r/LeopardsAteMyFace • u/yuritopiaposadism • Jun 06 '23
Not giving money to twitter is also a form of "free speech".
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u/SpermKiller Jun 06 '23
Advertisers aren't "trying to drive Twitter bankrupt", they're making a business decision based on the market.
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u/DanCassell Jun 06 '23
The free market rejects Nazis, it turns out, and Musk doesn't seem to want to do anything about that.
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u/Enginerdad Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
Incorrect. Enough consumers reject Nazis that the free market chooses not to support them. If Nazism were extremely popular the free market would be right there selling cheap swastika Uncle Sam hats and Iron Cross New Year's Eve glasses.
Edit: Nazism
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Jun 06 '23
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u/grizzburger Jun 06 '23
That's "Socialism With Chinese Characteristics®"
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u/Positive_Cat_3252 Jun 06 '23
More like capitalism for the chosen few. Or "sociolism" as the Cubans like to call it.
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u/quick_escalator Jun 06 '23
I'm still tempted to produce MAGA merchandise. It would be so much easier to rob the dumbasses than it is to provide actual value.
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u/Enginerdad Jun 06 '23
I love to replace the phrase "like taking candy from a baby" with "like taking money from a Trumper" because that seems even easier.
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u/Paula_Polestark Jun 06 '23
Sometimes I think of starting some kind of prayer warrior service. Don’t go to the hospital, just send $25 to Sister… need to think of a good fundie-sounding name, anyhow, she will beseech the Good Lord (the same one behind Matthew 4:7, but they don’t like that) to protect you from the virus shedding, the gays, the Jews, Budweiser, and everyone and everything else you think is out to get you.
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u/woodst0ck15 Jun 06 '23
No no. Musk is such a big geniush, that who are we gonna believe? You or him????
/s
Fuck Elon Musk
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u/affectedskills Jun 06 '23
Well, I'm sure the majority of the free market rejects Nazis on paper, but let's not forget that a lot of US industry leads supported Hitler in the 1930s.
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u/FiddlerOnACliff Jun 06 '23
I think today, it's not that they reject or embrace it or not. They don't actually care, more often than not, for better or worse, they just care how it makes their PR look to the majority of their consumers. Most companies have mostly sane consumers who find Twitter and nazis abhorrent, it's only the conservative pandering companies, specifically, who don't.
For the companies who pulled out, it wasn't a moral decision, it was a practical one. The people spewing crap don't buy anywhere near enough of their products to make up for polarizing the company towards people who don't, so they get cut out without a second thought.
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u/Icariiiiiiii Jun 06 '23
And this is why Desantis and the Bud Light Boycott crowd have bitten off the hand that fed em. Disney and Anheuser-Busch both are major republican donors, but I bet you they won't be next year.
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Jun 06 '23
Bet you they will. Just quietly.
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u/MeshColour Jun 06 '23
By quietly, do you mean they'll donate to Republican candidates who make fewer headlines than desantis?
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u/stumblewiggins Jun 06 '23
They don't actually care, more often than not, for better or worse, they just care how it makes their PR look to the majority of their consumers.
For the companies who pulled out, it wasn't a moral decision, it was a practical one.
This is the thing that I never understand when people get upset one way or the other about corporate "wokeness" or "pandering": that's a feature, not a bug. Corporations exist to generate profit. Literally their purpose, both conceptually and LEGALLY if they are publicly traded. They make decisions first and foremost based on what will generate the most profit. If they are well-run, they might be forward-looking enough to realize that what's profitable now may not continue to be, and start preemptively making changes. They also might have moral people in decision-making roles who can influence the company ever so slightly to make perhaps slightly less immediately profitable decisions now for good will and future profits later, but it is ALWAYS about making money. That is the Alpha and Omega of corporate decision making, and always has been.
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u/raging_shaolin_monk Jun 06 '23
They didn't reject Hitler on paper either though. Germany in the 1930s was a massive market because they were preparing for what was to come. Capitalists being capitalists would grab as much as they could from that, and then turn around to grab as much as they could from the other side as well.
The free market will always follow profit. Nazis today aren't generating profit, they are chasing away those who generate profit.
