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.

link Superman Renounces U.S. Citizenship in Action Comics #900 – ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews.

That’s a lot of chutzpah for an illegal alien.  As many may recall, our hero was found in a field by farmers Martha and Jonathan Kent when his spaceship first crashed to earth.  Possessed of the American spirit of hospitality and mercy, the Kents raised the young lad on that farm and he was instilled with those same American values.  Luckily, he did not land in an area frequented by headhunters or else he could have wound up being a very hard to digest main course.

Those traditional values were articulated as, truth, justice and the American way and they served as the moral compass for the newly named Clark Kent for most of his adult life.  Rather than enter practical fields of medicine or engineering, Clark decided that newspaper reporting would be a good career and cover for his real passion.  Which was beating up bad guys.

Although he did occasionally have to save the world from the odd threat from diabolical and genius villains, for the most part, he stuck to problems that affected the west.  Over the years, he came to be roundly criticized for allowing poverty and crime to continue unabated in other parts of the world, namely Africa, the Middle East and especially recently, Mexico.  Of course, having super thick skin, he was unmoved by such barbs.

Recently however,  while attending  a university lecture by a certain New York Times columnist, he was by coincidence  exposed to some kryptonite which was housed in the next room which happened to be a geology lab.  In this weakened state, his brain was attacked by the drivel that was offered by the columnist.  Because these lectures are typically lengthy and this one was mercilessly long winded, the effect on his brain was serious and perhaps irreparable.   He began to watch The View and sympathizing with Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, often weeping over episodes.  The attack on his brain was horrific.

The hard wired concepts of truth, justice and the American way were supplanted by the viruses of entitlement, segregation and doublespeak.  Superman’s effectiveness actually came to be questioned over the past few years.  With the onset of technology as well as his increasing age, his speed only managed to match that of a speeding bullet, locomotives became more powerful and often he would have to take 2 bounds to leap  the newer, much taller buildings.  In addition, very few of his criminal collars ever stayed in jail because they were released by the leaky justice system.  Some thought that his renouncement of citizenship was  hollow since his utility was already becoming dated.

Newer problems may arise when they search for his original citizenship papers.  John and Martha Kent are conveniently deceased and there are no records of his live birth.  No doubt he will be asked some uncomfortable questions.  It is expected that he will  be obligated to turn in his leotard and cape.  It is unclear where Superman will go after his disavowal of the U.S..   Canada is thought to be a logical destination, but his history of violence may deter his citizenship.    They don’t punish criminals in Canada, but instead prefer to scold them and then to make taxpayers pay for rehabilitation.  Accepting Superman as a citizen would be sure to rile the folk in that peaceful nation.  A reality show is thought to be in the works.