• inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    “If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, don’t advertise.

    • Elon, 2023
    • BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      Careful, you might convince Tesla shareholders to fork over a few more billion to keep the big brained genius motivated.

      • teletext@reddthat.com
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        5 months ago

        “Give me 60 billions this year, or the Tesla stock will lose even of more of its price next year!” – Elon, probably.

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        If the market were rational that would have been the end of Tesla. It takes some extreme brainletry to turn a huge market advantage into actively losing ground to new entrants. And he is still at it. Being a dimwitted Nazi on Twitter is his top priority. Tesla sales will continue to spiral down the drain.

        (Yes, if the market were rational the end might have come sooner, but certainly giving billions to a brainlet actively sabotaging the company should end it.)

        • Censored@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Remember he is exceedingly wealthy, so he can buy Tesla stock through third parties to prop the price up without alarming investors. No, it’s not legal, but we all know the man doesn’t give a shit about the law.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Musk sheepishly suggested that he didn’t mean “advertisers as a whole.”

      “Advertisers have a right to appear next to content that they find compatible with their brands,” he told ad giant WPP CEO Mark Read during an interview on Wednesday. “What is not cool is insisting that there can be no content that they disagree with on the platform.”

      How is that “not cool?” I don’t understand how he can possibly object to a company spending their advertising dollars wherever they damn well choose to. He repeatedly makes it clear that he feels entitled to their budgets. There is zero basis for that. I truly cannot fathom how he can be so dense about this.

      • Metacortechs@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        He can object because he’s decided that’s what is right. Literally nothing else matters.

        The piece of shit that used to own my company is like this. His decision is correct and gospel, and if you don’t agree or if it’s provably false you are wrong. And it’s your fault you are wrong, because he has decided it to be correct.

        • scarabic@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Right but the bubble of rightness you speak of is usually only assumed to include the company staff. Really powerful CEOs have their board inside the bubble too, or even public investors. But Elon thinks the customers work for him too. That’s really beyond the pale.

          • Metacortechs@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            No argument here. Just highlighting the absolutely insane mindset of business owners/CEOs at all scales.

    • NewNewAccount@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Wowow! That was so long ago! Literally dozens of weeks ago! I’m sure this full-blown narcissist has seen the error of his ways and changed his mind. Surely.

    • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      Yes. Elon should approach his advertisers on bended knee – after changing Twitter back to Twitter, and creating a proper moderation system that filters out neonazis and Russian AI Trump-bots.

      Oh, George Washington rode the waves
      Abe Lincoln wore his hat with praise
      Thomas Jefferson, the sandy king, and
      Teddy Roosevelt, the beach-hiking thing
      Barrack Obama, surfing gracefully
      Historical presidents at the sea!
      – @hisvault.eth

    • Censored@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      This is the most upvotes I’ve seen on a Lemmy post so far… Granted, I’ve only been here a couple days, but still!

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    “I do shoot myself in the foot from time to time, but at least you know it is genuine, not from the PR department,” he admitted.

    He’s been brainwashed by his fans if he thinks that somehow makes it better.

    Like, authenticy is good for good things, but it makes shitty things even shittier. It’s not a value that’s always good in every context. And the worst thing he could be doing is doubling down on his opinions and policy.

    If he left the company is the only way this would help, he wouldn’t even be a fall guy because most of this is entirely his fault

    • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      Like, authenticy is good for good things, but it makes shitty things even shittier.

      sounds like he needs that PR department

      • rtxn@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        That’s pretty much how he kept the public image of “eccentric genius” for so many years. I once read an article (can’t remember where, don’t care enough to search) that said that SpaceX had/has a team whose entire purpose was to babysit Musk when he had a temper tantrum. The team formed organically, like a cyst around a foreign object, and minimized damage to PR.

        When Twitter was infested, it didn’t have this immunity and now the world (or those of us who care) knows how much of a shithead he is.

        • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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          5 months ago

          I’m still trying to figure how anyone (including Musk) ever thought he was a genius? Like ok so he has a lot of money that he throws at interesting problems, and those problems attract actual geniuses to solve, but what has Musk himself ever done except be an employer? It reminds me of all the talk about how Edison was supposed to be a genius, when the reality was that he ran a sweatshop to steal other people’s hard work.

          • dustyData@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            No one who knew him probably ever did. This is par for the course with billionaires. People see a walking paycheck, they want their ear and their investments. So they flock to him to get their dream projects done, knowing fully that he will steal and claim any success while throwing them under the bus for any setback. Everyone thinks they can control the dragon. But when he is controlling the actual operations usually shit just goes in flames. That’s everything he is ever been.

            • Bennettiquette@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              but which would you say came first: The Dragon or elon being perceived by others as The Dragon?

              i’m sure, as with any big personality, this relationship evolves concurrently and interdependently. I just wish more had seen through him sooner. it was not difficult to predict that he would ultimately undermine himself faster than he would naturally fall out. we will keep seeing more of his type unless we can get a bit faster on the uptake.

              • dustyData@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                It’s been reported he had babysitters since PayPal days. They knew what a shitty manager he was all along. But he had money and was friends with people with even more money.

