Elon Cleaning House

Yes there are some respected physicians or scientists who were silenced. While not good it was Twitters decision to make.

Im just not buying this narrative how social media is different and that constitutional free speech applies. These are private profit making companies, and can filter content as they so choose. By not moderating content the quality of their product goes down. Given it’s a profit making company, why are they obligated to present content that they feel doesn’t help them?

As a microcosm, take the Covid thread in this forum. At one point it was an interesting and informative thread but now it is littered with antivax disinformation that’s pretty much killed the quality of the content. It is this boards decision not to moderate the content, and that is entirely their decision. But I’m not going to fault other social media who choose to control the quality of their content differently. Once you choose to moderate and filter content, there is always going to be squishy line, and inevitably in trying to enforce that squishy line mistakes are going to be made.

 

To be clear, what doesn't exist is "cancel culture" as some new phenomenon. What she describes as "cancel culture" is social consequences for speech and associations that the majority of society (or a subset of society) deems objectionable. There is nothing new about it. It is often a positive thing, but it can be negative too. Think about Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare as an obvious example of when it turns negative. Think about the severe social consequences of openly being a Neo-Nazi as an example of how it can be positive.

That's why I think the whole "cancel culture" claim is an intellectually lazy attempt to avoid a conversation of substance. We as a society have always struggled over which ideas are acceptable and unacceptable. And there have always been social consequences to pushing ideas that the majority deems unacceptable. Thing is, the majority has been wrong plenty often throughout our history. (By means of example, imagine taking the stance that interracial marriage is a good thing while living in the Jim Crow South.)

Thus, that is where the debate lies. Is the idea you're defending worthy of it? But Weiss doesn't want that debate. Because she spends much of her time defending unworthy ideas. I don't hesitate to accept social consequences in defending ideas I believe in. And I will debate with you the worth of those ideas. What I won't do is whine about "cancel culture" to avoid having to defend the stance I'm taking.

One final point: Bari Weiss didn't hesitate to use what she calls "cancel culture" in the past when it suited her, which is why I referred to her crusade as hypocritical.
NYT’s Bari Weiss Falsely Denies Her Years of Attacks on the Academic Freedom of Arab Scholars Who Criticize Israel

I said you made a racist comment. I remember that conversation (following the Jacob Blake shooting), and I stand by it. The remark you made was really out of bounds.

I don't recall calling you a transphobe. I might have remarked that way about a comment you made, as you are a poster who has pushed the social contagion theory, which is completely baseless. But I wouldn't think I'd use it in reference to a post like that. If you recall the conversation when I said it, let me know. Because it's escaping me, and when I searched for it, it didn't show up. (So it must have been deleted automatically by the forum.)

 

I actually agree with most of what you just said, and what we now call cancel culture has always existed in one form of other, right and left, sometimes for good sometimes for bad. From what I have listened to of Bari Weiss I wouldn’t characterize her stances as unworthy, although I’ve still yet to figure out what all the outrage of the “Twitter files” is all about. I ask others and all I ever get is “did you see the emails”? Any of the emails I’ve seen are mostly cryptic and lacking context but nonetheless show people grappling with the difficult topic of moderating content.

I would think Weiss would at least get some props for calling out Musk’s arbitrary speech moderation as much as the prior regimes.

 

It's manufactured outrage created by one-sided reporting and selective leaking of documents. Weiss is one of the people who partook in it because it was personally advantageous to her. I don't respect that.

 

Anti-Vaxxer Alex Berenson Posthumously Punishes Grant Wahl

 

Jesus that’s horrible. I’d have no issue banning him. The dude is unhinged.

 

I tried watching it. It had some moments but ultimately I couldn’t get through it.

