I’ve said this before, but gosh, it seems I have no choice but to say it again.
Elon Musk is a child. A petulant, spoiled, snot-nosed child. I don’t know if money did that to him, a privileged background, a top-shelf engineering brilliance, or whatever, but the fact remains that the man is a world-class dick of adolescent proportions.
The latest proof of this is his threat to sue independent researchers who found, through their impartial studies, that Twitter, or X as it’s now called, is extremely tolerant of hate speech directed at a number of targets, but primarily anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ.
Musk, the self-proclaimed champion of freedom of speech, will have none of it, and has threatened to sue the Center For Countering Digital Hate for, as he claims, attempting to drive advertisers away from X, once known as Twitter before Musk bought the place and and started swinging his wrecking ball.
It should be noted that, in fairness, advertisers were fleeing Twitter at break-neck speed already, and even before the report from the CCDH, so I’m not sure why the invective directed towards this non-profit, but then again, Musk answers email requests for comment with a poop emoji, so there you go.
The defender of speech can’t stand the criticism. It’s his achilles heel, really, and he goes absolutely sideways when anyone has the temerity to question his decisions, comments, or dubious business practices. Although he’s probably not capable of feeling stupid, he still rankles anytime someone points out how much money he’s losing on the whole Twitter thing, money he began losing the moment he bought the joint for about $20 billion more than it was worth in the first place. So maybe he’s a little sensitive about that, and all the other ridicule that’s come his way ever since, what with the paid subscriptions, the validation check marks, the reinstatement of abhorrent personalities to the platform, the employee-bashing and firings, and the generally haphazard ad-hoc approach to the business.
So sensitive, in fact, that Elon can’t even play by his own rules. He’s not the defender of free speech, he’s the defender of free hate speech.
Some people have theorized that Musk is so clever that he’s doing all this to endear himself to followers of one Donald J. Trump. And so, why would he do that?
It seems Tesla sales have really gone gangbusters in the liberal/elite demographic, but that market has tapped-out until government subsidies make electric vehicles more affordable to the dwindling middle class. So, as the theory goes, maybe he’s taking aim at a new demographic, hard-right Republican conspiracy theorists with money, the people who I guess Mike from My Pillows was hoping to attract to his pillows.
If true, it doesn’t make him any better, but actually makes him morally worse, if such is even possible. He is worthy of being a villain in a Mike Myers comedy.
I’ve never been on Twitter, and have no plans for X. I can’t afford a Tesla, and have no plans to be a space tourist. My internet is fine, so I don’t need StarLink. And I hope Ukraine prevails over Russia, unlike Elon himself. So he and I breathe different air.
I may have less money, but I have better air.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 