Fight!


Please god, SHAVE

Matt Taibbi has learned that you can’t be friends with Elon Musk. He has posted some of the exchanges that he and Musk had after the failure of the #TwitterFiles nonsense. They are pretty much totally alienated from each other now.

“Elon, am I being shadowbanned?” the exchange begins. “We went on lockdown after discovering that Substack had stolen a massive amount of our data to prepopulate their Twitter rip-off,” Musk replied.

“Looks like there is still a blanket search ban. Should be fixed by tomorrow.” Musk added: “Going forward, tweets with Substack will not appear in For You unless it is paid advertising, just like FB/Insta/etc. They will appear in ‘Following.’”

Taibbi shot back with an exasperated response. “Elon, I’ve repeatedly declined to criticize you and have nothing to do with your beef with Substack,” he wrote. “Is there a reason why I’m being put in the middle of things? This really seems crazy.”

“You are dead to me,” Musk answered. “Please get off Twitter and just stay on Substack.”

Those two deserve each other.

Comments

  1. says

    I had to remind myself of who Taibbi was and this exchange now makes total sense. Taibbi is a fasc-adjacent blogger who wants to ingratiate himself with fascistic figures in the news, and Musk, like Trump, is a complete fascist who can’t handle that it’s not all about him or his projects.

  2. says

    Akira MacKenzie:
    A member if the upper class turns out to be a total sociopath?

    I want to assume everyone has seen The Ruling Class … it asks that question, in the context that the entire ruling class is pretty much always either dimwits or sociopaths. Or worse. Peter O’Toole does a great job illustrating what “worse” might look like.

  3. raven says

    Grimes sues Elon Musk after saying he won’t let her ‘see …

    The Verge
    https://www.theverge.com › 2023/10 › grimes-elon-mus…

    Oct 3, 2023 — Grimes is suing Elon Musk to establish a “parental relationship” with one of their three children, according to the New York Post.

    Just about everyone who has ever dealt with Elon Musk has ended up regretting it.

    Including his breeding stock.
    One of his breeders, the singer Grimes, is suing Musk for access to “their” children, who Musk seems to think are “his” children.

    Since these children were born via surrogate, it is possible that Grimes has never even seen some of them.

  4. jimmyfromdelaware says

    Matt Taibbi is a very good reporter. What they reported on the twitter files showing the government censoring social media is chilling. The depths of misinformation spread on legacy media about the debunked Russia-Gate story is amazing.

    Two times the media totally acted like stenographers for the government and got the story 100% wrong – WMDs and Russia-Gate.

    You folks do support the 1st amendment right?

  5. raven says

    Grimes says she is “happily proud of white culture …

    NME https://www.nme.com › News › Music News

    Jan 2, 2024 — The alternative pop singer and … The post led to a wave of responses from other users, with some accusing her of being a white supremacist.

    It is hard to be too sympathetic to Grimes though.

    .1. She is a white supremacist.
    A racist.
    .2. She is also rather dumb.
    There is no such thing as white culture.

    My Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive culture has nothing to do with Grimes’s white culture.

    There are a huge, vast array of white cultures that differ a lot between all of them.
    They frequently fight wars among themselves. Right now it is Russia invading Ukraine and the Serbs are provoking the Bosnians and the Kosovos again.

    Here in the USA it is the MAGAts versus everyone else, Red states against Blue, and Elon Musk and the Fascists against everyone else. The Fundie xians hate everyone, and everyone hates them back. The Catholics claim to be the one true church.
    The atheists have split into numerous sects that don’t much like each other.

    Whatever.
    I couldn’t imagine anyone getting near Elon Musk even to just breed, but people like Musk and Grimes manage to find each other.

  6. lasius says

    @raven

    There are a huge, vast array of white cultures that differ a lot between all of them.
    They frequently fight wars among themselves. Right now it is Russia invading Ukraine and the Serbs are provoking the Bosnians and the Kosovos again.

    Why would you call them white cultures? Eurasian cultures are not generally classified by US-American social categories. And people Americans would consider not consider “white” can well be part of these cultures as well.

    Right now it is Russia invading Ukraine and the Serbs are provoking the Bosnians and the Kosovos again.

    What’s a kosovo? You mean Kosovars?

  7. says

    Raging Bee@7 I’m guessing jimmywhoprobablyisn’tfromdeleware thinks you only support the 1st Amendment if you uncritically agree with anything a right winger says.