          • sudo42@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            This happens to anyone rich and/or famous. People flock to them to attempt to ply them with flattery or leach money in some way. Consider how many people say that Trump is a genius.

    • otp@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Reminds me of the people who say things like “I say it like it is, and most people don’t like it”…not knowing that the reason they don’t have many friends is because they don’t have a filter and don’t think they need one, lol

      But this looks like Elon Musk admitting that he’s genuinely an idiot, lol

    • glimse@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Yeah I robbed that gas station but at least some crime boss didn’t make me do it. It was genuine so you should forgive me

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Idk, I’d prefer if CEOs were more transparent and why mistakes happened instead of the generic PR nonsense of: “We messed up, and we’re sorry. We’re taking time to review what happened to make sure it never happens again.” That kind of statement only matters if there’s some way for the public to know what happened and verify that it actually won’t happen again.

      That’s not what we’re getting from Elon, so screw him, but I just figured I’d point out that this particular broken clock could say something close to what we probably all want.

      • theneverfox@pawb.social
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        5 months ago

        Trouble is, their main job is to game public perception

        A transparent, honest CEO would win a lot of people over (although they’d also probably be less likely to ignore the horrible decisions that require apologies)

        Just remember - generic PR apologies are an attempt at mimickingv leaders actually taking responsibility for a mistake. The transparency will just become as soulless and corporate as the apologies are now

        We need to fix the system to remove the incentive to put heartless demons in positions of power

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      “Shoot oneself in the foot” is a really charitable description of “inviting all the worst Nazis back on to social media and removing fact checking.”

  • ZeroCool@vger.social
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    5 months ago

    I hope they stop. Don’t advertise, If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is." - Elon Musk, November 27th 2023

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    5 months ago

    Literally all he needs to do is shut the fuck up and collect money, and he can’t even manage that.

    • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Nope, he can’t manage that. Because he’s an attention-whoring malignant narcissist.

      I can’t wait for the bubble of mystique to pop on this arsehole, if only so we don’t have to ever hear from or about him again. Sadly, there are still plenty of rubes in his cult of personality and greedy investors willing to ride his coattails. So I’m not holding my breath.

    • pumpkinseedoil@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Doesn’t even have to collect money, he could just sell everything except SpaceX and still live a happy life and fly to Mars one day.

  • Roflmasterbigpimp@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago
    • Tells customers to go fuck themselves
    • They leave
    • They stop paying for advertisement
    • Twitter/X makes no money from advertisement

    Elon:

  • Modva@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Can’t remember the last time I was on Twitter. Turns out I don’t need it. Turns out I’m just a little happier without it.

    • AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I was trying to find active users since he took over. But the only numbers I can find are numbers provided by Musk, who is a well known liar.

      I know Lemmy and Mastodon are niche communities, and that people put up with a lot of garbage from Big Tech, but I have to believe that a lot of users have left Twitter, or least that usage is down. I also assume bots are way up, because Musk wants his numbers to be up regardless of the source (save for people with an opposing opinion).

      Hopefully Musk’s shitty little empire crumbles…soon.

    • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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      5 months ago

      I wish some politicians, artists, and scientists that I used to follow used Mastodon.

    • Veneroso@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I deleted my account and my stress level is way down.

      Twitter was never good, but it’s a cesspool of scum and villainy.

    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I also left it for the most part (only there to squat my user handle - I have some enemies), and I’m better without it. Even before the Muskrat overtake, its algorithm often bought the worst out of me, and I had to realize that wasn’t me. After that, it became worse than the forums from the late 2000’s that were overtaken by a few moderators to turn them into “free speech zone”, except they liked to harass people for having “dumb opinions”, one of which was not liking racism, and those admins also liked to claim PoC robbing whites are a “race motivated crime”.

      I like the smaller communities of the Fediverse, I even started to remember usernames and avatars here on lemmy (and before that, kbin) without having a follow function I know of. When I was on Reddit, I felt massively alienated, didn’t know anyone there really, and the place got more and more dominated by a select few toxic individuals.

    • pancakes@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      He just got approved for that big $40+ billion compensation package from Tesla so he’s got lots to work with.

      • Zorg@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        A single billion is an obscene amount of money for an individual, I can’t fathom how anyone can be worth/earn a billion in a couple of years.

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        5 months ago

        To me it’s mental that stock holders would approve such package when company itself for its entire existence had income that is smaller than his “bonus”. Some people are downright stupid.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          Theyre wealthy not smart. The smart wealthy ones fade into obscurity, like Tom or that one distant uncle who lives in a cabin in the woods and juat kinda vibes.

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        5 months ago

        What’s absolutely insane to me, is that other CEOs think that’s fair and fine and that Elon is very smart and not a con artist? No wonder Elizabeth Holmes got so far. It’s just so obvious he’s not above board

      • immutable@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Don’t worry, he seems hard at work making sure all that Tesla stock he got will also be worth less everyday.

