I must say, it’s been interesting watching progressives speculate that Musk’s apparent mismanagement of his latest acquisition, Twitter, may not be a matter of gross incompetence, but of direction, such as this, from bluedogsd on Daily Kos:
I’m presenting a thesis: Elon Musk is breaking Twitter as a co-opted asset for the Putin Oligarchy with the purpose of disrupting or damaging the best information coming out of Ukraine to the public that bolsters support in NATO and the west.
Of course this thesis can and will never be proven but I want to make what I think is a compelling case.
There’s been a couple of other articles of the sort on Daily Kos, as well as an alternative hypothesis of Neoreactionarism, or what I’d term a weak-minded belief that a strong man leadership is better than democracy. The association of this juvenile philosophy with libertarianism seems a trifle odd, as most libertarians seem to appreciate the positives of democracy, at least as far as I could tell ten or more years ago.
That these hypotheses are coming from the left, rather than the right, strikes me as a trifle funny is because I remember accusations of the left being in league with the Soviet Union, which had, at its core, Russia, coming from the right decades ago.
That now the left can make similar accusations of, essentially, traitorous behavior by Musk and some of his fellow right-wing millionaires and billionaires, and have those theories at least considered, is a fascinating insight into the use of the East as The Other, the eternally menacing shadowy creatures with which we strip adversaries of their honor and even their humanity.
It doesn’t hurt that accusations against the left from decades ago were partially substantiated when Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby and Anthony Blunt, members of the Cambridge Five and known for their left-wing views, were revealed as Soviet spies. Will we eventually see right-wingers being bought and paid for by Russian paymasters?
And how many of us will be able to appreciate the historical parallel?
What does it say, not about the East, but about the West?