  8. says

    I remember Taibbi doing some good reporting once. His characterisation of Goldman Sachs as a ‘vampire squid’ was more than apt. I was an avid reader in the Rolling Stone years.

    But then revelations about his awful bro behaviour in Moscow came out. And after that he seemed to go off the rails, embracing conspiracy theories and becoming obsessive, particularly about the campus left, who he grants more influence to than they actually have.

    Of course, he insists he hasn’t changed. (A sort of roundabout way of saying ‘the Democrats left ME’.) He’s got a hate-on for ‘left identity politics’ and become a ‘free speech absolutist’ who felt that Trump was being covered unfairly. (Though to be fair he doesn’t have a high opinion of Trump.) However, by screaming about ‘freeze peach’ he really has lost his way.

  9. jimmyfromdelaware says

    Okay timgueguen – just stick your head in the sand when the government is caught doing horrendous things.

    You read like a passage from 1984.

  10. raven says

    Matt Taibbi was a good reporter a long time ago.
    He hasn’t done anything worthwhile in 10 or 15 years now.

    He has gone full tinfoil hat lunatic fringer.

    Matt Taibbi and Matt Orfalea on Pandemic Scare-Coverage

    January 1, 2022
    34 Comments on Matt Taibbi and Matt Orfalea on Pandemic Scare-Coverage
    Following the emergence of the Omicron variant, pandemic scare-coverage reaches new heights.

    By Matt Taibbi and Matt Orfalea / Substack

    For a while now it’s been clear the primary objective of most pandemic coverage is to scare the socks off mass audiences.

    This is the start of an article from Matt Taibbi, that I just read.
    It’s mindless drivel.
    The first sentence is wrong and it doesn’t get any better.

    The Mainstream Media’s coverage of the Covid-19 virus pandemic was reasonably good.
    They certainly didn’t overemphasize the risks of this virus and the pandemic.

    After all, 1.4 million Americans died from this virus, including more than a few that I knew. And many more are still to this day suffering from various Long Covid syndromes, some of whom I know well.

    I’ve seen enough. Now I remember why I don’t pay any attention to Matt Taibbi and haven’t for over a decade. It’s a waste of time.

  11. birgerjohansson says

    I don’t have context of the Musk – Tabibi rift, but I assume with narcissists you don’t need actual reasons for a falling out, as they can be extremely sensitive for real or imagined slights.

  12. jimmyfromdelaware says

    Only on this site can a progressive that backs LGBT rights, medicare for all, and supports pro-choice can I be called a MAGA because I deal with facts.

    You folks don’t realize why people vote for Trump. The working poor and the working middle class has been screwed over by both parties for decades and they don’t care…they want to blow up the system because all it has done is favor capital over workers every…single…time. Now I am an outcast because I want to find common ground with the working class to understand why they vote the way they do. I remember a time when universities and the intellectual class embraced these values. Now you do nothing but cast dispersions on this because I don’t agree with you 100%.

    Maybe if you tried to talk to people that you disagree with instead of calling them stupid playground names?

  13. John Morales says

    Maybe if you tried to talk to people that you disagree with instead of calling them stupid playground names?

    We can all read #13, you know, jimmy.

  14. says

    You came here with assertions about a Russia-gate, that’s your thing. And I don’t respect an accusatory question about the 1st amendment, if you see a 1st amendment problem you can point it out jimmyfromdelaware. Slander and libel is already against the law, and I want private corporations labeling and removing misinformation. You accuse other things of being misinformation so far.

  15. jimmyfromdelaware says

    Brony, Social Justice Cenobite – it is not an assertion about Russia-Gate, it is facts. You are literally acting like a left MAGA.

    Russia wanted HRC over Trump for the same reason we all did. She wasn’t great, but not having a raving, lunatic, narcissistic, asshole like Trump is a win.

  16. John Morales says

    No, jimmy. The one acting like a MAGA is Matt Taibbi.

    cf. https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1641647161996722176

    Copy for those who don’t care to click on Twitter:

    Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
    If presidents think they will be chased into jail under thin pretexts as ex-presidents, they’ll try even harder to never leave office. This is how autocracies are born.

