Feeding the Troll

Donald Trump’s Facebook account has been restored. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images.)

Twitter is a kingdom. Facebook is a modern nation-state.

You’ll find nods to democracy on Twitter but it’s clear already that the new king rules capriciously, as kings did before most monarchies were stripped of power and turned into glorified tourist attractions. Early aspirations toward deliberative government went straight down the toilet after his coronation. If you take Mad King Elon seriously when he says “vox populi, vox dei” to justify his whims, try pissing him off. You’re apt to land in the dungeon regardless of what the populi might say about it.

Twitter’s the sort of place where the owner babbles endlessly about free speech for critics of the “woke mind virus” while allegedly suppressing material critical of the government of India, where he has business interests. And when he’s called on it, he professes ignorance—never mind that he’s typically quick to notice whenever some red-pilled chud in his timeline complains about being shadowbanned or whatever.

If you find it hard to reconcile how he can be so self-righteous about Twitter’s previous management bowing to government pressure while apparently doing the same, you’ve misunderstood the nature of monarchy. He doesn’t need to explain himself. He can posture all day long as a free-speech warrior while saying nary an unkind word about Chinese totalitarianism with no need to reconcile his positions. It’s good to be the king.

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