Honk If You Hate Teslas

"I don't know that we can attribute this [that Tesla in Canada and elsewhere in the world is now faring more poorly than other EV makers] to any one factor."

"I wasn't surprised by this [the steep drop in price of used Teslas in Canada]. We also look at the market in the U.S. and globally, and we saw this trend."

"Overall, EV sales are going down. EV demand is down, so it's hard to conclude what's happening."

Baris Akyrek, vice-president, insights and intelligence, auto-Trader.ca

The price of a used Tesla dropped 21.9 per cent year-over-year, while all other EVs listed on AutoTrader fell 16.3 per cent. Photo by Stephen Llewellyn/The Daily Gleaner/Postmedia files

 

No one need concern themselves that the wealthiest man in the world, reportedly with a fortune between US$350 and US$500 billion is being beggared by ill fortune. The fact is, the 'ill fortune' is of his very own construction. And his wealth may decline marginally, but he will remain a man of immense wealth. His personal idiosyncrasies are such that many people are affronted by what he does and says, as much as what they think he does and says. Such being the ill fortune of the filthy rich and the resentment a combination of wealth and odd behaviour engenders.

 

As for Mr. Musk himself, contemplating a possibly temporary but steep loss in public regard that has extended itself to the vehicles he manufactures, no doubt rejection stings and stings sharply for someone more accustomed to basking in the soft light of admiration for his business acumen, his proclivity for taking risks, and his larger-than-life ambitions. This is a man not content to sit on his piles of cash, but driven to invest in bold new production adventures.

 

Unfortunately for Elon Musk he has also chosen to invest his name, his reputation and his time in the world of politics. And as some interpret it, extreme measures in politics, aligning himself wholeheartedly with the new American Republican President of the United States of America. To whom he volunteered his advice as a businessman whose ventures have made him as wealthy as Croesus through a keen insight and admirable judgement. Both of which he was prepared to offer to Donald J. Trump in streamlining government services and pay-outs for a leaner, more efficient model.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump and White House Senior Advisor, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk deliver remarks next to a Tesla Model S on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11, 2025 in Washington, DC.  Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Tesla electric vehicles now face the public backlash in protests, vandalization and charging stations set afire. This, just as the pace of adoption to EV technology began to ebb, from its previous flow. So that all vehicles in the EV marketplace have experienced an ownership slowdown, but Tesla far more prominently than others. Leading to a glut of used Teslas in Canada, their prices dropping more swiftly than the aggregate of the market, according to Auto-trader.ca Inc.

 

The number of used Teslas in early March listed on AutoTrader rose 12.5 percent on a year-over-year basis even as the number of all other EVs listed on Auto-Trader declined 3.1 percent. The rising used inventory for Tesla appears even starker measured against used internal combustion engine vehicle inventory whose decline was 14.1 percent in the same time period. A used Tesla dropped in price 21.9 percent in that period in comparison to all other EVs that fell 16.3 percent.

 

Edmunds.com Inc., a California-based market research firm, stated that Tesla experienced its "highest-ever share" of trade-ins for new or used cars from dealerships selling other brands. The Tesla-owning population is suddenly eager to divest itself of the vehicles, generally considered, in reaction to the anger felt toward Elon Musk over his government advisory role, to have an unsavoury odour. Tesla owners are also concerned that their Tesla vehicle will become one of the many that are vandalized. No one wants to own something that no one else wants to own.

 

Tesla reported an eight percent decline in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024; its stock has dropped 39 percent to US$244.29. Without doubt, Mr. Musk could never have envisioned the consequences of his decision to be granted special government status under the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency where he is busy dismantling U.S. federal government agencies to slash spending and diversify government services.

 

Nor has he endeared himself to segments of the population with his spontaneous and often ill-thought-out comments, such as posting on his social-media platform X, a meme comparing former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in 2022. Or in 2023 when he curtailed Ukraine's use of satellite internet service provider Starlink of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of which he is CEO. 

Demonstrators hold anti-Tesla posters during a protest encouraging people to boycott Tesla outside the Tesla Centre Park Royal in London, Britain, March 15, 2025.

Chris J Ratcliffe/Reuters

"Tesla Takedown"

"All of the platforms in which we communicate and talk to one another are controlled more and more by the tech oligarchy."

"Were seeing that the press is being owned by billionaires, the social media we use is owned by the same billionaires, and the alignment that is happening in the United States ... is just a more overt version of the same kind of thing that's happening in Canada." 

