Re: this comment, from Barry, attached to last night’s “Bee speech” post:
For every knock on Musk I read there is this, and it covers every bit of any uncertainty.
And also this followup comment, from SteveF:
I’m not interested in purity tests. “Is he better than the realistic alternatives?” “Is he the best available now?” By this standard, both Musk and Trump win by a landslide.
I hereby submit this, for your consideration and delectation:
Musk Lifts Restrictions on X Accounts in Brazil in Challenge to Courts
(Bloomberg) — Billionaire Elon Musk said he will lift restrictions imposed on some X accounts in Brazil, even if the move leads to the closing of the social media platform in the country.X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, said in a post late Saturday that court decisions “forced” the site to block “certain popular accounts” in Brazil, without specifying the reasons or which posts allegedly violated the law. Shortly after, Musk wrote on the platform that he was defying the court’s ruling.
“We are lifting all restrictions. This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to X in Brazil,” Musk said in a social media post. He added that the move would probably cause X to lose all its revenue in the country and shut its office there.
While neither X nor Musk identified the judge that issued the ruling, the site’s billionaire owner was responding to another post that accused Brazil’s Supreme Court head Alexandre de Moraes of cracking down on free speech. Moraes didn’t reply to requests for comment late Saturday.
The spat comes as courts widen a fight against so-called fake news and hate speech online. In a recent decision, the country’s Superior Electoral Court approved a resolution requiring social media networks to limit the spread of fake news during elections.
Musk can think of himself as a liberal all he likes, but as far as I’m concerned he’s making all the right enemies. And the enemy of my enemy will always be my friend.
As for Brazil, I have a sneaking suspicion that it won’t be too much longer before Brazilians come to deeply rue dumping Bolsonaro for the Brazilian socialist Flavor Of The Month. Was Bolsonaro perfect? No, of course he wasn’t; nobody is. But when we let the perfect be the enemy of the good—or the good enough—we play a mug’s game, and can never profit by it.
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Musk tweeted (or Xd) the image we’ve all seen: people representing the Left and the Right of the political spectrum with the protagonist slightly toward the left. Then the Left guy travels to the left and then waaaay left while the Right guy stands still or moves a little to the left (depending on the version of the cartoon), leaving the protagonist, who hasn’t moved, very near the extreme Right of the spectrum.
I don’t claim such a change for myself. I’ve definitely moved Rightward as I aged and especially in the last couple years. (And one of these days I may even finish the essay explaining why I’ve become more socially conservative.) Meanwhile, the Right extreme moved Leftward and the Left extreme has gone into lala-land. I’m now an extreme right winger, in the popular view.
“I’m now an extreme right winger, in the popular view.”
I’ve always considered myself as one of shrillary’s “vast right wing conspirators” and then one of the “deplorable’s”.
I think my main move rightward would be that I think torture would be best applied before any killing of the anti-American traitors.
‘Course, given what we know of history that’s probably a leftward lurch.
Hmm. For every, not “Fir every”. You’d think with all the spell checking that takes place, like it or not, I could spell a three letter word correctly 🙂
heh. I’ll just say that I notice the “i” is right beside the “o” on my keyboard…:D
So, it’s not my spelling, it’s my fingers…
Musk continues to meet the standard. As SteveF notes, it really is no contest.