Elon Musk, the owner of X, criticized advertisers with expletives on Wednesday at The New York Times’s DealBook Summit.

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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    It’s very funny that his single biggest failure is so public. Like if The Boring Company couldn’t find customers, it would just quietly shut down. Newsworthy, but only for like a day.

    This is monthly stories about severe incompetence and petulance.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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          As much as Musk is an idiot these days with his antisemitism and MAGAism, I don’t think the Vegas Loop is a failure. It was never a HYPER-loop, just regular loop (low speed). The city of Vegas likes it enough they are planning on expanding it even more.

          • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
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            It’s not about if Vegas likes it. Because Vegas is one of the worst cities for transportation in the US. The main strip is a disaster. Walking as a pedestrian is dangerous and insanely confusing. The trains are underfunded and misplaced. Buses get stuck behind billboard cars in traffic.

            And instead of funding train or bus development, Vegas spent wild money to get the loop built. The loop is a safety hazard, it holds very few people, and it achieves far less than what a good subway system could do.

            Basically Elon may have made money, but the world mostly lost.

    • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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      Like if The Boring Company couldn’t find customers, it would just quietly shut down.

      If? Besides a few small projects have they ever scored anything significant?

      • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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        Ha I didn’t want to put this in my comment to complicate the point but no they’ve only done one actual thing so this could have happened and I don’t know that we’d know.

      • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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        There are different levels of “public”. Musk doesn’t need to publicly announce he’s telling all the advertisers to fuck off, he could tell it to them on a private call and then the public would most likely only know what advertisers are pulling out. The whole “fuck off” statement never needed to be public, Musk made it public because he can do whatever the fuck he wants. The same goes for a lot of things you see about Twitter. He didn’t need to do his things in public, he simply did.

        • nutsack@lemmy.world
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          that is not what I’m saying. the failure of twitter is a public issue. it affects the public. nobody should give a fuck about the boring company.

    • milan616@lemmy.world
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      The Boring Company is a line item expense so Tesla can keep selling cars while stalling rail projects. It was never meant to do anything.

  • Christer Enfors@lemm.ee
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    I thought this guy was supposed to be right wing? Doesn’t he like the free market? Because, I mean, the alternative is regulation. We could make antisemitism illegal, but in the west we have largely decided that we will instead rely on free market forces (read: public shaming) to root that shit out.

    It’s almost as if… and this might sound crazy, but hear me out… it’s almost as if this guy wants the advantages of capitalism, but none of its disadvantages?

    • Diplomjodler@feddit.de
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      He’s a libertarian. That means he thinks he can do whatever the fuck he wants but will squeal like a stuck pig at the slightest sign of pushback.

      • Djad2410@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        What advertisers are doing isn’t capitalism it’s collusion to manipulate the market.

          • Djad2410@lemm.ee
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            Obviously you don’t understand capitalism and your just going off what people who want communism and socialism are saying.

            • cheesepotatoes@lemmy.world
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              Please explain to me how advertisers exercising their agency in choosing who to advertise with is “communism” or “socialism”.

              • Djad2410@lemm.ee
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                When I mentioned communism and socialism I was pointing to the mischaracterization of capitalism. Capitalism is just the free and open market and when companies collude together to manipulate the market that’s not capitalism. Capitalism has built in rules against market manipulation and monopolies unfortunately that requires the government to do it’s job to enforce it, which it’s been doing a piss poor job of.

                • SCB@lemmy.world
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                  Capitalism has built in rules against market manipulation and monopolies

                  It most assuredly does not. Addressing these externalities is the responsibility of government.

                • SPRUNT@lemmy.world
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                  What evidence is there that the companies are colluding? Are there communication logs where they all conversed and decided to pull ads? Is there any evidence at all that the companies had any interaction with each other about this and made a unifying decision to cancel their ads?

                  Collusion requires entities to work together to achieve a mutual goal. Otherwise, it’s just a coincidence of timing.

                • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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                  I think you might be having difficulty grasping the idea that people have marketing budgets and if say the ceo of a company you advertise on very publicly endorses hate speech it does create a brand management problem.

                  You want your products to not be associated with things like, say, racism, which are kind of “yucky” to a lot of people.

