Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, Twitter, SpaceX and many other projects, is very concerned about censorship. He said it in a conversation with Bill Maher, friendlier than usual with his guest, in real time (on HBO Max). Musk claims to be a centrist but tends to be Republican, and Maher is an open Democrat, but both warn against left-wing activism called woke (literally: awake), a derogatory term against those spreading labels of sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, or neocolonial among those who see their causes as enemies.
Musk describes himself as a free speech fundamentalist. Therefore, he broke up the Twitter moderation teams that (without much success) contained hate messages, lies or calls for violence. Trolls of all stripes – conspiracy theorists, racists, lynchers, misogynists – returned to the jungle of little blue birds. Musk failed to mention that the aroused protest, galling as it is for him, is also protected by free speech.
One can share the fear that, in the name of just causes, they are trying to limit public debate, especially in universities, the temples of free thought. It’s what you call cancellation culture. But nothing really suppresses the Ultras’ speeches that are heard everywhere. While the most conservative right in the US states it controls, with Florida at the top, does impose gags. Especially in education: they ban any content about sexuality or gender; they prevent the country’s racist past from being explained; They have banned books from libraries.
A Florida high school principal has been forced to resign for showing 11- and 12-year-old students Michelangelo’s David. They found it very obscene: it could be that there was a more open mind in the Renaissance. The Republican anti-Woke laws, with that explicit name they give them, go much further in their censorship rage than the demonized Woke ever did.
The one who’s canceling like no other, not even Disney, is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of the few Republican alternatives to Donald Trump for the 2024 nomination. The new reactionaries say they’re fighting guard censorship, but wherever they are rule, they put through the old oppression. As are their emuls this side of the Atlantic.
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