That's the way he says it: "If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising — blackmail me with money...."
An alternative line reading would be "If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising — blackmail me with money...."
An idea that is always there but I don't think he ever stresses is: Don't you understand how rich I am and what it means to me to be this rich?
Makes me think of "Citizen Kane" (who laughs off losing money and can publish his newspaper at a big loss for 60 years):
AND:
4:48: "I have no problem with being hated. Hate away!... It's a real weakness to want to be liked. I don't have that."
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159 comments:
I have always been suspicious of Elon's ulterior motives, but at least the guy is consistent. At least Elon fights clown world as much as he's contributed to it. Under the current circumstances, beggars can't be choosers.
As Lincoln said of Grant, "I can't spare this man. He fights."
No use having F.U. money if you don't say "F.U." every once in a while.
It’s called fuck you money for a reason…
Elon is one of the greatest legal immigrants in US history.
What a champion! Love this guy.
The Left wants to destroy him.
Wondering if Tesla shareholders or the Board will try to fire him. I suspect he has that legally covered.
Thanks for the Citizen Kane clip. I'd forgotten that.
I reject any attempt at ‘rich guy throwing his weight around’. Leadership of publicly traded companies have one major obligation and it isn’t helping Democrats get elected with desperate flailing to control speech….
Free speech, free anything for that matter, is incompatible with the business of making money.
Yes - to all Woke democrat corruption supporting weak corporate whore woke a-holes who kiss Crook Merrick's ass- Go F yourselves - indeed.
The nation's top cop is a mobster and lying liar who lies.
The nation's top cop is a fraud and fascist.
Does Trump want to be liked?
There's something else going on here, and I don't think I'm the first person to notice. America's advertising economy has always been fake and gay, but at the highest level it presents a serious method of social control.
The big corporate advertising budgets are less about getting anyone to buy something - as if 99% of Americans have any functional business with Lockheed Martin or General Electric - and more about A) 'primacy of place' among their competition and B) social control. Especially social control of public conversations that could affect the political landscape that could harm their bottom line.
It should be clear by now that for a lot of these big big companies, their biggest customer, client, and partner IS the US government. Enforcing social control that keeps voters dumb and keeps them voting against their best interests and in the company's best interests is their entire bottom line. The last thing they want is an elected official at any level that would stop the gravy train of support for those that are Too Big Too Fail.
Althouse:
That's the way he says it: "If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising — blackmail me with money...."
An alternative line reading would be "If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising — blackmail me with money...."
Only in print and only if one purposely shifts the emphases in the sentence. There are no vocal stresses on the words 'me', the vocal stresses are on 'advertising' and 'money'.
I would have transitioned with an ellipsis and concluded with a grinning emoticon. A bit selfiesh, but to each their own in the age of fluid grammar.
Seems like he wants to be liked. Just weird whom he wants to he liked by.
John Goodman explains F*** you.
Fuck you money. It's a thing - just like JK Rowling...
I could only get thru a small part of that. so far. Andrew Sorkin is a obvious leftist brat. (cookie cutter narrative - hivemind variety)
Even by the ordinary standards of prog BS, the anti-Elon antisemitism smear is especially dishonest and egregious, considering that the one tweet that triggered it had a clear nonantisemitic rationale and that some of the attacks come from people eager to do Hamas' bidding. As Elon well realizes, in his case as in many others, the issue is not the issue. It's just another prog assault on another primary target, BAMN.
If one factors into their decision-making what others think of them, then they will miscalculate the risk/reward for their decisions. In life one doesn't get what one deserves; rather they get the results from their choices. To make informed choices stop caring about what people think of you.
Disney was struck by an explosive right wing backlash. I think Musk is warning these people that rising Republican anger can damage their products and reputations and can strike without warning. Why become a part of the culture wars when you can so easily sit them out?
Love that clip of Citizen Kane. One of my favorite scenes, along with the dance hall number and this little bit by Bernstein:
A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl."
Blackmail... black male... obvious diversitist intent. What say you, NAACP? He's African-American, a person of color (i.e. not albino). Is extortion a viable choice? Paint it black and red.
Don't miss right before the 14:04 mark.
Sorkin: "You think the public is going to boycott Disney?"
Musk: "They already are."
lol lol lol.
so true. So true. Disney is for woke losers now.
people eager to do Hamas' bidding
Celebrate the tools of the terrorist trade: murder, rape, torture, abduction with "benefits". Take a knee...
explosive right wing
Libertarian? Democracy - capital, not politics - in action.
Sorkin: "A lot of folks called me up and said, "Are you really going to host Elon Musk here? Should you platform him?"
Why didn't Sorkin say, Go fuck yourself to these people is what I want to know?
Everyone KEEPS saying things like: "Oh! Much is So Stupid! WHY did he even buy that company?"
musk was legally required to buy twitter.. Which (after looking at) he had NO DESIRE to own
REMEMBER? they had to SUE him to Force him to purchase the company?
That being the case.. He will NEVER get that money back; he was forced to buy it for FAR MORE than it was worse (REMEMBER?). That being the case..
He can do what ever he wants with the piece of crap that they Forced him to buy
Final Serious Questions:
How much is X losing a year?
How does That money compare to what twitter lost a year?
IS X losing money? Will it continue to ?
Final Final Serious Question: How much money did disney streaming lose this year?
"Don't miss right before the 14:04 mark.
Sorkin: "You think the public is going to boycott Disney?"
Musk: "They already are."
It's so much worse than people think. Disney is getting rolled. They are losing billions. It reminds me of how the left’s boycott of a song made it a #1 hit, while the right’s boycott of a beer made the company lose $30 billion and counting.
Reagan and others are so right. The great silent majority of unspoken people WHO WORK FOR A FUCKING LIVING INSTEAD OF PROTESTING FOR HALF THEIR WAKING LIFE are a massive force of power in this country that unified shakes the earth.
We need to exercise that anger, it is totally and completely justified.
"The whole world will know the advertisers killed the company” ~ Elon Musk
Classic projection of something he rejects in himself onto others. Jung would probably suggest he work on his ego a little.
The egg timer on Twitter/X's demise seems to be running out of sand.
Very sad and needless destruction of a platform that some people derived value from.
