(LifeSiteNews) — When Elon Musk took over Twitter, I was skeptical. His trolling of leftists was undeniably hilarious (he’s very good at it); his hands-on approach to addressing the complaints of conservatives was encouraging; and his decision to restore the suspended accounts of those removed from the platform over their opposition to gender ideology (such as The Babylon Bee and Dr. Jordan Peterson) was very welcome.
But I’ve been wary of the habit social conservatives have of embracing any prominent figure who appears sympathetic to views held by virtually everybody 15 minutes ago (Kids shouldn’t get sex changes! Men shouldn’t complete against women in sports!) as if they are a genuine ally. Comedians who make jokes affirming that abortion kills a baby, for example, may be doing more to normalize killing babies than confronting their audiences. Kanye West was always unstable and erratic. Caitlyn Jenner should not be a Fox News contributor just because he isn’t delusional on everything.
And Elon Musk is no conservative. He has boasted about Tesla’s LGBT record; utilized IVF and surrogacy; had children with several women; and significantly, revealed his libertarian leanings with his position on assisted suicide, stating: “Freedom means freedom to die when you are sure you want to.” His position on gender ideology is that: “I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare.” (One of his children, it bears mentioning, has come out as transgender and condemned him.)
Despite all of that, however, progressives have treated Musk like a fascist simply because of his genuine, whole-hearted defense of freedom of speech — because he believes that it applies to everyone, even those with opinions that progressives have declared are beyond the pale. According to progressives, libertarians are totalitarians because they refuse to suppress opinions that they oppose, especially with regard to transgenderism. Thus, Musk’s opposition to wokeness — which he articulated in a recent interview with Bill Maher — puts him in opposition to the revolution. When he condemns wokeness, they see him as a threat to their total consolidation of power.
Progressives also hate Musk because he is an elite who insists on regularly uttering heresies. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, for example, he mused that “birth control and abortions and whatnot” pose a threat to human civilization. “I’m sort of worried that hey, civilization, if we don’t make enough people to at least sustain our numbers, perhaps increase a little bit, then civilization’s going to crumble,” he said. “The old question of like, will civilization end with a bang or a whimper? Well, it’s currently trying to end with a whimper in adult diapers, which is depressing as hell.”
When Musk — a billionaire who moves in the highest circles — says things like that, progressives view him as a traitor to his class.
After a half year of Musk owning Twitter, it is clear that his free speech libertarianism cannot be budged by the woke mob. Like J.K. Rowling, he’s simply too wealthy and too successful to be cowed by trans activists and angry wokelings and appears impervious to their online temper tantrums and ineffectual attempts at canceling him (which he takes great delight in mocking). Prior to Musk’s takeover, speaking the truth about gender ideology would get you removed from the platform, regardless of whether you were a Christian, a common-sense atheist, or a radical feminist. Biological reality as expressed in the form of pronouns was literally banned; referring to the name “Bruce Jenner,” in any context, could also get you permanently removed.
Musk has made it possible to have truthful conversations about some of the most relevant cultural issues on one of the largest social media platforms in the world. Next to simply shutting Twitter down, that’s the best thing he could have done, and we owe him a debt of gratitude for it.
