With Free Speech Coming to Twitter, It’s a Time To Rejoice

In 2021, Elon Musk paid $11 billion in taxes. $11 billion. You think that’s enough? You think that qualifies as his fair share?

AP/Richard Drew

One day later, I am still irrationally exuberant about Elon Musk buying Twitter. He has unleashed a political earthquake.

Seven months before the midterm elections, free speech may be back again. It’s a complete nightmare for the woke left.

Remember, Elon Musk is the guy who called himself a “free speech absolutist.” Then he said: “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.”

What’s that sound I just heard? It’s thousands upon thousands of left-wing wokesters pounding their feet on the way to drug stores to get their Xanax refills to stem their Elon Musk anxieties. Just kidding. No I’m not. 

The way Twitter operated to constantly censor conservative thought, so-called viewpoint discrimination, ruled out any discussions of sex, gender, race, Covid, borders, crime, parents, Hunter Biden’s laptop, and plenty of other conservative speech.

I believe this will change under Elon Musk. 

The financials are going to take care of themselves. He’s got excellent credit. Worth $250 billion. Elon Musk can borrow whatever he wants to complete this deal. 

I was amused about the wokesters trying hard to attack him in a New York magazine article where one Twitter employee professed concern that based on Tesla’s stock performance, the Twitter options might not pan out. 

Based on Tesla’s stock performance? Even with today’s correction in a down market, Tesla has basically gone from $50 a share to $900 a share. I think that’s pretty good stock performance.

Oh, wait a minute: Twitter’s stock meanwhile was at $26 a share at its IPO, finished the first day at $45, and basically hasn’t moved since. That’s more than eight years. Who do you trust? Tesla or Twitter?

Then there’s a bunch of people tweeting or commenting that Elon Musk doesn’t pay his fair share of taxes. I love this one.

From Bloomberg: “Elon Musk’s Untaxed Wealth Is Helping to Finance His Twitter Buyout.”

A number of far-left progressives echoed the “Elon doesn’t pay his taxes” argument. Wait a minute, though. In 2021, Elon Musk paid $11 billion in taxes. $11 billion. You think that’s enough? You think that qualifies as his fair share? It is the largest individual tax payment in American history.   

Of course the lefties want the wealth confiscation tax on unrealized capital gains. Which will never happen. It’s unconstitutional, has been rejected in socialist Europe, and is just downright stupid. 

By the way, do they want Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, George Soros, Tim Cook, Bill Gates, Sundar Pichai, or other woke CEOs in the media business to each pay $11 billion? 

Although the crazy progressives might want everybody to pay all their money, since they don’t believe in capitalism. 

Finally, I still believe in the spirit of free speech. Twitter should post, and its users should decide.

Now, there is the Communications Decency Act of 1996, regarding obscenities to recipients under 18 years old. But there’s also the Section 230 liability shield that should probably be removed. 

Vivek Ramaswamy has a good idea to use simple opt-in buttons so users can decide for themselves what they want to read or not read and what they want to believe or not believe. But free speech is coming to Twitter, and not a moment too soon. Save America. Elon Musk to the rescue.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.


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