On Thursday, Elon Musk finally closed his deal to buy Twitter after months of twists and turns. The deal seemed as if it was dead just a few months prior, but here we sit, with one of the world’s largest (and most politically active) social media platforms now in the hands of a free-speech absolutist.

Musk wasted no time before dropping the hammer. He walked into the company’s San Franciso-based headquarters and started firing all the partisan hacks who had done their best to quash speech over the last several years. Perhaps the most satisfying firing was of Vijaya Gadde, who made the decision to censor the Hunter Biden story just prior to the 2020 election.

As expected, it didn’t take long for the crying to begin. Some leftwing accounts began to fret about possibly being kicked off the platform while others pledged to resist as if they were storming the beaches of Normandy. Still, others, such as Taylor Lorenz, just went completely insane.

It’s like the gates of hell opened on this site tonight

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) October 28, 2022

I am not afraid of Elon Musk.
Who’s with me?

— Jo 🌻 (@JoJoFromJerz) October 28, 2022

I thought I'd leave these here. Just in case, hypothetically, the new potential owner of Twitter decides to bar videos critiquing billionaires and the system that enables them.

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) October 27, 2022

It’s all so stunning and brave to witness. These valiant libs standing up to tyranny, remaining on a platform that isn’t trying to kick them off. Truly, I feel as if I’m witnessing history being made. One day, people will talk about the heroism of “JoJoFromJerz” not being afraid of a dude who just wants her to have free speech.

And that’s really the absurdity of all this perfectly illustrated. Musk isn’t going to start banning leftwing accounts because unlike the leftwingers who used to run Twitter, he’s not a rabid partisan looking to crush freedom of expression for political purposes. The very people attacking Musk and suggesting he’ll destroy the site fail to recognize that he’s not like them. They are the ones who used secretive algorithms and selective TOS enforcement to silence their critics. Musk is taking things in a different direction, and even though they don’t deserve it, they’ll be protected just like everyone else.

The difference in philosophy and entitlement couldn’t be starker. Those on the left have relied on a monopoly in social media for years to throttle opposing viewpoints. That’s made them weak and unable to defend their stances, not that they were defensible anyway. Now, they are terrified they won’t have the power to put their finger on the scale any longer.

In the end, all this freaking out is over a guy buying Twitter who just wants everyone to be able to speak freely within some very basic guidelines. Those that are terrified by that are showing that it’s not Musk who is the problem.