The NYT — ever a bundle of [fill in the blank] — has been avoiding the "Twitter Files" but is delving into The Mind of Musk in "Critics Say Musk Has Revealed Himself as a Conservative. It’s Not So Simple. Elon Musk has tweeted about political topics regularly since taking over Twitter, often belittling some liberal causes. But what he stands for remains largely unclear" by Jeremy W. Peters.
In a 24-hour period late this week, he tweeted more than 40 times, often with little rhyme or reason....
It’s true Mr. Musk certainly sounds a lot like a Republican — and, sometimes, a lot like Mr. Trump — with his missives on Twitter against “woke” politics and Covid restrictions, his attacks on “elite” media and his efforts to draw attention to allegations that Hunter Biden profited from his father’s political clout....
But where Mr. Musk has seemed most in line with the G.O.P. of Mr. Trump is in the tenor of his political commentary, which if anything seems more spiritedly anti-left than ideologically pro-right....
This doesn't feel mysterious to me at all. It sounds almost exactly the way I feel. So my hypothesis is that he's liberal, he's spent a lot of time around liberals and lefties, and he's got endless problems with the way they've betrayed what, it seems, should be their true values.
Many of his recent tweets have had that kind of “own the libs” tone, the shorthand on the right for when conservatives think they’ve deftly, often sarcastically, swatted down a liberal. A couple of weeks ago, he posted video on Twitter of a closet full of T-shirts with the slogan “#stay woke” that he said he had found at the social media company’s headquarters....
Mr. Musk has always claimed his concerns with Twitter’s previous management were about the ability of a small group of the company’s employees whom he described as “far left” to censor content.
Ah! Way down near the end of this piece, there is Twitter Files material — so the Times seems to want to cover it but not make it too visible (which reminds me of the way old Twitter "deamplified" material it disfavored):
[O]ver the past week, he has cheered on tweets about internal communications before he took over. The communications, which were given to two writers who have posted their findings on Twitter, calling them the Twitter Files, showed how the company went about deciding what information got suppressed.
The main thing isn't the files but The Mind of Musk as it observes the publication of the files.
As for the files:
It’s been a mixed bag of revelations. Some showed how Twitter employees made it harder to see tweets from a Stanford University professor who warned about how Covid lockdowns could harm children — a view many public health experts have come around to accept well after the fact.
That's massively important! And yet the NYT doesn't even tell us the name of the Stanford professor. It's Jay Bhattacharya. His story ought to be isolated, elaborated, and made front-page news!
Other documents show how more conventional, conspiracy-theory-embracing conservatives were shut down, like Dan Bongino, the radio host who was one of the biggest amplifiers of lies about the 2020 election.
And that's it for coverage of the Twitter Files. It's back to The Mind of Musk:
Mr. Musk has not professed to have any profound attachment to Republican policies, though, which is consistent with his posture before taking over Twitter.... In an interview with The New York Times in 2020, he described his politics as “middle-of-the-road.” “I’m socially very liberal. And then economically right of center, maybe, or center. I don’t know. I’m obviously not a communist.”...
He sounds like any intelligent American who isn't drawn to party politics. We may even be the majority! If only the New York Times could stop catering to the Democratic Party and write for us.
Often, it seems, his posts are motivated by personal pique, not political philosophy....
Great! An actual human being. Some people love them.
38 Comments on Althouse: "Elon Musk, ever a bundle of contradictions and inconsistencies, has long made his politics tricky to pin down."
This would require a proper sense of humor, as recognized by most of us through most of our lives. There is no room for that in the world of the Times these days. Discerning young professionals have absorbed the fact that a sense of humor will get you fired and cancelled from polite society.
Can't have that. Maybe, someday, they could loosen up and just make offenders wear a scarlet 'H' on their clothing. It would be an improvement."
If the story contains a bad enough person, the story ends there. "
Don't be silly. Musk is making things harder for leftists, therefore he is a Nazi. Simple."
As you stated yourself, Ann, "...my hypothesis is that he's liberal, he's spent a lot of time around liberals and lefties, and he's got endless problems with the way they've betrayed what, it seems, should be their true values." Exactly. To wit: This is how you get people who spent lifetimes as Liberals: Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Elon Musk, Glenn Greenwald- among the most read people on Substack and Twitter precisely because they have said out loud what the majority of people see every day. But our media, led by the staff of the New York Times (who made life miserable for Bari Weiss) cannot see through their own thought bubbles.
