. Δ
John Donegan is a retired attorney in Pismo Beach who is so supportive of free speech that he just won’t shut up. Practice your own First Amendment right by sending a response to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Dec 22, 2022 – Jan 1, 2023.
I wouldn’t hold up Elmo as a free speech absolutist. He has been running Twitter like a petulant child, banning journalists, changing policy and changing it back. But it is a private company, and if everyone bails to a different forum, that’s just free market capitalism in action. The problem with the right though is they have crossed a red line. Recycled ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ propoganda has led to thousands of hate crimes against Jews. The LGBTQ community is under assault, teachers and health care workers are not safe just trying to do their jobs, and if GOP candidates cannot win elections with their Q-ball nonsense, they just undermine the democratic process itself. Misinformation about COVID led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, but at least a sizeable percentage of the population is free of worms.
Bravo! One of the best “opinion” articles that really speaks “truth”. Whether you’re democrat, republican, independent, or none of the above, common sense should prevail. Ever since Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, the democrats went nuts! They made up conspiracy theories to smear, besmirch, and remove him from office. Donald Trump went to Washington DC to “drain the swamp”. What is the swamp? The DC bureaucracy! This group writes up the bills, like the 1.7 trillion Omnibus Bill. Then work with Pelosi to shove down the house and senate lawmakers throats in the last minute at the end of the year, when it was supposed to be complete September 30th! Yes, the democrats remind me of “We the Government”, instead of “We the People”. The DC Bureaucracy is the Monster! Trump poked the monster! What we have witnessed since 2016 is a out of control city that I call Gotham City. The surrogate Media (NBC, CBS, ABC) have teamed up with the democrats and the DC bureaucracy. The Twitter Dumps provide PROOF of the FBI putting their thumb on Twitter to suppress and censor news that could damage an election. Hello Joe and Hunter.
The examples of “censorship” that John has provided here:
– “The left” going “apeshit”
– The New York Times pronouncing Elon Musk “dangerous”
– People labeling things “misinformation” and “hate speech”
– Trigger warnings during discussions on college campuses
– Trump’s hand-picked FBI investigating the Hunter Biden story
Once again, John proves to be completely devoid of any material grievances other than “those people don’t like me.” John, just go outside. Log off of Twitter and Facebook. Find some friends. Please.
This essay has real “Old Man Yells at Cloud” vibes going on.
Want to talk about censorship? Throughout the country, mainly in red states, school boards packed with MAGA cultists, xian dominionists, & QAnon devotees are banning books in community & school libraries. Books on the forbidden list include any works that indicate slavery was bad along with any histories of the civil rights movement. The censors have opposed letting kids read about people like Rosa Parks , MLK, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman & others. The right wingers want children to envision Jim Crow as a good thing. They hate all LGBTQ folks & seek to erase any mention of them from teen reading lists.
Donegan, like Musk & all alt-right, self-styled dark edgelords, want to give hate speech free reign while silencing any voices pleading for social justice, civility & human decency. Ironically, today’s “conservatives” are so similar to the radical, violent, nihilistic left wing extremists of the last century. Back in the day the counter-cultural lefties took pride in being transgressive, shocking, amoral & vulgar. Nowadays ,right wingers delight in doing the same. Like some 1960’s avant-garde, underground purveyor of shock art, Trump routinely broke boundaries, trampled on societal norms, pissed on traditional moral standards & flouted the law at every turn. Today’s right has traded places with the old left. Traditional conservatives reminded people that rights came with duties & that freedom came with responsibilities. Today’s “conseratives” mock such sentiments.
Well, this is a rather deranged piece.
Given all the things Elon Musk has done to run his newly purchased social media platform into the ground, it’s truly weird to see a columnist use him as a shoddy narrative device to show how liberals are intolerant of free speech. We’re talking about someone who espouses the importance of free speech one day and then suspend journalists for reporting on him. We’re talking about a person who told his employees they can speak their conscience only to lay them off without giving them severance because he was paranoid they would actually have the audacity to disagree with his decisions.
I don’t know what “liberals” you’re referring to that make up your strawman, John. But what I do know is that people were excited about the technological advancements he championed, whether it was his Hyperloop concept, Tesla or SpaceX. But people are smart enough to separate their interest in innovation from their interest in the personalities behind said innovation. People have recognized him not as a “liberal hero,” but as an Internet troll with a lot of money to burn just to “own the libs.” Everything he has done up to this point is actually diminishing any return on his $44 billion acquisition investment. Part of the degradation of his investment is the fact that he holds no consistent views on “free speech” except when his feelings are hurt.
Free speech is not under threat. What is under threat, however, is the integrity of free speech and the value of truth that’s inherently expected in the ways we communicate with each other.