Juan Alperin, professor, faculty of communication, art and technology, Simon Fraser University

 

"[It's my belief that billionaires are] interfering [with politics in North America and Europe in ways they should not be involved]."

"I'm also against the attacks on Canadian sovereignty ... by saying Canada is not a country and that our prime minister is a governor [Musk quips]."

Andrew Balakshin, Vancouver resident 

Over 80 Tesla vehicles were damaged at a Hamilton, Ontario dealership in a vandalism spree. Carscoops

The backlash against Elon Musk's support of U.S. President Donald Trump's war on Canada begins to mirror a rising tide of popular dissent within the United States that has begun targeting the appointed head of DOGE, through targeting his Tesla electric vehicle car production facilities in a series of protests outside Tesla dealerships to deliver a message of rejection. Those protests are par for the course with a disgruntled public expressing their opinion. It is the accompanying and linked violent criminal acts of sabotage, of puncturing tires, keying paint jobs and most of all fire-bombing vehicles that tell the story of matters getting out of hand.

 

Now Canadians in cities including Ottawa and Vancouver have linked themselves to the growing rejection of Tesla as representative of government-cost-slashing actions of DOGE, under the direction of Elon Musk that speaks to a spreading global rejection of U.S. President Donald Trump's abrasive and volatile style of government.

 

Surrey, British Columbia saw residents holding signs with messages including "elbows up", "Elon be-gone", and "democracy dies in apathy". President Trump has proceeded with his threat to slap steep tariffs on Canadian goods, the result of which has predictably been a trade war. His repeated barbs that Canada would be better off as the 51st state, and that Canadians would love to become Americans, surrendering their sovereignty for the 'greater good' of immersing within the U.S. has struck most Canadians as an unforgivable assault by a former friendly neighbour. 

 

A number of the most prominent incidents in the U.S. have been reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where anti-Trump and anti-Musk sentiment runs high. In this image, a member of the Seattle Fire Department is seen inspecting a burned Tesla Cybertruck at a Tesla lot in Seattle, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

 

Ordinary Canadians have retaliated by refusing to buy American products, seeking out Canadian-produced goods or alternately foodstuffs arriving in Canada from other parts of the world rather than the United States. Musk, the self-described "free speech absolutist" faces criticism from hate-speech watchdogs, seething with outrage that his social media platform X allows extremist, dangerous and antisemitic comments to flourish on X.

 

The world's wealthiest individual has been advising President Trump on overhauling the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency, newly created to install Mr. Musk as a special government agent dedicated to reducing the costs of government services. There are those who cite a post Musk shared originating with another X user that posted: "Stalin, Mao and Hitler didn't murder millions of people. Their public sector workers did."

 

Tesla dealership in Austin, Texas. Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

 

Few individuals have the high profile internationally as does Elon Musk. His partnering with the new U.S. president has only increased his visibility and the suspicions surrounding his intentions. Resulting in the auto production company directly associated with the man becoming a target for protests and vandalism. In Oregon gunshots were fired at a Tesla dealership. In Seattle four Cybertrucks were destroyed in a deliberate blaze.

 

Action Network website hosts the "Tesla Takedown" protests where events are posted, used by individuals and community groups to promote what the site describes as 'progressive causes'. Dozens of protests are shown scheduled across the United States and Europe through the remainder of March and into April. 

 

Law enforcement respond to reports of incendiary devices at Tesla showroom in Austin, Texas, March 24, 2025.  @DocumentingATX / X

"The FBI will be relentless in its mission to protect the American people. Acts of violence, vandalism, and domestic terrorism — like the recent Tesla attacks — will be pursued with the full force of the law."

"These criminal actions appear to have been conducted by lone offenders, and all known incidents occurred at night."

"Individuals require little planning to use rudimentary tactics, such as improvised incendiary devices and firearms, and may perceive these attacks as victimless property crimes." 

Federal Bureau of Investigation statement

U.S. President Donald Trump's Trade War With Canada

"All gloves are off."

"Canada is being hit hard from its historically strongest ally, and it may be politically expedient to target individuals like Musk who garner outsized influence over the U.S. administration."

James Hinton, senior fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation

 

"Provinces would need to heavily subsidize new infrastructure to replace Starlink, which could take years to implement."

"Legally, targeting Musk's companies could be seen as overreach and Musk could sue in Canadian or U.S. courts to challenge such measures."