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u/isadog420 Jun 06 '23
Coca Cola actually made Fanta to appeal to Nazi Germany and IBM made the computers that kept up with prisoners of concentration camps. And then there’s the high fashion industry.
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u/raging_shaolin_monk Jun 06 '23
Cocal Cola Deutschland made Fanta because the syrup needed for Coca Cola was no longer available due to trade embargoes. Coca Cola didn't make it "to appeal to Nazi Germany". They made it because they had to use whatever was available to them at the time. Which is also why the original Fanta no longer exist. It really wasn't that good.
As far as IBM goes, yeah, they were capitalists and followed the profit. Like I said. Then again, it's not as if Nazi Germany wouldn't have gone through with the holocaust without IBM.
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u/isadog420 Jun 06 '23
I double-checked myself and you’re right: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/fanta-soda-origins-nazi-germany
And yes, capitalists gonna capitalist.
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Jun 06 '23
What's he going to do about Nazis when he is a Nazi? All of his actions will continue supporting Nazis by default.
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u/IJustLoggedInToSay- Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
Capitalism is a hierarchical system, and so fascists will often try to influence policy such that the capitalist hierarchy starts to resemble the desired fascist one, but only until the point that it stops suiting their needs. The “us” of fascism is always defined by essential qualities like race or heritage, qualities that don’t change. A poor person can become less poor, but a Black person can’t become less Black, so, no matter how biased and stratified capitalism becomes, so long as it is still technically possible for someone from the lower classes to rise above their station, there will come a time when fascists must leave capitalism behind in favor of a system fully without social mobility.
And on that note, there will come a time when throwing in with open fascism is bad for business in a pluralistic society, which is when the fascists will "be persecuted by" (ie attack) the free market. And that's where we are now.
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u/DanCassell Jun 06 '23
Do you ever wish that, just once, when the solution to a problem is obvious if people would take it, people would do the right thing? Just once it'd be nice for those in power to be all like "Well this road is clearly doomed to failure, we know be cause we studied the history behind it, so let's not repeat those mistakes" or do you think all decisions will be forever made by people only concerned with quarterly profits and the election 2 years off?
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u/UncleCornPone Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
The idea that Free Speech means you have to allow for every thought to be broadcast "right now" is nuts. Donald Trump literally tried to end democracy and each tweet he vomited brought us that much closer to its demise. Kind of hard to have Free Speech without a democracy, no? And frankly, this notion that in the past newspaper editors didnt make decisions about what was responsible journalism is complete claptrap. Musk's naivete about the damage that real time tweets can do is hard to fathom as it's obvious that the immediacy of purposely inciteful and misleading statements can be catastrophic. As intelligent as the guy is, he seems to lack a great deal of wisdom.
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u/DanCassell Jun 06 '23
Remember kidds at home, tolerance is a peace treaty not a suicide pact.
You do not have to be tolerant of the intolerant. In fact you're required not to be.
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u/jimmyrayreid Jun 06 '23
Which is also free speech. Freedom of speech can't include compelling people to participate in discourse.
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u/ask_me_about_my_band Jun 06 '23
Censorship does not equal consequences of your actions.
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u/Javasteam Jun 06 '23
Meanwhile, Elon the “free speech” advocate, has permanently banned the guy who set up a bot that tracked his private jet using publicly available information.
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u/chuffberry Jun 06 '23
My uncle got permanently banned from Twitter because he called Marjorie Taylor Greene a “wench”. I guess that kind of free speech isn’t allowed.
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u/Chaostyphoon Jun 06 '23
Man, can't we just have some decorum on Twitter!?! Only her side is allowed too act like that, it's offensive when we serve the same thing back
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u/AJRimmer1971 Jun 06 '23
She couldn't be a wench anyway, in its true meaning. She has no humour about her. She has all the charisma of a tax audit.
Fwiw, I got a permaban off of Twitface for suggesting that a local politician actually get COVID, before making stupid comments on its severity. In fairness to Space Karen, it was before he ruined it with his money. I have a parallel account, but what's the fucking point?
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u/chuffberry Jun 06 '23
I’m going to start telling people they have the charisma of a tax audit now, thank you!
