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People are suggesting that Elon Musk, trillionaire, should do something positive for humanity.
Everything else notwithstanding, I suggest that Musk has already done so: he bought Twitter/X and made it the biggest market for free speech mankind has ever known. I think that history might well show that his role in preserving free speech is as important a legacy for Musk as electric cars, AI, robots, Mars — even SpaceX, Starlink, and Neuralink.
Modern liberals are in good company: seeking to ban any speech that makes us upset comes with a long and proud pedigree. It certainly featured in the ancient world. When the Israelite spies came back from Canaan, they told everyone that they should be afraid. Caleb insisted that G-d is with us, and that the people should not fear.
What was their response?
The people didn't argue. They didn't counter with facts. Instead, they agitated to cancel Caleb and Joshua in the rawest way possible: by stoning them. Like any mob, they could not deal with opposing voices, and they easily rose to violence as a way to deal with it. In the Torah story, G-d intervenes with a literal deus ex machina. If G-d had not intervened, then the mob would have killed the truth-sayers, and would have won.
Today, we have X to ensure that the mob cannot stone those who truly speak truth to power. Thank you, Mr. Musk!
Discussion (10)
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I don't disagree with you regarding Musk; however, by and large, businessmen and businesses do the most good for society when they go about their business providing goods and services that people willingly purchase with their hard-earned money.
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Make the Eccles building disappear. Every social problem we have would be gone.
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Free speech is being suppressed in Europe. Here's one example: the French government wants to send this young woman to prison for saying (on television) where the main threat to women comes from.
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I understand very well why antiliberals, like for example people who oppose free speech, started referring to themselves as liberals. They benefit from the deception, and if they balked at lying because they valued truth, they wouldn't be antiliberal, would they?
But I don't understand why my fellow liberals go along with it.
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Starlink has brought high speed internet access to the most remote and impoverished and censored places on the planet.
Starlink is Elon Musk's greatest achievement and his greatest gift to mankind.
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