Updated: April 14, 2022

“What is the Musk Effect?” You may ask?!

Let me expound on this theory using a domestic incident from a Canadian’s point of view to demonstrate what I am speaking about.

While there was an illegal occupation of Canada’s Capital, Ottawa in late January. Whilst locals were harassed & taunted for wearing masks. Many were prevented from shopping, working, travelling and socializing. Sonic torture lasting for weeks on end due to honking trucks, fireworks, music, and the overall noise pollution of thousands of outsiders running the streets.

The Prime Minister, members of Parliament, the Governor-General, and others were doxed daily. Citizen activists like Caryma S’ad and other news journalists cyber stalked. Prevented from filming and reporting on events on the ground. False calls made to Ottawa’s emergency 911 services. Those encouraging this campaign via Twitter, emails, Instagram, and Facebook groups dissuaded local residents from acting on directives so they could avoid prosecution.

Simultaneous misinformation campaigns about the organizers, participants and motives of the ‘freedom truck convoy’ were carried out on multiple social media platforms. Many fissures were created within all societal and familial ecosystems. The pro and anti convoy perspective took hold. Supporters of the movement were successful in deflecting & projecting any and all criticism. Anyone who spoke up were inundated with threatening emails, queries about their level of intelligence and mental stability.

The appropriation of Indigenous ceremonial traditions exploited by convoy members to detract from any criticism garnered from nuggets of pro-Anglo-Saxon and replacement theorist seeds planted by many organizers. The presence of yellow stars, swastikas, MAGA and confederate flags in the early days of the Ottawa Occupation made the participants and organizers very defensive against the news organizations, publications, journalists and anyone questioning their declarations that they were fighting for ‘Freedom’ for all.

Meanwhile Mr. Big of Twitter was voraciously tweeting his support for the truckers, occupiers, supporters near and far. Railing against the Prime Minister to the extent that he tweeted a now deleted inflammatory tweet comparing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Hitler. That tweet was sent on February 17th, 2022. Elon Musk cheekily compared the democratically elected leader of Canada to a Genocidal Anti-Semitic, Murderous dictator. Right wing & right wing adjacent heard the clarion call & praised him enthusiastically.

He also had a very telling tweet almost a month earlier praising the Truckers. In normal times the occupation or storming of a Capital city would’ve been frowned upon, but we are not in normal times. Little did we know that as these tweets were shared by Elon Musk and retweeted by others in the public eye he was already buying up hundreds of thousands of twitter shares on a daily basis. Three days after the Freedom Truck Convoy converged on Ottawa, January 27th 2022, Elon Musk started his bid to invest in twitter.

He bought a minimum of 300k+ daily while simultaneously dipping his toes in a foreign domestic crisis. Local Politicians, public figures and agitators also took part in this toxic stew. One such individual is the CEO of Rumble, Chris Pavlovski. The company that’s responsible for hosting Donald Trump’s ‘Truth Social’ social media platform. Mr. Pavloski tweeted to Elon Musk on March 28th, 2022. “You can’t save twitter @elonmusk. The bias and censorship culture within the staff is pervasive and everyone knows it. You need a company with the right culture and with the right mission, so it will never waiver on keeping the internet free. It needs to be built from the bottom.”

It’s uncertain if the relationship between Elon & Chris is a mutual agitator admiration society or something more substantial but on April 4th at 4pm Elon Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder with a 73.5 Million share worth $3 Billion. Mr. Pavlovski’s tweets eluding to Musk’s inability to save twitter was before the news broke publicly. Mr. Pavlovski also shares an affinity with Elon Musk for supposed free speech absolutism.

Another entity who had a part to play in the Ottawa Occupation was Rebel Media. An Independent Canadian media platform that files litigation against journalists and critics who speak against  their style of journalism and inaccurate reporting of the events surrounding the Illegal occupation in Ottawa. This Canadian outlier has high praise from Mr. Pavlovski as he continues to encourage Elon Musk to join him at Rumble.

Another alarming opinion from Mr. Musk is the fact that on March 5th, 2022, he stated that “Starlink has been told by some governments (not Ukraine) to block Russian news sources. We will not do so unless at gunpoint. Sorry to be a free speech absolutist.” Many social media platforms have been trying to crack down on Russian misinformation & propaganda circulating about the war in Ukraine, the murders, torture, kidnapping and reasons Russia invaded Ukraine in the first place.

