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How Free is Speech? Twitter, Colleges & Street Tuffs - Top 3 Takeaways – April 5th, 2022
- The Tables are turning at Twitter. You know the old saying...If you can't beat them buy them. Ok, well that’s not exactly a saying but it is exactly what Elon Musk is doing. Elon Musk isn’t the first billionaire who’s had it with Twitter. Donald Trump started Truth Social. He's not the first tech entrepreneur to ponder whether a new social platform was needed that wouldn’t silence and censor independent voices. John Matze founded Parler for that reason. He’s not even the first former Trump advisor to wade into the social media waters. Jason Miller became the CEO of Gettr (Musk was on two of Trump’s business advisory councils). He is the first to come public and have the means to just buy Twitter and change it. Just as there’s a difference between millionaires and multimillionaires, there’s a difference between being a billionaire and being Elon Musk. The universe of people who can lay out $3 billion to buy a stake in a company they’re at odds with is rather limited. But that’s exactly what Elon did in recently buying a greater than 9% stake in Twitter. In the ultimate case of putting one’s money where their mouth is, it's clear that rather than trying to recreate the wheel – which was the case for the aforementioned social media platforms, Elon’s play is just to buy Twitter with an eye on changing it. Two weeks ago, Elon was Tweeting about Twitter failing to adhere to free speech principals. Today he’s Twitter’s largest shareholder. And what happens from here? Effectively whatever he wants. Elon’s estimated net worth? $267 billion. Even after yesterday’s 30% gain on the news, Twitter’s entire market value - $41 billion. That means for about another $37 billion he could buy just buy the company – or for another $18-$19 billion (7% of his net worth) a controlling interest. Will he choose to go that far? Unclear but investors surely were buying into that being the case yesterday. What is clear is that the tables are turning at Twitter and Elon Musk is using his enormous wealth to engage in an ultimate free speech battle. And here’s the irony. Trump’s not really using his own Truth Social as of yet. What do you want to bet he’d be back to Twitting given the opportunity? Speaking of diversity of opinion and free speech...
- How much diversity of thought is on Florida’s college campuses? Federal Judge Mark Walker made a couple of rulings involving the state late last week. One we’ve talked a lot about and that made a lot of news regarding last year’s voter integrity law – one that didn’t make much news but deserves some attention involving another law which passed last year – the Postsecondary Education law. Doesn’t ring a bell, does it? But you might remember me covering this at this time. The legislation requires the state’s Board of Governors and the Florida Board of Education to create a survey that will be used to determine “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” on Florida’s college campuses. The annual survey is to be provided to students and college administrators with the purpose of illustrating the extent of the diversity of thought and political perspectives on college campuses. The idea is pretty simple, especially from an independent or conservative perspective. Are our colleges being run near-exclusively by leftists or is there real diversity of thought? How does the administration lineup ideologically in relation to the student body? It’s interesting though not surprising that efforts to prevent this survey took place. The question is how revealing the results will be when we receive them? With the law upheld the first survey is about to take place. It is interesting leftist interest groups sued to try to stop it - perhaps just as free speech has commonly been inhibited on college campuses in recent years. Notably, the president of United Faculty of Florida, has now called on college faculty to boycott the survey. What does that tell you? The first surveys will be 24 questions for employees and 21 questions for students. Among the questions that will be asked of students. Do they feel free to be able to express their views on campus? It’s clear the president of the faculty thinks there’s something to hide... Anyway, once completed, the results of the surveys will be made public. That should be interesting. And one more on the topic of speech...
- You don’t have to leave Florida to say gay. You don’t even have to leave an elementary school classroom to do it. No matter. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is ready to recruit the Muppet Offended to his city. In an advertising campaign which kicked off yesterday in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa and runs through May 29th, Adams said this: Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill is the latest shameful, extremist culture war targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Today, we say to the families living in fear of this state-sponsored discrimination that you will always have a home in New York City. And what was the state’s response? Mayor Adams is doing Florida a favor. If anyone is so upset about our governor defending parental rights and protecting young children from inappropriate instruction about sex and gender theory that they want to leave Florida for a crime-ridden socialist dystopia, I am quite confident our state will be better off without them. That mic drop is courtesy of DeSantis Press Secretary Christina Pushaw. So yeah, if New York Mayor Eric Adams pitch appeals to you? Like him you still haven’t read the legislation but have formed an opinion. So yeah, feel free to say gay all the way to New York City. And as for the Muppet Offended. This is what I offered in February of last year... My question is this... If you’re offended by the Muppets, what in society aren’t you offended by? And it’s not my intent to be crass, simply to be real. If by chance the Muppets do offend you – you'd better get a job for Disney or else life will surely kick your a**, or Miss Piggy as the case may be. But hey, at least the street tuffs in New York City are gay.