Oh, Elon

Elon Musk is buying Twitter, and we are seeing, in real time, half the world lose their minds over the seriously scary idea of his possible totalitarian rule.

The other half is rejoicing at the prospect of him being the champion of what they all call ‘free speech’.

Now, to be clear, I think that fighting for the right of people to speak their minds without fear of persecution is a valiant effort. I must say, however, I’m not sure I trust that those are his true intentions just because he says they are. And even if they are his intentions, I wonder if he is really as impartial as he thinks he is.

I also don’t know if I agree that one person should have all that power, as opposed to multiple people with differing views.

He did clarify on his newly purchased site that what he meant by “free speech” was whatever the law says is legal, and that he wouldn’t go beyond that, but even that caused more confusion for followers.

I mean, he is in America. What happens in countries like Russia or China, where governments are said to arrest people for speaking up against them? Will Twitter now support oppressive governments and ban users in those countries for breaking the ‘law’?

Not to mention that Elon is a capitalist who loves money. He heavily relies on China as the second-largest market for Tesla cars, which means the country could now have leverage over the social media site.

Will that affect how he handles how China’s government and treatment of its citizens is spoken about on Twitter? Does that mean he’ll support their idea of what speech is allowed to be ‘free’?

The only people who are really happy about Elon’s claims seem to be those who want misinformation, hate speech and bigotry to be allowed to thrive.

The people who feel it is unfair to minimise the rights of those who choose to abuse their ‘free’ speech, are happy they are now going to be able to say and do whatever they want, without being ‘censored’.

I put the word censored in quotes, because honestly, I believe there are some opinions and words that should not be allowed to be said freely.

I know it sounds like I’m the one being the big, bad authoritarian government now, but if you believe that any and everybody should just be allowed to say anything they want, even untrue and harmful things, you’re mad and probably problematic yourself.

Maybe the issue is that too many of us are too far up Elon’s ass.

I mean, yeah, he’s a cool dude and he’s funny sometimes, but he’s literally just a human being who isn’t perfect, and who isn’t correct about every single thing.

I mean. I’m actually a fan of the guy. I love his work with Tesla and SpaceX, but I don’t think those things make him some ultra genius or some guy who knows so much about freedom that he alone should own and control one of the biggest communication companies in the world.

Maybe we should stop worshipping the rich altogether. We always try so hard to convince ourselves and everybody that there is something special about these kinds of people, when the truth is there isn’t.

We should stop idolising these guys who are willing to spend US$44 billion, an amount 90% of the planet cannot even fathom, to buy a social media website, just because you feel you’ve been bullied on there, when there are so many more pressing issues that could be dealt with.

If you believe it’s not the responsibility of people who are so rich they’ll never be able to spend their fortune in multiple lifetimes to help fix the problems of the world, you are absolutely deluded.

I actually think Elon just loves the chaos. It’s evident by the way he posts online and trolls people. Sometimes it comes off like he is just a bored billionaire hoping to watch poor people dance for his entertainment.

I’m so curious about the future of social media now. I want to see if Donald Trump’s Twitter account would be reinstated, since he was banned for his violence-inciting free speech. I wonder what this will do for the racists and the queerophobes who felt their right to hurt others was being impeded by Twitter’s previous owners.

Just recently a Namibian on Twitter sued someone for defamation after having their face compared to that of a baboon. He won N$20 000. I guess, technically, with Elon’s idea of free speech, victories like that will be no more.

Maybe it’s none of that. Maybe he just wanted to compete with fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos, who owns his own media company, publishing The Washington Post.

We’ll see.

– Anne Hambuda is a screenwriter, poet, columnist and creative thinker. Email annehambuda@gmail.com for more.

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