Have you ever feared that free speech might destroy free speech? A Democrat strategist has, and she recently said so on MSNBC.
On Saturday morning’s PoliticsNation, host Al Sharpton introduced the topic:
“Telsa CEO Elon Musk…has made a $43 billion offer for Twitter to ‘build an arena for free speech.'”
“Musk has accused Twitter of censoring its users,” Al pointed out.
He directed a question to political analyst Danielle Moodie-Mills:
“Are you concerned that what Musk is trying to do is to open up the platform for more misinformation about topics such as COVID-19 and the 2020 election? And perhaps even allow former President Trump to get his account back?”
Danielle has an idea — free speech is a threat to free speech:
“I mean, I’m going to be honest, Elon Musk is a danger to Twitter and to freedom of speech. He has been known to say some of the most transphobic and homophobic things to his millions of followers. So creating an arena for hate? To me, that’s what that sounds like — an opportunity for him to have no consequences. To have no flags. For people just to be able to do whatever it is and say whatever they want regardless of what kind of harm that it causes. So I think that this is something that folks really need to be paying attention to, because I think that Elon Musk buying Twitter or creating this quote-unquote ‘arena’ would be problematic.”
MSNBC guest Danielle Moodie-Mills (@DeeTwoCents): “@elonmusk is a danger to Twitter and to freedom of speech. He has been known to say some of the most transphobic and homophobic things to his millions of followers." pic.twitter.com/pUlWWSyf7a
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 18, 2022
It’s indeed poised to be “problematic,” as that term seems to denote opposition to This Present Wokeness. Danielle’s unease is understandable — she presides over a podcast called Woke AF Daily.
As for the notion that free speech could kill free speech, it appears to me a perfect illustration of where we are: Politics has devolved into a meaningless collection of consonants and nouns. It’s become a realm in which people speak words into cameras with zero consideration of whether they make any sense at all.
The heads talk, so that the people may listen.
Even so, regarding free speech, the strategist hit upon a pretty perfect descriptor:
For people just to be able to…say whatever they want regardless of what kind of harm that it causes.
So far as I understand, that was largely the point of a place called the United States.
In times past, someone might say, “I hate your ideas, but I would fight to the death to defend your right to say them.” I don’t imagine that notion retaining its popularity of yore. There’s a growing group that’s determined your words should be limited to what they prefer — on topics such as COVID. And the 2020 election.
But in an arena of free speech, nearly all expression would be allowed.
Concerning COVID, there’s largely been no such thing as objective “(mis)information,” as we’ve known very little about the disease, its origins, and its attempted treatment and prevention. We continue to know little even now. We’ve been traveling a path upon which something false on Monday greets Tuesday as a fact. Yesterday’s “false information” is today’s revelation. We’ve learned some, but there’s much more to go.
Part of what we’ve yet to know — such as the long-term effects of the vaccines — won’t come for literally years.
But whatever is right, free speech means being free to be wrong.
Back to Elon, might he turn Twitter into an arena of free speech? If he does, perhaps it will be eye-opening: It will illustrate for a generation how America is supposed to work.
-ALEX
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