The New York Post e-Edition

Why We All Need To Stand With Elon

KAROL MARKOWICZ Twitter: @Karol

PROTECT Elon Musk. Ever since Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter, he has faced a barrage of serious attacks. A hit piece in The New York Times this month sought to tie Musk to apartheid in South Africa, despite Musk having left the country when he was a teenager. The Times got one expert to contend that the country’s lack of “a free exchange of ideas” protected South Africans from “the violent consequences of misinformation.” When you’ve reached the point of arguing that South Africa’s censorship was actually good, you may have gone too far.

Joy Reid, who regularly says crazy things on TV as host of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” hit a similar line, saying that Musk “misses the old South Africa in the ’80’s and wants that back.”

Now there’s a story out about an old sexual-harassment allegation, brought forth not by the alleged accuser but by a friend who claims to have knowledge of the harassment. Musk categorically denies the incident took place. He tweeted, “The attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens — this is their standard (despicable) playbook — but nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech.”

Everyone knows it won’t stop there. Musk has done something unacceptable to the left and its media friends, and they will now seek to punish him.

In another time, Musk would be solidly on the left and a champion of liberals everywhere. He popularized the electric car! He has committed to donating the majority of his wealth! He calls climate change “the biggest threat that humanity faces this century, except for AI”!

But we’re in an age of great conformity, and Musk has stepped outside the acceptable lines the left has drawn for us all. He engages with people across the political spectrum. He’s having fun without making a speech about his progressive values every two seconds. He believes in real free speech. He dares to say that President Donald Trump should be reinstated on Twitter.

Last week, Project Veritas released a video of Siru Murugesan, a senior engineer at the social-media company, describing the atmosphere inside the organization as “Commie” and confirming “Twitter does not believe in free speech.”

This tracks with how Twitter behaves as a company. Murugesan added, “We’re actually censoring the right and not the left.” Musk, as a liberal, is supposed to be on board with this. That he’s not is why he must be punished.

An April piece in the Times noted, “One person who has worked closely with Musk said that it is Musk’s firmly held belief that in a functioning democracy, it is anyone’s right to say ‘whatever stupid thing you want.’”

We used to all know this to be true. But the left forced us into a culture of cancellation for joke-making and risk-taking to the point where a belief like this is worth mentioning. We watched lefties cancel each other for imperfect leftism and wondered what that meant for the rest of us.

For every pollster who asks “Why is America so divided?” the real answer is that the left pushed us apart and made us afraid to speak to each other. Musk is trying to build that bridge to connect us back together again.

It’s not just Musk: The claws are also out for Joe Rogan, Dave Chappelle and anyone else who dares challenge the rigidity of thought into which we’ve all been forced.

Musk seems aware, tweeting a few days ago, “Political attacks on me will escalate dramatically in coming months.” But he should be ready for far more than political attacks.

Last week, Tesla somehow lost its spot on the S&P 500 ESG Index, which calculates environmental, social and governance standards. Musk shot back that the rating system “lost its integrity” and noted, “Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social & governance (ESG) by S&P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list! ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.”

In January 2020, Trump told CNBC, “I was worried about [Musk] because he’s one of our great geniuses, and we have to protect our geniuses.” He was right. Maybe in the future he’ll be able to say it on Twitter.

POST OPINION

en-us

2022-05-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://nypost.pressreader.com/article/282067690549713

New York Post