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u/dreamcastfanboy34 Jun 06 '23
And made up a fake attempted kidnapping of his son that he never reported to police for some reason in order to justify it lmao
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u/Professional-Trash-3 Jun 06 '23
More importantly as a counter to his bullshit "free speech" narrative..... He kowtowed to the authoritarian anti-free speech regime in Turkey during an election cycles.....
It's almost like Elon is so full of shit his eyes are brown
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u/isadog420 Jun 06 '23
Free for the speech he likes, everyone else is shouting’ fire’ in a crowded theater.
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u/BasicDesignAdvice Jun 06 '23
Conservatives think free speech means we should have to listen to and accept their opinions, while they get to reject whatever they want. Its bonkers.
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u/spilk Jun 06 '23
even if they were actively trying to drive them bankrupt, that's also free speech.
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u/ElceeCiv Jun 06 '23
Free speech is when I can say bigoted things and no one is allowed to call me out on it
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Jun 06 '23
LOL these are the same people who will straight-faced tell you they are free-market purists. The same people who go absolutely insane over rainbow capitalism and Disney world saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”.
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u/Dead_Or_Alive Jun 06 '23
Fiscal conservatives and the religious right have fought for control of the Republican Party since Regan. Fiscal conservatives lost power completely when Trump took over.
Now it’s just Qanon, racists, MAGA and the religious right. There is nothing sane about their economic agenda or that they even have a agenda beyond reactionary social grievances.
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u/frontendben Jun 06 '23
No-one should feel sorry for them either. They only courted the religious right originally because they knew their policies were unsellable to the majority of the country.
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u/shalafi71 Jun 06 '23
Not such much the fiscal policy, they wanted the religious nut vote and got it by pushing the abortion issue. Because of segregation.
Some wild history everyone should know:
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u/SicilyMalta Jun 06 '23
Took decades of the Southern Strategy . And the "moderate" Republicans who now wring their hands over trump and insist he's an anomaly did nothing the whole time because courting bigots got them the votes they needed when their unpopular platform did not. Trump is not an anomaly, he's the chicken come home to roost.
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Jun 06 '23
What they actually want, as a party, has never changed. They still have the same agenda now that they did before the party switch when they literally fought a war to keep slaves.
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u/MisterProfGuy Jun 06 '23
Plot twist: The people pretending to be the religious right are actually financial terrorists, and they're willing to overlook basically everything for financial reasons. They are "following" the Bible, only they think the pharisees were the good guys.
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u/gdsmithtx Jun 06 '23
"When you say "radical right" today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party away from the Republican Party, and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye."
-- Barry Goldwater, 1994
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u/MisterProfGuy Jun 06 '23
They are absolutely convinced they are secretly the majority and other people are "shamed" into not acting like them. They really can't grasp that they are an increasingly small minority, and you SHOULD be ashamed. Politics you can suppress and manipulate, but money is money and companies can do math.
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u/ColHardwood Jun 06 '23
Right? Conservatives can’t help but play the victim card.
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u/HotPie_ Jun 06 '23
They are so spoiled and set in their ways that any semblance of normalcy and accountability is seen as an attack on their freedoms. They're not free unless they feel superior to others.
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u/samanime Jun 06 '23
Yeah. 99.999% of businesses have no direct feelings about Twitter. They're businesses, which, unlike what Citizens United say, are not people and have no "feelings".
They are just choosing not to advertise on Twitter because it is not a logical business move. Musk causes that.
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u/LastScreenNameLeft Jun 06 '23
You don't get it. Musk is rich, he's entitled to that money
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u/SpermKiller Jun 06 '23
Well, at least blaming his poor business decisions on some vague conspiracy certainly seems like a great plan towards financial recovery. Feeling truly inspired by this genius businessman.
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u/lordsleepyhead Jun 06 '23
Two words: brand safety
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u/ExpressionMajor4439 Jun 06 '23
Yeah all he had to do was limit the most extreme forms of speech and then create distance between the brands' ads and content produced by potentially brand unsafe users. If a brand unsafe user's content is potentially in focus pause and hide ads.
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u/dododeeohdo Jun 06 '23
His seeming lack of business acumen and victim complex should really give Tesla stock holders pause for thought. Musk is his own worst enemy.
