Elon Musk is being analyzed by many people on the heels of his offer to buy Twitter. The man is a trillionaire, supposedly, so friends, foes, competitors, regulators, legislators and ethicists are expressing their opinions about whether the man deserves to hold such enormous power over automobiles, space travel and prospectively freedom of speech.
Regarding automobiles, Tesla is leading the crowd of manufacturers trying to build affordable battery-operated vehicles. It’s early in the game, but Tesla seems to have an edge in the race for dominance on our streets and highways (the stock market seems to confirm this observation). Of course, every other manufacturer is actively working on prototypes that will also replace fossil fuel cars.
The interesting thing about the race to build cars that run with electricity is that they are presently too expensive (prices start at $69,000), there are not enough places to recharge the batteries of the cars and some companies will have to build fossil fuel cars until the changeover occurs years into the future. I doubt Musk will be building any cars that run exclusively on fossil fuel. This is a burden that the GM’s, Fords, Toyotas and Mercedes of the world will likely bear.
Trillionaires can dabble in just about anything they care to. One morning in the last six months or so, Musk woke up and said to himself that Twitter and all the other high tech social media companies are not giving all individuals and companies an equal opportunity to express themselves. And that’s not constitutional.
Moreover, Twitter has experienced some bumps in the road aside from freedom of speech issues, so Musk thought it needed some managerial assistance. And so, he asked himself why shouldn’t he come to the rescue of those being spurned by Twitter, buy the company and give Donald Trump and all Americans an opportunity to speak their mind without being subjected to undue censorship.
Trillionaires all believe they are far superior intellectually and morally than normal human beings. Would the world be a better place if must Musk jumped into the fray and negotiated with politicians, ethicists, philosophers and political scientists about how to properly run a social media company and how to define free speech?
The problem with all this is that are there are several big social media companies trying to convince government regulators and politicians what our citizens can say without the threat of censorship. It’s going to be a real food fight if Musk gains control of Twitter.
When it’s all said and done Musk may or may not move forward on this this journey to offer free speech to all Americans. But his instincts are correct. Free speech cannot be available only to liberals, social activists and woke individuals who are favorites of the liberal media. If one person is denied his or her right to speak out it’s a sad day for America and the US Constitution.