"[A bull's-eye on Musk's back also] risks looking like a personal vendetta rather than a rational economic response."

Andreas Schotter, professor of International business, University of Western Ontario Ivey School of Business

Starlink satellite antennas are seen at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA), the international trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances, on August 31, 2023. Photo by ODD ANDERSEN /Getty

As it begins to appear more and more inevitable that Donald Trump is prepared to launch another painful trade war with Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union in his determination to, in his opinion, put a stop to other countries' reliance on America's generosity, helping them to fund their own economic advance to the detriment of that of the United States, former allies and trade partners are mulling their options in an effort to stop the roller-coaster destruction of the global economy.

 

Economists everywhere agree that a substantial trade war such as what Mr. Trump is gearing up for will have the end effect of harming the world's economy, as it plays havoc in targeted nations' economies, bringing many to the point of inflationary stress, certain to impact heavily on national populations' quality of life. There is also the recognition that the United States itself will not come away free from the impact of such a draconian move as Mr. Trump contemplates.

 

In Canada, government authorities at every level are making plans and consulting with one another in a combined effort to produce a protective shield as much as possible to avoid the harm certain to arise when a commanding country whose industries are enmeshed with those of the very countries being targeted will produce harmful effects that will bring economies to their knees. In Ontario, Canada's wealthiest province, a plan is afoot to target Elon Musk in recognition of his influence with the Trump White House. 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced his intention to begin the process by "ripping up" the province's $100 million contract with Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet provide operated by aerospace company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Signed last November, the deal  was on tap to provide internet access for Canadians resident in rural communities. "Ontario won't do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy", blustered Premier Ford, leading other premiers to scrutinize their own Starlink contracts.

 

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford holds a news conference in Etobicoke on Feb. 3, 2025. Later Ford said, with the U.S. pausing tariffs, Ontario will also pause its retaliatory measures. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

A situation that elicited a shrug from Mr. Musk who responded to the Premier's X warning statement with a two-word "Oh well". This type of criticism will be no surprise to a man who has aligned himself so intimately with the Trump administration, taking on the role of efficiency czar to a President whose unexpected turn against his U.S. allies has drawn surprise and resentment from his international colleagues. 

 

Emmett Macfarlane, political science professor at University of Waterloo in Ontario, approved of the move to send a powerful message to Musk. "Appeasement does little to stop a bully. We should exercise our powers to punch the bully (metaphorically) in the nose", he said in support of the Starlink cancellation threat. 

Aside from the Starlink contract, there is the issue of Musk companies in operation across Canada; Tesla alone operates 32 stores, Canada's most popular electric vehicle brand. Should a 100 percent tariff be slapped on Tesla vehicles the purchase price would be pushed from its current $56,000 tab into a sphere most electric vehicle buyers would consider hands-off. 

Doug Ford, right, says Ontario is ending its contract with Starlink, the satellite company controlled by Elon Musk, left. Photo by Getty Images/The Canadian Press

"A $100 million contract when he's worth [over] $400 billion -- this is just a flea on his side."

"If we want to truly irritate the Americans, we need to move beyond thinking about what kind of ketchup we buy and think of ways of hitting their [digital] service providers without unduly harming Canadian consumers."

Daniel Trefler, trade economist, Canada research chair in competitiveness and prosperity, Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto 

Who Owns Tesla, SpaceX, X and Space?

"I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future."

Elon Musk, X, 12/17

"[Amateur Turkish astronomer used software he developed in his free time] to parse through the [Minor Planet Center's] public archive of observations of objects, which anyone can peruse in search of asteroids and other small solar system bodies."

Space publication Astronomy

"[The satellite appeared to re-enter] over the southern Wisconsin/Michigan area [and was] widely observed from neighbouring regions including Chicago."

"[Satellites at the end of their life-span use] electric thrusters to lower the orbit to about 250 [kilometres]. "Then it's switched off and the atmosphere drags them in over the next week or so."

Jonathan McDowell, scientist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, seen here departing Earth with its Starman mannequin at the wheel, launched on a SpaceX rocket in 2018 and mistaken for a near-Earth asteroid in January 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

 

If you're the world's wealthiest individual, and you are galvanized by the prospect of space travel to the extent that you launch  your very own extraterrestrial plans for colonizing a planet in the galaxy in which your home planet exists -- an enterprise of extraordinary hubris in a challenge to the natural order of a magnitude that is difficult to imagine -- it must come easy to feel entitled in such a cavalier manner as to launch a personal toy into space just for the fun of it. 