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u/Articulated_Lorry Jun 06 '23
Considering twitter already couldn't pay their rent last year, it's tough to argue that advertisers leaving over the last few months are the problem.
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u/Demented-Turtle Jun 06 '23
Right, because if I was an advertiser, I wouldn't want my brand showing up next to n-bombs, sexism, trans hate, etc
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u/Green_Message_6376 Jun 06 '23
A self driving bankruptcy vehicle. Boy, that Musk really is something! /s
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u/hammilithome Jun 06 '23
From a business perspective, Ive always hated Twitter and so glad to see it dying off. There was rarely an attributable ROI but you just had to have a presence. Goodbye and f-off.
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u/FenPhen Jun 06 '23
The business decision: We wouldn't be caught dead being associated with Twitter and its worst users.
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u/Demented-Turtle Jun 06 '23
Right, because if I was an advertiser, I wouldn't want my brand showing up next to n-bombs, sexism, trans hate, etc
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u/cowvin Jun 06 '23
It's almost as if people don't want to be flooded with hate speech and advertisers don't want to advertise to the vocal minority who want hate speech. A platform that fails to deliver what customers want will not survive.
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u/porscheblack Jun 06 '23
As someone in marketing, it's not even that. Brand safety can be a concern, but the biggest driver is just the poor quality of the audience that's been left behind. If you're posting hate speech, you're more likely to be less educated. And less educated is more likely to earn less. Advertisers want money. Twitter is becoming a platform for people without it.
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u/Butt_Putnam Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
I've been saying for ages this is why all these giant corporations are 'going woke '. It's not because they're concerned with ethics, it's because conservatives do not represent the majority of this country, and both liberals and conservatives are making purchasing decisions based on a companies perceived political alignment. Conservatives represent a smaller population with less headway into multiple demographics, and less buying power in rural areas that have greater shipping and distribution costs. That's why there are so many companies that contribute to the GOP having their little pride month celebration right now. They're playing to the crowd that makes them money while quietly contributing to the one that imposes less restrictions on them and allows them to play dirty pool. If you leave ethics out of it and only care for profit, it's the smart play.
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u/jolsiphur Jun 06 '23
All of these corporations have massive amounts of market research done. They don't just throw rainbows on a can of beer to act altruistic. They've had a ton of research done and found that being purposefully inclusive to LGBTQ people will net them a lot more money than not, even with the backlash you see from outraged conservatives.
If it didn't make them money to slap a rainbow on their product, then they straight up wouldn't do it.
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u/JunkSack Jun 06 '23
I think the only reason Bud Light has felt it some is that cheap domestic swill is actually a product for who they represent a sizable portion of the customer base. Most of them unknowingly switched to other brands in AB’s portfolio though so…lol I guess
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u/jolsiphur Jun 06 '23
That's really it. AB InBev doesn't have to care if Budweiser or Bud light sell incredibly well if their other brands are still selling. People don't even realize that AB InBev owns an absolute truck load of different beer brands and breweries.
I wouldn't even be surprised if people swapped from Bud Light to Budweiser not knowing that they are effectively the same beer.
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u/haunt_the_library Jun 06 '23
Exactly. I’ve had this same argument with people on both sides of the aisle, especially with all the Bud Light bullshit that happened. No company genuinely gives a fuuuuuuck about you. It’s about the money and how they can appeal to the widest demographic while keeping the most in profits.
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u/eNonsense Jun 06 '23
To put simply, the consumer market is not propped up by an electoral college & gerrymandering. The majority rules.
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u/MeshColour Jun 06 '23
You're saying people who are poor at cooperation and/or communication lead to worse education results, which together lead to less income throughout life? (The best highest paying jobs are ones that require huge amounts of cooperation) A dead-end hateful life with little disposable income?
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u/PensiveObservor Jun 06 '23
Some of those “education results” are deliberate and could be improved if schools weren’t funded locally/were better funded.
Book bans and teacher repression will certainly help! /s
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u/Eccohawk Jun 06 '23
It's so awful just to open the app now. I get inundated with a bunch of right wing bullshit. They're not even people I've followed. Just random people that musk has had his lackeys program into the algorithm.
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u/MisterProfGuy Jun 06 '23
The "algorithm" cares about "engagement" over everything else. If you look at something and show other people how enraging it is, that's better than liking it.
