Might Elon Musk truly be arrested and X cancelled?

With every passing day, because the forces that management our nation and the world get extra surreal and foreboding, the “unthinkable” out of the blue morphs into the “inevitable.” Not less than for me.

As somebody who pays shut consideration to the politics and the media in the UK and Europe, I started to note a shocking narrative emanating from a rising quantity on the left there calling for the arrest of Elon Musk in addition to the cancellation of X, the social media web site he owns.

Certainly, I assumed, these individuals can’t be severe. However they had been — and are — lethal severe. For them, Musk and X have turn out to be public enemy primary.

Earlier than outlining the explanations for this, I’ve a severe query: Why have so many on the left and within the media seemingly fallen in love with censoring free speech or “canceling” those that maintain totally different opinions from themselves? I’m sufficiently old to recollect when Democrats, liberals and the media had been all about free and guarded speech.

This has turn out to be a chilling and harmful development. I’m additionally sufficiently old to recollect when Democrats, liberals and the media raged in opposition to “totalitarian” regimes silencing the voices of the opposition and the calls for his or her arrest. Now, they seemingly select to weaponize censorship and “lawfare” for their very own means.

Now to deal with the road that Musk dared to cross that has many on the left calling for his cancellation, or worse. All of it got here within the wake of the horrific stabbing and killing of three little women at a Taylor Swift-themed dance occasion on July 29 in Southport, England. Quickly thereafter got here large unrest across the UK due to the assault.

A lot of the left-leaning media and political intelligentsia within the nation claimed the unrest started after “right-wing” activists used social media to unfold “misinformation” about that knife assault.

However others questioned whether or not authorities, by intentionally protecting particulars of the assault and the attacker to themselves and shading a few of the info they did put out, allowed useless hypothesis, inflicting “misinformation” to develop and unfold.

The premise for a lot of the anger swirling across the killing of these three women touched upon the open, unvetted and even unlawful immigration (sound acquainted?) which has been happening in that nation for years. Musk dared to the touch that untouchable third rail by highlighting that challenge whereas additionally questioning what appears to be a “two-tier” system of justice within the nation.

What most set off the authorities and the cancel-pushing left within the UK was Musk posting, “Civil struggle within the nation is inevitable.” Somewhat than tackle the issues, outcomes and bonafide fears that thousands and thousands of their fellow residents have with regard to unvetted and uncontrolled immigration, some authorities and media figures selected to lash out at Musk.

After Prime Minister Keir Starmer — whom Musk known as “Two Tier Keir” — posted on X that his authorities “won’t tolerate assaults on mosques or on Muslim communities,” Musk responded with the query, “Shouldn’t you be involved about assaults on *all* communities?”

Earlier this week, the left-of-center Guardian newspaper within the UK featured this ludicrous headline: “Inciting rioters in Britain was a check run for Elon Musk. Simply see what he plans for America.”

The Guardian then went on to assault Musk with this incendiary little bit of commentary: “This summer season now we have witnessed one thing new and unprecedented. The billionaire proprietor of a tech platform publicly confronting an elected chief and utilizing his platform to undermine his authority and incite violence. Britain’s 2024 summer season riots had been Elon Musk’s trial balloon.”

Are you kidding me? “Musk’s trial balloon?” Is he about to unleash the Kraken upon america? Because the left-of-center governments in the UK and Europe regularly fail their very own individuals, the left desires to coach its hearth on Musk as a distraction from their abject failures.

Do political correctness and “woke” insurance policies now come earlier than the security of little women or others within the U.Ok.? That’s on the coronary heart of a few of the posts Elon Musk has been placing up on his feed — posts which have induced some within the U.Ok. to lose their minds and seemingly embrace draconian dictates.

Might these forces on the left truly cease Musk? Might they arrest and imprison him? Might they cancel X and silence the voices of a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of residents all over the world? I’d not be so quick to say “no.”

These are world “leaders,” highly effective far-left media websites and far-left multibillionaires collectively marshalling their may in opposition to him. Whereas many would label it a “token gesture” on my half, in solidarity with Musk, I lastly activated my X account, merely to help his web site and repost his warnings that freedom is underneath assault and censorship is on the rise.

We reside in more and more perilous instances.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White Home and Pentagon official.