In what appears to be a sign of both massive hypocrisy and a possible fear of ESG (Environmental-Social-Governance) retribution, corporate behemoth and big-time U.S. bailout recipient General Motors helped lead the progressive pack attacking new Twitter CEO Elon Musk for his oh-so-frightening desire to open the censorious “social media” platform to a wider range of opinion and expression.
Michael Wayland and Lora Koloday report for CNBC that the auto giant not only competes with Musk’s auto firm, Tesla (also the recipient of U.S. tax cash, but which it paid back earlier than scheduled), GM’s big-government-tied deciders suddenly “decided” it would be prudent (until further notice) to disassociate from Twitter.
“General Motors is suspending its advertising on Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform, the company told CNBC on Friday.”
The Detroit automaker, a rival to Musk-led electric vehicle maker Tesla, said it is “pausing” advertising as it evaluates Twitter’s new direction. It will continue to use the platform to interact with customers but not pay for advertising, GM added.
“’We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership. As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue,’ the company said in an emailed statement.”
Yes, NOW, after all the censorship, after thousands of conservatives and anti-war users have been purged, suspended, and “shadow-banned," after Twitter purged then-President Donald Trump, after its woker-than-woke brass booted professor Jordan Peterson, after its “team” trotted off entrepreneur Mike Lindell, and many more – not for any of those people threatening anyone, but merely for expressing IDEAS - NOW, General Motors is “evaluating” its advertising stance?
After Twitter suspended the NY Post because the newspaper was correctly reporting verifiable info about the Hunter Biden laptop scandal> And after Twitter suspended satire site The Babylon Bee for posting a biologically valid joke about “Rachel” Levine being “Man of the Year”? Now, GM sees Musk's return-to-fair-play approach as something to give them pause?
Related: Big Tech’s Censorship Effect Is BERSERK | MRCTV
Perhaps some of us who believe in the salutary power of conversation and journalism might find this odd, and even a wee bit hypocritical.
Of course, we could be very much alone in our backwards, Enlightenment, Golden Rule-based thinking. After all, the GM heads appear to have a lot of comfortable, anti-speech, afraid-to-debate allies, who without a hint of irony or shame, use their big-media positions and their ability to express themselves online as means to call for the continued silencing of others with whom they disagree.
Infamous Washington Post “Tech Writer” and doxing-of-opponents hypocrite Taylor Lorenz, who never has lost her platform on Twitter, despite her incredibly questionable tactics, used Twitter on October 27 to claim that the site already was yielding to “the bad people”:
“It’s like the gates of hell opened on this site tonight”
Because, of course, her behavior in doxxing people is totally cool, but Jordan Peterson’s peaceful debate and conversation? That’s evil, and particularly dangerous to have shared among people who can decide for themselves.
Got it.
“Star Trek, The Next Generation” actress Marina Sirtis epitomized the mindset and actions of many leftists, when, shortly after Lorenz freaked out, she left Twitter entirely, prompting liberty-minded Tolkien scholar, Nerdrotic founder, and entertainment critic Gary Buechler to tweet a quick “bye” to the woke thespian he once enjoyed watching on TV. Gary and his family recently left San Francisco after the Democrat-imposed lockdowns there destroyed his wife’s business, and they moved to Texas, a state Sirtis slammed during a massive 2021 power-outage, implying that its rightist political base, rather than the centralized power system and the bad weather, was at fault.
Buechler’s sentiment might have summed up the thoughts of many when it comes to Sirtis and her left-wing Twitter hypocrisy: “Heart felt f**k off from Texas.”
Of course, Sirtis and Lorenz are in no way swimming on their own in the dirty kiddy-pool of double-standards. The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel wrote with apocalyptic concern about Musk firing numerous Twitter brass (including Vijaya Gadde, the Twitter lawyer who not only has been revealed as a key in the decision to silence the NY Post Hunter laptop reports and booting Donald Trump, and who handled herself abysmally when grilled about the NY Post issue on the Joe Rogan podcast). And Warzel added concern that Kanye West, Trump, and others who might be allowed onto the platform might push Musk towards just not “moderating” content enough.
Read: not enough censorship of opinion that differs from Warzel’s enlightened thought.
As author and satirist Konstantin Kisin tweeted on October 28:
“What's interesting is that the people complaining about @elonmusk
taking over Twitter have absolutely no reason to fear censorship, bans or shadowbanning. Their complaint is that other people won't be censored. Says a lot.”
At the Washington Post, Faiz Siddiqui and Elizabeth Dwoskin actually offered this absurd statement:
“Musk represents a different kind of owner from Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, or his now-rival Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, who generally try to stay politically neutral.”
And both the Atlantic and WaPO excitement did not go unnoticed by independent journalist Glenn Greenwald, who tweeted:
“The people who work for the newspaper owned by Jeff Bezos (the WaPo) and who write for the magazine controlled and funded by Laurene Powell Jobs (The Atlantic) are very worried this morning about the unprecedented crisis we face of billionaires buying and controlling the flow of news and information.”
Finally, and perhaps summing-up best, pro-liberty filmmaker M.E. Moore offered:
"People on the right tried to start Twitter alternatives, because Twitter tried to silence them. People on the left are trying to start Twitter alternatives, because Twitter won't allow them to silence others. That difference is very telling."
Yes, it is. As has been the case for generations, the collectivist mindset cannot stand for debate, free-speech, and dissent.
Elon Musk does not have a perfect record – in any way – when it comes to statism and technocracy. But his early actions at Twitter appear to be moves in a good direction.
And it’s a direction that reveals the authoritarianism and hypocrisy not only of many corporate heads and celebrities, but of many so-called “journalists” who long ago discarded fair treatment of others and embraced propaganda and censorship as their bread and butter.
Related: Rep. Nunes Sues Twitter for $250 Million, Alleging Censorship, Defamation | MRCTV
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CBS's Margaret Brennan tried to falsely accuse @RepTomEmmer of being responsible for the unhinged nudist who attacked Paul Pelosi.
— MRCTV (@mrctv) October 31, 2022
Emmer expertly called out Brennan for her overt hypocrisy. https://t.co/JaMAsMNdpk