Leftists do love to use labels for everyone – especially the people they don’t like. Racist, of course, is one of their favorites. They assume calling someone this will shame the person into silence. Fascist is another label they throw around with abandon, and they have even tried to redefine what it means. However, fascism has a defining characteristic, and it is one the modern left in the United States has placed at the very center of its political strategy. Twitter’s new CEO recently got a taste of it for himself when he dared take a swipe at Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) on the social media platform. He certainly brought out the left’s penchant for tyranny with an efficiently small number of words.
After purchasing the social media platform, Elon Musk quickly rolled out a new system for Twitter users to acquire the coveted (in some circles) blue checkmark. It used to be that these badges, designed to show that the user was verified, went out to politicians, celebrities, athletes, and other well-known and influential figures. Musk decided that everyone should be able to get “verified” for a monthly fee of $8.
Some of the existing blue checkmark users were upset. Their elite club had been thrown open to the unwashed masses. Oh, the humanity! However, the new idea quickly ran into a problem when people began impersonating members of the I’m More Famous Than You and Therefore Superior Club. Markey fell victim to the scheme – although why anyone would want to impersonate him was not clear.
It soon became clear, though. A reporter from a well-known left-wing Washington newspaper created an account that impersonated the senator – and obtained a blue checkmark for it. Since Musk had the unmitigated gall to suggest that free speech was a rather good idea and censorship was not conducive to an open society, the left has gone after him hard. How dare anyone think that people can just express their opinions willy-nilly? Thus, the reporter in question was obviously trying to make a point – and score a point against Twitter’s new owner.
To be fair, the reporter’s little ruse did indeed highlight an obvious issue with the new subscription service. Clearly, there is a need for stricter verification of users. Twitter has already put the feature on ice for the time being. However, skullduggery was afoot.
Markey wrote a letter of complaint to Musk and then posted that letter to his own Twitter account. But the fact that the senator did not go after the journalist in question, Geoffrey Fowler, or the newspaper for which he writes seemed odd. And Fowler soon admitted that he had Markey’s permission to set up the fake account.
Watch It, Your Tyranny Is Showing
What has all this to do with fascism and tyranny? When the senator posted his phony complaint on Twitter, demanding an explanation of “how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” Musk himself tweeted the answer: “Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?” Remember, Markey knew “how this happened.” He allowed it to happen – willingly. Musk wasn’t done, though. In his Twitter profile picture, Markey is wearing a mask. The Twitter boss asked, “And why does your [profile picture] have a mask!?”
Ed Markey (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Take Back the Court Action Fund)
In response to Musk’s comment about the parody account, Markey replied, “One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online. Fix your companies. Or Congress will.”
“Fix your companies. Or Congress will.” That’s where the fascism comes in. A government official threatening a private company is textbook fascism. Communists nationalize private industry; fascists bully it into doing the bidding of the regime. Both systems rely on tyranny, but the methodology is different.
A left-wing activist organization, People for Bernie, also shot out a warning to Musk: “Probably not a great idea to troll a high ranking Senator with a history of taking down rich people who just so happens to sit on multiple committees which regulate your businesses the day after his party retakes the Chamber.” This tweet was accompanied by a list of the subcommittees on which Markey sits.
A journalist who works for MSNBC and Politico, Sam Stein, also chimed in with, “Always risky to attack members of congress. Especially risky with Dems assured of Senate power. Curious play by Musk here. He has many interests before Congress.” He took a lot of flak for that comment.
Many other lefties jumped into the fray, also sending the same message that Markey, People for Bernie, and Stein had conveyed. That message, in no uncertain terms, is: Criticize elected Democrat officials and they can – and should – use their power to crush you.
Is this the new world Democrats have ushered in with their unexpected success in the midterm elections? Is the left now no longer even hiding the fact that it believes government power should be wielded like a weapon against those with whom it does not agree? For a bunch of people who love to call their political opponents fascists, they sound an awful lot like fascists. For a group that constantly associates the political right with tyranny, they are sounding more and more like tyrants.
