【Pinnacle View】Fighting the Left and Buying Twitter, Musk Stages “Return of the Jedi”
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and known as “Real Life Iron Man,” has recently become the focus of public attention in the United States. This is not because of a breakthrough in the development of his Mars project, nor because of his Starlink space internet system playing a key role in the Russia-Ukraine war, but because of his announcement to buy Twitter. This is a deal that could affect the domestic political landscape of the United States in the future.
On April 25, Musk reached an agreement with Twitter to acquire the social media platform for $54.2 per share, a total price of about $44 billion, of which Musk promised to pay about $21 billion out of his own pocket. A month later, according to a filing released on May 25, Musk had raised his commitment of $21 billion in equity financing to $33.5 billion, meaning Musk was one step closer to a successful acquisition of Twitter.
Twitter has long been one of the most important media platforms controlled by the Left in the United States. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has caused great fear among the Left. From politics to business to the media, the Left immediately took action on many fronts to try to suppress Musk and stop the deal. On April 26, the day after Musk reached an agreement with Twitter, the Open Market Institute, a nonprofit organization, issued a statement calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other agencies to block the deal. Barry Lynn, head of the Open Markets Institute, believes that Musk already has one of the world’s most important Internet platforms—Starlink—and his acquisition of one of the world’s most important platforms for public communication and debate—Twitter—would pose a threat to “democracy and free speech in the United States.” Lynn said the deal to acquire Twitter is illegal and involves the risk of monopoly. However, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr later rejected Lynn’s claims, saying the FCC had no authority to block the deal.
Musk’s goal in acquiring Twitter is, as he himself says, to “defend complete freedom of expression.”
Jordan Schachtel, an independent investigative journalist and foreign policy analyst, recently said on NTD’s Pinnacle View program that Twitter, earlier known for protecting free speech and promoting free speech on the Internet, was a huge success under the early leadership of Jack Dorsey. But then the “social justice warriors” took over. Now every middle manager of Twitter is like the equivalent of a communist, and they control Twitter without any current mission statement other than protecting these left-wing narratives. Schachtel said, “I think Elon Musk wants to restore free speech to Twitter, which would certainly pose a huge threat to the global ruling class that currently operates the company and is vehemently opposed to free speech.”
Brandon Weichert, a U.S. military strategic and geopolitical analyst, commented that if Musk’s acquisition of Twitter succeeds, it would be like sticking a big spike in the heart of a large leftist-dominated technology company, which would certainly break their monopoly on communication and information. This would actually make the Republicans more competitive in the future, which would bring huge benefits to the United States.
Fang Wei, the senior host of “Sound of Hope” radio, said that, unlike Facebook, Twitter is a news distribution platform, a very powerful platform for opinion leaders in the United States to spread information through a tree-like structure. Fang Wei said there is a saying in the U.S. media industry that if you want to influence the country, you don’t need to convince 60 or 70 percent of the public; you only need to capture 5 percent of the news activists—the opinion leaders of their respective circles—and this 5 percent of people are on Twitter, so Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is very significant.
On May 18, Musk posted on Twitter that the Democratic Party had become a divisive and hateful party and revealed that he would vote for the Republicans. In other tweets that day, Musk predicted that the political attacks on him would escalate dramatically in the coming months.
On the same day that Musk indicated he was voting for the Republican Party, S&P, Dow Jones, and Co. told Reuters that it had removed Tesla from its S&P 500 ESG index for reasons including racial discrimination and self-driving accidents related to Tesla. On May 19, Business Insider published a report that a female flight attendant on a SpaceX public aircraft had accused Musk of sexual harassment. Musk later denied the allegations in a brief statement to Business Insider, posting a tweet that said “the story should be viewed in a political context.” He later posted, “For the record, these wild accusations are completely untrue.” On May 20, a new documentary called “Elon Musk’s Crash Course” premiered, focusing on crashes allegedly caused by Tesla vehicles’ autopilot not working properly.
In response, Weichert pointed out that Elon Musk is the equivalent of Tony Stark, known as “Iron Man” and a very popular and famous figure in the United States. But just because he is considering buying Twitter, in about two weeks, Musk has gone from a hero to a “villain” in the eyes of the leftist media. Weichert said Musk’s purchase of Twitter would allow people to have basic rights of free speech that have been taken away for too long, and that this is a huge problem for the left, which is why the left is attacking him so violently.
Since Musk made his offer on April 14, Tesla’s stock price has fallen about 28 percent by the close of trading on May 25. Tesla stock is a major personal asset guarantee for Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, and the drop in Tesla’s stock price has cost Musk tens of billions of dollars in personal assets. The reason for the drop in Tesla’s stock price, in addition to the business factors of the acquisition of Twitter itself, also includes negative news such as Tesla being kicked out of the ESG index, as well as sexual harassment allegations against Musk. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk was worth about $212 billion on May 13, and his fortune fell to about $201 billion after news of the sexual harassment allegations broke—a loss of more than $10 billion overnight.
Fang Wei pointed out that the leftists have made a twofold attack on Musk: one is to ruin Musk’s money so that Musk’s acquisition plan fails, and the second is to ruin Musk’s reputation, such as by having women come out and accuse Musk of sexual harassment. Fang Wei said that the left’s sexual harassment accusations have been used many times, and it is difficult to give them any credibility. But the financial attack on Musk is indeed a very powerful trick because the only obstacle to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is money. He can buy it only if he has enough money. So now the attack on him is focused on Tesla, because this is Musk’s only listed company. This is a place where the leftists can strike.
Fang also analyzed the “change” of Musk’s political orientation, pointing out that Musk’s political stance today was pushed by the left. Fang Wei said that Musk usually didn’t clearly express his political stance before. For example, after the abortion case in Texas came out, Musk did not express his views on this socially sensitive issue when asked by reporters. Fang Wei said, if you check Musk’s donation record, you will find that he has selected all the Democratic and Republican candidates and the organizations of both parties. Second, Musk’s electric cars are very environmentally friendly, which is why the left used to like him.
Fang Wei pointed out that the left has gone too far in blocking speech on some very basic free speech matters, pushing Musk, a normal American, to the right. Fang Wei said Musk just saw the report of “Russiagate” last month. He was very angry, saying he gave Hillary Clinton so much money, but she took his money to do this kind of scandal. Fang Wei said this makes Musk feel that the left has gone too far, and that’s why he wrote on Twitter that the Democratic Party is the party of division and hate. Fang Wei also said that Musk himself once posted a graphic representation of his political position, in which Musk pointed out that in 2012, he was on the left of the center, and now in 2021, he has done nothing and he is on the right of center because the far-left is running too far to the left.
Schachtel expressed that, he’s been following the development of Musk’s personal political leanings over the past few decades, and he thinks his worldview has changed dramatically, and that’s probably the main reason that inspired him to buy Twitter, and to somehow restore free speech on the Internet. Schachtel said he very much hopes that this progress will continue and that Elon Musk will take over Twitter.
Pinnacle View, a new TV program launched at the end of 2021 by New Tang Dynasty and The Epoch Times, is a high-end TV forum based on events surrounding China. The program gathers elites from around the world and from all walks of life, focuses on hot issues, analyzes the world’s major trends, and provides viewers with in-depth observations on current events and historical facts.
This edition of Pinnacle View focuses on the huge storm caused by Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, and also analyzes Twitter’s position and role in U.S. politics, and reveals Musk’s true values and the journey of his changing political orientation.
Pinnacle View Production Team