As IF Times

link:  https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-12-03-european-journalists-leaving-x-despise-free-speech.html

In 2006, a group of young people including Jack Dorsey started a little company named Twitter which was in fact only a side venture of their main project at the time.  Twitter was originally meant as a short messaging application allowing only a few characters to be sent, so the messages had to be brief and to the point.

The idea gained traction amongst early adopters and by 2013, after an IPO raising $1.8 billion, it was valued at $25 billion.  While that was an eye popping number, Elon Musk came along in 2022 and paid $44 billion to buy the entire company.  While numerous other social media messaging platforms have appeared since Twitter, now rebranded as X, this platform remains the most widely used and referred messaging platform in the world….not to mention the most influential. It is so influential that some authoritarian governments, such as Brazil’s, actually banned the use of X by their population.

Nowadays, X is the source for the most up to date information on every event worldwide since everyone who uses it can be a conduit for news. How quaint to think about the environment of a few decades ago when you had to wait for the 6 o’clock news.  Even professional journalists had to have an exposure to the platform to stay current with world affairs.  Of course, the flip side to the flood of current information was the proliferation of opinions on any given topic, many of which are considered controversial.

Until Elon Musk purchased and rebranded the platform, Twitter took it upon itself to censor posts which were not in line with the views of the owners.  Thus, as in most media companies, the views of conservatives were censored or just outright banned. Twitter fell into being an echo chamber for left leaning views as did all other social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

As Musk took control of the company, he reinstated the principle of free speech to the platform and thus, X truly regained its reputation as being the forum for the exchange of ideas, opinions and news.  To this day, users from across the ideological spectrum use X for their messages to the public, from celebrities, to the plain folk, from politicians to tyrants (often the same).

An odd thing happened since Musk’s takeover.  Now that X is a conduit for freedom of information and opinion, legions of once active social justice posters have publicly left the platform, including most recently over 300 European journalists.

If you think about it, why do journalists even exist?  Their notional job is to report news and events.  Currently, with eyeballs everywhere and with access to platforms such as X, we don’t need a middleman to tell us that a house is on fire.  We can observe that by ourselves.  Information is available, it’s current and it’s accurate.  Journalism these days consists of reporting on an event and supplementing it with commentaries entirely misleading or inaccurate.  Thus, a burning house will be characterized as a result of policies not friendly to climate change.  A couple of people seen sneezing at a venue constitutes evidence of a massive pandemic. It’s as if you ordered a meal at a restaurant and the waiter regales you with a narrative of how the food was artfully prepared by culturally sensitive craftsmen using only natural ingredients and socially acceptable techniques.  So, basically you get a free side dish of sanctimony that you didn’t ask for.

We don’t need middlemen to report the news. It reminds me of the old cliché about consultants; they look at your watch and tell you what time it is…for a fee.  The 300 ‘journalists’ quitting X are enacting a real life ‘Blazing Saddles’ moment, they are threatening their own livelihoods in protest of not being able to spin the news their way.  They’ve all but admitted that they no longer control the narrative, thus they are superfluous.  The past dozen years or so have exposed the majority of media to be fatally biased at best or are loyal mouthpieces of the governing establishment at worst. How often have we seen numerous media outlets use exactly the same phraseology to characterize an event… as if it were orchestrated?

We can say without exaggeration that Elon Musk has single-handedly restored free speech to the world.  He has allowed people to see that their views, though not blessed by the mainstream, are not unique; that many feel the way that they do.  This is an enormously powerful revelation and will have an enormous negative impact on authoritarian governments everywhere.

In only a week’s time, the entire focus of media hand wringing and angst surrounding the melodrama which was Covid, has all but disappeared. It has now refocused on the new disaster du jour, which is the military conflict in the Ukraine brought on by the Russians.  Fauci has so quickly disappeared from his regular offerings of inane utterances that he may be in witness protection.

You can almost see and hear the cartoon vapor trail as experts clamber to get on board the next media shiny thing.  Like the Covid narrative before, the usual and predictable cast of pundits are all on one side of the conflict.  To sum it up, Putin bad, Ukraine good.  When asked about the reason for this position, they tell you that it’s obvious: Ukraine is a democracy and Russia is about Commie despotism, it’s an easy call. We have a madman in the guise of Putin against the reasoned, democratic voices of the West.

Or is it?  The incredible irony of people in the coddled West who willingly submitted to 2 years of forced lockdowns in their activities and movements, of being forced to wear masks and endure harm from unproven vaccinations (now proven and documented) as well as being beaten and arrested by their own governments for failing to comply, or to even voice opposition is tragically comical.   But to fight for democracy in a nation far away, which actually isn’t one, proves beyond any residual doubt that, yes, people are as dumb as they seem. People who wouldn’t fight for their own right to breathe air are suddenly up in arms about freedoms.  The same crowd that wants patriotic Ukrainians to fight back and protect their homeland borders,  want people to disarm here and leave the borders unprotected.  While nationalism is considered a bad idea in America, Ukrainians need to fight for theirs.

Like the one sided views on the Covid farce at its peak,,  every news outlet, politician and even opportunistic corporations are now publicly expressing their outrage at Putin’s aggression over a helpless neighboring nation.  Governments have imposed economic sanctions against Russia and in particular, the banking industry, to cut off Russian activities with the west.  Not to be outdone, a veritable who’s who of International commerce have announced their withdrawal from doing business with Russia as per the graphic above.  In addition, Russian vodka and products are being removed from sale and people with any Russian lineage are being ostracized.  The great protector of democracy in North Kanadia even detained a planeload of Russian nationals while in Canada.

If you have a look at the companies haughtily cutting Russia off, you’d be hard pressed to find any more than a fraction of them that Russia couldn’t live without. If you think about it, this in fact would be true for most nations.  How devastating a blow would it be to the average Russian not to have access to Porno hub or TikTok? How will they survive not being able to view the latest cat videos on Facebook and Instagram?  Coca Cola is hardly a loss because it doesn’t go with vodka anyway.  Playstation and Nintendo are toys.   Sony, Disney, Paramount and Netflix are essentially pushing Western propaganda ( with no recent good products ) so that’s no loss.  Danone yogurt; ok that’s a blow.  Harley Davidson is a blow to the 5 customers they have in Russia because the 3 week riding season will be all but dead.  Nike and Adidas; they can buy their stuff under the table and much cheaper right from the factory next door in China.  Auto companies including all of the major brands have declared their cessation of doing business in Russia.  We doubt this will last more than 3 weeks because that business is so mercenary.  We’re not even sure if Ford or GM sell any cars there.

Come to think of it, there’s a darn good chance that Russians will ultimately wind up a better nation without exposure to so many of the useless things that seem to have such a hold on Western societies.  These companies may learn that they aren’t needed in any society. That’ll learn ’em.