                  As a result you might refocus spending. If a bunch of people do this at once this doesn’t mean there’s collusion. For example, during a thunderstorm you might see less people outside. This isn’t because they all colluding - people don’t like being struck by lightning. Similarly, companies don’t want their brands to be “yucky” to the average consumer and often its just a matter of moving the ad spending to another platform without the baggage.

                  You could ONLY limit this effect by banning advertising entirely.

            • SCB@lemmy.world
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              I’m entirely pro-capitalism. Why should the free market not be allowed to act here?

              • Djad2410@lemm.ee
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                In this context if they disagree so much they should just leave the platform and then it would fall under capitalism. What they want is to stay on the platform and dictate how it should be run and if they don’t get their way they make threats and ultimatums, which is a form of manipulation, I.e anti-capitalism.

                • SCB@lemmy.world
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                  It’s not manipulation to say “we’re leaving because you did this thing and won’t be back until you don’t do this thing.” This is simply the market forces articulating their preferences.

                  If I stop buying a company’s products because I disagree with the direction it’s going, I am voting with my wallet, not manipulating the company.

              • Djad2410@lemm.ee
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                I’m not conflating the two I’m simply saying the people that have an issue or misunderstanding and capitalism usage fall in either camp.

              • Djad2410@lemm.ee
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                Government regulations. Capitalism is a component of the government so it should take government action to enforce it.

                • frezik@midwest.social
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                  Really? Because I’ve been repeatedly told by libertarian types (not socialists or communists) that any government regulation is not capitalism.

                  You’re free to disagree with them, but then I’m going to ask what your definition of capitalism is that assumes this regulation (not just allowing it, but mandating it).

          • Djad2410@lemm.ee
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            I simply made a claim to why something is happening whether or not is true is yet to be proven but that doesn’t mean it’s not a possibility. These companies want a hand in how the company is run and if they’re not getting what they want them calling each other up to coordinate an ads pull is a tool in their toolbox.

            • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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              Either bring facts, or state it as an opinion, don’t try to do both or you will get called out.

  • Crow@lemmy.world
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    So when twitter actually dies will people finally start using mastodon then? Or they too eager to use another billionaire owned social media and migrate to threads?

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      I’m going to invent the perfect social media system where you type a comment and then a bunch of LLMs just argue with you forever and nobody has to read anybody else’s stupid bullshit.

      • dumpsterlid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You forgot the most important part? You need to have notifications pop up every 15 mins so you get a dopamine hit for checking how many bots liked your devastating own of another bot in an argument.

    • Default_Defect@midwest.social
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      They’re already going to threads or bluesky if they’re able. Honestly though? I don’t think we want THAT many people flooding the fediverse. There’s already a bunch of accounts here that exist only to troll or have bad takes.

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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        Not to mention that one of the most active instances is pretty much just open information warfare at this point. .ml has become a complete dumpster fire

      • Pacmanlives@lemmy.world
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        Hey now! I already created my own fediverse servers in Panama and registered to a local domain provider down there and am behind 7 proxy’s at all times for my Shit Posting aS a Service or SPASS as it’s commonly called. You can’t take that away from us!

        All joking aside I hope you’re wrong but it’s probably gonna go that way. Really want Mastodon to take off here

    • SRo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      No they won’t. The federation system like it’s currently implemented will never be mainstream.

    • nucleative@lemmy.world
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      Can you think of a single open source, open community spcial platform that has gained anything more than early adopter adoption?

      Mastodon has a terrible name that sounds like masturbate

      There is no charismatic leader

      There is no method to advertise on the platform, so the platform will suffer from no commercial incentives or correlation (e.g. find us on Twitter)

      It’s confusing to the vast majority of people that you can join from more than one location

      There are other platforms that do the same thing, why this one?

      • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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        if you didn’t learn anything in school, Mastodon might sound stupid. You might confused it with a Mammoth but you’d be a fool to think it was anything other than awesome. Like the war elephants in LotR

    • yamanii@lemmy.world
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      The second one, a number of people that I follow are going to blue sky, they learned nothing.

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.ml
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    Elon: Go fuck yourself advertisers

    Advertisers: Understandable, have a nice day [doubles spend on other platforms]

    I don’t see how anyone expected this to end. I for one am hoping for a fatal ketamine od.

