If there is a right-wing piece of misinformation out there, Elon Musk is happy to amplify it.
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It’s difficult to overstate how dangerous Elon Musk is. Him buying Twitter* is like a kid who enjoys torturing insects purchasing an ant farm. Nothing good is going to come of it.
Musk delivered the latest example of this on Friday, when he suggested that only TRAITORS would vote against a bill that outlaws something that is already illegal.
By the way, the Trumpian caps are his.
Those who oppose this are traitors.
All Caps: TRAITORS
What is the penalty for traitors again? https://t.co/lyREyskPv4
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2024
Musk then asks what the penalty for treason is.
In other words, he is suggesting that congressional Democrats, who oppose the bill in question because it can be used as a tool for voter suppression, should be put to death.
His post came in response to a series of tweets from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who tried to use Musk’s platform to mischaracterize what the legislation would do.
To understand the extent of his demagoguery, it is important to realize just how effectively Musk amplifies misleading information.
Johnson’s Fourth of July tweet was seen by 51,000 people. Another one about President Joe Biden’s age got 130,000 views.
And the one about the bill that outlaws the thing that is already illegal? 28,000,000.
By the way, here is how pro-democracy groups feel about this legislation:
“Introduction and advancement of this bill is the most recent example of what has been a string of recent efforts to make voter registration and voting more difficult, particularly for voters of color,” the organizations said in a letter to Congress in May. “False claims of non-citizen voting have been disingenuously used to enact more onerous voter identification requirements, limitations on voter assistance in languages other than English, and attempts to spread misinformation about voting.”
The legislation doesn’t even address a real problem. There is not a shred of evidence that non-citizens are voting in great (or even small) numbers.
“[Federal] law already prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections,” the coalition of more than 100 groups, including the ACLU and the League of Women Voters, stated. “Every single state bans noncitizens from voting in state elections. These protections have proven very effective, given that there is simply no evidence of widespread noncitizen voting in elections.”
And here is what we wrote about it when the legislation was introduced.
Photo Credit:WhoWhatWhy
On Friday, Musk helped them do just that.
By the way, in reference to the headline, he is obviously not a traitor. That would be silly. But Musk is a dangerous demagogue answerable to nobody.
And that’s a real problem.
Editor’s Note: While Elon Musk has changed the name of the platform from “Twitter” to “X,” we are not interested in catering to the whims of every billionaire manchild. That is why we will keep using Twitter and trust that our astute readers will be able to figure out what we are talking about. For more on this, please read “Elon Musk Has an Xtremely Stupid Idea.”