Good job by the former board on calling Musk on his bluff and securing the ridiculously high sale price that he offered.
Ride Space Mountain - that.
9:22.
Some people just can't tolerate an uppity African-American.
It’s good to be the richest man in the world.
Of course all the usual suspects are outraged.
One of the greatest patriots of the WORLD in our generation, maybe ever.
Readering: "Seems like he wants to be liked. Just weird whom he wants to he liked by."
Musk wants to be liked and supported by individuals that support free speech and oppose government authoritarians joining with corporate platforms in a textbook fascistic attempt to control the fiow of all information in support of leftist woke-think.
readering, as a New Soviet Democratical, doesn't like that one bit.
All the masks are off now.
As long as he keeps launching rockets into space I don’t care much about any of the things he says.
I'm reminded of Norm MacDonald and an interview he did years ago where he was asked why his comedy was so polarizing. He said it was because elite/wealthy people "hated middle-class values with a passion." That off-the-cuff-bordering-on-obscene comedy he was famous for is firmly entrenched in the earthy truthfulness derived from the middle class.
There's so much of that going on here with our freedom of speech crisis, X, and other forums. Middle class values are temperate. They're far more moderate than people think they are. They're derived from a kind of earthy sensibility that laughs at everyone's and one's own foibles, including the wealthy, and for the wealthy that is simply not acceptable.
The wealthy hate being told to "fuck off". They hate hate hate being laughed at. It is rare someone from their own cohort echoes such sentiment...no wonder their gobstruck.
Mock the wealthy and this is what happens to you. Mock the elite every chance you get. They deserve it.
The last 2 Disney movies haven’t even made back the money used to market them. Musk is being too kind telling Iger to quit spending money.
"Why become a part of the culture wars when you can so easily sit them out?"
I think these advertisers would suggest Elon has made advertising on X as joining one side of the culture war, explicitly so here and elsewhere.
They are sitting it out by staying off X
RideSpaceMountain at 9:22 a.m.:
+10000000000
Via XTwitter: Russel Brand asks if Elons defiance is the rallying cry all free speech movement followers have been waiting for.
When I learned about free speech I remember it being characterized in unequivocal terms.
So when I heard Elon characterize it in those familiar terms, I’m not surprised. I’m actually relieved.
Is Elon saying that to garner sympathy, support maybe?
People use cancer that way and I don’t see anybody condemning them for doing that.
Well at least Musk is over the target. Iger and Disney have some real problems and they are due for a good shellacking after the company's venture in full blown wokeness.
Taking your kid to a Disney movie used to be a treat. These days it's child abuse.
Going to a Disney theme park used to be relatively affordable--these days it's highway robbery.
Iger's tactics are the product of his weakness. He can't function at Disney without the support of the progressives. He has to do stuff like this to give him room to maneuver.
The only way for him to nudge Disney back toward the more profitable center is to give the progs the occasional meaningless win.
I haven’t seen Citizen Kane in years. It’s time.
You don't have to be rich to have "Fuck you" money. Just spend less than you earn and have enough saved up for 6 months or so without working.
And having "Fuck you" money often means not having to say it. Most employers can sense your independence and if you have value to them they won't want to risk losing you. Similarily, many employers can sense if you really need the job and some will exploit that.
one of the biggest jerks of the world. Ugh. Conservatives love him. he is their poster boy. He is tacky, disgusting, and, more than he will ever admit, wrong about so much.
Vicki from Pasadena
As Bud Light and the Dixie Chicks proved, in America you’re free to say whatever the hell you want, and those who pay your bills are free to respond accordingly. Elon Musk has chosen to purchase a $54 billion company and run it as a nonprofit now worth perhaps one-eighth what he paid for it. He is free to do so. What I don’t understand is why he gets huffy about the consequences of his choices.
Fuck you money doesn't always work when it's your government that's willing and able to persecute you through lawfare or flat-out steal it from you.
So glad Elon is around to fight this crap.
The corrupt left get endless chances IF they screw up with verbal gaffes.
If you are not a loyal leftist - (loyal to the corrupt Obedient Tribe) - you get ONE chance - then the Neo-Maoist left condemn you, and ruin your life.
That is where the "Fuck you" comes from. I concur. Dear corrupt left - FUCK YOU. You are all liars and Stalinists and a-holes.
*fixed.
One of the major difficulties Trillian experienced in her relationship with Zaphod was learning to distinguish between him pretending to be stupid just to get people off their guard, pretending to be stupid because he couldn't be bothered to think and wanted someone else to do it for him, pretending to be outrageously stupid to hide the fact that he actually didn’t understand what was going on, and really being genuinely stupid. He was renowned for being amazingly clever and quite clearly was so—but not all the time, which obviously worried him, hence, the act. He preferred people to be puzzled rather than contemptuous.
Douglas Adams, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
It seems odd, to me, to see a free market, free speech zealot outraged at other people’s free decisions.
The left hate free speech. It's that simple.
HATE.
why they make good neo-Castro-ists.
It's a great attitude that most people can't pull off.
My boys have that. Don't give two fucks what anything thinks of them.
They will either do well or not.
I find it admirable...
The left's meltdown over Musk and X is over one topic: censorship. It's edifying. They cannot stand other people saying and hearing things they disagree with.
'Elon is one of the greatest legal immigrants in US history.'
And the greatest African American in history...
The thing is The Washington Post, The New York times are literally doing the Citizen Kane thing. They are not so much losing money as spending money to make sure the proper narrative is put out in the form of respectable news.
Hollywood including Disney has been pushing unpopular narratives and losing money. But even total bomb movies now exist and will be streaming or broadcast somewhere forever.
"I haven’t seen Citizen Kane in years. It’s time."
Pre enormous parody, 'We will sell no wine before its time' Wells was a mesmerizing actor.
Incredible voice...
Readering writes, "Seems like he wants to be liked..."
Musk doesn't want to be liked by you, or anyone else who seeks to look good while doing evil.
Examine your own soul, Readering. It's much closer and it answers all questions.
Here’s another reason why some people might just love to hear Elon talk that way.
