WhatsappBen Shapiro’s analysis of corporate America changing radically in the last decade is right on. Business people used to read the Wall Street Journal and steer away from political controversy. They were interested in market share and profitability. They were less interested in political machinations. If they were involved politically, it was not via there businesses. They kept the workings of their businesses and their political activities separate. This has all changed recently with the largest social media and tech companies.
What has occurred is that the largest hi-tech social media companies have amassed so much wealth and power so rapidly that they have little interest any longer in market value. Companies like Twitter and Facebook have so much market penetration that they would rather lose 10% of their market share and gain more influence on things like the Presidential elections. This would have been unthinkable for a company in the 60’s or the 70’s.
But today, there is a boomerang effect occurring. That is natural in the United States, where freedom of expression is such a deeply held right. Once people with so much wealth, like Elon Musk, understand that even their freedom of speech is threatened, they have the resources available to make seismic shifts in the tech companies via their own investments.
These are not clearly right-wing or left-wing investments, but they are clearly ideological in nature. It is about buying influence – in order to save the freedom of speech in America and the world. This is just the beginning. There may be more investments of this kind in the future. Nobody wants to be shut up, especially billionaires with strong opinions on many things in the world.
