The flawed political arguments of the petty-left bourgeoisie about the Twitter case  

A shameful position

The left is bestowing imperialism more power to censor and control the internet 

The purchase of Twitter by the billionaire Elon Musk for $44 billion, becoming its majority partner and announcing that it will close the company’s capital, has generated uneasiness in the dominant sectors of imperialism. These capitalists were confronted by Musk’s announcement that he will turn Twitter into a network committed to the freedom of speech. 

The event also revealed once more the political and emotional dependence of the petty-left-bourgeoisie. Politics dependence because the left is oriented by the bourgeoisie and emotional because at this point it seems that this left is dominated from within by imperialism to the point of making decisions that directly hurt its own interest and that go against the very tradition of struggle of the left. 

In this sense, sectors of the petty left bourgeoisie reacted with horror to the purchase of Twitter, presenting the same arguments of imperialism to justify its position. 

The defence of freedom of expression, for example, has become, in the limited mind of the petty left bourgeoisie, a fascist position. According to this logic, fascism suddenly became a defender of democratic freedoms and the left would be a supporter of censorship. 

Elon Musk, a right-wing billionaire, said one of his goals purchasing Twitter was to make it an uncensored network. The far right, including Bolsonaro supporters in Brazil, celebrated the operation. Therefore, according to the logic of this left with the brain dominated by imperialism, we should criticize the purchase as being something negative for the majority of the people. Is it? Of course not. 

Behind Musk’s acquisition are undoubtedly the interests of part of international capitalists who are fighting the dominant sectors of imperialists. It is, of course, a dispute within the bourgeoisie but this conclusion is not so simple. 

The lack of a deeper analysis from the petty left bourgeoisie prevents it to understand the fundamental problems of the political situation. 

The free speech right is now claimed by the far-right for particular reasons. The censorship and cancellation policy pushed by the imperialism hit in the first place the far-right. They generally represent the minority portion of the capitalists, the clearest example in this case is Donald Trump. As they have less influence over traditional media monopolies, these sectors have taken up space on social networks, first of all, Twitter. The most powerful sector of the imperialism became aware about the ability of mobilization of these social networks and started a campaign, using identity ideology as a way to justify the censorship. They, in reality, are trying to regain total control over people’s thinking. To fight against the censorship, the far -right began to defend freedom of expression, although guided by specific interests, it is indeed important for them at this time. To this end, the far right has adopted a demagogic policy for the defence of freedoms. 

This contradiction between different sectors of capitalists should be seen by the left as a gift. If there were no such contradictions, the left would long ago be completely banned from the internet. It is precisely the struggle between these sectors of capitalists that allows imperialism not to have the strength to completely shut down social networks. 

But the left, completely dominated by the pro-imperialist right, was horrified by Elon Musk’s purchase. An article in Forum magazine, for example, says that Twitter “must become the extremists haven.” The level of incapacity of political reasoning is shameful. What would Forum Magazine call extremists? This word is used by the imperialism to put left and far- right in the same basket, it is a manoeuvre to push what they call the moderate into people’s conscience. But in fact, the moderate is someone in accordance with the establishment, like their beloved Emmanuel Macron. It is the international “third way,” “no polarization, no extremism”. But what Forum Magazine means is that Twitter will be full of far-right people. But what’s the point of that? If it is because Elon Musk is a billionaire scammer his plan for Twitter is not much different from the previous damage, if it is because there will be more freedom of expression, since he will not censor both right ideas neither left, the idea of Forum Magazine is even more absurd, because it considers that the far right is the true defender of this right. 

Such idea can only come from the heads of people who are very ignorant about politics and are totally dominated by imperialist ideology. 

The newspaper Brasil de Fato follows the same line of Forum Magazine, explaining that the operation of buying Twitter by Musk is bad, because it will help the far-right. This, however, is a very limited way of looking at the problem. Surely the operation aims to benefit the far-right and minority sectors of capitalists, but as we said, if Musk fulfils even in part his promise to liberalize Twitter as a whole-, the left only tends to gain from it. 

The Daily Left, in its internet newspaper, the MRT group merely asserts the obvious: Musk is a “reactionary bourgeois who has supported the coup d’état in Bolivia.” 

So far, the overwhelming majority of the international bourgeoisie supported the coup in Bolivia, Brazil, Ukraine and we could name hundreds here. But accusing someone of bourgeois and reactionary is not enough to analyse what is happening in politics. Again, we hear a depoliticized position about the problem. 

The position of the petty left bourgeoisie is leading to an informal alliance with the most important sector of the imperialism. It is important to understand that precisely because this sector is the most powerful it is also the most dangerous for workers. The left, instead of applauding the bourgeoisie contradictions, wants to give even more power to imperialism to censor and control the internet. 

Writing of the DCO 

Published on: 29/04/22 – 00:00 

Issue no. 6724 – Friday – 29/04/2022 

https://www.causaoperaria.org.br/rede/dco/opiniao/polemica/a-despolitizacao-da-esquerda-pequeno-burguesa-no-caso-twitter/

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