    ClickBait Deathwatch @scotgl
    ·
    Mar 31, 2023
    Replying to @mtaibbi
    What’s happened to you Matt? 34 felony indictments for criminal behavior that little was done to cover up? Let the judicial system do its thing. If there are similar felonies committed by Biden or any other citizen they should be indicted as well.
    1:42 PM · Mar 31, 2023

    I mean, you do get #14 was a direct parallel to #13, don’t you, jimmy?
    You insinuated an Orwellian and dystopic attitude towards timgueguen, who actually did what you ostensibly advocate by trying to talk to you. I used a parallel form (only far more accurate, because it’s written rather than read, and it’s quite warranted instead of fanciful).
    And that got you all excited, almost as if you were waiting for that so you could run your script.

  17. says

    Taibbi’s only good moments was when he was shamelessly aping Hunter S. Thompson. Hunter’s ghost appeared in his dreams and threatened to shank him, so Taibbi retreated to obscurity.

  18. jimmyfromdelaware says

    He is only obscure because you listen only to legacy media and get misinformed all the time. He is making the most money he ever did on substack because he is a good reporter. Lets see how much Anderson Cooper would make on Substack or other faux reporters and commentators.

    I am not going to argue with you folks, it is pointless. It is like trying to have a discussion with a MAGA head. You both deny reality.

    Marcus Ranum
    Taibbi’s only good moments was when he was shamelessly aping Hunter S. Thompson. Hunter’s ghost >appeared in his dreams and threatened to shank him, so Taibbi retreated to obscurity.

  19. says

    You are literally just asserting something without anything but repetition and force of personality jimmyfromdelaware, so your symbolic application of “left MAGA” is just an empty category, and far more MAGA like. You just inverted a symbol, what do you expect me to do, clutch my chest and fall as if shot?

  20. Jazzlet says

    jimmyfromdelaware @24
    Substack is not what I would call an alternative to legacy media given how many of it’s posters are former employees of legacy media, like oh say Matt Taibbi.

  21. Jim Balter says

    Hey jimmyfromdelaware, you are an imbecile, a liar, and a worthless shitstain on humanity. The only government that was censoring anything was the Trump administration, as Taibbi’s own Twittergate reporting showed but he, Musk, Shellenberger, and Weiss all grossly misrepresented their own findings. And Russiagate has not been debunked, it’s been confirmed.

    You serve one purpose here … as a chew toy for JM et. al. now that Brad Keyes and canman are banned.

  22. Jim Balter says

    Russia wanted HRC over Trump for the same reason we all did.

    Fuck but you are stupid.

    I am not going to argue with you folks

    Disappointing for those who enjoy their chew toys.

    You folks don’t realize why people vote for Trump. The working poor and the working middle class has been screwed over by both parties for decades and they don’t care…they want to blow up the system because all it has done is favor capital over workers every…single…time. Now I am an outcast because I want to find common ground with the working class to understand why they vote the way they do.

    Why do the black working class, who are far more screwed over than white working class, vote overwhelmingly against Trump, you dumb fuck ignorant internalized racist?

  23. Jim Balter says

    Now I am an outcast because

    … because you are stupid, ignorant, and extremely intellectually dishonest.

  24. Jim Balter says

    Only on this site can a progressive that backs LGBT rights, medicare for all, and supports pro-choice can I be called a MAGA because I deal with facts.

    What facts? Support anything you have claimed. You say Russiagate has been debunked, yet even the GOP’s own Senate committee confirmed it, and there has been further confirmation since.

    Regardless of what you back, you are simply repeating bogus talking points. Turn off Fox News or Jimmy Dore and Glenn Greenwald or wherever you get this bullshit and try to actually inform yourself.

  25. Jim Balter says

    Okay timgueguen – just stick your head in the sand when the government is caught doing horrendous things.
    You read like a passage from 1984.

    Look, you fucking moronic troll, people here are not exactly keen on or blind to the government doing horrendous things–it gets criticized here all the time. Your kind of stupid dishonest trolling is all too familiar and predictable.

    The Musk/Taibbi/Weiss/Shellenberger claim about Twittergate was the Biden campaign in conjunction with Twitter was doing horrendous things. But Biden wasn’t the government, he was a civilian. The government was the Trump administration, which did indeed put pressure on Twitter to suppress stuff that Trump didn’t like–but Twitter said no, for the most part. Yet the word all over Twitter was that it was Biden or “the deep state”. Why? Because Musk had just brought all the right wing filth back to Twitter, he inverted “verification” so that it was his followers who paid $8 for a blue check, rather than people who actually had some credibility, who were now “verified” and appeared at the top of every thread and that Musk was now chitchatting with. Twittergate was engineered to provide fodder to these scum. And you’re fucking dumb and ignorant enough to fall for it.

