MSNBC analyst: Elon Musk's free speech is 'white men' saying whatever they want
Twitter finalized Musk's $44 billion purchase on Monday
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MSNBC political analyst Anand Giridharadas offered another controversial take on Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase on Monday’s episode of "The ReidOut."
Many media outlets and Twitter users were outraged by Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy Twitter as a "deal with the devil." Giridharadas likewise condemned the purchase as a "winners take all" mentality.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In this photo illustration, the Twitter logo is displayed on a smartphone with Elon Musk's official Twitter profile. (Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
"The nature of the technology is now such that if you are now Elon Musk or a Mark Zuckerberg or others, it is not just owning a newspaper or owning the railroads and owning this and that. It is specifically this particular kind of straw into the live consciousness of a very large chunk of humanity at all times," Giridharadas said. "There are studies that have been shown this power can be used to tilt elections if someone were to want to use it that way. So what you’re seeing right now, and I call it ’winners take all’ for a reason. This is the winners take all playbook."
"It’s not enough to rig law and policy. You want to rig the discourse. You want to make sure that you control the terms on which people can talk back at you," he continued.
Giridharadas added that while Musk claims to want to support free speech, people like him really only want to support speech for white men.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Elon Musk lives in a world in which the only kind of free speech is white men feeling free to say whatever the hell they want. He doesn’t understand what a lot of those folks don’t understand is speech is actually freer when everybody not only has the opportunity have an account and able to afford a phone to be able to tweet but can feel safe," Giridharadas said.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk smiles at a press conference following the first launch of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, U.S., February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Joe Skipper and file photo of the Twitter app icon . (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File/REUTERS/Joe Skipper)
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He concluded his comments with, "This future in which there would actually be more abundant and equitable speech terrifies the crap out of people like Elon Musk."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Giridharadas previously criticized Musk’s 9.2% Twitter stock purchase earlier this month during another appearance on Joy Reid's show. He suggested that Musk’s actions were motivated by racism.
Tesla CEO and founder of the Boring Company Elon Musk speaks at a news conference Thursday, June 14, 2018, in Chicago. The Boring Company has been selected to build a high-speed underground transportation system that it says will whisk passengers from downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport in mere minutes. ((AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato))
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"He has built his business to government subsidies years ago. And now turns around, stiffs the government on taxes, and explains how inefficient government spending is, and he can do everything better privately in space than elsewhere. He is building in Tesla, a documentedly racist company, that perhaps reminds him, gives him nostalgic memories of the apartheid in South Africa where he grew up," Giridharadas said.