6 ms·

There's no excuse for sexual harassment, public sexual humiliation. This kind of behavior is unacceptable, let alone from the CEO of a company like Tesla. We'

There's no excuse for sexual harassment, public sexual humiliation. This kind of behavior is unacceptable, let alone from the CEO of a company like Tesla. We're talking about a CEO who intentionally smeared the reputation of another man by publicly insinuating that the man was a pedophile. It's beyond the pale. You should ask yourself, "Why am I defending the sexually degrading behavior of Tesla's CEO?"

hellojesus 5y ago
To me it reads more like a mixture between normal man-to-man chatter (aka, locker room talk) and someone who's grown up on the internet and imbues its dialect. Most of his comments are typical of netspeak. While it's definitely not professional, I have trouble finding it appalling and quite often get a good chuckle out of it.
- 37ef_ced3 5y ago
  It sounds like you would be a good culture-fit at Tesla.
  - pmarreck 5y ago
    I definitely would be. But that's no argument for or against something. You can either be expected to defend yourself or you can expect rules and other people to do it for you (not implying a dichotomy fallacy, it's a gradient), I'm definitely squarely in the "stop whining and defend yourself" generation (perhaps call it "hazing").
floor2 5y ago
Assuming you are actually asking the question in good faith about why people would defend speech you dislike, here's a possible explanation. Your personal values, sensitivities and comfort zone are not universal. You placing a label like "humiliation" on speech doesn't make that interpretation universally agreed upon, in the same way that someone labeling criticism of the Thai royalty or the prophet Mohamed as unacceptable speech may not be something you would agree with. The internet brings in incredibly diverse viewpoints. Some people would censor referring to Taiwan as separate from China. Some people would censor stating that humans evolved from apes. Some people would censor sexual comments. To be clear, I'm not defending Musk's comments. I'm trying to get more people to recognize that subjective assessments of what is offensive are deeply culturally and individually biased, and someone having different taboos or 'drawing the line' in a different place on the same taboo doesn't make them objectively bad or wrong.
- pmarreck 5y ago
  Upvoted because this seems like a perfectly rational comment even though you're getting hammered
oceanplexian 5y ago
It’s his company, and he should be able to run it whatever way he wants so long as it is within the bounds of the law. If people have a problem with that the legal system is the correct avenue to address it, not trial by Twitter mob.
- 37ef_ced3 5y ago
  Yes, the legal system. Tesla is being sued. Did you read the article, or not?
  - pmarreck 5y ago
    It was a single person (per the article). It's not like Musk personally harassed this person. And if your org gets big enough, you will eventually inadvertently acquire a few sketchy apples (probably because their work is at least good).
pmarreck 5y ago
> publicly insinuating that the man was a pedophile A person who started it by telling him to "stick his submarine where it hurts". A person who also was known to visit, alone, countries that are known for freewheeling sexual tourism. Sometimes it's hard to take the high road: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/16/elon-musk-defamation-lawsuit-pedo-guy-tweet-diver https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/16/elon-musk... > "Why am I defending the sexually degrading behavior of Tesla's CEO?" Call me Gen-X, but this was standard locker-room talk in my world

hellojesus 5y ago

To me it reads more like a mixture between normal man-to-man chatter (aka, locker room talk) and someone who's grown up on the internet and imbues its dialect. Most of his comments are typical of netspeak. While it's definitely not professional, I have trouble finding it appalling and quite often get a good chuckle out of it.

37ef_ced3 5y ago
It sounds like you would be a good culture-fit at Tesla.
- pmarreck 5y ago
  I definitely would be. But that's no argument for or against something. You can either be expected to defend yourself or you can expect rules and other people to do it for you (not implying a dichotomy fallacy, it's a gradient), I'm definitely squarely in the "stop whining and defend yourself" generation (perhaps call it "hazing").

floor2 5y ago

Assuming you are actually asking the question in good faith about why people would defend speech you dislike, here's a possible explanation. Your personal values, sensitivities and comfort zone are not universal. You placing a label like "humiliation" on speech doesn't make that interpretation universally agreed upon, in the same way that someone labeling criticism of the Thai royalty or the prophet Mohamed as unacceptable speech may not be something you would agree with. The internet brings in incredibly diverse viewpoints. Some people would censor referring to Taiwan as separate from China. Some people would censor stating that humans evolved from apes. Some people would censor sexual comments. To be clear, I'm not defending Musk's comments. I'm trying to get more people to recognize that subjective assessments of what is offensive are deeply culturally and individually biased, and someone having different taboos or 'drawing the line' in a different place on the same taboo doesn't make them objectively bad or wrong.

pmarreck 5y ago
Upvoted because this seems like a perfectly rational comment even though you're getting hammered

oceanplexian 5y ago

It’s his company, and he should be able to run it whatever way he wants so long as it is within the bounds of the law. If people have a problem with that the legal system is the correct avenue to address it, not trial by Twitter mob.

37ef_ced3 5y ago
Yes, the legal system. Tesla is being sued. Did you read the article, or not?
- pmarreck 5y ago
  It was a single person (per the article). It's not like Musk personally harassed this person. And if your org gets big enough, you will eventually inadvertently acquire a few sketchy apples (probably because their work is at least good).

pmarreck 5y ago

> publicly insinuating that the man was a pedophile A person who started it by telling him to "stick his submarine where it hurts". A person who also was known to visit, alone, countries that are known for freewheeling sexual tourism. Sometimes it's hard to take the high road: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/16/elon-musk-defamation-lawsuit-pedo-guy-tweet-diver https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/16/elon-musk... > "Why am I defending the sexually degrading behavior of Tesla's CEO?" Call me Gen-X, but this was standard locker-room talk in my world