 

Humanity's impulse to litter Earth, expands to the compulsion to litter space...

On January 2nd, the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced the discovery of a new asteroid named 2018 CN41. The announcement of a discovery that lasted one day only, before a correction was posted the following day to declare that the original announcement had been deleted. The explanation was that this was an erroneous classification of an asteroid; what the object actually was, it turned out, was a Tesla Roadster.

 

NASA's now retired Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe was misidentified as an asteroid several times during its lifetime mapping the universe 1 million miles from Earth. (Image credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team)

The vehicle was in fact a fondly held possession of the founder of Space X, and the car, a red sports model, was favoured by the founder of Tesla, its proud manufacturer. In 2018 the car had been launched into orbit aboard SpaceX''s Falcon Heavy rocket, at the time considered the world's most powerful rocket. Can anyone name any other individual on Earth whose deep pockets could produce such fabled technology as an electric vehicle manufacturer and space rocketry duo, both used in a fantasy of the future? And then post it as a proudly amusing item on X, the social media platform he owns?

A SpaceX Starlink internet satellite fell from space in a blaze of glory overnight, lighting up the Midwest U.S. sky with a brilliant fireball, according to Space.com.

 

Elon Musk's little amusement is by no means the only object to make headlines connected to the world's wealthiest man with a penchant for oddball moves. What had been identified as a fireball streaking across the night sky on Wednesday for example. The object was in fact a Starlink internet satellite seen lighting up the sky as it streaked the sky over the American Midwest. The low-orbit launch of Starlink satellites for broadband internet are delivered skyward by SpaceX. 

 

The fireball appearance was posted in a video online by the American Meteor Society. Records have been maintained by the American Meteor Society of fireball reports since 2005. Dozens of reports along with videos and images were received by the Society this week from people who witnessed the satellite-cum-fireball, named Starlink 5693, that had been launched at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, February 2023.

The dramatic reentry of Starlink 5693 captured the attention of many, offering a glimpse of the growing interaction between technology and space. Science Magazine

"Spaceflight activities in cislunar and interplanetary space should be conducted in an open and transparent way."

"Such transparency is essential for promoting space situational awareness, reducing interference between missions, avoiding interference with observations of natural objects, including observations of potential hazardous asteroids, and ensuring the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies."

American Astronomical Society, 2004 statement

Buying Bragging Rights

"It is noteworthy that he is the owner of one of these tech platforms and has been so out front and vocal for a specific candidate and prominent as a donor; you don't typically see that combination."

"It is a true disruption of campaign finance and how donors approach this."

EricWilson, Republican digital strategist, executive director, Center for Campaign Innovation

Elon Musk with his son X Æ A-12 on Capitol Hill. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

American politics was always funded by wealthy donors declaring their dedication to America as staunch patriots, with more than a soupcon of personal interest in deriving benefits from whichever party they supported that once in office might enact laws, rules and regulations impacting on their industries, incomes, lifestyles. In the past ten years or so, amounts have vastly ballooned. The jaded might feel that the presidency is for sale. Yet people of wealth and influence have always had the  upper track in political outcomes. It's just that in this particular election year that saw a Democratic president unseated and a Republican past-president returned to office, the scale of political donations was truly spectacular.

The choices were, to many voters, as lacklustre as the two elections that preceded this one. Candidates that in one way or another failed to reflect qualities that most reasonable people might expect of a president. Entitlements, corruption, character, background, reputation and past transgressions all pay a role in choices, and this election was no different, other than the fact that perhaps both candidates wore their negatives in the hope that their positives would outglow the other's.

The issue of political donations and their end effect on the final results of any election is controversial. As long as they're aboveboard and fall within the election laws to pass muster, there should be no issue. But this year it's the spectacular total of the donations to the Republic campaign in support of Donald Trump along with other candidates for the Republican party on the part of the world's wealthiest man who just happens to be an American whose celebrity owes to his wealth and his enterprises that has taken top news spots.

 

Still from video, ABC News

 

Most people still think that a million dollars is a lot of money, a sum that the average person could live comfortably on. The news that at least $277 million of Elon Musk's total wealth, the richest man in the world, went to support the Republican election campaign for 2024, revealed by findings of the Federal Election Commission still took the political world by surprise. Musk, who lacks little in his life, a bold entrepreneur with a wide vision in advanced technology in road vehicles and rocketry reaching for the stars, now has a star role in a new Donald J. Trump White House administration.

