5 ms·
> This is ironic if you consider all the complaining that Musk does in the public sphere about "freedom of speech" (I know that the first amendment only applies
by tshaddox 4y ago
> This is ironic if you consider all the complaining that Musk does in the public sphere about "freedom of speech" (I know that the first amendment only applies to government censorship, but Musk likes to pretend not to)
It’s not ironic or remotely unexpected if you’ve taken notice of any of his actual actions involving freedom of speech.
- e40 4y agoElon is the type of person where action and words tell a very different story. In that way, it's expected. It's still ironic as hell, given his words.
- elmomle 4y agoI would say he (and other billionaires like Thiel) is immature in a very classical sense: he goes through the world like a child without appreciation for how difficult it was to create a society in which everybody could (say) engage in discourse safely; he sees some flaws in the system and thinks that because he is a special person and he saw what he thinks is a flaw he is entitled to pull it apart. But there is no methodical improvement being proposed. People like this are simply destroying the work of their forebears (of creating a stable pluralistic society) for personal benefit. It is not the behavior of responsible humans, much less leaders.
- frumper 4y agoWhat does it mean to engage in discourse safely?
- camjohnson26 4y agoYou don’t get tortured for criticizing the current administration for one.
- frumper 4y agoIs that something you see as a danger because of Elon taking over Twitter?
- _djo_ 4y agoFor Twitter users in other countries? Yes. Twitter had been the best of the social media companies (though still not perfect) at resisting subpoenas and other measures from the US government as well as authoritarian countries, but all the personnel involved in that have been fired. Twitter's legal and human rights teams were more valuable than is commonly understood.
- innocentoldguy 4y agoI don't know if this is necessarily true. There are plenty of people sitting in federal prison for criticizing Biden's legitimacy and his policies. I'd consider that torturous if I was in that situation.
- frumper 4y agoThey're in prison for actions they took, not voicing criticism.
- camjohnson26 4y agoAnd calling that “torture” is abusing language. The US did it in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay and it was a massive scandal because it’s against our values. Torture and executions happen routinely in some countries with no consequences or reporting.
- innocentoldguy 4y agoWhat actions were those? Protesting? Isn't that criticism?
- frumper 4y agoA vast majority of protestors aren’t in jail. Entering the Capitol building and attacking police officers are two actions that caused many of the hundreds to be put in jail.
- elmomle 4y agoAs just one example, not intended to be partisan: the elderly husband of the Speaker of the House was violently attacked and a sizable portion of the country either tacitly or openly endorses it. That is not a safe society. And it's very, very well-documented by now that social media in which violent / hate speech are not moderated are a key factor driving the increase in political violence and extremism. For people in positions of great power to ignore the complexity of what's happening to society, and to lean on populist (and reductive/misleading) arguments about censorship and freedom of speech for personal gain, comes across as either unintelligent or profoundly irresponsible.
- frumper 4y agoNancy, or Paul, Pelosi weren’t even engaged in any discourse on twitter with his attacker. It sounds like you’re saying in order for discourse to be safe, people with power over communication needs to regulate other people on our behalf? The big question is how do they decide? We do have some laws about direct threats, spam, fraud and negligence, but I’m not sure where your definition fits in. It seems like it is extremely difficult to get right and very easy to get wrong.
- vkou 4y agoIt's not particularly ironic if you just set as your prior that he is being dishonest, unless there is clear third-party proof otherwise.
- ChildOfChaos 4y agoIt's starting to feel like Musk is playing this political game to me. Pretending he is championing the little guy, that he/twitter/everyone is somehow being repressed and they/he is fighting against it. His recent tweet on how 'activists' are the cause of twitters recent revenue drop for example. Even with the blue check marks, he is framing it as it being open to all and the little guy taking the power back, all you have to do is pay him $8 a month for it. Viva la revolution indeed! It feels like social engineering to me and the same game that has been played very successfully in division politics.
- mmustapic 4y agoIt is quite common for some kinds of politics (you can deduce which ones) to create an enemy of the common people from thin air, and use it to justify your actions.
- jcbrand 4y agoThis happens on both sides of the spectrum. For the left the common enemy is often greedy exploitative capitalists. For the right it's often socialists and/or communists.
- yehCuz 4y agoElon is heavily dependent on politicians keeping taxes low for billionaires, and policy that pushes NASA and other government agencies to hire private companies. Crony capitalism it’s called colloquially. Marc Andreesen was tweeting a few months about the pressure from DC to curtail behavior that the politicians felt was undermining them. Around the time Powell began raising rates, memes in finance changed to “save”, banks raised rates on savings accounts to get people to park cash they can leverage rather than get free cash from Powell they can leverage. Pulling cash out of the economy means fewer lattes and avocado toasts; being a bit glib, but those are the workers most likely to be hurt long term. So yeah it’s basically division politics. The only reason it works like this is because of memory this is how it works. NPR reporter literally just said employers offering higher and higher wages is what’s creating inflation, and they want unemployment to go up to bring inflation down. Manufacturing consent by repeating “truth”. Behavioral economics runs the country. Politicians prefer behaviors like fealty to politically correct traditions. They are protecting the net worth class based system that keeps them from growing potatoes and determines which families thrive or die.
- PragmaticPulp 4y agoEverything Musk does in the public sphere is a performance. He's putting on a show, and the show is always crafted according to whatever he thinks will sway the public in the direction he wants them to go.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- 93po 4y agoThis is a really tired take since it's not something that could possibly ever be known by you or anyone else not immediately close to Elon, and it's impossible for anyone else to refute it because they have the exact same lack of insight into whether Elon is putting on a performance every time he leaves the house.
- lrvick 4y agoThe dude ran around saying he is a founder of Tesla which is provably false. He is no stranger to making things up to craft the image he needs.
- 93po 4y agoTesla was worth, at most, a few million dollars when Elon became their largest investor. They had no products. They had no sales. He turned a $2 million company into a $700 billion company, but he's not the founder because he wasn't in the paperwork for the first year of its existence in which very little happened? Ok. Additionally, a settlement was reached to literally call himself a founder. At this point it's boring semantics of what "founder" means. But go ahead and keep trying and failing to poke holes to push your unfounded narrative.
- lupire 4y ago"He paid someone to not dispute his lie" is not the defense you seem to think it is.