You won't believe what Elon Musk says he found in a closet at the Twitter HQ

Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, in his words, 'to make the platform better'. The complaint from many in the US, especially those leaning on the conservative side of the political spectrum, was that Twitter is a biased social media company. The charge was that Twitter selectively polices the speech of people who are conservative whilst giving free rein to people who are leftists. 

Conservatives alleged that Twitter HQ is filled with people who are "woke" and they do not apply Twitter's rules and regulations in an even-handed manner but in a biased manner. Before Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the company insisted that Twitter is run by professionals and they do not let their personal political bias come in the way of their job. Now, Musk is going around in the Twitter HQ to see what he finds in Twitter's proverbial and literal closet.

What Musk found in a closet at Twitter?

Elon Musk came across a closet at the company HQ, that keeps all the company merch. He discovered t-shirts and hoodies that say "stay woke". So, apparently, people in Twitter HQ had merch that indicates that people who worked there were quite proud of the fact that they were "woke". Inside the four walls of the company, they wore their political identity on their sleeves, well, on their chest to be precise. And when conservatives in America claimed that Twitter employees were "woke", senior executives of Twitter just as Vijaya Gadde, said that the allegations of conservatives are not true. Conservative political commentators have categorised her statements as "gaslighting", which is term kids use to describe a scenario where the person lying accuses others of lying or a person being abusive accuses others of being abusive. 

What does "woke" even mean?

Musk thought the information he came across was too good and decided to make it public, by uploading a video on his Twitter account. Now, the question that arises is what does being "woke" even mean? The proper English word is "awakened", and "woke" is a made-up word. It is a word that people in America, especially upper-class, college-educated whites use, to describe their political worldview. The underlying rationale is that they are "aware" of historical injustices whilst others are sleeping. In other words, if someone's views on social norms, political ideology, and interpretation of history, differ from theirs, it is not merely a difference of opinion but an indication that these people who disagree with them are "less moral". The American psychologist Jonathan Haidt of NYU (who himself is left-leaning) has written how in the absence of religion, politics has become a form of religion in American society.