From Tesla to Twitter, it seems everywhere you turn, everyone’s talking (and tweeting) about serial tech entrepreneur and investor magnate Elon Musk. So, this summer, we’re making the case for the world’s most curious space cadet turned Twitter tycoon. Meet the man of the moment and this summer’s very special GoGuy, Mr. Elon Musk.
Not even two short years ago amidst a global pandemic that brought the world to its knees, over 80 million Twitter followers, media personalities, and political pundits would feverishly await the next headline-making tweet by then-President Donald Trump before the former president had his posting privileges permanently suspended by the social media giant following the protests at the U. S. Capitol on January 6th, 2020. These days, it seems Elon Musk has unequivocally replaced the allure of impulsive tweet-dropping made famous by the 45th President of the United States. Meet the man who’s making waves around the world – and it has less to do with his wallet size and more to do with his will to restore an inalienable right to the citizens of the greatest country on the planet.
The Making of an Unlikely Mogul
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It’s safe to say that nearly everyone and anyone with access to the Internet or a basic television set knows of Elon Musk, the world’s richest human and CEO/Co-founder of luxury electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors and CEO/Founder of SpaceX, amongst many other mentionable ventures. Born on June 28th, 1971, in South Africa to a Canadian-born beauty queen mother and engineer father, Musk was destined to leave his mark on the world. A serial tech entrepreneur star. An astronautical engineering genius. A biz whiz. A brand innovator. And, currently, a purveyor of free speech and proponent for human progression.
Young Elon with his mother
and two siblings.
To deflect from the childhood bullies he regularly encountered due to his Asperger’s Syndrome, a precocious and painfully shy Musk would pass the time in solitude by building computers and learning to code. At age 12, he got his first taste of moneymaking when he created a video game and sold it for a paltry $500 to a computer magazine. Raised for much of his childhood in South Africa by his father after his parents split, Musk eventually emigrated to Canada to be with his mother before finally making his way southerly to the United States where he attended Penn State University, earning a degree in physics in 1995. The young tech genius with a lust for the emerging Internet and all the seemingly lucrative and progressive opportunities it offered would drop out of his graduate studies at Stanford after only two days to start finding tech companies Zip2 and X.com. Unfamiliar to many, these two start-ups eventually merged with a company that most would come to know as PayPal – an American, multinational financial tech site that performs online payments, a long-awaited lifesaver for small businesses and anyone who wants to send and receive money without having to walk into a bank. With the reported $180 million Musk made from the sale of PayPal after taxes, he would then team with fellow entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard, JB Straubel, Marc Tarpenning, and Ian Wright to co-found electric automotive and sustainable renewable company Tesla, space rocket manufacturer SpaceX, and Solar City, leaving the future richest man in the world having to borrow money to pay rent. Some months, he would bring a cot to the Tesla headquarters and sleep on the factory floor. Overnight success? Not so much. Since starting SpaceX in 2002, Musk had procured several high-profile contracts with NASA and the U. S. Airforce to design spaceships and has publicly disclosed his steadfast dedication to getting a man on Mars in 2025 with collaborative efforts by NASA.
Free Speech is At Stake
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It’s no surprise the 2016 U. S. presidential election between then-democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and republican candidate Donald J. Trump was a contentious one. With all the click-worthy, mud-slinging battles unfolding on mainstream media and a social media network near you, sites like Facebook and Twitter quickly morphed into political news and commentary forums, pitting the Left against the Right and vice versa. Gone were the innocuous days of cooing over cute cat videos with your bestie from middle school. Social media networks became the harrowing, hate-filled hosts of online political bloodbaths, and the gatekeepers of the reigning trifecta, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube/Google had no reservations who they would be pulling the lever for. But, it wasn’t a total loss for all. Those heated viral moments launched many careers in both conservative and liberal circles. Make no mistake.
Already a behemoth in the social media sphere, Twitter became President Trump’s platform of choice, his personal megaphone for bypassing the biased, left-leaning, legacy media’s deceptive editing and propagandist agenda. With over 80 million followers, Twitter was his way of speaking directly to the American people, even if half of his Twitter base “hate followed.” He was still able to effectively disseminate the message.
Until he wasn’t.
Following the infamous protests that occurred at the U. S. Capitol on January 6th, 2020, Twitter’s then-CEO and Founder, Jack Dorsey, along with his executive team, decidedly banned the President for the foreseeable future following tearful meetings filled with juvenile meltdowns, petulant moaning, and unending imploring. Then, Facebook followed suit. YouTube would remove ALL content that contained President Trump speaking, which is still in effect as of this writing. It was an all-out, patent assault on our First Amendment, the Right to Free Speech. Unfortunately, Trump wasn’t the only one on the liberal chopping block. Prominent conservative voices and staunch supporters of the MAGA movement, like Turning PointUSA Founder and podcast host Charlie Kirk, television host and outspoken political commentator Tucker Carlson, and U. S. Republican Congresswoman Margorie Taylor Greene, were silenced, censored, shut down.
