The opposite of reality

| 8:30 pm EDT November 1, 2022
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I learned about Elon Musk’s sudden surprise buyout of Twitter indirectly. I started haemorrhaging Twitter followers. People were deleting their accounts, abandoning ship. The dark portent of Musk’s nefarious takeover is becoming evident. Lex Luthor, as it were, has finally bought the Daily Planet.

Musk didn’t wait long to start spreading his lies. One of his first despicable acts was to promote the provable lie that Paul Pelosi’s attacker was really his gay lover. Since we already know who Pelosi’s attacker really is and the real reason why he was there — to serve his MAGA master Donald Trump with typically glassy-eyed obeisance — Musk”s promotion of the lie wasn’t just irresponsible, it was hateful. “Reality,” as NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins puts it, “cannot exist anymore because it cannot catch up with lies on the internet.”

Like Trump with “Truth” Social, Musk’s goal isn’t to make the internet a freer place, it’s to turn it into his own personal propaganda machine for his own evil reasons, to promote the opposite of reality. His promise to make Twitter a place of elevated discussion has no more substance to it than the chilling lie posted over the gates of Auschwitz: “Arbeit Macht Frei,” or “work makes you free.” Twitter isn’t a new place of freedom. Thanks to Musk, it has now become an old place of darkness and lies.

He began his new career as the new Goebbels with this pathetic bit of irresponsible tripe: “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.” Actually, Mr. Musk, there is no possibility. None. Notice how he makes it sound almost reasonable by allowing a “tiny possibility.” That is all the encouragement you need to give them. The conspiracy-wackos will do the rest.

Musk then linked the tweet to an unsourced “article” alleging that Paul Pelosi, 82, was having a liaison with a male sex worker. Others have hinted at this story, including Donald Trump Jr (of course), twisting themselves into MAGA-pretzels to explain such details as the broken window, the 911 call and the attacker’s MAGA antecedents. But none of these liars have the striking power and influence of the world’s richest man.

Twitter is about to become the exact opposite of what Musk promised advertisers. He promised a new place of freedom and enlightened discussion. It is quickly dissolving instead into a free-for-all nightmare, a hellscape tailor-made for the halloween season. And that’s just how Musk wants it. The richest man in the world is in fact an agent for the forces of chaos.

I, for one, refuse to abandon Twitter. I will remain (@RAHarrington) as long as I have a voice that I can continue to use to support truth and sanity. Nobody, particularly not the world’s richest brat, is going to make me leave. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.