  26. Jim Balter says

    Two times the media totally acted like stenographers for the government and got the story 100% wrong – WMDs and Russia-Gate.

    What government, you cretin? Trump was President all during the unfolding of Russiagate. Barr, Rosenberg, Mueller … all Republicans working for Trump. The media did act as a stenographer for Barr, who totally misrepresented Mueller’s findings.

  27. Jim Balter says

    Russia wanted HRC over Trump for the same reason we all did. She wasn’t great, but not having a raving, lunatic, narcissistic, asshole like Trump is a win.

    Er, um, you think Hillary is President, or won in 2016?

    Putin hated Hillary and very much wanted Trump, you imbecile.

  28. Jim Balter says

    so your symbolic application of “left MAGA” is just an empty category, and far more MAGA like. You just inverted a symbol, what do you expect me to do, clutch my chest and fall as if shot?

    It is indeed an inverted symbol. “blue MAGA” is now an absurd term being widely used by purportedly left critics of Biden and Biden supporters–people like me who supposedly have no problem with Israel committing genocide and razing every building in Gaza. But I have immense problems with that and with Biden’s policies in re Israel, yet I still support Biden’s candidacy because I’m not a clueless imbecile who thinks that not voting for Biden will somehow end Israeli violence.

  29. jimmyfromdelaware says

    You folks are so great. You show exactly what happens if someone who has the same values as you has an independent thought or does not agree 100%.

    All of this while the US commits horrific acts of genocide and you folks are okay with it because the person has a D after their name.

  30. John Morales says

    Ah, jimmy, you are revealing yourself with your meritless calumny.

    All of this while the US commits horrific acts of genocide and you folks are okay with it …

    Whatever makes you make that obviously counter-factual claim?

    … because the person has a D after their name.

    <snicker>

    The person at hand is Taibbi. No “D” after their name.

    Baseless fabulations are not the way to try to talk to people that you disagree with instead of making shit up, but that’s exactly what you are doing.
    We can very much see what you do and contrast that with what you claim, O hypocrite.

    Care to try to attempt to sustain your lies, with, you know… quotations or suchlike?

    PS

    You folks are so great.

    Your attempted effort at sarcasm is so weak.

  31. John Morales says

    [Huh. I sure garbled that, with over-quick editing. Trying again:]

    ‘Baseless fabulations and making shit up are not the way to try to talk to people that you disagree with, but that’s exactly what you are doing.’

  32. Jim Balter says

    You folks are so great. You show exactly what happens if someone who has the same values as you has an independent thought or does not agree 100%.

    Cry harder, pathetically dishonest piece of garbage.

    All of this while the US commits horrific acts of genocide and you folks are okay with it because the person has a D after their name.

    No we aren’t, you stupid vile maggot. As I said, your kind of stupid dishonest trolling is all too familiar and predictable. You’re a sniveling coward with no scruples so when you are called out for your lies instead of even trying to defend them you reach into your bag of whatabouting ad hominems that are completely detached from reality. You are a disgusting wretch, a worm, filth, a completely wasted zygote.

    I am not going to argue with you folks, it is pointless.

    C’mon, you promised. Go the fuck away.

  33. Jim Balter says

    someone who has the same values as you

    No, we value honesty, integrity, knowledge, maturity, rational skepticism, the ability to respond to criticism and support claims made … values that you completely lack.

  34. chrislawson says

    jimmyfromdelaware–

    Here are the exit poll results from the 2020 election. Trump’s voter base is demonstrably not the working poor and middle class who want to ‘blow up the system.’

    The two lower income bands (<$50, $50-100K) voted convincingly for for Biden while the top income bracket (>$100K) voted for Trump. The data are presented a bit oddly, because further down they’ve included an even higher income bracket (>$200K) where the vote was evenly split. But still, this directly repudiates your claim that the working poor and middle class are Trump’s base.

    As for ‘blowing up the system’, those who were overall enthusiastic or satisifed with the federal government voted overwhelmingly for Trump while those who were dissatisfied or angry with the federal government voted overwhelmingly for Biden. This is second piece of data that shows the exact opposite of what you claimed. It seems your argument that Trump appeals to the put-upon working poor who liberal elites don’t understand is not actually based on facts at all. And FYI, the so-called liberal elites are the exploited poor and middle class now. Check out median salaries and working conditions in the higher education sector.

