“One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside” ― John Lennon
The list of people who epitomize MAGA is long. But they share some universal traits. They are all liars, hypocrites, and loudmouth bullshitters, nemine contradicente* lacking empathy. The richest of the MAGA sewer-dwellers is the self-celebrating, eternally smug, “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk.
The legend-in-his-own-mind wears a skin too thin to stand the barb of a Q-tip. His actions gainsay his celebration of unfettered opinion-slinging. He has designed Twitter’s algorithms to seek out, identify, and block prominent journalists who have hurt his feelings. Under previous management, the site aimed to shut down liars. The new boss fights to banish the truth — at least the truth that makes him cry.
Mediaite reports Twitter’s latest salvo against the left-wing media thus:
Elon Musk’s X/Twitter platform began suspending the accounts of prominent left-wing journalists and bloggers late on Monday night and into Tuesday.
Civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo began documenting the “massive purge” Tuesday morning and listed some of the major accounts that were suspended. Ken Klippenstein of the Intercept, Steven Zetti (who writes under Steven Monacelli) of the Texas Observer, blogger Rob Rousseau, the account for TrueAnonPod podcast, and blogger Zei Squirrel were among those suspended.
Caraballo additionally observed that most of those suspended are, “shit posting accounts that were critical of Elon and Bill Ackman.” This particular cull suggests that it was the posters' criticism, more than their politics, that caused their banishment. Mediaite says it reached out to Twitter for comment. However, they were brushed off with an automated reply that told them to fuck off. Although the actual verbiage was, “Busy now, please check back later.”
Musk is legend for his mental fragility. Ackman is less well-known. The founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management relishes his reputation as a “contrarian.” Which is a polite way of saying “asshole.” He has celebrated the killer Kyle Rittenhouse as a “civic-minded patriot.” It seems vigilantism is an American virtue to desk-bound, tough guys. He has also claimed the bankrupt cryptocurrency fabulist and seven-time convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, “was telling the truth.”
Ackman’s bête noire is corporate America and the Ivy League's adoption of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies. I suppose he thinks acting like a decent human is an unforgivable business sin — even if the companies that embrace DEI are obscenely profitable. Let us note that just three who practice inclusion, Walmart, Intel, and Microsoft, had a combined net income of $242 billion in their last fiscal year.
In addition, as a MAGA sympathizer, Ackman is a de facto hypocrite. He may say DEI is a ruinous business practice. But in 2023, he added Google parent Alphabet to his fund’s portfolio — despite Google’s public embrace of DEI.
Ackman also thinks that Musk walks on water. He is either so keen to suck up to the world’s richest man, so blinded by pretty words, or so eager to make common cause with a fellow hypocrite that he ignores reality. In his convenient blindness, he celebrates the petulant baby man’s verbal embrace of free speech as he ignores the inconvenient reality that his hero is a whiny bastard whose reverence for the truth has the solidity of pure wind.
Note 1: I hear whispers that Musk may be letting the banned back. If so, expect him to blame some underling for their expulsion in the first place.
*Note 2: I realize that nemine contradicente is pretentious. But I have never used it before, and I wanted to cross that lack off my bucket list.