The Bee Gets Banned and All H*** Breaks Loose
Yet, it wasn’t until the social media giant permanently revoked the posting privileges of the well-known Christian, satirical site, The Babylon Bee, this past spring for their truthful tweet reminding the Twitterverse that transwoman, aka “biological male,” and four-star admiral Rachel Levine was The Man of the Year, that it caught the attention of the renewable energy enthusiast. An ardent fan and follower of the widely popular, libertarian site, Musk made it his mission to effectively save Free Speech – and bring back the Bee. He would randomly post online surveys asking his millions of followers “if a new, social media platform is needed?” and followed up with a tweet reading, “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.” Within days, the tech tycoon broke headlines when he purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter stock, resulting with the executive team offering him a prestigious seat on the board, which is accepted, only to respectfully decline days later. Less than a week passed before Musk made breaking headlines again with news he had proposed to purchase the social media giant at $54.20 per share. Panicked their left-wing control on social media was most likely coming to a timely demise, the Twitter board pivoted with what would prove to be an ineffective “poison pill” option to dissuade Musk from acquiring an even larger stake in the company. Realizing Musk had the company in a stranglehold, Twitter would come to accept his offer less than a week later and at the dismay of its thousands of anti-Free Speech employees. A securities filing revealed Musk’s offer was made through a $46 billion commitment.
An unflinching fan of science fiction and philosophy, the pro-human advocate insists his pending Twitter takeover had zero to do with economics and everything to do with saving Free Speech from falling over the proverbial cliff and into the murky waters below. Musk certainly doesn’t “need” Twitter. That’s obvious. However, he does wish to restore the world’s most influential platform back to a free-flowing dialogue of differing ideas without fear of backlash, banning, and bullying. Stopping censorship of opposing views and voices on the site, specifically of right-wing or libertarian ideology, is one of Musk’s mainstays in his Twitter takeover, as he wishes to turn Twitter into an inclusive “town hall” platform for ALL – free of fear for having a dissenting opinion or view not popular with the court of public opinion. And, what better time? With a slew of social media strongholds like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube continuously shutting down conservative commentators and independent voices, could Musk be the Man Who Saved Free Speech, the fundamental liberty synonymous with America as 2A? Only time will tell, but we’re still crossing our fingers! Those on the tolerant Left displaying share-worthy, cringe meltdowns and promises of ditching Twitter for good should Musk’s pending deal go through is everything we need to know.
“[Twitter] is not living up to its potential as a platform for ‘free speech’,” Musk exclaims at a TED talk series back in April.
Elon with his mother May Musk
Musk's Latest Move
Just before this issue of GoGirl launched, Musk made yet another move, throwing his biggest
critics and most ardent followers in yet another head-scratching tailspin. The mercurial,
mysterious mogul decided to back out of his precariously close-to-closing Twitter deal based on
his determination there were significantly more bots and far fewer real users than had been
disclosed by Twitter, clearly reducing the value of the company – by a massive amount. Twitter
immediately threatened legal action to force the deal to go through – to force a deal they had
originally tried painstakingly to upend. The fearless mogul has not backed down and says that
now Twitter will be forced by the court to provide the actual data on bots that he’s been asking
for. Check… mate? Brilliant or baffling?
Daily Wire’s co-founder and Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro speculates Musk may be playing “4D
Chess” and that he’s likely been several steps ahead all along.
Or hasn’t he?
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What do you think will happen? Will Musk prove in court Twitter has far fewer real users than
they originally suggested, therefore allowing him the opportunity to legally pull out of the deal
without incurring penalties or the possibility of jail time? Will he be required to pay a 1-billion-
dollar penalty fee for pulling out based on the contract he signed? Will he renegotiate a new,
much fairer price and move forward with the daunting deal? Musk has the fortune (quite
literally) of walking away from this fire dumpster without it ever affecting his bottom line. As
stated previously in this piece, he never sought economic gains from acquiring Twitter. He
wanted to simply provide a universal platform that allowed for the free flow of ALL ideas,
discourse, and debate. He wanted to restore America’s lifeline to the First Amendment, one
that is currently on life support.
What would you do if you had agreed to purchase an entire wardrobe of mostly designer
clothes, handbags, and shoes for a very high sum, only to learn the opulent articles you
purchased were mostly knock-offs? Would you insist on renegotiating? Would you pay a
significant penalty fee and walk away from the deal? Would you try and renegotiate a new,
lower, fairer price?
As of this writing, the entire debacle is in limbo as what will ultimately unfold with Elon and the
social media giant. But, here at GoGirl Worldwide, we still commend Musk for making bold
moves and standing up for our constitutional right to freedom of speech.
GoGuy! Take it to the Moon, Mars, and beyond!
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