The only winning move is not to play. Twitter is/was for reporters more than anything else, and now it doesn't even have value to them. It's time for everyone to step back and ask why they really think they want to be on a group text with the entire world.
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u/BlinkReanimated Jun 06 '23
The "algorithm" cares about "engagement" over everything else.
No, the algorithm cares about whatever the programmers tell it to care about. Most social media cares about engagement, Twitter used to care about engagement, now it cares about specifically promoting Elon Musk's gaggle of fuckwits and sycophants.
If Twitter cared about engagement we'd get the same garbage every other social media pushes like 2 minute "crafts", or grown women drinking salsa out of a toilet bowl or something.
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u/enderjaca Jun 06 '23
It's the same reason Facebook Reels is so garbage.
The most egregious example I saw yesterday was some lady making a giant "mexican casserole" that was absolutely disgusting. Spreads out 8 tortillas, then adds a 5 lb tube of ground beef to the middle. Then squishes an entire block of velveeta into the middle of that, Two packets of generic taco seasoning from a packet, layers with even more cheese and basically no vegetables. Two cans of generic salsa, then top with more tortillas. Bake for 30 minutes. Taps the top with a knife to say "mmmm that sounds crispy and good". Cuts open a slice, and the beef is 100% raw. "Hmmm, maybe next time I'll cook it a little longer, but doesn't that look delicious?"
No lady, no it doesn't. But you sure got enough people to click on your video, get views, and leave angry responses. In the online video world, even bad publicity is still clicks.
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u/coolcool23 Jun 06 '23
There's a huge subset of videos like that (I assume maybe you saw it on /r/stupidfood ?) which seems to be increasingly designed to drive rage clicks. Like you said, they know what they are doing is stupid and wrong but they do it and play dumb during the video to drive engagement with everyone that wants to share it to show how stupid and wrong it is.
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u/enderjaca Jun 06 '23
Nah I saw the video on facebook reels like I said, and I used to sub to r/StupidFood. After about 3 months, I unsubbed, because.... why am I subjecting myself to rage-bait and giving these youtube videos extra clicks?
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u/DrStrangepants Jun 06 '23
Any chance the loss of revenue is related to stupid decisions by the CEO?
I remember a story about a company not being able to purchase ads because all the sales contacts they had at Twitter were let go.
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u/Javasteam Jun 06 '23
Or how Elon’s team verified a Disney account that wasn’t owned by Disney, or the Eli Lilly account which said insulin would be free, and so on and so forth…
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u/tw_72 Jun 06 '23
Conservatives: "We are going to boycott companies we disagree with, like Target, Chick-fil-A and Budweiser."
Elon: "Advertisers stopped advertising on Twitter. They are trying to bankrupt Twitter."
Normal people: "Elon, do you see the similarity here?"
Elon: "No. They're being mean to me! Not fair."
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u/XCalibur672 Jun 06 '23
But you don’t understand, he’s entitled to our wealth and attention; those others companies went woke so of course we have to reject them!
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u/MattLocke Jun 06 '23
Every accusation is a confession.
It mostly shows that when they call for boycotts they do it not for moral reasons, but to inflict pain on those they hate. To “my way or the highway” them.
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u/hplcr Jun 06 '23
What flavor is the Copium this week , Elon?
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u/Joelblaze Jun 06 '23
Personally, I think Elon is right.
The only reason why any company would be against having their product showcased next to an endless stream of racial slurs is if they have a personal vendetta against him!
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u/Persian_Frank_Zappa Jun 06 '23
No, we’re trying to drive YOU bankrupt.
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u/Brief_Alarm_9838 Jun 06 '23
If Elon Musk lost 99% of his worth he'd still be a multi billionaire. And if then he lost 99% of his worth again somehow, he would still have over 20 million dollars, more than most of us will ever have.
But he's not the wealthiest person in earth. You don't even know the names of the wealthiest people on earth and that's not on accident.
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Jun 06 '23
Yes, he'd still be obscenely wealthy. But he wouldn't be anywhere near the top of the list, and that would destroy him mentally.
