Elon Musk bought Twitter: But can he change company policy?
Elon Musk became the largest shareholder today in Twitter by purchasing a 9.2% stake in the company. The purchase came after Musk had reacted to Twitter banning the comedy account of the Babylon Bee. Musk explained that a democracy needs a public square where free speech is respected:
Of course, Musk is correct: You can’t have a democracy where the opposition is not permitted to challenge the conclusions of the ruling party—that would be one-party rule and that is exactly what we effectively have in the U.S. After all, Twitter banned the account of a sitting U.S. president! Leftist accounts are hardly ever banned by Twitter except for the most egregious circumstances. But bans are swift for accounts that dare challenge the narrative on the “current thing,” whether that is about the vaccine or the official narrative of the war in Ukraine. But what concerns me here is a bigger question: Will Musk be able to change the left-leaning culture of Twitter?
One of the questions I tackle in my book, Patriarch Mindset, is whether we should try to take over existing institutions or start new ones. In the book, I argued that while a conservative Christian “march through the institutions” was theoretically possible, it was too late to adopt that approach because leftist ideology was too deeply entrenched in these institutions. Upper and middle managers are all indoctrinated in leftist ideology as are most of the staff. In the short term, the only viable approach is to build parallel institutions: Economies that can exist and thrive outside of the official economy. I argue that what we need are economies where scientists who question the official consensus on vaccines or climate change will not have their lives destroyed for “misinformation;” where Christians will be able to follow the dictates of their conscience which is informed by Christian doctrine; and where ordinary people will not be constantly subject to the social engineering envisioned by the folks at the World Economic Forum.
If Musk is able to turn Twitter around and stop the banning of right-leaning accounts, it will be a challenge to the necessity of the “parallel institutions” approach. But, it is not going to be easy to change Twitter. The Left frames any questioning of “Science” as misinformation even if it is done by qualified scientists. On the Ukraine war, any information that paints Putin as anything other but an irrational, evil madman is deemed as pro-Russian propaganda. Thus, when the Left bans an account, it is always done in the name of the common good. They really believe they are the good guys. What is to stop woke Twitter employees from continuing to ban conservative accounts that they consider threats to public safety? What is to stop Twitter advertisers from pulling their advertising if Musk were to reinstate the Babylon Bee account or Trump’s account?
In other words, while I applaud Musk’s courage to swim against the current, he might find the same forces that hamstrung Trump arrayed against him. It will be interesting to see whether Musk, as a corporate leader, can do better than Trump did as head-of-state.
By the way, Musk’s approach has a natural limit to it. If most billionaires are left-leaning, as they seem to be, Musk will still be swimming against the tide. However, it does underscore the necessity of wealth to change our world for good. Wealth is power and the Left has used the power of wealth to buy institutions that control the narrative. If the West had a large contingent of devout Christian billionaires, we wouldn’t have to worry about corporations and governments pushing “you will own nothing and will be happy” as an ideology. If Christians are to make a difference for our children, we need to accumulate wealth and wield it in accord with Christian doctrine. This is why accumulating wealth is an important principle of the Patriarch Mindset.