Turkey’s election tests Twitter’s commitment to free speech

Plus: Climate myths, ghost kitchens and more. Bloomberg This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a hall pass to spew Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - A [Turkish election]( update. - A [climate myth]( debunked. - A [ghost kitchen]( eulogy. - A [Second Amendment]( clarification. Oh, Erdogan So! Turkey is headed for [a runoff election]( on May 28, and Elon Musk asked if Matthew Yglesias’s brain fell out of his head. Let’s talk about that: Quick disclaimer: Matthew is [a columnist]( for Bloomberg Opinion. In the above [exchange]( on Twitter, he called attention to [free-speech savior]( Musk’s decision to censor some content leading up to the Turkish elections on Sunday. Musk replied with: “Did your brain fall out of your head, Yglesias?”[1](#footnote-1) [Musk’s stance on censorship appears to have shifted](, and successful [attempts to remove content]( on Twitter have risen under his leadership. The Turkish government has its grip on [90% of national media]( outlets. Now, the bird app’s ability to be [a neutral arbiter of election information]( is under intense scrutiny. Sunday’s election produced no clear victor, so there will be a runoff between incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan and opposition challenger [Kemal Kilicdaroglu](. Bobby Ghosh says the Turkish president is probably feeling optimistic about his chances since many of the votes given to the third-ranked candidate will likely go to him instead. “If he pulls it off, this victory will be the most remarkable of Erdogan’s long career, coming against the most serious challenges he has ever faced,” Bobby writes. Many investors [were hoping that Erdogan would lose]( so that Turkey could escape from his truly bizarre economic policies. Throughout his tenure, Erdogan has worked “his way through several central bank presidents and treasury ministers, to ensure with inflation approaching 20% that Turkey would cut its target rates just as everyone else was entering into a hiking cycle,” John Authers writes. Now, the economy looks like this: [That is not the chart]( of someone who took Econ 101. And [the Turkish economy]( isn’t the only thing that’s mired in nonsensical thinking. Erdogan spent years trying to [debilitate]( the NGOs that his government called on to help with [the twin earthquake disasters]( earlier this year. And leading up to the election, he “announced [a slew of handouts]( to appease voters, attacked the opposition as soft on terrorism and [accused the West of plotting against him](,” Bobby writes. Even if Erdogan wins the runoff, his status within his own country — and internationally — looks anything but stable. Read [the whole thing](. Lions and Tigers and Whales, Oh My A lot of people think about climate conservation efforts in absolute terms: Paper is better than plastic. Trees can prevent pollution. Whales can absolve our carbon sins. Et cetera. But our relationship with the planet requires a far more nuanced approach than simply, “Trees good, plastic bad.” Think about the first example: Paper beats plastic. In recent years, a lot of brand names have switched to paper in an effort to show customers that they are climate-conscious: But “most of these paper solutions focus on what happens to a package after it’s thrown into a waste or recycling bin. But end-of-life isn’t — and shouldn’t be — the most important sustainability benchmark,” Adam Minter writes. In many cases, [paper packaging can be more harmful than plastic](. Milk cartons, for example, emit 20% more greenhouse gasses than plastic jugs. We adopt a similar black-and-white attitude toward animal conservation. At first glance, any effort to save wildlife looks good — especially when population decline is taken into account: Not so fast, says Mark Gongloff: [A recent plan to treat whale populations as counterweights to pollution]( is not what it’s cracked up to be. Economists are essentially arguing that we can do with whales what we’ve done with trees: I plant one tree and it “cancels out” X amount of carbon emissions. I save one whale and … well, you get the picture. But carbon offsets oversimplify things. Although whales are great at storing carbon (even [in death](), they do not exist for the sole purpose of appearing in the ESG section of a corporation’s quarterly report. Whale populations are looking healthier, what with [the decline of commercial whaling](, but that shouldn’t give us a hall pass to spew “carbon pollution into the atmosphere, heating the planet and wreaking havoc on the very ocean systems on which whales and other sea life depend,” Mark writes. There are better ways to preserve nature, Lara Williams notes. Consider African lions: There are fewer than 25,000 remaining in the wild. “One big threat is human-wildlife conflict. Lacking other food sources, lions prey upon livestock. Locals, having lost a source of income and food, often kill the big cats in retaliation,” she writes. At first, it might be tempting to get angry at the locals. But instead of alienating them, an organization in Northern Kenya has found a way [to partner with those responsible for the killings]( so that they can avoid clashes with the big cats in the future. It’s a holistic, sustainable model that is far superior to projects such as whale-based carbon storage. The Ghost Kitchens Got Ghosted “GHOST. KITCHEN.” Honestly I imagine that some dude found those two words buried in his notes app during the early days of quarantine and decided OK, sure, let’s do that. For a time, it felt like stealth “[ghost kitchens](” were everywhere and nowhere. [Made-up companies]( operated within the walls of [Chuck E. Cheese]( and [Red Robin](, selling customers a myth: that this food was made out of thin air, like [some sort of air-fryer magic trick](. But the whole thing kinda [freaked]( people out, and now [ghost kitchens have all but died](: “Turns out people never really stopped going to drive-thrus and missed dining out while in quarantine,” Leticia Miranda writes. Although drive-thrus are imperfect (see: [barista abduction](, [Taco Bell DUIs]( and [the dead body they found inside Arby’s](), fast-food restaurant traffic has returned to pre-Covid levels. Just the other day, [a Kansas McDonald’](s broke the record for the most cars driving through a drive-thru in an hour. They managed to serve 356 cars, or one car every 10 seconds. Ghost kitchens could never! Telltale Charts Please bookmark [this Noah Feldman column]( for the next time a relative tells you that the Second Amendment gives people a constitutional right to own a military-grade semiautomatic rifle. That law applies only applies to weapons that normal people carry on an ordinary basis for self-defense. You don’t see people putting hand grenades in their purses or driving small tanks to work in the name of self defense— that would seem absurd. And so, the Supreme Court would be wise to rule that “AR-15s do not belong in the same category as handguns. They are weapons of war,” Noah writes. It’s springtime, which must mean that [SPAC Silly Season is back](. Chris Bryant says VinFast, “a cash-burning Vietnamese electric-vehicle manufacturer,” is attempting to go public in the US with a SPAC that “would make it the third-largest such transaction in history.” Chris says the $27 billion valuation looks as rocky as its US vehicles, which experienced heavy delivery [delays]( earlier this year. Further Reading Using the 14th Amendment [to ignore the debt ceiling]( would be catastrophic. — Bloomberg’s editorial board In Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin is repeating [Napoleon's big mistake](. — Hal Brands Meta managed to mostly [escape the grip]( of Europe’s data regulators. — Parmy Olson Warren Buffett can teach billionaire bankers a thing or two about [deposit insurance](. — Paul J. Davies Check with the boss before taking [too much initiative]( at work. — Sarah Green Carmichael Could [AI help restore social trust](, rather than furthering its collapse? — Tyler Cowen ICYMI The FBI got called out for [the 2016 Russia probe](. WFH is proliferating [daytime drinking and drug use](. US [credit card debt]( is showing signs of weakness. Kickers To padlock or not to padlock [milk at the office](, that is the question. Weird, innit? That Gen Zers [love faking British accents](? Area professor [lives underwater]( for 74 days. (h/t Mark Gilbert) The [AI sandwich quiz]( of your dreams. (h/t Mike Nizza) Notes: Please send The Jessica sandwich and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. [1] Reader, his brain remains very much inside his head. Follow Us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](