A Musk super PAC established to support Republican candidates received the lion's share of the multi billionaire's donations, giving it the financial impetus to operate a significant get-out-the-vote operation supporting Donald Trump. Musk has used his ownership of the social media platform, 'X' to boost support for Trump's presidential campaign, lauding his sterling qualities and presenting the man as the answer to America's ills -- primarily its move to quash the soft-woke left. 

 

Trump's America PAC received close to $45 million, presumably to handle election expenses. The outcome of the November 5 election was owed in some small part without doubt, to the vigour that $232 million pumped into the election campaign, with another $20.5 million to a PAC whose purpose was solely to assure voters that Donald Trump's signature would never grace a national ban on abortion.

 

Now, Elon Musk has been given a challenge in the incoming administration; his skill-set in business, technology, salesmanship, and investment successes certainly qualify him for a position as co-chair with Vivek Ramaswamy of a non-governmental commission named the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to develop strategies recommending paring down federal spending and regulations.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk jumps on stage as he joins former US President and Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on Oct. 5, 2024.   Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Twitter On The Fly

"Nearly four months into Elon Musk's ownership of Twitter, one of the most influential social media websites has been transformed into a mercurial billionaire's personal sandbox."

"Twitter users knew the site would change under Musk, who purchased the company in October for US$44 billion and installed himself as CEO on a promise of restoring 'free speech."

"What many underestimated was the extent to which Musk would make wholesale changes with the potential to disrupt the experience across the site for his own benefit."

Faiz Siddiqui and Jeremy B. Merrill, San Francisco 

Elon Musk ordered employees to email him a summary of what their software code has “achieved” in the past six months, “along with up to 10 screenshots of the most salient lines of code."   Reuters

It was reported on Platformer that Twitter has undergone major algorithmic changes on Musk's orders. The result is that some users now see the tweets posted by Musk before any others. Evidently Elon Musk was concerned that his viewer engagement was in decline. This new fix ensured that Musk's tweets would be pushed to the top of many Tweeters' feeds.

According to a new feature that displays view counts rolled out late last year, Musk's tweets were driving massive engagement; over a billion views on December 18, as an example. The Twitter owner's tweets on a typical day in December were shown 231 million times. When that number dropped significantly in the new year that they were shown only 137 million times on a typical day the wealthiest man in the world was rather disturbed.

After all, if such immense wealth cannot buy focus loyalty, what can? Well, money can achieve miracles; from this week when his posts were artificially boosted he's back in business with around 400 million views per day. Musk, as many might be aware, and many might not care, is a prolific Twitterer. His healthy ego spurs him to tweet whatever's on his mind.

With close to 130 million followers, he has quite an admiring Twitter retinue, one of the most popular site users. When he expressed an interest in acquiring Twitter back in April of 2022, he stated his wish to restore 'free speech' and to solve the persistence of spam and bots. Several former Twitter employees with direct knowledge of his prioritized issues revealed that changes initiated by Musk frequently were geared to improving his own user experience.

His imperative clearly was to 'improve' his personal experience on the site. Since his takeover as CEO of the Twitter social media site major changes include several directly benefiting Musk, according to former employees ... with little potential upside for the legion of Twitter users. "Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended'; a new policy posted by Musk on November 6.

"I remember people on our team thinking he's having a very personal experience unique to him on the platform."

"Our impression was just that he was describing his very specific experience as a Twitter users and Elon Musk is not a typical Twitter user."

Anony7mous former Twitter employee

While in Qatar for the World Cup Final, a policy banning the promotion of other social media sites on Twitter, such as Instagram was posted, along with prohibiting users from pushing links to competing sites like Mastadon. A swift backlash followed from those pointing out the new policy flouted free speech, Despite Musk's own stated conviction that it must be upheld. A day later, Musk backed down.

Then came a poll asking whether he should stand down as CEO of Twitter. Respondents voted yes in the majority, leading Musk to commit to finding a replacement. No clear candidate has yet emerged. Musk announced at an international summit he likely would require to the end of 2023 to find a successor in the Twitter CEO role.

“I think Elon Musk is a visionary. Almost singlehandedly, he’s changed the way Americans think about automobiles. I have a Tesla and love it."