  • RozhkiNozhki@lemmy.world
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    "Hours later, Linda Yaccarino, X’s chief executive, tried to mitigate the damage. In a post on X, she shifted attention to Mr. Musk’s apology for associating himself with antisemitism and appealed to advertisers to return.

    “X is enabling an information independence that is uncomfortable for some people,” Ms. Yaccarino wrote. “X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street — and the X community is powerful and here to welcome you.”

    It’s called information independence y’all, look it up. Kinda like alternative facts but better.

  • MaxPow3r11@lemmy.world
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    “why are the companies leaving after I told them to fuck themselves and right after spreading nazi propaganda? It’s a mystery.”

  • ickplant@lemmy.world
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    “X is enabling an information independence that is uncomfortable for some people,” Ms. Yaccarino wrote. “X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street — and the X community is powerful and here to welcome you.”

    Wow, the mental gymnastics. Someone call the Olympic committee.

    • affiliate@lemmy.world
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      it’s incredible to see the lengths they will go to, all of the new phrases and euphemisms they’re willing to conjure up, before admitting they’re doings things badly and everything is on fire

    • Additional_Prune@lemmy.world
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      uncomfortable for some people People like me, who got tired of the firehose of ultra-right-wing lies, conspiracy theories, and propaganda. Oh, and nazis.

  • YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca
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    He’s trying to find a scapegoat to blame for destroying the company, and he seems to think he’s found it in the advertisers that are withdrawing their money.

    • root_beer@midwest.social
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      Benny “Dry Humping Only” Shapiro is calling it an attempt to silence Musk and an attack on free speech

      These guys never showed up for fifth grade civics

    • Sway@lemmy.world
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      I heard David Samson (former president of the Miami Marlins) suggest that he wants the advertisers to all bail so that he can entice his sycophants to boycott the companies who pulled their ad revenue.

      He suggested that if you have the type of f-you money to waste that Musk does, then it’s simply an ego move. He’s not going to succeed with XTwitter so he might as well let it burn, and scorch as many people as he can in the hopes of getting petty revenge on those who crossed him.

    • hemmes@lemmy.world
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      And all it took was him telling them to go fuck themselves.

      Not sure who’s dumber, Elon or the advertisers.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        Letting Nazis stay on the platform? Not enough.

        Unbanning Kanye? Not enough.

        Elon personally agreeing that Jews were going to destroy white people? Not enough.

        Telling them to go fuck themselves? HOW DARE HE?!?!

    • doublejay1999@lemmy.world
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      This.

      There are so many media institutions and slebs who have and still are giving twitter all its content .

      They are complicit in this.

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    He doesn’t seem well. He sounds like someone that desperately needs help. Even though I think he is a giant piece of shit, I hope he has someone around him that can get him some help. Perhaps selling Twitter or just shutting it down could be part of the solution. If nothing is done, I’m afraid this guy will end up as a case of drug overdose or suicide.

    • Snot Flickerman
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      Nah man, this is the closest he will ever get for punishment for the horrible things he has done to his employees, to the actual green movement and climate change, and public discourse via Twitter.

      He shouldn’t even have government contracts because he readily admits he abuses drugs. But I guess rules are just for plebes like us, right?

      No, fuck him, let him spiral, and I hope he fucking loses it all and kills himself.

      Fucking worthless. Up there with fucking Kissinger. Both can rot in fucking hell, for all I care.

      • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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        You can only feel sorry for a person up to a point. After Elon tried to defame a scubadiver by labeling him as pedophile, which included trying to get an article written on this guy and hiring a personal investigator. This was far before he started “spiraling”, the man has always been unhinged and spiteful. If he loses it then it’s just retribution for the people he’s hurt.

      • root_beer@midwest.social
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        He’s lost in the K-hole. Jogan prob. said to him, “hey bro just try ketamine it’ll totally fix your depression bro” and hooked him up with some old burned out raver-turned-qnatic, so now the Boer is doing way more than what’s considered therapeutic

    • kingthrillgore@lemmy.ml
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      That’s the thing: he doesn’t. He blew off Grimes, he’s used every person he’s married. He’s a highly neurodivergent narcissist, and now he’s probably hooked on special k, which means he’s outright detached from reality. Furthermore, he doesn’t know the phrase “I need help” and his board is his brother and a bunch of yes men. We’re in for a five alarm dumpster fire that sadly will touch a lot of people before it ends.