Wolff Responds: Elon Musk, Twitter and Free Speech 

Dr. Wolff is a sane and sober voice in the midst of insanity. In my 60s now, I remember being a decided captialist (at least by name) in my 30s. The older I get, the less tolerant I am of systems that leave behind vast swaths of humanity while enabling a very few to fly into space and toss candy at each other in zero g. I mean seriously... what the fuck kind of world do we live in that has people starving and dying of preventable disease while others are playing space cowboy? How does this not collectively nauseate and enrage us? I have no idea.

It's sad to see so many people into worshipping or sympathizing with guys like Elon Musk. What exactly could they admire in a guy they'd literally have to kick away if they actually aimed at becoming like him themselves.

It should be illegal for one person to drop $44 Billion in cash for anything.

I had to take a screenshot of Wolff talking about Brand talking about Musk. It's so ... beautiful.

Great job as alway's. Keep the truth alive for humanity and the planet and to wake up humanity. ❤ ❤

Apparently the new Twitter will still have a complex fee structure for certain users of Twitter and maybe even new "features" with a new set of fee structures. "Free" speech now costs anywhere with a far reach (to wit, Super Bowl commercials). In the modern world of the Internet, your speech only has reach if you pay up big time.

funny how everyone hollering "Yay" free speech will mostly like pay for that free speech . Not very "Free"

The point about the fight for free speech being based off the amount of money a billionaire is willing to throw at it is so great it's unreal. A wonderful analysis as always, Mr Wolff.

I am a fan of both Wolff and Brand

I don’t use Twitter, just a load of bs

Always respect your opinion Professor. I do struggle with how in democracies people tend to agree to be led by unsensible choices. It makes one feel at a loss in this world.

Ok, then why not advocate for intellectual property abolition? Those laws monopolize the code/algorithms in all websites. If you want free speech, we can’t have monopolies in the algorithms. You’re missing a very important issue here. What say you, Prof. Wolff?

Happy you’re still making content! Your content is invaluable to leftist groups!

You got it all wrong Wolff. The issue is not that "free speech" is controlled by whoever has the most money, it's that those platforms are protected under section 230 from potential liabilities relating to the content. That means they're not suppose to act like publishers. Newspapers don't have that protection, so they have to be careful to avoid difamation lawsuits say. So if those running platforms which are protected by section 230 act like publishers, the section should not apply to them. Government is not supporting the purpose of section 230.

The issue is that no one should be able to accumulate 44 billion dollars. It's sad that people don't have a 99 percent tax rate around their first 100 million.

We need a radical change in this country!

Capitalism and democracy...capitalism and democracy...go together like family and a vasectomy...this, I tell you brother, you can't get one when you have the other...

This is why I support your work with Michael Hudson & Yanis

well said. and I agree completely. this world is nothing but a game for these technocratic oligarch elites and us "low life's" always end up the biggest losers.

I only wish I could have attended Yale and Stanford for free to get this knowledge

I chuckle when I see anyone try to make that vanilla flan in a human suit look like a “badass”. Little neck beard, aviator glasses. But see, that’s why chuds love him. He does nothing. He’s not a real engineer. He didn’t invent anything. He’s not even measurably, you know, good at anything. He gets to exist for being a character. That’s what a lot of these simpy younger men want. To just get paid to exist. (It’s even taught in business school-the thing you really wanna do is come up with an idea that entitles you to royalties or being bought out and retiring to invest that capital and coast off of it.) And that’s fine, I think people should have the right to exist fed clothed and unmolested. But it speaks to a profound weakness and fear of reality that so many see this guy as some kind of paragon of, well, anything. I sort of get a daddy issues vibe from Musk simps. Like they want so bad for him to be the Tony Stark to their Peter Parker (even though most of these people are double that age and are well beyond needing that sort of propping up from a father figure, but the man -children do love their movies), and help them achieve their happy ending. They want a big wise hand to descend from the heavens and save them. It ain’t coming. It never has and never will. Grow your skill sets, and help along the people you have around you. Not the people you WANT to have around you, mind, but those who are there. That’s all you got. Work with that, or work with nothing. That’s how you get through this. That’s how you live to tomorrow so you can have a hope of a damn to shape it. This whole great man theory and the associated hero worship hamstrings this potential in a lot of people, in my experience and observation. Maybe, and this is just my opinion, more boys should learn that their fathers aren’t special. They aren’t possessed of any special qualities or knowledge. In fact, daddy’s probably weak, scared and stupid just like the rest of the souls that inhabit this rock. He can’t really be faulted for that, but is certainly not an object of worship. And neither is anyone else. They’re a watery sack full of bacteria and feces that occasionally dapples in elocution. Fallible. Terminable. Hero worship is a big problem with men, in general. They use it as a substitute for themselves actually becoming materially better themselves. And we all suffer for it. Get off twitter, if you use it. Put that time somewhere else. Go pick up a skill, and pour your heart into it. I’m not saying “bootstraps” to this issue-quite the contrary, the mass of systems and relations interlocking them is mostly if not entirely at fault for people’s declining standards of living and security. However, engaging this system on its own terms is a waste of time. Tweeting doesn’t do anything. Maybe give it a rest. I already feel sick from typing this instead of doing something else, so I’m gonna go do that.

