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

  • mo_ztt ✅@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    The most hilarious thing about the whole thing to me was the way he said, “blackmail me with money?” as if he’s definitely automatically wealthy to a level that he doesn’t have to worry about being bullied.

    Leave aside the whole framing where the only reason people might be pulling out is to blackmail Elon Musk personally, and just assume that that’s true and analyze the question of whether he’s big enough to be immune if they decide that’s what they want to do. Musk is worth somewhere around $100-200 billion personally. I picked, totally at random, a single one of the advertisers who have pulled out, and learned that Eli Lilly has a market cap of around $565 billion. Remember this? Back from a year ago?

    Eli Lilly and Co. stopped showing ads on Twitter the day after an account impersonating the pharmaceutical company — complete with a purchased blue check mark — posted, “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.”

    Eli Lilly asked Twitter to take it down, but the tweet remained up for hours, because the platform’s staff was stretched thin due to recent layoffs and resignations. The tweet garnered hundreds of retweets and thousands of likes, and Eli Lilly’s stock soon took a dive.

    • HarkMahlberg@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      as if he’s definitely automatically wealthy to a level that he doesn’t have to worry about being bullied.

      “One of the indulgences of great wealth is freedom from other peoples’ opinions.” Trump and Musk both seem to have missed this memo. They’re so self-absorbed and insulated that they can’t imagine there are people out there that they can’t buy, can’t bribe, and can’t silence. Their lives must be so empty they can only hear the echoes of their critics… or maybe that’s just my imagination.

      • Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Maybe a little bit your imagination but I think I get your point. Would anyone here concern themselves with this nonsense given Elon Musks means? I doubt it.