The Babylon Bee

 

Readers of the Bee,   Over the past couple of weeks, major brands like Apple and Disney have been pulling their ads from X (formerly Twitter) in an effort to try and pressure the platform into doing their bidding. Why? There are two primary reasons: Because they hate freedom, and because they can. The first reason doesn't require much elaboration. Of course they hate freedom. These corporations are infected with the woke mind virus. It just goes without saying that they'll try to silence and destroy anyone who challenges their flimsy, farcical worldview.   The second reason is about money and power. Their bottomless budgets give them complete control over companies like X. If they don't like something X is doing, all they have to do is threaten to withhold their spend. They don't have to actually cripple X; they merely need to remind X that they could if they wanted to. This tactic works without fail. No one in their right mind has ever told a company like Disney to take their mountain of money somewhere else.   Until now.   I'm sure most of you have seen the viral clip of Elon Musk telling a New York Times reporter that he won't be bullied or coerced by these advertisers, no matter how big their budgets are. Using language I won't repeat here, he basically told Disney and friends to get lost and never come back. He said he doesn't want their money if they're going to use it to try and blackmail him.   It was a powerful moment.   Arrogant advertisers thought they could raise the price of speaking freely so high that even Elon Musk wouldn't be willing to pay it. But they were wrong. There are things that matter more than money to people with principles.   And that's the key to winning this fight — we have to stop caring what freedom might cost us. At one point we gave up our Twitter account because we refused to censor ourselves. That was a costly decision, but it was the right thing to do. And Musk is doing the right thing now, knowing full well it could end up crippling his company. We can't stand by and let that happen.   Recently we'd pledged $250k to an advertising campaign on X. I'm doubling that pledge to $500k. It's the max that we can afford, but it's the least we can do. Others are joining us with substantial commitments, including Tim Pool and the Daily Wire. Even more impactful are the small contributions from thousands of individuals who are signing up for X Premium. We urge you to join them.   But the Bee needs your support, too. We'd have long since been crippled by censorship if it weren't for our subscribers. If you love our content and our cause, please consider signing up for a Premium Membership. With your help, we'll never have to stop writing jokes (or fighting for the right to tell them).   As always, thank you for your readership and support.

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Seth Dillon CEO | The Babylon Bee

PO Box 546, Jupiter, FL 33468