To see Mr. Musk, who now wants to be implicitly involved with the running of Twitter, a privilege not endowed onto other shareholders or board members, should concern us all. Duly noted is also the fact that Musk made a $43+ Billion offer to buy Twitter on April 14th, 2022. From my own personal experience over the past 7 years I’ve seen a definite shift in the tone & tenor of how we speak to & about one another. The pejorative labels & personal attacks taking precedent over diplomacy, grace & understanding. I do not see Elon Musk making the conditions on twitter better, but worse.

As a Canadian, before the advent of the ‘Freedom Convoy’, the only public figure that dared to speak with derogatory rhetoric was Maxime Bernier, the founder & leader of the People’s Party of Canada. Who skated those fine lines between ‘patriotic’ or ‘nationalist’ rhetoric and being anti-immigrant. The PPP, along with the interim leader of the second largest political party of Canada, Progressive Conservative Party, Candice Bergen, also supported the ‘Freedom convoy’ publicly.

When the Prime Minister enacted the Emergency Measures Act to clear the Ottawa Occupation, all the angst built up over the course of the pandemic came to a head. PM Justin Trudeau was called a dictator & the attacks for his removal shifted into high gear with US politicians, Political organizations & other public figures chiming in that he’s a danger for people’s freedoms. Since that time there have been numerous participants and organizers facing serious consequences. Truck & automobile licenses suspended, bank accounts frozen, organizers arrested, FB groups & YT accounts suspended.

Though the convoy organizers, participants & converted were quick to dismiss that the origins of the movement were rooted in the white replacement ideology. The conflation of Covid vaccine measures as anti-freedom, genocidal, an affront to people’s medical & religious freedom were not very hard to achieve as the science, data & government policies were not cohesive nor were they always consistent. That is what happens with a morphing, breathing viral contagion.

It is still a confusing time for many & it seems like those who profess their love of freedoms neglect to mention that there are millions of people who are immunocompromised and also deserving of their freedoms. We come back full circle to the importance of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, TikTok & IG doing the right thing when it comes to ‘free speech’ as it intersects with public safety.

Just because you can say it doesn’t mean that you should. Words matter and apathy shouldn’t be an option unless we want history to be repeated. In my humble opinion the illegal occupation in Ottawa was meant to be a distraction and deflection tactic for coming events in Ukraine. There are no absolutes in life but there are also no coincidences when it comes to psyops and the ways they’d explore to be disruptive. Keeping us divided, disunited and confused.

A history professor at Flagler College in St. Augustine Florida, J. Michael Butler who’s seminar was cancelled due to false alarmism about ‘Critical Race Theory’ concerns is a great example. Though his seminar had nothing to do with CRT. A theory taught in Law Schools and isn’t a part of elementary or high school teachings. It’s been weaponized by the far right. Any literature, academic lessons or articles addressing diversity and inclusion, BIPOC or LGBTQIA2+ initiatives are banned or flagged as an affront to children’s spiritual growth and education.

Authors & supporters excoriated, doxed and cyber attacked. This approach, enthusiastically championed by Christopher F. Rufo, Senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute. Professor Butler said it best: “There’s a climate of fear, an atmosphere created…that has blurred the lines between scared and opportunistic. The victims of this censorship are history and the truth.” People like Elon Musk would have us believe that calling out propaganda is tantamount to censoring their free speech. He wants to be taken at his word, lest we forget about the promise made to Flint residents to fix their water in February of 2018. Last I checked Flint, Michigan still has a water crisis.

But I see something else on the horizon. I see a powder keg – war like ecosystem.

A survival of the fittest. Cyber hunger games. Forcing good trouble makers & empaths off of social media platforms like Twitter & Facebook. Giving disruptive grifters free reign. Our response: Fight for our space on social media platforms. Fight for all the great things they have to offer. Keep reporting repeat offenders who incite hate, isms and peddle in pejorative misinformation. Fight like our lives depended on it. Because they do.

Update: It is November 5th, 2022. Elon Musk is officially the ‘Chief Twit’. He has fired more than half twitter staff without notice. He also wants to charge people $8 a month to receive and maintain their verified blue tick. There is a mass exodus but unfortunately the alternatives do not have the layout & traffic to compete with twitter as it stands. Time will tell who will stay, how they make their presence felt in the sea of toxicity that’s sure to follow.

#ElonMusk #Twitter #Facebook #Rumble #ChristopherFRufo #CRT #FreedomConvoy #CyberWars #Democracy #FreeSpeech #BIPOC #2SLGBTQIA+

by Nadia B. aka @CaraZenTales