The thing Elon Musk doesn't understand about free speech
Turns out telling advertisers to go fβ themselves wasn't the genius chess move he thought it'd be.
Twittβ, I mean X, has some new feature called βGrok.β
Dorks.
Every decision Elon makes leads me to think, βLemme guess: There were zero women in the room when this was decided.β
I imagine the conference room at X looking like this scene from βWeird Scienceβ:
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 βboycott.β
Brilliant business genius Elon Musk: "I told advertisers to go fβ themselves and yet they still don't like me?β
X CEO Linda Yaccarino: βCorrect.β
Musk: βI know, letβs sue them! That'll bring 'em around!"
Yaccarino: βI donβt think that wiββ
Musk: βDone. Youβre making the announcement.β
Yaccarino: βUgh. Do I have to?β
Musk: βYes. And Iβll be right off camera glaring at you so you better sell it.β
Yaccarino: βOK, but Iβm gonna make a bunch of insane hand motions.β
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 FREEβ
If youβre 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.β
But look, we all know Elon's real policy (as demonstrated below): βFree speech for me, censorship for you.β
Iβve written this a gazillion times but it still seems to be a cosmic mystery to these folks soβ¦
Free speech inherently leads to hate speech and other gross stuff. Tragedy of the commons and all that. Advertisers donβt 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 canβt bully advertisers into spending money to do something they believe is bad for their brand. And you definitely shouldnβt tell them to βgo fβ themselvesβ if they refuse to go along with your foolishness.
Basically, Disney doesnβt wanna have Little Mermaid ads next to N*zi stuff. Youβd think a genius would be able to grok that.
Related:
Elon Musk thinks he's Iron Man when he's actually Michael Scott
You canβt script a cringe comedy moment any better than this scene at the Dealbook conference:
dear matt,
great piece!
right on here: "Basically, Disney doesnβt wanna have Little Mermaid ads next to N*zi stuff. Youβd 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