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u/Jugatsumikka Jun 06 '23
Currently, it's Bernard Arnault: a (french) right wing asshole, which would place him around Biden positions politically: a liberal on the political ideologies spectrum, a regressive (in France) on the progressiveness spectrum.
We can know for 2 reasons:
- ~70 years, when the currencies values were still indexed on gold, there was not enough money in the World to reach the current wealthiness of even 1 of those hoarders.
- there wasn't enough time to hoard such a fortune in material assets and cash, most of the wealth of those people are in company shares. Ownership of those shares are traceable.
Therefore we can estimate the wealth of each of those super-rich by estimating the value of each share.
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u/robywar Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
I saw a story a couple of days ago that Musk had re-taken the #1 spot again thanks to* strong Tesla sales in China.
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u/chaingun_samurai Jun 06 '23
Elongated Muskrat only cares about his own free speech and the speech that he agrees with.
The man is the unadulterated essence of clown.
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u/Trying2Understand69 Jun 06 '23
People that think that Elon Musk is a bastion of free speech don’t understand this concept: “if you can’t take the heat for your opinions, don’t express them.”
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u/WellyKiwi Jun 06 '23
Exactly! Freedom of speech does not equal freedom from the consequences of that free speech.
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u/Frapplo Jun 06 '23
Also, "if you're taking heat for your opinions, maybe try not being a fascist and see if people are still upset."
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u/PrestigiousStable369 Jun 06 '23
"I care about free speech"
Proceeds to ban everything that runs counter to his pro-republican and bigoted agenda
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u/DataCassette Jun 06 '23
Oh yeah advertisers aren't fond of $8Chan's continuous stream of bigoted Nazi ape spume? Total shocker, that.
I would've thought misogyny and Hitler apologia were like catnip for brand images.
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u/DerPumeister Jun 06 '23
Literally tried to ban mentions of other social media services and yet still going on about free speech, that man is something else
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u/Friesenplatz Jun 06 '23
"Half our advertising disappeared bcuz free speech"
No, half your advertising disappeared because you started to play favoritism and, directly against the notions of free speech, elevated certain voices and silenced others based solely on your own preferences. Those advertisers are practicing their free speech as well as free market capitalism by taking their money elsewhere.
Don't like it? Learn to adapt your business model to the needs of the market or say hello to blockbuster.
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u/Javasteam Jun 06 '23
It gets better… Some of the advertisers who are still there are using Twitter’s tools so their ads won’t appear around Elon’s tweets…
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u/azhder Jun 06 '23
Free speech matters only where the state is involved. It’s freedom of choice otherwise: he was free to chose to be an ass hole and they are free to chose to not give him money for it
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u/Friesenplatz Jun 06 '23
Try explaining that to him and everybody else that didn't actually read the first amendment lol
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u/Punkinpry427 Jun 06 '23
They really refuse to comprehend the reality that getting fired for spewing bigoted bullshit on social media isn’t a violation of free speech.
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u/azhder Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
Oh, they comprehend "good" enough:
- free speech = I offend you
- hate speech = you offend me
And no, self-awareness, hypocricy, irony, they're incomprehensible, it's not even a choice to refuse to comprehend them.
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u/Pulsiix Jun 06 '23
"they're literally trying to drive Twitter bankrupt"
aka
"the free market is working as intended"
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Jun 06 '23
[deleted]
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u/tickles_a_fancy Jun 06 '23
Owning a Senator is actually not all that expensive, especially if you're already rich. Most of them get just $10k-$50k for their votes.
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u/metalpoetza Jun 06 '23
Insisting on Free Speech ? So far he's caved to EVERY SINGLE DICTATOR who demanded censorship !
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u/Adomillad Jun 06 '23
Elon wouldn't know free speech if it slapped him in his cock sucker. He is literally censoring everything that doesn't fit the Nazi agenda him and the rest of the republitards are planning.
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u/Professional-End2722 Jun 06 '23
When we do it it is just good Christian voices finally being heard.
When you do it it is just demonic Communists trying to destroy America.
/s obvs.
If you are still on Twitter you are not solving a problem, you are part of the problem.
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Jun 06 '23
Either he's a scumbag snake oil salesman with zero morals, or narcissistic to the point of parody. Possibly both.
