So the last two weeks or so, I’ve torn myself away from more important stories – such as monitoring the state of Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, or considering whether Amber Heard dropped a deuce in Johnny Depp’s bed – to watch everyone’s favorite Asperger’s billionaire, Elon Musk, announce that there was a new sheriff in the public square, or what passes for our public square nowadays. “He is taking over Twitter!” wailed the always tolerant lib-weenie blue checks, perhaps afraid that they might once again have to, you know, actually tolerate people who see the world differently than they do. (One top Twitter lawyer actually cried at a staff meeting – which is what I often want to do when reading Twitter for longer than thirty seconds.)

Right-wingers, on the other hand – newly susceptible to joining strongman cults, having had a lot of recent practice – seemed to regard news of Musk’s Twitter takeover as being on a par with the Second Coming of Christ. (Last time, it was to die for our sins, this time, it’s to Own The Libs– even better than saving us from perdition!) As a free-speech lover, I sympathize with them a bit. Too many have been suspended or banned – sometimes for good reason, sometimes on the thinnest of pretexts if there has been any pretext at all. Twitter’s often arbitrary enforcement of its standards, such as they are, seem to only have one recurring theme: if you’re anywhere to the right of Ilhan Omar, and say something we don’t like, we reserve the right to ban you. Which is no way to run what’s supposed to be a free-speech enterprise, in which everyone – even deranged conspiracy-mongering sociopaths like Alex Jones – should be able to have a go.