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I know it's not popular but I like the fact that he's annoyed and did something about it.
by rednerrus 5y ago
I know it's not popular but I like the fact that he's annoyed and did something about it.
- jdrc 5y agoI sympathize but very rich people owning the media never ends well
- ariedro 5y agoBecause that wasn't happening in the first place?
- jdrc 5y agoThe comparable cases are Bezos & Zuck, the parallel is Berlusconi. Yes it's all scary
- Loughla 5y agoWhat does that matter? The original question was: >I sympathize but very rich people owning the media never ends well How does the history of the ultra-wealthy controlling the narrative in media for their own gain change that statement?
- memish 5y agoWho owns the media and big tech now??? It's not poor people! At least Elon Musk is a very rich person who believes in free speech. Which is good for us poors. Twitter and the national discourse will be objectively better for working class voices as a result. Less so for the gatekeepers and media elite commentariat.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- shmde 5y ago> At least Elon Musk is a very rich person who believes in free speech. Yes thats exactly why he was willing to shell out 50,000$ to a kid to remove his flight tracking bot. Stop licking his boot.
- sixQuarks 5y agoOh wow, what a great example. You have totally changed my mind. /s
- memish 5y agoNice projection. Who is licking the boots here? 1. Those who back authoritarian style censorship conducted in opaque fashion 2. Those who back free speech and transparency
- dlp211 5y agoYes, I too can't wait for the entire internet to be 4chan. There is no such thing as absolute free speech and I have no idea where you all are coming up with this idea. By definition, absolute free speech cannot exist because your speech ends where mine begins. Free speech does not mean free from moderation or consequences and criticisms, both are forms of speech themselves. There is no authoritarian censorship going on here.
- krapp 5y ago>There is no such thing as absolute free speech and I have no idea where you all are coming up with this idea. As with so many plagues on American society and current political discourse, this came from Trump supporters, specifically angry at being banned from social media platforms for hate speech and disinformation, and suddenly deciding that rules and social consequences for their behavior were a violation of their civil rights. The attempt to redefine free speech is part of a movement to impugn social media platforms as engaging in widespread politically motivated suppression of free speech, with the implication they need to be forced by law to host the kind of content they would otherwise refuse to.
- 5y ago
- rplnt 5y ago> At least Elon Musk is a very rich person who believes in free speech. He believes in his free speech. Maybe. Definitely not when it comes to people who work for him or people that criticize him.
- psyc 5y agoIf you believe every free speech proponent secretly means speech they like, you may be projecting. To be fair, I may also be projecting.
- sillysaurusx 5y agoWhat evidence is there of this? Honestly this thread has been pushing me more towards the Musk camp, which I didn't think was possible. But not one person seems to be able to point to specific, concrete criticisms with references.
- rplnt 5y agoI mean, it's covered enough in media. e.g.: https://www.businessinsider.com/free-speech-absolutist-elon-musk-censors-employees-critics-2022-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/free-speech-absolutist-elon-... His reactions towards criticism (like harassing or banning journalist criticizing Tesla, or that whole fiasco with his submarine) are always well covered too. And while it's not exactly suppressing free speech, that level of pettiness doesn't look too good. Also, how is this pushing you towards the Musk camp? (The fact that there's such thing, and there is, is troubling on its own)
- rc_mob 5y agoElon Musk definitely does not believe in free speech that criticizes Elon Musk.
- jesushax 5y ago[flagged]
- chollida1 5y ago> At least Elon Musk is a very rich person who believes in free speech Tell that to the people who released valid short research on Tesla.
- jpadkins 5y agoisn't by definition that very rich people own the media? Or was there a time period where the media wasn't very profitable and the people who owned them weren't very rich?
- jdrc 5y agoi think not. before bezos, elon and zuck they were not owned by the richest-of-the-rich.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- paxys 5y agoDoesn't hurt that him buying 10% of Twitter is equivalent to the average person buying a new computer.
- manquer 5y ago4 billion is still a lot of money even for him. Also liquid assets for investment are harder for people that rich so still likely a major decision. Either he used proceeds from last year stock sales or he leveraged some Tesla stock for this .
- dlp211 5y agoCan we stop with this fiction. Billionaires can easily liquidate their equity assets and do so regularly.
- manquer 5y agoI am not saying it is a lot of risk for him. I am saying moving that kind of money is a major operation. Twitter trading volumes are not so high that anyone can just come in make a 4 billion buy order . Acquiring 10% stock of any public company without upsetting the price to much takes time and effort [1] It is not some whimsical impluse buy, no matter how much money he has , this was calculated buy he must have considered for a while. Jack Dorsey stepping down probably helped him to decide to make a move, a hostile founder CEO can make it ugly. Especially somebody like Jack who has another very high value startup and doesn't derive his wealth from just Twitter can make it expensive and ugly if he choose to. [1]- unless someone is selling you a block trade outside of the market. No institutional investors have left or reduced their stake that much in the last quarter so Elon couldn't have used this route
- colinmhayes 5y ago$4 billion is a lot of money. Having a lot of money doesn't change the amount of stuff $4billion can buy.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kache_ 5y agoHe's not popular on hacker news. He's definitely popular
- dnissley 5y agoThe word we're searching for here is "divisive"
- rc_mob 5y agoI was hoping "unpopular" would be the word we used
- deltarholamda 5y agoThe people I agree with are visionaries. The people I disagree with are divisive.
- ollien 5y agoI know the point you're trying to make, but I can't imagine that even the largest Elon Musk fanboys would disagree that he's divisive. At best, I can imagine them saying it's not his fault and people overreact, but that's still recognition of the divisiveness.
- deltarholamda 5y agoWhy is Elon described as divisive? Because it sounds bad. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was never described as divisive, though she was objectively more divisive than a rich guy who makes cars and rocket ships and flamethrowers. Antonin Scalia was described as divisive, so the argument can't be made that SC justices are somehow different. It's a rhetorical trick that's been used for many decades. It's obvious, and it's tiresome.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dnissley 5y ago
- johnla 5y agoCan't argue that he puts his money where his mouth is. He's just not just a passive critic.
- dalbasal 5y agoI don't think this counts as "done something about it." At least not yet.
- breadbreadbread 5y ago"doing something about it" is a privilege awarded by wealth, not competency. He could have installed someone with experience in free speech advocacy and policy but he took it for himself. People need to seriously understand that being good at one thing doesnt make you good at all things. There are people who dedicate their entire careers to understanding the challenges of enacting "free speech" (which is often more complicated than just "no moderation"). Elon Musk not that, he is the guy with 5 companies who is mad that people dont like him.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]