Elon Musk has earned the ire of the far left by criticizing them on his newly purchased platform Twitter. Musk posted an image that depicted himself as a mainstream liberal in 2008 subsequently finding himself stuck on the right side of the political spectrum after his fellow liberals sprint to the far left. Any conservative would agree with his assessment, but leftists are outraged at the idea that they are no longer considered to be reasonable centrists.
Elon Musk antagonizes the left
Musk has not been shy about explaining his ideological motives for buying Twitter, and the purchase has become a major political controversy.
The world’s richest man maintains that he is a centrist and a free speech absolutist who is unhappy with the leftist drive to increase censorship on platforms like Twitter.
The image he posted, however, shows that Musk recognizes that his current free speech stance places him by default closer to the right, even if he doesn’t consider himself a conservative.
He followed this post by adding that he supported Barack Obama in 2008 but has since come to believe that the Democratic Party has been hijacked by Democrats.
If Musk was trying to make his leftist critics angry (and he probably was) then he succeeded spectacularly, leaving thousands of journalists and fact-checkers seething and shrieking about the inaccuracy of his posts.
The idea that it is the right that has been hijacked by extremists is central to the media narrative in 2022. To have such an influential and respected figure point out that the opposite is true is extremely painful for the blue checks on Twitter who can’t hope to match his reach.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
Who’s extreme?
All of the worst people rushed to declare that the posts were inaccurate and that the right has become radicalized in recent years, but Musk was only pointing out an objective truth.
The mainstream right has, if anything, moved to the left on issues like gay marriage and the BLM cause. The holdouts who haven’t changed their positions have become extremists by default in this climate.
The mainstream left now fervently believes that men can become women at will and that white Americans should pay some form of reparations for slavery.
They also believe in silencing opinions that they dislike whenever possible. The American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations that once pretended to care about all freedom of speech have now shown their true colors and demand that Musk maintains the censorship they want on Twitter.
Elon Musk is not on the right, but anyone who has largely stuck to the same views they held 15 years ago has by default become a reactionary hardliner in the eyes of the progressives.
As they continue to berate and attack him and conservatives continue to praise and support him, the world’s richest man may start to think that the right has more to offer.
