But how did it occur to Elon Musk to buy Twitter without asking permission from the Left? But how did it occur to him to make his own decisions after having paid $44 billion for it? Who does he think he is, the owner? Nothing surrounding this operation is trivial, it is the cornerstone of the cultural battle. It has all the favorite battle condiments of the contemporary Left: good guys and bad guys, corporate demagoguery, control of discourse, corporate pressure, under-the-table foul play, boycotts by the progressive elite, cancel culture, wokism, and even sentimentality, as we see in the overacted drama of the victims of a personnel adjustment. And the boycott is serious: he himself has denounced the fall in advertisers following pressure from activists. And he has diagnosed it perfectly: “They’re trying to destroy free speech in America” (and around the world, I might add). If Musk gives up at this point, no one will be able to stop the totalitarianism of the Left. But a guy who replies to an AOC protest tweet with “Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8” won’t surrender so easily.
It is possible that, from a sociological point of view, Twitter does not move the voting intentions of large masses of people. But, together with other social networks, it has become a fundamental element for ideologically molding public opinion, and it is also the gateway to the media. Today, there is no point in having control of the media if you do not have a certain preponderance of the social networks. The Left demonstrated this when it blocked information on Hunter Biden’s computer on social networks, collaterally conditioning the electoral balance in the middle of the campaign. And it is also the perfect channel for the favorite leftist trend: the public stoning of dissidents.
Furthermore, I have always found the appropriation of a job by a salaried worker quite touching. Those people who, without having invested a single cent in a single business project, believe they are in indefinite possession of their job and consider that the company and its owner owe them their lives for doing that job. What you sign when you go to work is a contract, devoid of any emotion or sentiment. If the hiring, instead of with a piece of paper and a signature, were sealed by kissing the CEO’s cheek and melding with him in a heartfelt hug, I could understand the Twitter workers who are flooding social media with tearful videos comparing Musk to Hitler and accusing him of high treason against the Twitter family. Someone should have warned Musk that in addition to paying $44 billion to take over a ruinous company, he should marry the workers.
I suspect that Musk is also a victim of the infantilization of the younger generation to which progressive ideology has contributed so much. With an average age between 20 and 30, the company’s workers are incapable of assuming that sometime in your life you may be forced to change jobs. Is it unfair? Yes. Is it painful? Yes. So? “Hey, kid, life is unfair and painful, welcome to the real world, leave your unicorn at the door.”
I have seen three companies and a government go down while I was on board. One of them was a large communications group that included radio, television, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, and websites, and I occupied a management position. In all of them, I got off the boat when I believed that my work was no longer useful enough, without ever having been fired, which I would not have taken as a personal offense. And I have gone home with that mixture of sleeplessness and anxiety that comes with being out of work again, but without the need to blame anyone for my misfortune. You learn to live with uncertainty and without too much drama, you struggle a little, you pray to the good Lord, and soon you are somewhere else starting again full of enthusiasm. It was the norm in my generation. People worked for a company, they didn’t get their logo tattooed on their chest. I’m not sure most kids now in their 20s and 30s would be able to peacefully cope with something like that. The whiners on Twitter seem to be looking at the government, saying, “Dad, aren’t you going to stop this outrage?”
I’m confident that the new leader of Twitter will resist the pulse and sentimental campaigns of the Left, which has already found a new BLM to parade during the elections, this time with the excuse of a blue bird. Of course, whatever progressives say, Musk is not a conservative, he doesn’t have my ideas, but at least he seems willing to referee the social network game without cheating, so he’ll have me on his side in this battle. You know why? Because there are two important things we have in common: we like freedom, and we like making money.
Translated by Joel Dalmau.