Big brand marketing executive via YouTube: “The whackadoodles, the cult members, the Fox News Snorters, there’s not that much we can do about them in the short term,” says longtime marketing executive Deb Lavoy“
link to video
When I was a teacher in our local public schools, one of the most important words was "appropriate"--along with its negation: "not appropriate". You don't tell a student they are doing something wrong or bad or ... You say their language or activity is "not appropriate". Which generally gets a quick "Sorry". They are well-trained.
I think one reason a lot of people like Musk (and Trump) is that they are perceived as saying, "I don't care if it's not appropriate. I'm going to tell the truth, or speak up for you, anyway."
The MSM, as represented here by Sorkin, is pretending as usual that this business with Elon is happening in a vacuum.
Look at all the government censorship efforts they aren't talking about, much bigger stories, like this CTI League story being covered by Taibbi and Shellenberger right now. All of this stuff is coming out on X and not in the MSM. That's what this is really about.
They're threatening Musk with what they most fear, being branded a racist and cast into the outer darkness. They're doing it to try to gain control over his platform so they can gain control over all of us. They absolutely should be told to go fuck themselves.
Sorkin, on behalf of greater Progressivism, is sitting there in his prestigious chair on his prestigious stage calling Elon Musk on the carpet over a couple of lousy tweets that the MSM made a big deal out of. I'd like to see Sorkin called on the carpet for being part of covering up the real story. When he's alone with his thoughts, does Sorkin really believe he is one of the good guys?
OK:
Young leftists everywhere openly showcasing their Jew-Hate (disguising it as so-called "anti-Zionism") and showcasing their approval for Hamas - the remnants of The Muslim Brotherhood who demand a return to an Islamic Caliphate, and will never accept a two-state solution for the Palestinians. (So the Palestinians can live in peace)
Not OK:
Musk tweeting something dumb - then apologizing for it.
Elon is wildly full of courage to say the right things. He wins the Trial Lawyer of the Year award.
"Fuck you money doesn't always work when it's your government that's willing and able to persecute you through lawfare or flat-out steal it from you."
No one has fuck you money the way the government has fuck you money. It is literally your money, and they fuck you with it. The tech/corp/govt alliance is essentially a panopticon anarcho-capitalist hellscape using your own resources to control you. Fuck these people straight to hell.
Part of what Musk may be saying is that they need to advertise on X more than he needs their advertising money. If it didn’t matter where they advertised, they would just do it in leftist venues like NYT, WaPo, etc. Turns out though that much of, for example, Disney’s target audience has no interest in reading or watching those venues. Moreover, advertising very often has a rapidly decaying rate of return - very often doubling advertising somewhere often doesn’t result in double the resulting sales. To maximize their rate of return on their advertising often requires carefully spreading out where they invest their advertising dollars. This is something I learned in Business School most of a half century ago, and marketing was at the bottom of my interests back then. It’s something beats into most MBAs who didn’t go to top tier, woke, B Schools. It’s part of “target marketing”. You advertise where and when your target market can see your advertising.
Musk can, of course, afford for X to implode. That’s part of having epic FU money. But that isn’t apparently happening. It’s just changed its own target market - to a potentially larger one, not limited to leftist drones (remember what was said about FNC - that their market was similar, but they had it to themselves). Moreover, Musk got a lot of wiggle room by cutting out the non revenue generating censoring staff, when he fired maybe half of X’s employees, while retaining the ones necessary to keeping the co,Panay operating. That was $Billions$ in staffing costs that X no longer needs to spend every year, for near zero return on investment.
Dumb Lefty Mark: "I think these advertisers would suggest Elon has made advertising on X as joining one side of the culture war, explicitly so here and elsewhere.
They are sitting it out by staying off X"
LOLxInfinity
Oh right! Disney and Comcast and all the rest of the heavily Blackrock/Vanguard (biggest investment pushers of the culture wars and ESG/DEI) backed lefty media firms are just simple business folk trying to avoid those darn culture wars!
This might just be, and I'm going out on a limb here, the most transparently dumb thing you've ever written.
And now that we know corrupt DC Judge Beryl Howard in DC allowed Jack Smith to get a warrant to secretly gather metadata on ALL twitter/X users that followed/liked/retweeted etc Trump social media accounts thru the improper DC grand jury arrangement (should have been the Florida grand jury and not secret) and Elon knows all about these shenanigans amongst many others, it appears Elon has decided to come down hard on freedom of expression and full opposition to fascistic tactics (govt/woke business corruption) as well as the continued pressure from the far left wokies holding the purse strings at the major investment houses and their corporate minions.
Good for him for telling them where to go.
And now Musk has in place the foundational pieces at X to begin a much more aggressive shift to the future revenue models which will deemphasize advertizer revenue and maximize alternative revenue streams, including the synergistic overlap with xAI and Tesla Optimus.
"Go. Fuck. Yourself."
The difference, between the rich and the rest of us, is the repercussions.
Lem the artificially intelligent said...
"Free speech, free anything for that matter, is incompatible with the business of making money."
Not necessarily, but I'm interested in why you think so.
Sorkin: "You think the public is going to boycott Disney?"
Musk: "They already are."
Yep. They've lost many, many millions on the last five movies and the next two look to bomb as well. The board is having frantic meetings for several reasons, one being the results of their propo piece "The Marvels"; 300M to make and promote, 47M in US sales. Do the math, that's a massive loss.
Lost 2B on their new Star Wars hotel be,cause Kennedy forced it to be based on the series instead of the movies. Now it's closed a tad over a year later.
You want in depth rundown, this guy is on it best and coincidentally, today's vid is about Disney.
Mark said...
"Why become a part of the culture wars when you can so easily sit them out?"
"I think these advertisers would suggest Elon has made advertising on X as joining one side of the culture war, explicitly so here and elsewhere.
They are sitting it out by staying off X"
Do all sides have equal access? I'd think that having access would be an advantage for an advertiser.
Is the advertiser promoting one side of the culture war? As with Budweiser.
victoria: "one of the biggest jerks of the world. Ugh. Conservatives love him. he is their poster boy. He is tacky, disgusting, and, more than he will ever admit, wrong about so much."
Vicki from Pasadena
Elon is not going to shower with his adolescent daughters just to get you psychos to adore him like you do with "Pedo Pete" (Hunter's very own nickname for his very own father who showered with his very own adolescent daughter)....which victoria thinks is not "tacky" or "disgusting" at all.
