The thing Elon Musk doesn't understand about free speech
Turns out telling advertisers to go fโ themselves wasn't the genius chess move he thought it'd be.
Twittโ, I mean X, has some new feature called โGrok.โ
Dorks.
Every decision Elon makes leads me to think, โLemme guess: There were zero women in the room when this was decided.โ
I imagine the conference room at X looking like this scene from โWeird Scienceโ:
It has me craving someone with a uterus in charge of stuff (even if she is a childless cat lady).
And now Musk is suing an ad industry group over an alleged advertising โboycott.โ
Brilliant business genius Elon Musk: "I told advertisers to go fโ themselves and yet they still don't like me?โ
X CEO Linda Yaccarino: โCorrect.โ
Musk: โI know, letโs sue them! That'll bring 'em around!"
Yaccarino: โI donโt think that wiโโ
Musk: โDone. Youโre making the announcement.โ
Yaccarino: โUgh. Do I have to?โ
Musk: โYes. And Iโll be right off camera glaring at you so you better sell it.โ
Yaccarino: โOK, but Iโm gonna make a bunch of insane hand motions.โ
Musk: [sniffs Ketamine]
At this point, I'm convinced Yaccarino is sticking around just to get more ammo for the eventual tell-all book she is definitely gonna publish.
Reminder to these supposed champions of free speech:
BOYCOTTS ARE FREE SPEECH. BOYCOTTS ARE FREE SPEECH. BOYCOTTS ARE FREE SPEECH. BOYCOTTS ARE FREE SPEECH. BOYCOTTS ARE FREE SPEECH. BOYCOTTS ARE FREE SPEECH. BOYCOTTS ARE FREE SPEECH. BOYCOTTS ARE FREE SPEECH. BOYCOTTS ARE FREE SPEECH. BOYCOTTS ARE FREE SPEECH. BOYCOTTS ARE FREEโ
If youโre gonna Libertarian, ya gotta go all the way with it. The ACLU: "From the Boston Tea Party to the Montgomery bus boycott to the boycott of apartheid South Africa, politically motivated consumer boycotts have long been part and parcel of American politics protected by the First Amendment.โ
But look, we all know Elon's real policy (as demonstrated below): โFree speech for me, censorship for you.โ
Iโve written this a gazillion times but it still seems to be a cosmic mystery to these folks soโฆ
Free speech inherently leads to hate speech and other gross stuff. Tragedy of the commons and all that. Advertisers donโt like having their brands next to hate speech. If you wanna run a biz based on advertising revenue, play ball and keep things clean. If you wanna play free speech hero, make something people are willing to pay for. But you canโt bully advertisers into spending money to do something they believe is bad for their brand. And you definitely shouldnโt tell them to โgo fโ themselvesโ if they refuse to go along with your foolishness.
Basically, Disney doesnโt wanna have Little Mermaid ads next to N*zi stuff. Youโd think a genius would be able to grok that.
Related:
Elon Musk thinks he's Iron Man when he's actually Michael Scott
You canโt script a cringe comedy moment any better than this scene at the Dealbook conference:
dear matt,
great piece!
right on here: "Basically, Disney doesnโt wanna have Little Mermaid ads next to N*zi stuff. Youโd think a genius would be able to grok that."
and i also love this headline: "Elon Musk thinks he's Iron Man when he's actually Michael Scott"
great work! thanks for sharing!
love
myq