It's Elon's fault

(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Somebody has to take the hit for tomorrow night’s Blue massacre, and the Democrats have decided it will be Elon Musk.

Musk’s takeover of Twitter has given the Left conniption fits since it was first floated as an idea. Musk, after all, has been complaining about Twitter’s moderation policies for a long time, and enforcing those policies has been a key strategy the Left has been using to control The Narrative™.

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The Democrats have a mystical belief in the power of words, believing that if they control the words spoken they are controlling reality itself. It’s an idea that originated many moons ago in academic philosophy and English departments, and it is embodied in critical theory (there is a “critical studies” for everything).

All these overly and badly educated Leftists actually believe that reality bends to their will if they own the language. That is why Scientific American can seriously claim that the duality of the sexes was invented by White Men in the 18th century to oppress women.

That’s the fundamental reason they are freaking out about losing control over Twitter. With the MSM, Hollywood, Facebook, Twitter, Google, K-12, and academia under their control they owned the Narrative™. They scream to high heavens about Fox News and a few conservative websites, but any rational person can look around and acknowledge that conservatives are a tiny minority voice in the cultural landscape, if not in the electorate. Fox News viewers are about 1% of the population–around 3 million in a country of 350 million.

Donald Trump used Twitter to break through the liberal noise, and in doing so he broke the minds of the Left. It’s no surprise that Trump’s Tweets far more than any particular policy drove the Left nuts. They believe in the ultimate power of words over all. Throwing Trump–the President of the United States!–off of Twitter was crucial to the mental health of the Leftists. So they did, along with countless other dissenters.

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Now that Musk has ripped Twitter out of the control of the Left–not, mind you, to turn it into a conservative haven–the Left has gone insane. They truly see it as an existential threat, and perhaps it is to them. They can’t point to reality as backing their assertions, so the alternative is ensuring we all sing off the same song sheet.

Losing control over a media outlet is an existential threat, in their view. The free flow of information anywhere and at any time is a threat to both their plans and to their view of the world. Challenges to their vision are, they often remind us, literally “violence.” Calling a trans-man a “woman” is violent. Using the wrong pronouns is violence. Silence is violence. Everything that challenges their psychosis is violence. Which why a “safe space” has nothing to do with physical protection, but psychic comfort.

Ironically, that includes inconvenient references to violence. Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, calls discussion of crime increases in New York “misinformation” and a threat to democracy. This is a regular theme for any discussion that conflicts with the Narrative™. It is false. Misinformation. A threat to democracy.

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Which of course means a threat to their grip on power. Oppose them, and you are a terrorist. Ask Virginia parents who dispute the Narrative™ coming from their school boards. Complaining about a child being raped in a bathroom by a boy pretending to be a girl and you are literally a terrorist to be investigated by the FBI.

By now it is clear that Democrats are facing an epic thrashing in tomorrow’s election. It is, of course, impossible for Democrats to believe that the voters rejected their leadership, their policies, and their vision. So the answer to why they are losing must be “disinformation.” That is why they lost in 2016, they believe, and that is why they are going to lose now.

It is never the Democrats’ fault that they lost an election. In some way or another they were cheated. Ask Hillary, or Stacey, or any NYT or Washington Post reporter about 2016. Al Gore won. John Kerry won. Hillary Clinton won. Stacey Abrams won. But questioning elections that Democrats win is treason.

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It is simply impossible for Democrats to accept that voters just don’t like them. They don’t like Biden. They don’t like inflation (a word invented by Republicans, according to Joy Reid, and voters wouldn’t care but for the misinformation). They don’t like crime (misinformation again). They don’t like brain dead leaders. (Misinformation). Americans would love Joe Biden but for the lies told about him. He is Franklin Roosevelt and Lincoln rolled into one. Really!

So if it is not their fault, it must be the fault of the man who stole their grip on the Narrative™. Elon Musk. It will be his fault.

Others, of course, will be contributing evildoers, but Musk will be a primary target. He fired the gatekeepers at Twitter, and the Democrats’ losses were a result.

If you think that Musk has been the object of hate for the past few weeks, you have seen nothing yet. He has a target on his back, and the Establishment will expend enormous energy attacking and intimidating him. Either he complies or he gets ruined.

That is the choice they have already presented him. The Biden Administration has made noises about scrutinizing all his business deals. The European Union is threatening Twitter with expulsion. Rumble, the YouTube alternative has already left France after censorship threats. All the stops will be removed to force Elon Musk to bend the knee to them. Censorship is the Left’s last redoubt.

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It will be a full court press, and I don’t know who will win. If Twitter were Elon’s primary gig he would get crushed, but the fact is that Elon Musk actually does vital and productive things, such as launch twice as much payload into orbit than the rest of the world combined. The US military and NASA rely on SpaceX. Ukraine relies on Starlink, and the reliance of the West will increase. Tesla is a major manufacturer and one of the fastest growing companies in the world.

Elon Musk may often be frivolous, but what he accomplishes is not.

Musk is no Mark Zuckerberg–either in being captured by the Left or in being CEO of a frivolous if influential platform. If Facebook died it would be replaced. It is big, important, influential, and unique only in being dominant. It is an economic force, undoubtedly, and popular to use. But its dominance is not based upon anything beyond being the place everyone is. Technologically it is no marvel, and could be duplicated.

But SpaceX? Nobody else in the world can do what they do. Boeing can’t. ULA can’t. The Europeans, the Russians, the Chinese–none of them holds a candle to SpaceX. SpaceX is not a huge money maker compared to Facebook or Google or Amazon, but without it access to space would suddenly be much much harder. SpaceX is vital to American national security and the security of the West.

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So who wins this battle between Musk and the Establishment™? I have no idea. But it begins in earnest next week.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | December 16, 2024
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