Quick Take: Elon Musk vs Brazil more fake “free speech” theatre

Kit Knightly

Recently we were asked on Twitter to comment on the Elon Musk/Brazil situation.

At the time we didn’t really see the point, coming so hot on the heels of our previous piece on the current “free speech” psyop:

But the story hasn’t gone away, so here is our quick take on it in nine little words: This is exactly the situation we were talking about.

Here’s a quick summary of the story so far, for those not paying attention:

A Brazilian judge ordered Musk/X to shut down seven anti-government accounts for, among other things, questioning the fairness of the recent Presidential Election.
Musk refused, shutting down X’s Brazil office in the bargain.
The Brazilian government has now banned X altogether.

There’s drama and court cases and “leaked documents” and seized assets as well (with more to come I’m sure), but that’s the gist, and it fits perfectly into the model we described:

The battle lines are drawn up and either you’re with the government or you’re with Elon Musk. An entirely fake a war between overt censorship and covert censorship.

Elon Musk is routinely described as a “free speech absolutist”, however his platform is anything but. His position is that Twitter/X will follow the speech laws of the countries in which it operates. Meaning, if you live in the UK and Keir Starmer suddenly decides to ban talking about cheese, well then say goodbye to your @cheeseisgrate fan account.

Musk isn’t a free speech absolutist, he’s a free speech lawful neutral. The worst alignment.

Meanwhile, the “liberal” left is so thoroughly conditioned to cheer when Trump boos and hiss when Musk claps, that they happily take the side of government censorship, banning apps and jail time for “bad words”. Again.

So you get repulsive articles like this.

The “debate” is so far gone that neither side is anywhere close to free speech anymore. While true free speech is under a sustained propaganda assault.

…this is exactly the same fake split narrative control device that permeates every political discussion.