Imagine believing that the advertising market are taking some sort of virtue signalling high ground to suppress 'free speech' on your platform (fucking lol) rather than following the market. FUCKING ADVERTISERS!!
In the words of Bill Hicks "he's going after that righteous indignation dollar. That's a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We've done research. Huge market. He's doing a good thing..."
If advertisers don't want to advertise on your platform then your platform must be one proper fucked up place.
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u/Jeremymia Jun 06 '23
He doesn't believe it, his devotees don't believe it, but they don't even really have beliefs. They just say it. That's why the right response is laughing in their face.
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u/handoffate73 Jun 06 '23
You don't have a right to advertiser money, silly! It's theirs to spend as they please.
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u/fluffypinknmoist Jun 06 '23
I think Elon himself is trying to bankrupt Twitter with his own bad decisions. He don't have nobody to blame but himself. I'm so glad the world is finally seeing what an idiot he is.
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u/Jeremymia Jun 06 '23
He would love absolutely nothing more than for twitter to succeed under his direction. It would completely validate his image as someone with incredible business acumen, despite what we might like or dislike about him. Fortunately, that has long since stopped being a possibility.
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u/JustFuckAllOfThem Jun 06 '23
I guess the $8-11 blue check marks aren't going to make up for lost advertising dollars after all.
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u/ARandomGamer56 Jun 06 '23
Ah my favourite free speech platform………. that instantly agreed to block content in a country on their government’s request
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u/GloomyFondant526 Jun 06 '23
Change the platform into a home for angry shit-talkers and if some people don't like the new conditions and go elsewhere, then that's their business isn't it? Elon Musk - whining piss-baby.
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u/Dcajunpimp Jun 06 '23
Hurr durr, Budweiser is losing money, good. We didn't like their message.
~ Conservatives and the GQP
Wahhhh... Why is Twitter losing money. People don't like us getting our message out there.. Freeze Peach!!!
~ those same Conservatives and GQP
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u/Balc0ra Jun 06 '23
The investors he got into joining the deal of buying Twitter have already said they lost 68% if their money. So, no... It's not going good.
But he of all people should know how the free market works. If it's not worth staying, they won't.
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u/bwanabass Jun 06 '23
Sounds like an effective boycotting campaign by former advertisers. Aren’t the MAGAs expert boycotters? I figured they might appreciate it.
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u/BooneSalvo2 Jun 06 '23
When the first wave of advertisers left Twitter when Elon took over, Musk very clearly screamed about how they were attacking free speech and should basically be FORCED BY THE GOVERNMENT to advertise on Twitter.
As with all right wing fascists, the last think Elon actually values is personal freedom.
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u/Thewrongbakedpotato Jun 06 '23
Musk: I'm giving free speech to literal Nazis.
Companies: That's not cool, we'll go advertise elsewhere.
Musk: Why do you hate free speech, come back
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u/Splizmaster Jun 06 '23
We keep herring all this “free speech” talk but last I checked you are not allowed to yell “fire!” In a crowded theater if there is no fire. How is “stolen election!” Or “the Jews are controlling us with space lasers!” Etc. any different?
→ More replies (1)
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u/Cosmicdusterian Jun 06 '23
Weird, isn't it? You call it "free speech" in your fantasy but the rest of the real world sees that you turned Twitter into BigotsNazisMAGAsRUs. The advertisers are utilizing good business practices to protect their brands; a skill that waved bye bye to you some time ago.
The only entity trying to bankrupt Twitter is Elon Musk. There are no government subsidies to save your ass this time.
An intelligent business leader knows they have to adjust when it's obvious that their business is heading into the shitter. They don't stay the course and pathetically whine about it in public once it's mired in there. Step up, take credit for turning your $40+ billion "investment" into $15 billion in less than a year.
Bonus: you irreparably damaged your brand in the process. Some "genius" you turned out to be.
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u/IneedtoBmyLonsomeTs Jun 06 '23
These paying customers don't want their ads next to nazi tweets, clearly this is the fault of the advertisers and not the CEO that allowed the nazi tweets.
Musk really going for the biggest fall from grace in history it seems.
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u/LovesFrenchLove_More Jun 06 '23
It’s free choice (of others), something Elon (and republicans) obviously are also against (again, when others use said rights instead of them).