“Good job by the former board on calling Musk on his bluff and securing the ridiculously high sale price that he offered.”
Not only that — they hired Wachtell to make sure Musk was forced to go through with it…. AND stuck Musk owned X with the $90 million dollar bill.
Those are truly the smartest people in the room.
How much value did Disney lose in 2022 with no clear future vision for recovery? About $180B...(that was 2022 alone)
Who has been the biggest pusher of culture war wokiness at Disney? Iger
Who set his successor (Chapek) up for failure with the institutionalization of wokiness at Disney? Iger
Who has been running around like a chicken with his head cutoff fighting off a Board revolt led by activist investors Peltz and Perlmutter? Iger
Who has been desperately begging Apple to purchase Disney? Iger
But yeah, Musk is the terrible businessman!
“Fuck you money doesn't always work when it's your government that's willing and able to persecute you through lawfare or flat-out steal it from you”
Sure , the left, working with the Deep State, is trying that with Musk. But the government needs him maybe more than he needs them. NASA and the military need his launch capacity and pricing to get payloads into orbit. He is going to end up having launched maybe half the satellites launched this year, and that will likely increase for 2024. And his priority customer is the USG, and esp the military. Yes, the ChiComs, the Ruskies, etc, can put satellites up, but not nearly as quickly or cheaply. Economical Heavy lift is rapidly approaching. Our military and diplomats now realize that his StarLink network is essential for operating in the 3rd world. What about EVs? He’s got them by the balls with his fast charging technology and charging network. Apparently the industry is quickly standardizing on the Tesla standard. Imagine if he starts enforcing his IP on that technology. He is also putting the rest of the EV industry under significant price pressure with Tesla’s recent price cuts. They make money. Most of their competitors never have. We have recently seen companies like Ford radically reduce their EV commitments. What that means is that if they still want EVs, to combat their fake CAGW scam, they are going to make Musk that much richer.
Musk is in the black and motions with a general fluck (sic) you in your general direction. The black rock... Blackrock is unperturbed for they profit whether their investments rise or fall... send me your fees, and your votes, too.
This is not an example of "F*ck You money". It is, as Adam Carolla stated, " F*ck Me money."
The Gatekeepers are losing control. And not a second too soon. When they had control of twitter, they could silence big voices. And little ones too. yeah F them.
Leadership of publicly traded companies have one major obligation and it isn’t helping Democrats get elected with desperate flailing to control speech.
1. X (formerly Twitter) is NOT publicly traded. Musk took it private for this very reason.
2. Perhaps you are referring to the former owners/board who were doing exactly what you say here.
3. The "rich guy throwing around his weight" preamble made it appear you were referring to Musk with the part I excerpted above.
4. I agree with prior comments that have pointed out how reactionary the people are who hate free speech, like Vicki and Rich and every elected Democrat and their appointed hacks like Garland.
Skeptical Voter:
Going to a Disney theme park used to be relatively affordable--these days it's highway robbery.
They jacked up the prices because of the money losses and people are not going because of that and because Disney has replaced princess characters with guys in drag. Seriously, men with distinct facial hair and no attempt to look feminine in gowns pretending to be princesses.
I suspect LLR-democratical Rich is very very upset that Tesla is crushing it right now with cybertruck mass production in full swing with Optimus robotics looking as though it will be an independent breakout segment worth as much or more than Tesla down the road while simultaneously SpaceX is already rolling over Starship Version 1 design to Version 2 (bigger, more capacity, already cycled and improved raptor engines, etc) AND xAI/Grok is already demonstrated to be a better product over the heavily doctored chatGPT "results".
All on top of coming X service offerings this year and next (including banking) that will supplant advertiser revenue as the primary revenue streams.
Meanwhile Boring Company and Neuralink keep quietly percolating along in their own synergistic ways....
In the end, I suspect our lefties will see no other option than the physical removal of Musk after the physical removal of Trump.
He's afraid to interview Squad people.
Wouldnt be prudent.
He might get murdered.
Musk is assuming we are still a nation of laws. If a single NY Judge can take 250 million and his property from Donald Trump for no reason whatsoever and a local Georgia DA can put him in prison on absurd conspiracy charges then it won't matter if Musk has 250 million or 250 billion. He will bend to their will or suffer the consequences.
Bruce Hayden: "Sure , the left, working with the Deep State, is trying that with Musk. But the government needs him maybe more than he needs them. NASA and the military need his launch capacity and pricing to get payloads into orbit. He is going to end up having launched maybe half the satellites launched this year, and that will likely increase for 2024."
By the end of 2023, SpaceX will have been responsible for delivering 80% of all mass delivered to orbit in this calendar year...and Starship isnt even online yet.
LLR-democratical Rich/C****/lonejustice are peeing in their pantaloons just thinking about the economic and economic/military pressure this will put on the Biden's paymasters in Beijing!
Elon is not going to shower with his adolescent daughters just to get you psychos to adore him like you do with "Pedo Pete" (Hunter's very own nickname for his very own father who showered with his very own adolescent daughter)....which victoria thinks is not "tacky" or "disgusting" at all.
Ya what the hell is it with women supporting Biden? You got some splainin’ to do…
FYI: since just February of this year, Disney dumped another $70B in value.
LLR-democratical Rich/C**** and Dumb Lefty Mark must be absolutely mesmorized by the woke-d up business acumen of Team Left at the House of Mouse!
Mark said...
("Why become a part of the culture wars when you can so easily sit them out?"
I think these advertisers would suggest Elon has made advertising on X as joining one side of the culture war, explicitly so here and elsewhere.
They are sitting it out by staying off X)
I think that the advertisers will eventually discover that most of the people that they needed to advertise to were the actual Twitter users who support Musk. You can't have a successful business by constantly shitting on your customers by constantly implying that they are bigots.
And just like that...Nelson Peltz Announces New Proxy War Against Disney's Woke Incompetent Leadership.
Disney is on the verge of not surviving the competency crisis. Maybe Peltz can save it from Iger's incompetence, or maybe it's too late, just like it's too late for bud light-in-the-loafers.