Nice cap there Richard. Did you get that one in Donegal?

Thank you, again, Professor Wolff for your cogent guidance and analysis. I share your work to my friends often. Keep up the great work. 👍🏻

Hyde Park had the speakers stand

Meet the new boss, same of the old boss - The Who

Regardless of what one's opinion is on billionaires, surely they have the right to purchase a privately owned company, HydePark was a gift to loyal public from the British monarchy.

Can someone tell me whether or not Wolff agrees with Noam Chomsky's idea of free speech (namely, that believing in free speech means that you believe in free speech even for speech that you think is vile and repugnant)? I've watched many of Wolff's videos, and never heard him talk at length about the concept of free speech.

"Freedom of the press belongs to the guy who owns one."

Didn't use Twitter before...Definitely not using it now. 😑

I would like to know the following: is printing money the vector of rising inflation?

We don't need all of these to be free and open, just one.

I'm confused, I thought if I worked really hard and saved my money, I could buy whatever I wanted and do with it whatever I wanted?

Non-related but I wonder if Wolff has thought about politics. Well, that wouldn't work. He speaks too plainly, logically, and honestly. The American voter would never believe it. Give them lies, that's what they want.

twitter and other social media should be nationalized. Also fossil fuel, utilities, and most important of all: healthcare.

Yeahh, let's change Twitter into Co-op its a better way to go

I mean I knew I hated Twitter for a reason.

💓🍃

He will take it public again after he fixes the platform.

Prof. Wolff, why do you never speak about how the federal reserve was created, and that it has private owners? Have you seen the documentary "Moneymasters" 1996

It _IS_ gross, and I agree open alternatives to these platforms are needed. We need to expand "public infrastructure" into the online world, and as Prof. Wolff alluded to, we also need to develop a democratic system for managing these platforms, to set boundaries & prevent abuse. These platforms -- _all_ of them -- could be so much better if they were designed _for us_ instead of being designed to make money for their owners.

Correct because now requires servers using electricity and this is about male ego’s because I have never seen women be such children

No fan of Musk, but the provate ownership model may be better than the wall st shareholder model. Either way, we need to nationalize social media.

Free speech means free to express one's opinion without repercussion.

I was going to watch this but you started by saying russel brand made an excellent point.

Things have indeed changed over the last 50 years. My Alma Mater once enjoyed "The Freedom Tree", where anyone could speak about anything, anytime. Now, the tree is gone. And, all talk has be speeches, that have be submitted to and cleared by The Administration; no spontaneous discussions are permitted. UPD will be called, if certain persons object.

You know you DO have the ability to simply.............not.........use..............twitter....? All it is is an app.

Why is no one complaining about Jeff Bezos owning WaPo?

Nice hat

So democracy with the little caveat that everyone must vote for a socialist party. The rest will be sent to Gulag?

Professor: What about the on going coup in the USA? Is the coup taking a second place?

I think Elon will make this extremely expensive platform ( free for all ) yup

I very much agree, internet platforms are a public good and should be run democratically by the users. But they are not. The world is not how we would like it to be. So we are left with a billionaire buying a piece of our virtual world from other billionaires. And it is to be seen if it is a change for the better or for worse or any at all. I actually like Elon Musk and consider him the only decent and sincere billionaire I know of. Still I would not want him to have such power over people. But that goes to all billionaires and all people in power. I like Elon, however I think he is very naive when it comes to politics and he still doesn't now what he has gotten himself into. It was just a question of time and now we will see how it plays out.