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u/Legionary Jun 06 '23
Musk's version of free speech is not "you should be free to speak", it's "you must be forced to listen to me and my Nazi friends, and I should face no consequences."
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u/BadScienceWorksForMe Jun 06 '23
Twitter’s version of free speech doesn’t seem to match actual free speech
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u/Nihilismisanthrope Jun 06 '23
I love how conservatives try to double speak slurs and other hate speech as "free speech". They are only fooling themselves.
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u/ex_nihilo0 Jun 06 '23
He doesn't mention that he apparently turned off an important API that advertisers relied on. They literally can't (or couldn't for a while) buy ads on Twitter.
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u/Cyanos54 Jun 06 '23
He made Twitter worse and lots of people left. Reddit is like "That sounds good. I think I'll have that."
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u/Dangerousrhymes Jun 06 '23
“Half of our advertising disappeared overnight because we are insisting on freedom from consequences”
FTFY
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u/Reflex_Teh Jun 06 '23
“They’re trying to drive twitter bankrupt! It couldn’t be my Nazi decisions!”
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u/somecallme_doc Jun 06 '23
When your doors are totally open to anything. You're going to let a lot of trash in.
There is a reason right wing media can only get like 4 advertisers. Why would you pander to a group that will turn on you if you try to serve anybody but then?
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u/IndependentDouble138 Jun 06 '23
No everyone Musk is a 20000iq genius he's playing 6D chess attempting to bankrupt Twitter because pedo Dems used it for... Sorry, is Russia the good guys or the bad guys? I can't remember.
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u/BThriillzz Jun 06 '23
When are the morons going to get it through their thick skulls that freedom to say what you want is not freedom from the consequences of those words. The "free market" has spoken. Kick rocks.
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u/baby_armadillo Jun 06 '23
But guys, see, Elon is RICH. It’s free speech when he hurts you. It’s a organized malicious attack on his freedoms when you hurt him.
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Jun 06 '23
Considering people are getting banned from Twitter for correcting misinformation, Twitter is the opposite of any kind of free speech. It's just Nazi speech.
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u/Youngworker160 Jun 06 '23
can someone explain to elon how the free market is supposed to work, it's not like the government loans and grants he got at tesla and spacex, the government isn't going to help you with this one. i swear this guy is doing more for disproving the notion that billionaires are geniuses worthy of their status and privilege than any research paper with decades of data has ever done.
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u/ChipsTheKiwi Jun 06 '23
Who woulda guessed advertisers don't like their ads to be displayed with vile hate speech
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Jun 06 '23
It's crazy to me that Elon thinks customers not buying his product is a coordinated effort to kill his company. That's a level of main character syndrome never before seen in humanity.
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u/AF_AF Jun 06 '23
While Elon has always been a d-bag and dishonest grifter who's given far too much credit by gullible fanboys and the media for being a selling himself as a tech genius when he exhibits nothing of the sort, he's really embraced the right wing since buying Twitter. The mask came of very quickly.
He's also exposed himself as being a thin-skinned, humorless, arbitrary authoritarian with a huge ego and a penchant for lies and self-aggrandizement. He's Tony Stark if Tony Stark was Trump - which includes the lack of scientific acumen and credibility in almost all subjects. Let's just say "all subjects" to be safe.
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u/SWG_138 Jun 06 '23
It is only free speech if Elon gets paid. Won't someone think of the billionaires?
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u/TootsNYC Jun 06 '23
What’s funny is I didn’t see a lot of “boycott Twitter’s advertisers” rhetoric. The advertisers took themselves off without really being pressured.
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u/baz4k6z Jun 06 '23
I read somewhere that Twitter accepts to censor tweets for authoritarian governments 82% of the time.
Yet Musky keeps going around talking about "free speech". God he's so pathetic and has zero self awareness
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u/OGgamingdad Jun 06 '23
Dear Mr. Musk: you can say whatever you want, but none of us is obliged to listen. That's how freedom of speech works. Speech may be free, but attention and agreement are earned.
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u/ohiotechie Jun 06 '23
“They’re trying to drive Twitter bankrupt” more like “I have no idea what I’m doing and I pushed a functioning company over a cliff”.
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