He's done quite a public service. It feels like the whole national conversation has changed with the freer flow of information on Twitter. Ironically, among people I know the conspiracy theory thinking has actually lessened. When you suppress the information and opinions you don't like, everyone assumes you have something to hide.
"The difference, between the rich and the rest of us, is the repercussions."
To a point. It's a big world out there. Most anyone can afford to say, "Go fuck yourself," to quite a few people.
Conservatives love him. he is their poster boy.
Yes. We like people who support free speech. That you hate him so much says more about you than it does about us.
Good for Elon. X does not yet have the same respect for free speech as Gab, but it is improving every day since Musk took over. We are done with the ruling trash hiding reality and telling us what we should think.
There were 40 comments posted on this topic less than 90 minutes after Althouse posted the video. I watched the whole video, which was very informative. I'm glad I did. It was 90 minutes long. So that means that the first 40 comments here were posted from people who never even bothered to watch the video. That's the problem with so many blogs, where people comment without even bothering to watch the video or read the article that the host provides. They see what the topic is, then post their comments based on their previously held opinions on the topic, without even bothering to read or watch what our host is posting. Sad.
It's funny, kind of interesting running down the list of commenters here that interpret this segment as Elon was getting mad because companies pulled their advertising, rather than Elon being outraged by the gall of corporate executives trying to lever him into 'acceptable behavior' patterns, and telling them to hit the road and keep their money. Even when Elon specifically calls out an executive by example, and explicitly responds to the question posed by the interviewer, answering in the most literal way he can imagine.
But no. It's really all about Elon projecting, reallyall about Elon's fast-evaporating wealth, poor-house-bound-any-day-now, what a failure, he's getting desperate. Wow; Two movies on one screen.
What is the demographic of CNN, MSNBC viewers? A Blue slice out of half the country? And Fox news? A similar Red slice I guess, although nobody major advertises there anymore. How about Twitter? Who uses Twitter - and who is capable of delivering content tailored to the user? Did I read somewhere that they keep growing their user base and innovating on their platform? Oh.
Those are truly the smartest people in the room.
Some people, who might not be the smartest person in the room thinks that if s smart person is not perfect in every attempt at everything they must be unintelligent.
I am sure the best chessmaster has lost games to people who were not as highly ranked. the number one ranked golfer has lost matches to lower ranked players. Does that mean these people were improperly ranked?
Must is the number 1 ranked businessman in th3e world by virtue of his entire body or work. Measured by the money he has. Maybe not the best measurement, but when it comes to odds, I'd give the points and take Elon every time.
"It seems odd, to me, to see a free market, free speech zealot outraged at other people’s free decisions."
He's outraged by their dishonesty. How's that incompatible with a free speech ethic?
Rich -
I does not surprise us that dedicated leftists would say something like " free speech zealot"
Elon Musk is an incredibly successful man. I'd like to think he can come up with a more clever way of saying F.U. Bombast seems childish and impotent.
The Crack Emcee @ 12:47
"The difference, between the rich and the rest of us, is the repercussions." Amen!
Anyone know what people have been Tooting about on Mastadaon about this whole Elon debacle? Or what about what people have been spindling on Threads?
"Those are truly the smartest people in the room."
That's Rich!
But what exactly is "blackmail"? The primary meaning is to demand money in exchange for refraining from making something public. Clearly, Musk isn't using the word that way. In fact, he seems to be using it in exactly the opposite sense. He is saying that they want to pay him to refrain from making something public. But he's going to make it public anyway. He is not refusing to be blackmailed. He is refusing to accept blackmail.
John Galt took over airwaves to deliver his speech
so who is going one better on Galt?
Elon or blackmailing advertisers
John Galt took over airwaves to deliver his speech
so who is going one better on Galt?
Elon or blackmailing advertisers
Blogger lonejustice is upset people don't parse information the way he does. Lonejustice is upset that other commenters don't comment the way he does. He is upset that other people may have already watched the video. The information is not valid until Ann Althouse's recommended links are observed in their entirety.
For his sake, let's all stop commenting until he tells us it's okay.
So the left make it obvious that man made climate change is a con. If not why would they hate the one guy who has done ACTUALLY MORE for reducing CO2 than any other human. Discounting frackers.
All lovers of free speech. All republicans who are grateful for Twitter being around as a free speech platform, need to open their wallets and subscribe to X. It is ridiculously cheap for what you are getting, free speech. If you won’t even support that platform against this attack, then shame on you.
And when it goes away, then don’t be whining about it.
“We’re a platform that allows people to make their own decisions” (but not advertisers) ~ Linda Yaccarino X CEO
In trial lawyer jargon, they call that “polishing the turd.” Best example I’ve seen in a while.
“We’re a platform that allows people to make their own decisions” (but not advertisers) ~ Linda Yaccarino X CEO
In trial lawyer jargon, they call that “polishing the turd.” Best example I’ve seen in a while.
There were 40 comments posted on this topic less than 90 minutes after Althouse posted the video. I watched the whole video, which was very informative. I'm glad I did. It was 90 minutes long. So that means that the first 40 comments here were posted from people who never even bothered to watch the video. That's the problem with so many blogs, where people comment without even bothering to watch the video or read the article that the host provides. They see what the topic is, then post their comments based on their previously held opinions on the topic, without even bothering to read or watch what our host is posting. Sad.
Your post is missing any information or insight you gained from watching the video.
So it too is no better than the posts you condemn.
The reality of Elon's tweet is simple & straightforward, as he explains several times. Yet Sorkin obsesses on the noise of the mob.
LLR-democratical lonejustice: "There were 40 comments posted on this topic less than 90 minutes after Althouse posted the video. I watched the whole video, which was very informative. I'm glad I did. It was 90 minutes long. So that means that the first 40 comments here were posted from people who never even bothered to watch the video."
The Musk interview was early on Wed with several Althouse commenters remarking upon Musk's statement yesterday....which was prior to this morning when Althouse published this post.
This is the second or third time you've taken this pathetic tack that people are commenting on an Althouse posting without possibly having had sufficient time to consume some content simply because you are too dense to understand the actual timelines.
What an embarrassment you are to Team LLR-democratical!
Jupiter wrote: But what exactly is "blackmail"?