  • m13@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    "I do shoot myself in the foot from time to time, but at least you know it is genuine, not from the PR department”

    Yeah we know. He’s genuinely a white supremacist, misogynist, queerphobe piece of shit. A PR department doesn’t give a fuck about any of that, but at least they’d be savvy enough to pretend like they give a damn in order to make money.

    • dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      misogynist, queerphobe? I never heard him say things like that. Where have you?

      Edit: getting downvoted for asking questions… Some people man

      • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I think you’re getting downvoted because everyone assumes that you’re being a pedant, not because you asked a question.

          • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            I think it was the phrasing. The comment you responded to didn’t say that Musk had said either of the things you asked about. If you’ve been paying attention to the news about the complaints coming out of his companies its very clear that he is those things. It seems that your question is intended to refute the contents of the comment by being pedantic about whether Musk had actually said those things.

              • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                It just sounded a little bit like you were jumping to his defense. I gave you the benefit of the doubt and explained it but I think that’s what happened. There are a LOT of pedants on Lemmy who will argue about whether someone said a specific word of phrase rather than addressing the underlying and obvious truth that someone is a wretched asshole (like Elon Musk.))

      • BlitzoTheOisSilent@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        He made “cis” a slur on Twitter because it upsets him that his ex who left him is trans, and he hates trans people. He’s had plenty of tweets and posts complaining about pronouns, trans people in general, and so on.

        I can’t speak to the misogyny (but I’m sure it’s there), but instead if arguing with people about you “jUsT aSkInG a QuEsTiOn” you could just Google “Elon Musk queerphobic tweets” and Google will supply plenty.

        I did, and the first two results were articles from former Twitter/X employees claiming there were homophobic and anti-semitic attacks on the platform after Musk took over. So yeah… Not sure what you want anyone here to do for you that you can’t do yourself via a Google search, you clearly know how to type, and the phrase I suggested is less characters than all your comments combined.

        Edit: And then after you did some googling and found the answers, you could edit your comment to say, “Wow, hey guys, I was wrong, he really is misogynistic queerphobic piece of shit,” and be done with it, instead of doubling down like a troll.

          • BlitzoTheOisSilent@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            I’m not really interested in your bullshit anymore. There are tweets, from him. There are articles about him quoting tweets he’s used highlighting everything everyone here us telling you. Fucking happy? Can you fucking comprehend now? They’re his words, from his official verified X account.

            “FYI I specifically asked for” GO FUCK YOURSELF. I specifically told you to fucking use your fucking brain and Google all of this, but you refuse, because you’re a fucking troll just like Musk, whose cock you have so far down your throat it’s tickling your taint.

              • BlitzoTheOisSilent@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                THERE IT IS EVERYONE!!! Troll can’t be happy unless they’re moving the goal posts, now they need thorough context for each and every word Musk has ever said!!

                To answer your question, despite you not asking it in good faith and then following it up with two uses of the R-slur: A female journalist raised legitimate criticism of Musk, and he completely disregarded everything she had to say. That’s childish, and misogynist, since I’m sure if Daddy Trump or Papa Putin weighed criticism on him, he wouldn’t have dismissed it.

                So I answered your fucking question and gave you “sPeCiFicAlLy” what you asked for, so you’re fucking welcome, troll, not that you know how to say “thank you.”

                And reported for use of the R-slur.

              • tjsauce@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                That’s not the sexist part, you have to read more. One Tweet can’t prove anything, but several Tweets are a clear pattern of behavior. Quoting the first sentence betrays your disinterest.

      • Censored@lemmy.world
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        Yes, you’re getting downvoted for asking a stupid question. Do you think people announce “I am a queerphobe and a misogynst”? Read between the fucking lines!

          • Censored@lemmy.world
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            It’s actually worse than you being incapable of reading between the lines. When presented with evidence, you denied it rather than thanking the person who provided it. So you were asking stupid questions to set up a bad faith argument. Congratulations on being an Elon dick sucker and douchbag.

              • nomous@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                Yes, it’s called JAQ’ing off or Sealioning and is how people try to push an idea while still being able to say “oh no not me I’m just curious.”

                If you were actually curious you’d google it, or been aware of his descent over the last 5 years.

      • A7thStone@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Someone who is not misogynistic doesn’t usually offer to pay for sex with someone who isn’t a sex worker. That he offered to pay for said sex with a horse makes it extra damning, but that could be my personal bias.

  • neidu2@feddit.nl
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    5 months ago

    Didn’t he tell advertisers leaving to go fuck themselves? I don’t expect a very long queue of returning ones.

    • fluxion@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Surely the appreciate the “authenticity” with which he told them to “go fuck yourselves” before flip-flopping and begging them to come back?

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        “I’d rather be told to ‘have a nice day’ by someone who doesn’t mean it than be told to ‘go fuck yourself’ by someone who does.”

  • bender223@lemmy.today
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    5 months ago

    Oh, so telling advertisers to go fuck themselves DIDN’T help Twitter make money? 🤔

  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    Apparenlty telling your customers to go fuck themselves isn’t a good business strategy.

  • Leviathan@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I Always thought he just wanted to flush xitter, it never occurred to me that he was actually trying to succeed.