It's hard to believe this guy is 80 YO

Interesting perspective, however, while Musk's purchase of Twitter has been heralded by many as a move in the right direction in terms of a more open and diverse platform in which purportedly views opposite of those held by one side of the political spectrum... often an effete self righteous uber superior albeit poorly educated, unable to suffer challenges to their pseudo- intellectual superiority censors will now be tolerated and possibly even encouraged. Let's not be lulled into thinking there isn't a financial transaction here with an underlying profit motive irrespective to Musk's claims to the contrary. Musk has rightly perceived that that very censorship has created a void in which a massive swath of the world and in particular, U. S. society represents an incredible conomic windfall by 're imagining' what an actual free-to-speak w/o being silenced public forum platform might portend. One can only hope, however, as we've already seen,, the totalitarian globalist power regime has quickly inaugurated a new government agency with unbridled power to monitor the 'free speech' voices who dare speak out headed ip by a vocal anti free speech activist. They- those voices who speak out against the machine will inevitably be... dealt with. In time word, stories will surface of the fate of those who expressed 'disinformation' and a Pyongyang-esque response from the Disinformation Czar. In the end, Musk's vision both for a more open public forum and a profitable venture may in time be crushed on both counts by a globalist cartel with more power and a combined wealth structure far exceeding his as self censorship takes hold. Time will tell.

Oh, no, don't platform Russell Brand. He might get some stuff right, but in many very important matters he's just an ignorant tool, unknowingly parroting Russian propaganda, or right wing talking points.

👏👏👏

How about you stop complaining about conservatives *actually trying* to give these corporations accountability, instead of blaming it on capitalism?

So glad to hear my favorite RU-vid voice talking about another of my favorites.

👍💐

X-Files Censorship Light and truth (love) cause vampires (greed) great pain and suffering. That's why the words compassion, understanding, society (socialism), community (communism), "care for all" and "green new deal" cause the capitalist counting corpses that rule US such misery. But the words sanction, starve, torture, murder and bomb are encouraged. Because these ugly words suck the joy out of humans with their ignorance (hate). The hostile evangelical vampires (greed) are inhumane because they are not human. The capitalist counting corpses commit crimes against humanity because they are not human. Vampires (greed) who suck the joy out of life have joined the zombies who eat the futures of their children. Zombie Apocalypse is here and happening now.

You're the man Wolff

" There is no greater misfortune than greed." - Lao Tzu You always have a choice.You can quit or boycott them.

Cap on wealth now.

Free Speech is enforced by the people, not billionaires.

great hat

COMRADES, SMASH THE LIKE BUTTON!

What is he complaining about billionaires or something?

Perhaps Elon will revolutionize Twitter and name it Musky... Free speech on Musky Musky: ...a note that can be described as earthy, woody, animalistic, and intoxicating is hard to miss. It's one of those fragrance base notes that smells like your skin but better and lasts for an oddly long time. A message on Musky lasts forever...

“The Gatekeeper” needs billions.

Wolf makes so fast claims without any logic that i dont think he is smart anymore

Take back the internet and nationalize every site that operates as the Public Commons.

Prof Wolff has another recent video "What US Media Covers Up About French Election". In this video he describes what an awful job the main stream media does in reporting or as he states "lack of reporting" the news. How hypocritical can this guy get with back to back video's, one vilifying how bad the main stream media is and another proclaiming just the opposite, that free speech will be challenged with Musk taking over Twitter. Which is it Prof Wolff ? You can't have it both ways.

Idk how I feel about you bolstering Russell brand

the conclusion to draw is, when you live in a plutocracy, money is power. but anyone who thinks 'democracy at work' is a useful concept is living in a glass tower. democracy in the nation is possible, but only if you know what democracy is. california would be an excellent examplar of democracy, the state holds regular referenda, has an effective initiative function, and can recall errant state officers. only weakness is, its not a nation and their democracy is purely administrative. the national politicians can over-ride as they wish. the notion that workers in a company have democracy is a nonsense. they have no power, and 'democracy' is a greek phrase meaning, 'citizens decide.' they 'decide,' because they have the power of decision. '-cracy' refers to that power. 'demos' is the citizens, not the workers. there is a reason the confederation of helvetia maintained democracy while all around were some kind of elite rule: the swiss 'army' was a militia, the citizens in arms. the ultimate power was dispersed to the citizen-soldier. if you want to vote, you had to fight. academics hate to examine the ultimate reality of rule. they like to think talking decides, when in reality, the gun decides. politicians know better, so they have a professional army they can buy, and hope to control.