    The data show that Trump has three demographics in his pocket: the moderately wealthy, evangelicals, and white people (especially males) without a college education. ‘Blowing up the system’ is not what his voters want. His voters say they like the way the federal government runs. No, his real appeal is entrenching the privileges of money, religion, and race.

    And finally, given the track record of personal behaviour and policy decisions while in power, anyone who claims to be pro-LGBT/abortion rights but supports Trump obviously doesn’t think these principles are important enough to influence their vote.

  35. StevoR says

    @3. Marcus Ranum : “I want to assume everyone has seen The Ruling Class …”

    Bad assumption, I, for one, have not. Don’t recall even hearing about it personally.

    @ 5. jimmyfromdelaware : “You folks do support the 1st amendment right?”

    Well, I’m an Aussie so we don’t have it here. To some degreee kind yeah but then there are issues with it like spreading disinformation and its never been unequivocal or truly unlimiited so.. Hmm..Maybe not kinda? At least not without some reasonable caveats? Since you asked.

    @9. drksky : “Still calls it Twitter…”

    Yup. Intresting. Noticed that too.

    @17/. immyfromdelaware :

    Only on this site can a progressive that backs LGBT rights, medicare for all, and supports pro-choice can I be called a MAGA because I deal with facts.

    Do you tho? I don’t think so.

    You folks don’t realize why people vote for Trump.

    Do you? really? I mean you have an idea obvs but is your idea correct? Again, I don’t think so. There’s a wide rnge of reasons for starters – bigotry, waracism, idol worship, wanting to empower their inner (& not so inner douchiness. Wanting tourt others, self-desrtictiveness, sheer wilful ignorance, he looked and sounded good to them on TV and they’ve been brainwaashed by Murdoch media Propaganda ever since..

    The working poor and the working middle class has been screwed over by both parties for decades and they don’t care…they want to blow up the system because all it has done is favor capital over workers every…single…time. Now I am an outcast because I want to find common ground with the working class to understand why they vote the way they do. I remember a time when universities and the intellectual class embraced these values. Now you do nothing but cast dispersions on this because I don’t agree with you 100%.

    Dispersions eh? I do not think that is word you were looking for. (Not that I can talk.)

    Nor do Ithink its becoz you don’t agree 100%..

    You claim to be an “outcast.” Are you? Really? You think that’s a justifiable self-identification here because why? Becuase you get push back and criticism for things you note yourself we won’t / don’t agree with you on?

  36. StevoR says

    PS. jimmyfromdelaware : “Maybe if you tried to talk to people that you disagree with instead of calling them stupid playground names?”

    Who exactly was doing thatand when? What names and why do you think they are stupid playground ones?

  37. StevoR says

    (Not that I can talk.)

    Or type anyhow. My voice works fine. My typing skills ..not so much.

    Especially when tired which these days I seem to be all the time.

  38. John Morales says

    [meta]

    StevoR, don’t worry about so much about your typos (that’s typographical errors, where you miskey or mix letters up). Acknowledge them if you want to, but don’t stress over it.

    Honestly. Smart people get you, and those familiar with you will make allowances.

    And yes, “Dispersions” was a telling malapropism; it should have been ‘Aspersions’, of course.*

    (Poseurs always give themselves away; genuine people like you do too, but only to your benefit)

    * Donald Trump did just that when he claimed his recent mistakes were ‘sarcasm’; but he did it using “interpose” instead of “transpose”, which amused me greatly and was of course quite the evident tell.

    ““So it’s very hard to be sarcastic when I interpose. I’m not a Nicki fan, and I’m not a Pelosi fan. And when I purposely interpose names, they said, ‘He didn’t know Pelosi from Nikki, from tricky Nikki,” Trump said Wednesday during a rally in North Charleston, S.C.”

    (https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4469054-trump-says-purposely-conflated-pelosi-haley-hard-to-be-sarcastic/)

  39. says

    Typo outrage is another opportunity to show bad faith. I don’t try to make mistakes, but I stopped caring about many of them.
    A good faith commentator will quote anything confusing and ask for clarification. A bad faith communicator will just refer to unspecified issues as a means of dismissal. It’s just another political obstacle.

  40. says

    You folks don’t realize why people vote for Trump. …they want to blow up the system

    Then why are they handing total political power to a rich psychopath? That’s not blowing up the system; that IS the system.

    I feel like I’m in a zombie movie and people are going: “Maybe the zombie has a point. Let’s open the door and hear him out. Oh, he ate Bobby? Well, I’m sure THAT zombie will be more reasonable.”

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