Anyway- what freaking difference should it make what 'side' Musks opinions are on? Would he get applause and awards if he were far lefty? You betcha. Does he now get ignored, or slammed because he's not far lefty? Uh-huh. It's not that he's a Conservative or even- God forbid- a Republican. It's that he's not clearly far-lefty and he's got a megaphone.
Who gave that megaphone to a non-far lefty person? How do we get it back? Can we de-amplify his work?"
The NYT is not noticing humor as part of Musk's way of working.
The NYT never noticed Trump's humor... The NYT never noticed ANYONE'S humor
How Many Lesbians, Does it Take; To Screw in a light bulb? THAT'S NOT FUNNY!!!"
The vast majority of people will not hear about the real collusion"
One of whom was Bari Weiss, who edited the NY Times opinion section 2017-2020. She was forced out of her position at the Times because she approved the Tom Cotton op-ed where Cotton called for the use of troops to restore peace during the George Floyd riots.
Jeremy Peters appeared on Bari Weiss's podcast just last year to discuss issues around the 2020 election.
Weiss's name might as well be Voldemort at the NY Times."
The left drug Musk into their politics because of the damage their policies (lies) waged against science and math. "
Add people like Bill Mahr, Neil Oliver, Scott Adams, Joe Rogan...and a host of other Democrats, that have called BS on what the left considers viable policies.
The left never knows when to take a win, The States were marching one by one to accept homosexual marriage, then SCOTUS had to big foot the States power. But rather than take the win, the left decided the next step was to groom kindergartners for butt sex.
"
How does the NYT describe people who embraced the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump colluded with Russian Intelligence to win the 2016 election?"
It's also funny to me that even in this supposedly straight news piece, the NYT (has consulted its style guide and) refers to 2020 election "lies" - not even the much more journalismy "unfounded" or "unsupported allegations"! - and in the anecdote about Musk's posting a video about finding a closet full of #staywoke t-shirts, refers to that video as an "own the libs" attempt rather than as a tweet documenting something he found that, to him at least, indicated the presence of at least enough people of the progressive left at Twitter to warrant creation of those shirts. That is, Musk pounces!
So in this piece that purports to reveal the Mind of Musk (thank you for that phrase, Professor), we get at least as much information about the Mind of the Times."
Doesn't seem to have done a very good job of it.
You remember the podesta's, don't you? Proudly displaying child porn (or "art" as they called it) in their living room. And proud to have it in WaPo.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2004/09/23/married-with-art/dee9a0d0-0f0d-4505-b0ef-2f0e1bd1e0e0/
Lesley, with 2 of her cohorts left Twitter on Friday.
John Henry "
That's classic "straw man" argument. It's not the fact that Hunter profited from Joe's political clout; it's that Hunter acted as Joe's agent, to help Joe profit from his own political clout. Hunter was a go-between, an intermediary between the Payors (like Burisma, the ChiComs, etc.) and the ultimate Payee, which was Joe. It's all one big pot, according to Hunter. Hunter got his share, for sure, but Joe was the intended beneficiary.
"Pay no attention to that Joe, over there; it's all about Hunter." Right!"
I can live with that. "
Would make a great law school hypo, anyway.
Both public figures.
Trying to show/refute actual malice: you’re knowingly lying about me amplifying someone else’s knowing lies.
Duelling logical knots. You’d have students hanging themselves from the rafters out of frustration.
JSM
"
They don't even tell us the name! It ought to be isolated! They should be better!
On the other hand, the NYT has a different notion of what is "massively important"--in this case, even after discovering that, yes, indeed, children suffered horribly, that the validity of the early diagnosis by "conservatives" must be contained, so as to preserve prog dominance and the NYT readers' self-regard."
IMHO."
If the universe is infinite, somewhere it does."
Please provide a single, even remotely plausible, basis for Hunter Biden's income from foreign actors.
where they use allegedly or "extreme" or a host of other terms is an easy tell.
I'll bet this guy giggles whenever he draws a good hand in poker."
Can dogshit be bundled? If it can, the NYTimes is living proof. "
But i guess that's just a nothingburger.
Instead we're going to personalize the story and make it all about Musk. Can we just label him an "Extreme rightwinger" or "Conspiracy Theorist" and dismiss him? Or do we need to do more work? that is the question."
I dont think you really understand what is happening here.
The marxist left didnt just "take the win on homosexual marriage" and then stop because homosexual marriage was never THE goal. It was just a waypoint on the path to their actual longterm goal. The complete destruction of the notion of marriage and destruction of the nuclear family and replacement by their preferred structures."
Haven't you heard? Lefties don't post bannable things."
Dunno. But it can be garnered."