It simply isn't. Blackmail is illegal. Not doing business with someone because you think they may hurt your own business is not illegal. It is prudent. It's simpler than that: not doing business with someone is not illegal.
Furthermore, advertising is a form of speech. Not speaking if you don't want to is freedom of speech about which Musk is a supposed "absolutist".
Then why is Musk so angry about advertisers deciding that his mismanagement has made the platform toxic? Why even mention the debt load (that he imposed, through his bungled acquisition)? A simple commercial decision over brand risk is obviously not “blackmail”, but Musk definitely sounds rattled about the money.
"Paint it black and red."
Trying to fire up the resident racist?
rehajm,
"Ya what the hell is it with women supporting Biden? You got some splainin’ to do…"
It's simple: he lets them kill their babies.
That interview was way better than the interviews with Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman.
Very uplifting and inspirational for the future of humanity.
The last topic says it all: Amplify empathy. It's the key to mental health for yourself and for what you put into the world.
...and I feel fine
Musk is putting his money where his mouth is. Now it is up to republicans to put theirs where their free speech is. Sign up for at least a basic account on X. The value of having a free speech social media platform is worth WAY more than the small subscription amount.
Also make sure you use the althouse amazon portal, it is easy. Just do it.
Blogger lonejustice said...
There were 40 comments posted on this topic less than 90 minutes after Althouse posted the video. I watched the whole video, which was very informative. I'm glad I did. It was 90 minutes long.
Lighten up Francis. The commentors here are well informed and plugged in to current events. The "go fuck yourself" comment when viral. The 90 minutes is compacted into one phrase.
We're talking about the crux of matters here, which is not an unknown. We've been watching the intricacies of this battle develop for years.
Juptiter writes, "But what exactly is "blackmail"?"
Your definition is far too narrow. Granted, it served the plot of many a detective story, e.g. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, published 1925. However, political blackmail, that is, forced compliance with the demands of a political actor, is a story far older than the word, which is Scots.
Blackmail could be translated into standard English as "black meal". Taking black in its metaphorical connotation and meal meaning processed grain, we have foodstuffs obtained by nefarious means. In Scottish history, powerful clans often extorted virtually any form of material wealth from weaker clans -- precious metals, jewels, land, livestock, weapons, women -- but mostly food, oats particularly. Gi oos half yer crop, or tis broadswords at dawn! The famous Black Watch was originally a highland militia organized to repress and punish blackmail long before it became a British Army regiment attired in that dark blue and green tartan. Unfortunately, three centuries after Culloden, "black meal" persists. Extortion, blackmail, if you like, is the Mafia's stock in trade. No matter what racket they pursue, be it "protecting" a pushcart peddler from spontaneous combustion or gaining an exclusive waste management contract from Costco, blackmail is at the heart of it.
Disney was struck by an explosive right wing backlash. I think Musk is warning these people that rising Republican anger can damage their products and reputations and can strike without warning. Why become a part of the culture wars when you can so easily sit them out?
Under Bob Iger’s leadership — as Chairman of the Board and in his second stint as CEO — Disney has been picking the wrong fights with people who aren’t particularly cowed. That’s because under the leadership of Bob Iger the company has ceased to be Disney except in name.
Musk may not be the only one being blackmailed in all this. I wonder how many of these corporate bosses who are pulling their ads off X are being blackmailed to do so by the state? How many of them does the surveillance state have dirt on? How many have been to Epstein Island?
Very simple, they are trying not to have their products tainted by where Musk is going.
They use advertising to make money, not lose money.
lonejutice said… So that means that the first 40 comments here were posted from people who never even bothered to watch the video.
Did you even pause for 5 seconds to consider that maybe those 40 commenters had seen the video prior to logging into Althouse since it was all over the internet many hours before Ann published here piece? I have read many comment from you over the last several months, and I can confidently say you are one of the biggest shoot from the hip and ask questions later commenters that grace this blog.
What Martin said at 11:37.
OK for Bezos and Steve Jobs' widow to piss away their fortunes (OK, a small fraction of their fortunes) spreading propaganda, but Musk has to make sure he doesn't offend anyone.
Do we think the CEOs pulling ads speak for the majority of their shareholders? Or their customers? Hell, no, they are flexing their political muscles.
lonejustice, if I'm not mistaken, this video was referenced in the last cafe post comment thread. It's possible to come across the subjects of our host's posts on one's own, or elsewhere - though I'll admit Althouse is one of only two blogs I consider Must See TV these days.
What Martin said at 11:37.
OK for Bezos and Steve Jobs' widow to piss away their fortunes (OK, a small fraction of their fortunes) spreading propaganda, but Musk has to make sure he doesn't offend anyone.
Do we think the CEOs pulling ads speak for the majority of their shareholders? Or their customers? Hell, no, they are flexing their political muscles.
Blogger I stand w Isreal. Leftists, Mullahs, Hamas-Palistinian terrorists can suck it said...
"Rich - I does not surprise us that dedicated leftists would say something like " free speech zealot""
Good catch, I missed that.
Then lonejustice toodles in completely unaware that Althouse commenters can and do seek out these sources before they are posted on here. To make such ignorant assumptions really reveals more about his shortcomings than the ones he imagines we have. Leftists are such fools without prewritten talking points.
Go grannie, go grannie, go grannie go!
Citizen Kane !! I was thinking Musk more like Take This Job and Shove It, or one of my favorites --How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, when Wally Womper (that name) schemes to for Finch (Musk) to resign.
I dunno.......I kind of enjoyed the "Hey, Bob!! If you're in the audience."
"But no. It's really all about Elon projecting, reallyall about Elon's fast-evaporating wealth, poor-house-bound-any-day-now, what a failure, he's getting desperate. Wow; Two movies on one screen."
Uh. No. He can afford to X going for many many years. At a loss.
At least Elon has a better grip on the future of Twitter than Drago.
“Actually, what this advertising boycott is going to do is, it’s going to kill the company. And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company, and we will document it in great detail.”
Meanwhile everyone will remember when Elon told his advertisers (aka his big dollar customers) to f off. Users are just AI training data, but except for filling an archive for his AI to train on the advertisers were Twitters cash cow.
What a flaming dumpster fire.
He doesn't want people to like him. He wants them to worship him. Like he does re himself.
