A Quick Thought on Musk Buying Twitter

April 15, 2022

My first thought on the whole discussion is that I’m not sure what Musk is arguing exactly.

If he is arguing that Twitter should be treated more like a public square where you can have center and right views be voiced without concern, then I get that. But I think there’s confusion there.

There are plenty of center and right people putting their views on Twitter. They’re not banned. They’re not kicked off the platform. Look at Shapiro. Owens. Carlson. As a few examples.

The problem isn’t Twitter doing something to them; the problem is the people on Twitter doing something to them.

You don’t solve a mob problem by buying the platform that the mob uses.

That’s my confusion with this approach.

I don’t see how him owning the platform, and having more influence over it, will solve the problem of people being outraged by ideas that make them uncomfortable.

You don’t make people respond better to Chapelle’s stand-up by buying the comedy club.

So is he worried about the state of our discourse, and what we consider to be acceptable speech? Or is he worried that Twitter is somehow making that problem worse? I think the problem is the first one, and I don’t see how buying Twitter does anything to fix it.

Notes