 

If a member of the FBI did, in fact, do that, I'm still not sure how it'd be in violation of "Congress shall make no law ..."
If someone did, I think it'd be wrong. But I'm also not sure what members of the federal govt actually did or said.
Haven't the 'Twitter file' stories all come from a handful of journalists selected by Musk, who all happened to come to the same conclusions he had? And hasn't there been a good bit of speculation?
I confess that I haven't read a lot about it. But if Musk were really serious about honest reporting, he'd release it to everyone rather than a select few.

 

We enjoyed it. I love the character of Benoit Blanc. My daughter sent me a piece this morning about Ben Shapiro going on a rant about it which cracked me up. I would post it but it has spoilers.

But public policy-wise, I love the spoof on billionaires. It wasn't written about Musk buying Twitter specifically because it was written and in the can long before that. But man it seems like it

 

Marcy breaks this down. The FBI was warning Twitter about coordinated events to try to suppress black voting, which is illegal, at least for now. Of course it does interfere with a core Republican electoral strategy

 

This thread should be retitled “Musk Murders Tesla Investors”.

Down another 8% (40% for the month) as the stock price is skyrocketing below $100

 

Tesla used car market collapsing. Flippers are refusing to take cars

Tesla used car price bubble pops, weighs on new car demand | Reuters

 

Stock dropping like a rock.

 

Obviously the woke market masters are punishing Elon for speaking truth. It can't be a functioning market; it's the evil of wokeness

 

It’s down 72 percent now. Which, not so coincidentally, is roughly what Bitcoin is down. Largely the same get rich quick investors.
But on Tesla specifically, it was massively overpriced even without the insanity from Musk the last few months. At one point it had more value than all the other major US car makers combined.
Factbox: Tesla market cap eclipses that of top 5 rival carmakers combined
And now you have the larger market downturn, competitors like Kia putting out viable alternatives, the Twitter mess, his alienation of his core base (liberals), and we are where we are. No easy fix for him.

 

Plus I would think that the new legislation giving tax credits for purchase of less expensive EVs, which omitted Tesla’s most popular models, has a role.

I was just mocking the oft repeated claims that any negative he experiences is the product of some malevolent woke conspiracy. Of course, the presence of so many other factors, most of which could be seen coming, are more reason that investors could reasonably expect that he spend all his time at Tesla

 

Keep on collapsing... and I may pick one up!

 

They may have been credentialed , like Jay B., but the GBD pronouncements were more Koch economic opinion, than medical opinion. The "M.D.s" were just cover. In any event, he kept going on which got him in trouble. I have not seen a moderation decision of theirs on this issue I disagreed with, though I have not seen all and I am sure there must be some. Just sheer volume and statistics compels that conclusion.

But make no mistake. The complaints are just complaints that a weaponized disinformation channel was disrupted, equivalent to Russian criticizing Patriot batteries in Ukraine. .

 

Is it headed for bankruptcy? Are there major capex projects that are in trouble? Short sellers are chasing it down and interest doesn't seem to be waning. Long money making money right now. $15 billion and counting.

Short-Sellers Made $15 Billion Betting Against Tesla Shares This Year (businessinsider.com)

Short-sellers made $15 billion this year betting that shares in Tesla would fall, as about $800 billion was wiped off its value, new research shows.

Analysis by S3 Partners showed bets against Tesla shares proved to be the most profitable of 2022, with shorts against Amazon shares making a return of $6.2 billion.

S3 said interest in betting against Tesla started falling in April as the stock began declining, reducing potential returns, but ramped up again in September as Elon Musk's acrimonious acquisition of Twitter entered its final stages.

About 3% of Tesla shares are being shorted, making it the second-largest US short after Apple.

 

yeah he’s in a world of hurt now. There is a wholly not unrealistic scenario where he loses almost all of his money after being the richest man on earth. He’s already lost half of it almost. And imagine if Twitter goes dead, those billions are gone as is his reputation. Nothing to stop Tesla from following suit.

one other point on Tesla stock, even after the drop, it is still around 10 percent of the average retail portfolio, which is insane. And that means it could have a lot farther to fall if folks actually consider rebalancing to something that resembles a sane investment strategy.