I know people who have known him for decades. He's nuts. They say.
"Ironically, among people I know the conspiracy theory thinking has actually lessened. When you suppress the information and opinions you don't like, everyone assumes you have something to hide."
Great science here. STAT 101 would be proud.
Now that Freeman's peeps get a lot more racism and antisemitism and other nuttiness on X, Freeman's peeps no longer worry that their truth (i.e. racism/antisemitism/nuttiness) is being suppressed by the liberuls or the deep state or the woke mind virus or whatever it was that Freeman's conspiracy minded peeps had said was limiting the now rampant racism/antisemitism/nuttiness before Elon was the savior.
Sheesh.
My boys have that. Don't give two fucks what anything thinks of them.
They will either do well or not.
My son has it too, and he's doing very well indeed. He's still in his 20's but getting firmly established in a field where if you make money for the company, you could show up to work in a red MAGA hat for all they care.
He is outspokenly on the far right wing of politics, tall, good looking, and on his way to getting very rich. Leftist women are putty in his hands once they get used to the fact that he does not give even the smallest fuck about their idiotic political opinions, and if that's a dealbreaker for spending time with him, he's fine with that and will instantly kick them to the curb.
@Rich: The egg timer on Twitter/X's demise seems to be running out of sand.
The wish is obviously father to the thought in your case. X seems as lively as ever to me. If a handful of big advertisers pull out, Musk can finance it out of his sofa-cushion money until they come slinking back.
Some people, who might not be the smartest person in the room thinks that if s smart person is not perfect in every attempt at everything they must be unintelligent.
There are two sides of this coin.
I don't have unquestioning respect for people who are accomplished in one narrow field, even supremely accomplished, and demand that we all acknowledge that the halo they wear in their professional capacity should shine also upon all of their crackpot utopian political ideas. I can grant that Einstein's intelligence may never be surpassed, while having nothing but contempt for some of his opinions about how society should be organized. I'm not calling him stupid, I'm just saying that his kind of deep intelligence is not broad, and certainly does not extend from theoretical physics all the way to economics and political history.
At the same time, there are far too many people, particularly on the Left, who think that disagreement with their pet political goals is a reliable marker for stupidity and ignorance. Had a high school reunion not long ago where I was called a "moron" for scoffing at the wilder predictions of the acolytes of catastrophic climate change. This came from the mouth of a woman I know well, and with whom I had many classes from third grade to senior year. I have a very clear comprehension of her intellect. She is a hair stylist who barely scraped through high school and has never differentiated a second-degree polynomial even once in her life. Her entire understanding of the topic comes from what the women on The View say, or what she reads in Cosmo. And I only bring this up in my own defense after being called a moron, but I graduated college magna cum laude with a B.S. in Physics, went to an Ivy League grad school, and hold a doctoral degree in another hard-science field. But I'm the asshole when I point this out....
I have only watched Citizen Kane once, in my teens. Outside of the very famous, incessantly quoted scenes, this is the one that has stuck in my head. And the only part that I remembered was the pause, the smirk, and "sixty years".
So many wealthy people are so foolish with their money; they preserve it and gain more at great (non-monetary) cost to themselves. There is a great deal of wisdom in Kane's smirk; understanding that when you have a lot of something, each bit of it is not important. Musk is right to not give a fuck.
An non-alternative reading would be that huge corporations intend to force you to do what they want for money. And he called it what it was - blackmail. Good for Musk.
Maybe we don't need to clever this one up.
From Rolling Stone:
From 1985-1994, Donald Trump's tax returns reveal that the only real skill possessed by the vaunted real estate mogul was hemorrhaging obscene amounts of money. Trump lost more money than any other American taxpayer over the decade in question: $1.17 billion.
“So the New York Times reports that Trump reported losses on his tax returns of more than $1.1 billion in ten years — more than any American taxpayer,” tweeted Tony Schwartz, who co-authored (and since disavowed) 'The Art of the Deal', the bestseller that was released as Trump started to bleed money in 1987. “Worst businessman ever? Biggest tax cheat? It’s one or the other — and very likely both.”
Hassayamper said...
Some people, who might not be the smartest person in the room thinks that if s smart person is not perfect in every attempt at everything they must be unintelligent.
Come on, Arizona, take off your rainbow shades! This discussion is not about you and your claim to have a second doctorate in "another hard science field" which doesn't show up in your writing skills.
but Musk definitely sounds rattled about the money.
Yep. Whenever I'm 'rattled' about money? When I have more than they do? Much more?
I tell them to go fuck themselves.
It rattles me.
Jealousy is not a good look, Rich.
11/30/23, 4:00 PM ... said it much better than I could've.
Mark said...
You understand that the marketplace works both ways. right? That any advertiser is allowed to play.
You're making the same assumption that anti-Limbaugh activists made when they forced advertisers off his show. They left and others took their place. Advertising is about exposure.
I’m not sure Musk quite understands the concept of “damage control.”
First off, advertisers choosing not to advertise on his platforms is not “blackmail.” It’s actually their free speech right of association not to associate with Musk and his nonsense.
Secondly, I’d be curious to know why Musk is really so cavalier about it, why is he suing Media Matters for its report that he claims to have convinced many advertisers to leave?
Thirdly, is Musk actually admitting that X/Twitter is being “killed” by advertisers leaving the platform? Because for months now, both Musk and his CEO Linda Yaccarino have claimed they are on the verge of profitability. But now he seems to be saying that the company has been “killed” because advertisers exercising their own free speech rights want nothing to do with him.
Fourth, what kind of entitled, out-of-touch brat thinks that advertisers choosing not to give him money is some sort of statement on their culpability? No advertiser owes him money. This is how lots of businesses fail. They don’t make enough revenue. Actively driving away the source of nearly all of your revenue is a choice that Musk made, not something he can blame on the advertisers. When newspapers go under because they couldn’t get enough ad sales, do they blame the advertisers? This all seems like evidence of someone who has never faced an ounce of hardship in his life and the first time he does insists it must be everyone else’s fault rather than his own failings.
Fifth, I’m sure that threatening to send his mob of sheep-like fanboys after advertisers is going to convince them to come back. Masterful gambit.
