Elon Must

 

For a long time free speech has been distorted and fucked over by the media, politicians and anyone with a big enough set of vocal chords.

The general attitude is similar to Orwell’s “four legs good, two legs better” maxim where we are told that free speech does, for sure, exist in all its glory BUT there are some things that are just too naughty or evil to say out loud or post on social media so therefore they are off the menu.

When I was at uni back in the early 90s the maxim “I disagree wholeheartedly with what you say but I would defend to the death your right to say it” was uttered frequently by left wing radicals who realised that free speech meant allowing EVERYONE a voice, not just those with the most popular opinion. This died off almost completely in the decades that followed.

When I heard that Elon Musk had offered to buy Twitter for a princely sum I was initially cynical, realising from the backlash that he probably wouldn’t be successful. I was then genuinely surprised to find out that he’d got it this week, for a whopping sum of cash.

Musk has repeatedly advocated completely free speech on the Twitter platform, and on social media in general and so far appears to want to stick to that belief.

Over the last year or two we have seen some very controversial stories in the media where an opposing opinion to the apparently “right” view is seen as, at best intolerant and at worst fascistic.

Swimmer Lea Thomas is a trans woman competing in a sport with biological females. Personally I think it’s apalling that someone with what has been described as a “male puberty supplied jet pack” (i.e. her man’s body) can compete against much smaller women and therefore have an advantage that those women cannot hope to compete against. Those who oppose the view that she should be able to compete like this, are labelled intolerant and transphobic when the truth is a case of the emperor’s new clothes. Someone with the legacy attributes of a male is ALWAYS going to do better at a sport based on lung capacity, height and muscular strength, regardless of how low the testosterone level test might be.

This story, from a few weeks ago, sums up just how frustrating for many people this has now become.

Anyone should be allowed to voice an opinion of Lea competing in these events either for or against, without people invoking the lowest common denominator of transphobia to stifle a discussion.

A while back I saw a video of openly gay Dalton Stevens being homophobically abused for wearing a dress by Sam Johnson the now former CEO of VisuWell. Johnson is (at least, from the brief clip) being a total dick. Problem is that Steven’s boyfriend is intentionally provoking Johnson and making a bad situation worse, at one point saying “please, keep talking” while filming him. A difference of opinion? No. Hateful arsehole? Yep. But why act like you are all innocent and the nasty homophobe was in your face and you were just minding your own business when you were deliberately winding the man up? Johnson’s opinions sucked a but instead of dealing with his behaviour in a dignified way the couple reacted badly and the bottom line was that their own attitude didn’t matter because he was the only one who was wrong.

Some time ago I joined a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) Facebook group and, coincidentally, it was the first Monday of the month when you can freely advertise your own published material within the group (not allowed any other day). Someone had posted about needing a gender-neutral pronoun for describing a person for a book they were writing and wanted ideas.

Now...years ago I read a comic called 2000AD and in the strip Nemesis the Warlock there were two characters fighting a duel while wearing masks. They were referred by their names of Magna or Chira or as “it” until the twist ending where it was revealed both were female. Clever! As this was an author group I also envisaged a possible dystopian future where people might have to earn the pronoun of their choice or, like slaves in the Roman empire, might not have identity. And let’s not forget Stephen King’s book. So, I suggested the one word remark “it” in the comments, without elaboration and a bit later, when I went to advertise my own books, I found out I’d been muted for 24 hours (i.e. unable to interact within the group) but no explanation given. After making enquiries I got a snotty letter off the group’s admin, saying that my “comment” had been perceived as discriminatory and had received complaints. Fact it wasn’t directed at anyone or any group; that we were on an authors’ forum; that it was an answer to a question didn’t cut any ice. She then told me that in future I should promote myself before I broke the group’s rules on hate speech and would have to wait for the following month’s first Monday as she wasn’t willing to unmute me or make an exception. To REALLY rub salt in it she then sent me a link to a Quora article on why calling people “it” is a no-no. I told her to fuck off and then removed myself from the group.

She was clearly unaware that Instagram allow “it” as a choice of personal pronoun on your profile.

Free speech is the backbone of society. Banning, muting and cancelling those with controversial opinions (or who accidentally cross lines) is wrong on so many levels. If you feel so impassioned about your beliefs then verbalise them, write them down and stake your claim. Don’t bully those with differing views into backing down.

While Donald Trump was and probably still is a pillock and was a fucking awful president, Twitter banning him made it quite clear that they regard themselves as guardians of the moral high ground and even the US Commander-in-Chief is not exempt from what they expect him to say (or rather NOT say).

Many years ago there were hustings for local members of parliament at a borough in London and the democratically elected BNP candidate (British National Party, basically fascists) was physically ejected from the building by police. Reason? The building was private property and the other candidates and the organisers didn’t want him there and told him to leave, which legally they had the right to do. When he refused the cops were called and ejected him to cheers from the people in there. Watching this video on the news at the time I remember thinking just how awful this was. The guy was elected and due to having opinions that other people found offensive was thrown out of a debate. This, in my eyes, made them no better than anyone else who censors free speech, regardless of where their beliefs lie.

The old chestnut usually used to justify this type of behaviour is that people like him are “dangerous” and that their “hate speech” will contaminate people and incite violence. This, as mentioned, was a supposedly civilised debate and assuming people are unable to sieve through the opinions of others while retaining their own moral compass is beyond patronising.

I really hope that Elon Musk does what he says he’s going to do and makes Twitter a genuine platform for free speech. Something that has been lost to the void for a very long time now.