BREAKING: Elon Buys Twitter - My Reaction (Russell Brand)

Elon Musk has clinched a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion – but what are the many protestations from the media REALLY about?



Brand pointing out hypocrisy and the fact that people are ignoring some monopolies over others due to the political spin. Thought it would be good to listen to his assessment here. He is reading analysis from Matt Taibbi and adding his thoughts. I agree that less political censorship is better. Let people speak and make an argument and see who agrees. Brand's main thing is to leave people to do what they want. I would also agree so long as this does not lead to people causing harm to others, although when running societal models going fully one way or another would leave some people wanting. We don't live in a perfect world. I like the New Deal ideas of freedom to do what you want, bounded by certain restrictions (the Laws passed in reaction to the 1929 crash vs corrupt business practices), plus having social safety nets.

The freedom stuff that Brand talked about zeroed in on the Progressive vs Traditional. The problem here is that both these sides have extremists on either end. A lot of centrists would not have a problem with either group minding their own business. And where people dispute what harm is there should be a discussion, in reference to science/data, and no walls of censorship. In terms of this discussion about psycho-societal issues people like Jordan Peterson would be one person engaged in such an approach. What does the data show? What are the consequences of your actions? And then you can talk about it. Obviously the argument here then delves into the tensions we see between political subjectivists (you can be anything you want) and scientitic objectivists (you are bounded by certain physical realities). And in that case there should certainly be lots of public engagement so people can see the arguments being made. not censorship and smearing. It won't be perfect, but the politicised mainstream media/big tech today is not doing our civilisation any favours.

[Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, April 28, 2022.]