One last point. How fricking high on your own supply must he be to think that “earth” will “judge” advertisers for “killing X/Twitter” when the only reason they’re leaving is because of the foolish nonsense that Musk, himself is doing?
Lots of great comments here. I’ll just chime in my gratitude for having people like Musk and Trump in our midst, both of whom say what needs to be said, damn the torpedoes.
Responding to good comments by Rusty:
Uh. No. He can afford to X going for many many years. At a loss.
He did the same with Tesla and SpaceX. Is doing the same with Boring. Just SpaceX success alone will keep Musk well-funded, and as it is a private business, he's in great shape there. The US Government can attempt to regulate SpaceX to death, but the US Governments mismanagement at NASA and DoD means SpaceX is their only reliable access to space.
How long can ISS go without SpaceX? How much can US Space Force do with SpaceX? How long would Ukraine last without Starlink?
You're making the same assumption that anti-Limbaugh activists made when they forced advertisers off his show. They left and others took their place. Advertising is about exposure.
It also goes both ways there too. As the advertisers left Limbaugh, his audience left those advertisers. How is Sleep Number doing these days? [looks at stock] It had some success in early 2021 but is trading at half its value when they pulled ads from Limbaugh. "The Sleep Train" and "Carbonite" assets ended up being bought up by other companies with only Carbonite still a brand name of sorts. As noted, other advertisers took their place and Limbaugh seemed to be financially secure when he died.
Dude has 80% of actual EV sales, makes the first truly reusable rockets to dominate the satellite launch industry, has the a more robust and reliable satellite communications network than our own military and yet Rich still tries to give Musk business advice. I guess Boring Company isn’t just the name of a tunneling enterprise.
"You understand that the marketplace works both ways. right?"
I'll be checking Twitter for great opportunities to move my IRA into gold.
The internet yields forth its bounty.
Rich said...
"I’m not sure Musk quite understands the concept of “damage control.”"
Oh. He understands. But he's not a beta male. He didn't get where he is by being a timid beta male,Rich.
Thanks Will Cate at 856.
That was superb.
Blogger gadfly said...
From Rolling Stone:
Rolling Stone is your source of news? Bless your heart.
What kind of “free speech” is it when you drive everyone away? It’s the kind of “free speech” that turns a social media service into a Nazi bar. Given his recent support for the Pizzagate “theory”, I’d say that Musk welcomes that kind of speech more than he welcomes speech that sh*t-talks his right-wing acquaintances and their personal grievances.
Musk and Rusty want ExTwitter to be 4chan, and it’s becoming more 4chan-like every day. And, not shockingly, none of these businesses are interested in advertising on 4chan, which is why they already don’t.
What kind of “free speech” is it when you drive everyone away?
"Everyone?" Get a grip dude. As of last month Big Technology analytics show 13% decline in average daily X (formerly Twitter) user posts. How many of those were bots that Musk has X-cluded via the subscriber requirement? Not clear at this point. But X (formerly Twitter) certainly isn't hemorrhaging business like say the EV market (down 45% in North America) or Disney movie performance ($500 million below expectations) or ESG investments (gone).
Rich said...
Grow a pair.
LLR-democratical Rich/C****: "What kind of “free speech” is it when you drive everyone away?"
LOL
Just phoning it in today I see.
LLR-democratical Rich/C****: "The egg timer on Twitter/X's demise seems to be running out of sand."
LOL
These Little Lefty Brain dolts predicted X wouldn't survive the fall of 2022!
Too funny.
“First off, advertisers choosing not to advertise on his platforms is not “blackmail.” It’s actually their free speech right of association not to associate with Musk and his nonsense.”
As I pointed out earlier, these companies are telling Musk that they will pull their advertising if he doesn’t back off on pushing free speech. That’s the”blackmail”. Call it threatened economic quid pro quo, if you want, but colloquially, it is economic “blackmail”. It’s probably completely legal. Pretending that wasn’t what he was talking about is just plain silly. Everyone honestly listening to what he said knows that. And his response was that it wouldn’t work with him. They need his advertising space, more than he needs their advertising dollars, and even if that isn’t the case, he can afford to take the gamble (and remember Rush Limbaugh’s experience there, as pointed out by Leland earlier today).
“Secondly, I’d be curious to know why Musk is really so cavalier about it, why is he suing Media Matters for its report that he claims to have convinced many advertisers to leave?”
Musk is taking Media Mutters down, hard. They almost assuredly lied, and did so to harm his businesses. There are multiple torts for that sort of thing, and they are alleged in that case. MM can’t afford to defend themselves, against the pocket change that Musk is throwing at them. In a year or two, X will own MM’s trade marks, domain name, and office furniture. Sure, he won’t directly ever get the money he spent on the case back, not even after selling the office furniture. That’s not the purpose of the case. Rather, it’s for its in terrorem effect. To add icing to the case, I expect that he has considered repurposing the MM trademarks, trade names, and domain name, to something else, more useful to his free speech vision, like was done by the Scientologists when they beat the Cult Awareness Network in court (and had their salespeople answering CAN’s 800 numbers).
“Fifth, I’m sure that threatening to send his mob of sheep-like fanboys after advertisers is going to convince them to come back. Masterful gambit.”
“One last point. How fricking high on your own supply must he be to think that “earth” will “judge” advertisers for “killing X/Twitter” when the only reason they’re leaving is because of the foolish nonsense that Musk, himself is doing?”
He doesn’t think that it is foolish nonsense, and neither do many of us. You calling it such just strongly suggests that you are a progressive drone, parroting whatever your masters decide is the message of the day.
“"Everyone?" Get a grip dude. As of last month Big Technology analytics show 13% decline in average daily X (formerly Twitter) user posts. How many of those were bots that Musk has X-cluded via the subscriber requirement? Not clear at this point. But X (formerly Twitter) certainly isn't hemorrhaging business like say the EV market (down 45% in North America) or Disney movie performance ($500 million below expectations) or ESG investments (gone).”
Also keep this in mind - after it was bought by Musk, Twitter cut its payroll roughly in half by laying off the censors and other non-productive workers. That gave the company a lot of breathing room. Besides, taking it private, allows the company to take a much longer view of profitability. The advertisers here, bring public, don’t have that luxury.
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