 "That said, he’s been a terrible fit for Twitter. He appears to be making it up as he goes along.”

Stephen King, Horror novelist

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images/Gotham/GC Images

Twitter/Musk : How Influential?

Elon Musk

@elonmusk

Joined June 2009

114 Following

92M Followers

"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."

"[It] won't be perfect. But I think we want it to really have the perception and the reality that speech is as free as reasonably possible."

"A social media's platform policies are good if the most extreme ten percent on the left and right are equally unhappy."

Elon Musk

"Elon's goal of creating a platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is the right one."

"Elon is the singular solution I trust."

Jack Dorsey, Twitter co-founder, former CEO

It is where people gravitate to, spontaneously and compulsively to air their opinions and equally if not more urgently, read and ponder the opinions and perceptions of other people. Often their responses are immediate and often enough to the point in either contesting or supporting or adding their own opinions to what has already been stated. These are the socially and politically engaged tweeters. Aside from those whose motivation for participating is not quite participation but a personal feeling they are 'obliged' to detail the detritus of their lives and inconsequential thoughts.

Then there are the combative types who obstinately support unpopular views and are there to defend them, facts be damned. Others whose ideological framework compels them to do battle with all others who post polarizing views to their own, taking them as personal affronts. Of course, there are personal affronts as well, those responders who, lacking a cogent argument will simply attack the source of views that they find irritating.

Analyzing mental states, types of participants, kinds of engagements and the constant spewing of victimhood's plaints alongside fulminating over 'wrongs' and 'rights', entitlements and taking sides in conflicts, claims of persecution and violent repression, they all run the gamut, including entries of accusations of human rights wrongs and rights, where ideological, tribal and religious opponents snarl at one another. all comprise the babel of voices on Twitter.

Elon Musk, evidently loves the inchoate, incoherent, frank and hostile or supportive drivel and trivia aired on Twitter. A healthy sign of an international community discussing vital issues. Discounting the venom and the baiting, perhaps yes. And he wants it to continue and to be unleashed from constraints. An exponent of freedom of speech, of thought, of expression and belief. Some levels of abuse will be tolerated, it seems, while those that knock up hard against the laws of democratic countries viewed as hate-mongering and dangerous might not be given free rein.

 

In the marketplace of ideas and conversations, of hostility and civility, Elon Musk would ideally like it all to hang out. Be visible, influencing people to either ignore or to surrender to introspection after introduction to another facet of thought illuminating other angles, not yet fully explored. The wealthiest man in the world who has dabbled in transportation, in explorations of outer space turns his attention to enabling people to speak up and out and over and around each other.

He has himself over a staggering 90 million followers. Not particularly in awe of his brilliant mercantile mind or his knowledge of science and technology, or his influence on government policies, but for reasons that always captivate the imagination of the wider public: wealth. The influence of wealth is never to be underestimated. It drives the world economy, it creates opportunities, it employs knowledge and it enjoys celebrity status like no other human condition does. It dominates peoples' dreams of success.

His vision for the future of Twitter is not embraced universally. While much of the world is curious about how matters will proceed under his ownership, control and vision, it would appear that the 'woke' democracies of the world are uneasy. The current Democratic administration in the U.S. seems to be doubtful about what a new, engaged and permissive Twitter might accomplish. They seem less than enthralled with the possibilities. 

Barack Obama, for one, links such a Twitter redesign as a potential for disinformation, therefore harmful. "Obama, like others in the Democratic party and in establishment media circles", wrote Byron York in the Washington Examiner, "is targeting some types of disinformation while remaining strikingly silent on others". The 'others', needless to say, that might do harm to the disinformation campaign that US Democrats are fond of, that turn out to be useful to their agenda.

Social media, explained Obama, was "tilting in the wrong direction". More censorship of disinformation is what is required: "content modification". The rise of social media contributed to "one of the biggest reasons for democracy's weakening", he warned. No one present to hear him speak, evidently reminded him of the Democratic allegations of a "well-developed conspiracy" between then-president-elect Trump and Russia, proven to be false.

Much less the obliging nature of America's free press given to liberal-democratic interpretations of the news, as when their role in suppressing somewhat embarrassing revelations contained within Hunter Biden's laptop fell into the category of "Russian disinformation", unworthy of any further discussion, let alone investigation to reveal potentially embarrassing details the Biden administration would flinch at making public.