Poke the beast: Twitter owner Elon Musk recalls kickstart to 2022

Elon Musk is having a remarkable year, having already closed a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. At the start of the year, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had shared an image of a person about to flick a tiger’s testicles. The photo included the text “2022, here we go…” indicating the dangerous and unpredictable nature of the year. Musk retweeted the post, captioning it “As I was saying…”

The entrepreneur in an earlier tweet also hinted at a philosophy of life that thrives on accepting imperfection and transience. Sharing the Japanese word ‘wabi-sabi’, Musk hailed “the elusive beauty of imperfection”. 

His comments come at a time when Musk’s free-speech absolutism has caused concerns among groups like Amnesty International who have warned against a rise in hate speeches against minorities. 

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While Twitter had earlier clamped down on conservative accounts, going so far to impose a ban on advertisements denying the science behind climate change, Musk intends to open those floodgates and establish a truly neutral conversation in the internet’s town square. 

There is only one problem with Musk’s plan. Ex CEO of Reddit, Yishan Wong has already warned that the billionaire is in for a world of pain because true neutrality is not possible on a platform the size of Twitter and there’ll eventually be a need to moderate the conversation. 

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This is where Musk’s personal politics come in because this purchase now takes Twitter private. As per his shared diagram, Musk places himself to the right of the centre, on the political spectrum. However, the recent rants against “progressive wokes” have seen Musk enjoy some right-wing support. This was evidenced in the Twitter thread where Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed worries over a social media company being run by a “billionaire with an ego problem“. 

Musk responded, asking the lawmaker to stop hitting on him and saying he’s shy. Donald Trump Jr highlighted this answer, claiming Musk ‘owned’ the Democrat. Since Musk’s Twitter takeover, conservatives like Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin have also returned.