“Projection is the process of displacing one’s feelings onto a different person, animal, or object. The term is most commonly used to describe defensive projection—attributing one’s own unacceptable urges to another.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/projection

Projection is one of Freud’s Ego Defense Mechanisms. It may be a way to explain the plain hypocrisy we see coming from Leftists at the moment in regard to Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout. They accuse Musk of being “an evil billionaire,” who wants to promote harmful people and ideas, or who seeks to use Twitter to serve his own political interests (ie. not theirs). This is precisely what Twitter has, in fact, been doing for many years, and what Musk promises to free it from.

It is clear to anyone on the Right, or anyone who espouses biblical values that technology platforms like Twitter (formerly, I hope), Facebook, and YouTube regularly censor opinions with which the Left disagrees. They define the terms, with the result that those who are censored or banned are made to appear in the wrong. Terms like “community guidelines,” and “hate speech” are employed as the means of derogating disliked opinions and ideas. This, as opposed to presenting a competing idea, formulating a reasonable argument, or merely ignoring what they disagree with.

Elon Musk has probably done more to alleviate climate change than any other human alive. Millions of Teslas are on the streets emitting no carbon and using no fossil fuels. Climate Change (formerly Global Warming) is an area the Left feels very strongly about. Musk should be their hero (and he was for awhile). Wrong. He doesn’t tow the Leftist line in every area. He believes in free speech, free enterprise, and is more of a libertarian politically. Now, the man who should be lauded by the Left as a hero is called “evil.” 

Maybe it’s not projection after all. Perhaps there is a more nefarious, Marxist agenda at work here. Marxists lie. They accuse their opponents of doing what they are actually doing. In the present case they accuse Musk (who has done nothing yet) of manipulating Twitter for his own purposes. And that is what they have in fact been doing all along. This kind of rhetoric shifts attention from what they are doing to what they want the public to believe their opponents (real or imagined) are doing. Leftists are significantly (some entirely) influenced by Marx. All they want is to achieve and maintain power. They seek to gain control over the population, and that starts by controlling the message, the narrative. Social media has become a formidable medium for thought control. Social media platforms censor, de-prioritize, ban and shadow ban. You think you’re seeing what others post, but the algorithms used by Facebook and Twitter favor certain ideas above others. In fact, Facebook has an AI that scours every post and actively censors what it has been programmed to consider outside the “community guidelines.”

I have a personal example of Facebook censorship. I rarely make political posts nowadays. However, I do like to joke around on occasion when replying to friends. So, there was a post getting passed around about a year ago that asked, “If someone broke into your house and looked on top of your refrigerator, what would they find?” I replied that the intruder would likely be shot! Well, that’s a possibility, but really I don’t shoot first and ask questions later. I was joking. There is no intruder. It’s a silly hypothetical to get people to reply, as I did, humorously. Facebook’s AI stepped in immediately and deleted my post, determining that I’d violated community guidelines. I was given a WARNING. Several months later a friend who is an actress posted a clip to Facebook from a movie she just made. Apparently the movie is a Western. In the scene my friend is in a cowboy slaps her character hard several times. It looked realistic. She’s a good actress! I replied to the posted clip with the statement: “Throat punch that cowboy!” Facebook AI stepped in again and removed the post. Then I was banned from posting on Facebook for 24 hours, banned from posting to any groups (even my own I believe) for three days. Further, the warning reminder has come up several times when I’ve loaded Facebook on my phone. This is like being in Junior High. The teacher overhears a comment, and without context jumps in and dishes out the consequences. Ridiculous. Childish. However, this is what is happening on these platforms regularly, and not just in regard to petty “offenses” like mine.

Facebook and Twitter have been also been censoring whatever they deem “misinformation.” They have teams of “independent fact checkers,” who review comments and label them. Who are these “fact checkers;” what is their education or qualification? They hide in the shadows and lay down the law. “YOU’RE WRONG! Independent Fact Checkers say so.” Remember COVID 19? Much of the so-called “misinformation” has proven to be factual, but we weren’t permitted to post anything that disagreed with Fauci and the WHO. This covers everything from the source of the virus to the effectiveness of masking and lockdowns. We the people must be able to discuss these important issues, debate them, and make up our own minds. We can think for ourselves, can’t we? Not according to the Leftist censors of Silicon Valley.

Now, Elon Musk has taken a great risk and spent a significant amount of his own money to set Twitter free, hopefully making it a genuine haven for discussion and debate without censorship. Musk posted: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” Let us hope and pray that Mr. Musk makes good on his word and commitment. He seems to be a principled person, which is more than may be said for the Leftist pundits who are projecting their own evil motives on the billionaire entrepreneur.