Elon Musk shared a meme on Twitter on Thursday that shows how liberals have become increasingly radical over the last decade, leaving behind those who, like Musk, formerly identified as liberal but are now situated to the right-of-center on the political spectrum because of their unwillingness to indulge the ascendant, identity-obsessed progressives.
The meme depicts a change in the year 2012, when liberals begin to move further to the political left and became increasingly intolerant of dissent within their ranks. The person left behind in the center doesn’t change their views over time, but their political views come to be labeled right-wing because of the leftward turn of progressives.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
Musk has been on a tear since acquiring Twitter, publicly calling out executives at the company who support what he believes is a biased content moderation policy.
Twitter accepted an offer from Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, to buy the company on Tuesday in a deal valued at $44 billion. Musk is the richest person in the world, currently valued at $253 billion according to Bloomberg.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement after conclusion of the deal. “Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
The move has sparked fears among Twitter employees that Musk’s commitment to free speech will lead to online harassment, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
“Some people interpret your arguments in defense of free speech as a desire to open the door back up for harassment. Is that true?” employees wrote as part of a list of questions for Musk reviewed by the Times. “And if not, do you have ideas for how to both increase free speech and keep the door closed on harassment?”
Musk has previously called to make Twitter’s algorithms and policies more transparent for the public.
“It won’t be perfect, but I think we want to really have…the perception and the reality that speech is as free as reasonably possible,” Musk said in an interview with TED leader Chris Anderson on April 14. “And a good sign as to whether there is free speech is, is someone you don’t like allowed to say something you don’t like. And if that is the case, then we have free speech.”